Theological term
Hypostatic Union
319 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity, Part 3
The Holy Spirit as the third subsistence of the one divine essence is the subject of this study in Chapter 2, Paragraph 3 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. The session traces the Spirit's presence and deity through both Testaments, works through the meaning of eternal procession from the Father and the Son (the filioque), and engages the historical debates at the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Toledo that shaped confessional Trinitarian language. The practical conclusion drawn from the Confession is that the doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract speculation but the foundation of all communion with God and the believer's comfortable dependence upon Him.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew 27:45–46 records the fourth of Christ's seven words from the cross — the cry of dereliction, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — and its interpretation demands both exegetical precision and doctrinal care. The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour was not a solar eclipse but a supernatural sign of divine judgment, recapitulating the ninth plague pattern and marking the moment the Passover antitype was slain. The cry itself does not imply any ontological division within the Trinity, any dissolution of the hypostatic union, or the suffering of all three persons; rather, it expresses the withdrawal of divine consolation from the Son according to his true humanity as he bore, in our place as surety, the full weight of penal wrath. Believers are called to ground their assurance not in felt divine presence but in the covenant faithfulness of the God to whom Christ still cried 'my God' even in the depth of his substitutionary suffering.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 3
John 1:30–34 records the Baptist's testimony concerning the dignity of Christ's person — his preeminence as the eternal Word who was before John, his anointing with the Spirit without measure for the work of mediation, and his identity as the natural, essential, and eternal Son of God. The sermon traces the Old Testament prophetic background of the Spirit's descent (Isaiah 11, 42, and 61), the active and passive obedience of Christ as the ground of the believer's acceptance before God, and the Baptist's final declaration that this Jesus is the Son of God. From this foundation the preacher draws an urgent gospel application: the same Lamb who takes away sin will visit unbelief with wrath, and the only fitting response is faith in him now.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 1
Matthew 27:32–38 records the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ with studied brevity, and this expository sermon works through each verse to show that every detail — from the place called Golgotha to the division of garments and the charge above his head — is the deliberate fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture, not an accident or afterthought in the plan of God. The sermon traces the thread from the proto-gospel of Genesis 3:15 through the typological head-wounds of Israel's enemies to Christ's death blow against the devil at the place of the skull. Three concluding applications draw out the pastoral weight: the unwitting testimony of Pilate, the triumph of the skull-crushing seed of the woman, and the immeasurable love of the Savior who was stripped naked, numbered with transgressors, and crucified so that his people might be clothed with his righteousness, received in glory, and given everlasting life.
The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely pastors or theologians — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon examines the exhortation itself, the internal threat posed by sneaky, ungodly apostates who pervert grace and deny Christ, and the practical preparedness Jude prescribes: remembering apostolic warning, building up on the most holy faith through Scripture and prayer, and resting in the assurance that God himself preserves his people. The defense of the faith is not pessimistic trench-holding but confident advance grounded in Christ's promise to build his church against which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.
The Ministry of the Word
What is the basis and method of God's ordained means for saving sinners? This sermon on 2 Timothy 4:2 argues that the preaching of the Word stands as the primary instrument through which God saves the lost and builds his church, grounding that claim in the logical chain of Romans 10, the divine pleasure announced in 1 Corinthians 1, and the final apostolic charge of Paul to Timothy. The sermon challenges the contemporary drift toward audience-driven church strategies, calling both preachers and hearers to fidelity to the proclaimed Word as the irreplaceable means of grace.
The Conversion of Cornelius
Acts 10:34–48 records the official inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant promises of God — a watershed moment in redemptive history. Peter's sermon before Cornelius and his household sets forth the peace, person, work, and prophetic witness of Jesus Christ, culminating in the declaration that through His name, whoever believes will receive remission of sins. The sovereign Holy Spirit falls upon the hearers before Peter has even finished speaking, confirming that salvation is of the Lord and that divine initiative — not human free will — drives the conversion of sinners. The passage concludes with the baptism of the entire household, a commanded public identification with the Triune God that pictures, but does not accomplish, the inward work already wrought by grace through faith.
The Soldiers Mock Jesus
The mockery of Jesus by the Roman soldiers in Matthew 27:27–31 is examined as a Lord's Supper meditation, tracing the psychological and physical brutality inflicted on the Son of God after Pilate's verdict. The scene is read through the lens of fulfilled prophecy — Isaiah 50:6 and Isaiah 53 — and the covenant of redemption, in which Christ willingly undertook every indignity as the surety and substitute for his people. The sermon closes by turning to the book of Revelation to show that what the soldiers performed in jest — robing, crowning, and hailing a king — Christ possesses in eternal reality, and calls believers to respond with the genuine homage these soldiers withheld.
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 asks who may ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place — a question that exposes the impossibility of any sinner approaching a holy God on the basis of personal merit. The psalm is expounded in three movements: the sovereign lordship of Yahweh the Creator over all the earth, the covenant conditions of holy hands and a pure heart that no creature can meet in himself, and the triumphal ascension of the King of Glory who alone meets those conditions and leads his redeemed captives into the presence of God. The righteousness required to enter God's presence is not achieved but received by faith, given freely by the God of salvation through the obedient life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Incarnation of the Word, Part 1
John 1:14 — 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' — is the hinge on which all Christian theology turns. This exposition works through the identification, the incarnation proper, and the indwelling presence of the Word, establishing that the eternal Son assumed a true human nature (body and soul) without ceasing to be the second person of the Trinity — the doctrine the church confesses as the hypostatic union. The sermon draws on the active and passive obedience of Christ to show that the incarnation was not primarily exemplary but redemptive: the Word took flesh to render the perfect obedience sinners owe and to shed the blood that purchases their forgiveness. Hearers are pressed to see Christ not only as Redeemer but as reigning King, and the unbeliever is called to receive, by faith alone, that righteousness which comes from God.
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 Royal Wedding
Psalm 45 presents a royal wedding between the divine-human Messiah and his church, and the sons of Korah compose it as a song of love that the New Testament apostles and the entirety of the Old Testament prophetic witness sustain. The sermon works through the psalm's four sections — the psalmist's intention, the perfections and person of King Messiah, the instruction to the bride, and the closing declaration — demonstrating that a divine Messiah was not a novelty invented by John or Paul but was anticipated in the Hebrew Scriptures. Christ is celebrated as fairer than the sons of men, committed to truth and righteousness, triumphant over his enemies, fully God and fully man in the hypostatic union, and the one who clothes his bride in imputed righteousness received through faith alone. The appropriate response of the church is repentance, exclusive allegiance, worship, and gladness before her great King.
The Mission of the Word, Part 1
John 1:6–9 introduces John the Baptist not as an independent figure but as a divinely commissioned witness whose entire ministry exists to point to the Word made flesh. This sermon examines the origin, nature, and function of that witness ministry, demonstrating that the Baptist's testimony belongs to a network of overlapping witnesses — Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Scripture, and signs — that ground saving faith in historical reality rather than a blind existential leap. The function of John's witness is inseparable from its purpose: that sinners would believe on Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, not merely imitate him as a moral example. The sermon closes with a call to keep law and gospel in their proper places, so that sinners driven by the law's killing power may look by grace to the one who is both the true light and the only hope of the world.
The Divinity of the Word, Part 2
John 1:3–5 teaches that the eternal Word is the creator of all things, establishing Christ unmistakably on the divine side of the creator-creature distinction. The sermon works through the Trinitarian doctrines of inseparable operations and appropriations, showing from Genesis 1, Psalm 33, Job 26, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 that creation is the undivided act of the one God, yet scripture distinctively attributes it to the Son. Because Jesus is creator, sustainer, and enthroned Lord, his people need not be paralyzed by circumstance — and the darkness, however violently it resists the light, cannot overcome it.
The Divine Savior and His Afflicted People
Matthew 14:22–33 confronts the church with the Christological reality that the presence of Christ does not guarantee the absence of trial. Working through the storm on the Sea of Galilee, Christ walking on the water, Peter's sinking, and the disciples' confession of Christ as the Son of God, this exposition presses the claim that the 'I Am' of Exodus and the Psalms is the same Lord who meets his afflicted people in the middle of their storm-tossed sea. The sermon closes with a direct rebuke of health-and-wealth theology and a call to displace the fear of man with a robust fear of God grounded in Christ's sovereign lordship over creation.
The Divinity of the Word
John 1:1–5 opens not in a Bethlehem stable but in eternity, establishing the Word's co-eternality, personal distinction from the Father, and full consubstantiality with the Father before a single creature existed. This sermon works through the first clause of John's prologue under five sub-points drawn from verse 1: the eternity, distinctiveness, and consubstantiality of the Word with the Father, the repetition of that glory in verse 2, and (deferred to the following week) the Word as creator of all things. The doctrine of the Trinity — one in essence, three in subsistence — is shown to be not an academic luxury but the very foundation of all communion with God and the indispensable framework for understanding why the incarnation is the supreme act of grace.
The Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
The qualifications and character of faithful gospel ministry are examined through 2 Timothy 2:1–7, where Paul gives Timothy three interlocking commands: be strong in the grace of Christ, commit sound doctrine to faithful men who can teach others, and endure hardship as a soldier of Jesus Christ. Three metaphors — the devoted soldier, the disciplined athlete, and the diligent farmer — together with the dedication of the disciple, frame what faithfulness in pastoral ministry demands. The sermon presses both pastors and congregations to resist the pressure of cultural and governmental opposition, to identify and train men for ministry, and to understand that the dignity of gospel preaching warrants the highest standards of devotion, discipline, and endurance.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
Matthew 28:1–10 narrates not the resurrection itself but the discovery of the empty tomb and Christ's first post-resurrection appearance — and the distinction matters theologically. This sermon works through the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, the angelic announcement, and Christ's own greeting, demonstrating that the resurrection is attested historical fact whose denial collapses justification, undermines the prophetic witness, and renders the Christian hope pitiable. The risen Christ's address to the women — calling the disciples 'my brethren' despite their desertion — is shown to be a concentrated display of the grace and advocacy that sustains every believer who has sinned against the Lord he professes to love.
The New and Living Way
Hebrews 10:19–25 presents two grounds of confidence for the people of God — boldness of access to the Holy of Holies through Christ's blood and flesh, and the possession of a great high priest over the house of God — and then presses three exhortations upon that foundation: draw near, hold fast the confession of hope, and consider one another to stir up love and good works. The sermon traces the problem of sinful man's exclusion from God's presence from Exodus 40 through the Levitical sacrificial system to its resolution in the incarnation and definite atonement of Christ, who consecrated a new and living way. Particular attention is given to the prohibition against forsaking the assembly, argued to be grammatically tied to the third exhortation and theologically governing all three, so that corporate Lord's Day worship is the ordained context in which God's people draw near, are educated in hope, and mutually provoke one another to love and good works. The sermon closes by calling the unconverted to look to Christ and the converted to embrace their shared responsibility for one another's souls through faithful churchmanship.
The Second Commandment
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) does not merely forbid the worship of false gods — it forbids the worship of the true God in a false manner, a distinction that carries enormous weight for how the church orders its worship today. The sermon works through the commandment's prohibition against idols and images (including pictorial representations of Christ), the theological rationale grounded in God's jealousy and immutability, the transgenerational consequences of false worship understood not as a hereditary curse but as the imitation of godlessness, and the promise of mercy to those who love and obey God. The positive application is the Regulative Principle of Worship: only what God has commanded is acceptable, and anything beyond or contrary to that command — however sincere the motive — constitutes the offering of strange fire to Yahweh.
The Utility of Confessions and Introduction to the Second London Baptist Confession
Confessions of faith are not competitors to Scripture but are faithful summaries of biblical doctrine, and the church has historically depended on them for good reason. This address introduces the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, tracing its historical origins among the Particular Baptists of the 17th century and its relationship to the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration. Five interlocking uses of a confession are then examined: defining church doctrine, defending it against error, discriminating between members and officers on doctrinal grounds, disciplining departures from orthodoxy, and distinguishing confessed doctrine from matters of Christian liberty. The goal is not confessional enslavement but confessional clarity — guardrails that protect the church and free her members to worship and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
The Lord's Arrest in the Garden
Matthew 26:50–56 records the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane, and this exposition works through four movements in the passage: Peter's misguided sword-stroke, Christ's rebuke concerning the nature of the messianic kingdom, his rhetorical indictment of the mob's hypocrisy, and the disciples' desertion. The sermon shows that Christ's surrender was entirely voluntary, governed by the covenant of redemption and the fulfillment of prophetic Scripture, not by any inability to resist. Hearers are warned against mistaking external proximity to Christ for saving grace, called to zeal tempered by theological knowledge, and directed to the Lord's Supper as an occasion to 'kiss the Son' in faith rather than in the betrayal of a Judas.
The Third Missionary Journey, Part 6
Acts 20:28–31 records the Apostle Paul's pastoral charge to the Ephesian elders at Miletus — a charge that functions as the first pastors' conference in the new covenant era. The passage demands that elders take heed to themselves and to all the flock, that they shepherd the blood-bought church of God, and that they remain vigilant against both external persecution and internal doctrinal corruption. The theological weight of the phrase 'the church of God which He purchased with His own blood' opens into a precise treatment of the communication of idioms, establishing that the divine and human natures of the one person of Christ are the ground on which Scripture can speak of God's own blood. Ministers are called to feed the flock with the whole counsel of God, warned that savage wolves and ambitious false teachers will arise, and exhorted to watch and warn with the same tear-stained fidelity that marked Paul's three years in Ephesus.
The Problem Worse than Paralysis
The healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9:1–8 exposes a problem far deeper than physical disability: the guilt of sin before a holy God. Jesus pronounces forgiveness before He commands the man to rise, revealing that the greater miracle is not restored limbs but a cleansed soul — and that the Son of Man possesses divine authority on earth to forgive sins. The physical healing serves as demonstrable evidence of the greater, invisible reality: that Christ accomplished what His name declared He would do, saving His people from their sins. The right response to such power is not mere wonder but the fear-and-joy that drives genuine worship and sustains the believer's cheer through every temporal affliction.
Nations Rage, God Mocks
Psalm 2 confronts the rage of earthly rulers against God and His anointed with a sober theological question: why do the nations engage in so futile an endeavor? The sermon expounds the psalm under three headings — the rebellion of earthly kings, the reign of the heavenly king, and the recognition of the true king — tracing the Davidic covenant through its fulfillment in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. The Covenant of Redemption grounds the certainty of Christ's present reign at the right hand of the Father, and that certainty is the sole comfort available to God's people as nations continue to rage and the history of the church runs red with the blood of martyrs. Hearers are called either to kiss the Son in filial fear and find blessing, or to perish in the way of the ungodly.
The Lord's Prayer in Gethsemane
What does the agony of Christ in Gethsemane reveal about who He is and what He accomplishes? Expounding Matthew 26:36–46, this sermon traces the Savior's three prayers against the disciples' repeated failure to watch, showing that Christ's soul-sorrow is perfectly consistent with His true humanity, while His unwavering resolve to drink the cup of divine wrath flows from His eternal commitment as covenant mediator. The cup is not metaphor for mere suffering but the concentrated fury of God upon a sinless substitute — which explains both why martyrs die differently than Christ and why the imputation of His active obedience is as necessary as the forgiveness of sins. Believers are called to marvel at His sufficiency, to watch and pray with sobriety about their own weakness, and to rest entirely on the righteousness of Another.
The Christian Husband/Father
The duties of the Christian husband and father are examined through the book of Proverbs, with Proverbs 4:1–9 as the anchor text and wide-ranging support from Deuteronomy and the New Testament. The sermon sets forth the godly husband as one who fears the Lord, deals with sin, provides for his household, protects his wife, communicates faithfully, and maintains sexual purity. The Christian father is then treated under four heads — being a godly man, loving his children, instructing them in word and life, and disciplining them with both verbal correction and, when necessary, the rod — all exercised in love rather than anger or indulgence. The closing application calls fathers to confess sin before their households, pray for and preach law and gospel to their children, and rest not in their own performance but in the imputed righteousness of Christ.
The Rejection of Heretics
Titus 3:9–15 closes Paul's letter to Titus with a sharp command to avoid unprofitable disputes and to reject the divisive man — a command the broader pastoral epistles and the apostolic witness consistently reinforce. The sermon distinguishes heresy from damnable heresy, identifying denial of the Trinity, the hypostatic union, and justification by faith alone as the errors that condemn, while pressing the church not to confuse the struggling saint with the proud, self-serving false teacher. Church discipline for doctrinal error is treated with the same gravity as discipline for moral sin, and the concluding emphasis on good works is grounded in the confession that such works are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith, not the grounds of justification.
The Christian's Duty toward Non-Christians
Titus 3:1–3 sets out the Christian's duty toward both civil government and all people outside the church. The sermon traces the divine origin of civil government from Genesis 9 through Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, arguing from Francis Turretin's two-kingdom framework that Christ rules both the civil and spiritual spheres, and that the civil state therefore has no authority to command the church as church. Verse 3's catalogue of pre-conversion vices — foolishness, disobedience, malice, hatred — is read as a theological reason for patient, peaceable, and humble conduct toward non-Christians: believers were once exactly what they now struggle to bear in others, and those others may yet become objects of the same sovereign grace.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 6
Acts 17:16–21 presents the Apostle Paul in Athens, a city saturated with idolatry and celebrated for its philosophical culture. The sermon traces three movements in this brief passage: Paul's provocation of spirit at the sight of rampant idolatry, his deliberate response of preaching Christ in both the synagogue and the public marketplace, and his engagement with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who summon him to the Areopagus. Paul's example establishes that righteous anger at the transgression of the First and Second Commandments, mingled with grief and compassion, is a mark of God's people — and that the fitting response to such provocation is not silence but the proclamation of Jesus and the resurrection.