Theological term
Imputation
654 sermons · All terms
The Glory of Christ in His State of Humiliation
What does the eternal Son of God's descent from infinite glory to a cattle trough reveal about the nature of his saving work? This sermon on Luke 2:1–14 traces five aspects of Christ's state of humiliation — the timing, place, purpose, manner, and cost of the incarnation — showing that each detail, from the manger to the mocking soldiers to Gethsemane, is not an occasion for embarrassment but for worship. The incarnation was not a sentimental seasonal event but the arrival of the eternal Son, veiled in flesh, to bear the wrath of God and the curse of the cross as the active and passive obedient substitute for guilty sinners. Hearers are called to centre their daily praise on this Christ, to learn humility from his condescension, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Conversion in the Eleventh Hour
The conversion of the dying thief in Luke 23:39–43 displays the anatomy of saving faith and the character of Christ as a willing, able, and glorious Savior. Working through five marks of genuine conversion visible in the thief — concern for others, fear of God's judgment, ownership of guilt, confession of Christ's holiness, and calling upon the Lord — the sermon demonstrates that saving faith is not a human achievement but a sovereign work of grace. The passage equally reveals that Jesus, even in the agony of bearing the wrath of God on the cross, is actively and assuredly saving sinners. The application is urgent: salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and no sinner should presume upon a future opportunity to repent.
The Doctrine of Sanctification
Philippians 2:12–13 grounds the doctrine of sanctification in both divine sovereignty and human responsibility: God works in believers both to will and to do for his good pleasure, and on that basis Paul commands the church to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. This sermon expounds those two verses and then surveys the historic Reformed distinction between justification and sanctification, drawing at length from J.C. Ryle's Holiness to show how the two doctrines are alike in origin yet differ in nature, completeness, and progression. The practical thrust is that genuine justification necessarily produces sanctification — growth in conformity to Christ through the Spirit, the Word, and the means of grace — and an absence of any such growth calls one's justification into question.
Possession, Position, and Privileges of Believers, Part 1
Philippians 3:8–11 sets the apostle Paul's counting of all things as loss against the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord, and this sermon expounds that text as a sustained defense of justification by faith alone. Working through Paul's commercial language of profit and loss, the preacher distinguishes between Paul's past renunciation of his religious pedigree and his present, continuous counting of all things as rubbish, pressing the congregation to feel the radical reorientation the gospel demands. The heart of the exposition is the doctrine of imputed righteousness in verse 9 — the forensic declaration by which God pardons sins and credits Christ's active and passive obedience to the believer — set in direct contrast with Rome's infusion of righteousness and with modern Protestant departures such as the New Perspective on Paul and the Federal Vision. Because justification is an objective, once-for-all act of God and not a process, assurance is grounded in Christ's faithfulness alone, not in the believer's covenant performance, freeing sanctification to flow from gratitude rather than fear.
Possession, Position, and Privileges of Believers, Part 2
Philippians 3:10–11 presses the believer past justification into a lifelong, deepening knowledge of Christ — specifically the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul's ordering of resurrection before suffering is deliberate: only the power that raised Christ from the dead equips believers to endure cross-bearing in a hostile world. The sermon closes by tracing Paul's single-minded, forward-pressing posture in verses 12–14 as the pattern of sanctification, calling every justified believer to pursue the knowledge of Christ with undying intensity regardless of circumstance.
The Attributes of Scripture
The attributes of Scripture — its extent, character, and usefulness — form the doctrinal foundation the Apostle Paul sets before Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 as the antidote to the godlessness of the last days. The sermon argues that 'all Scripture' encompasses both Old and New Testaments, that the word 'God-breathed' (theopneustos) denotes divine inspiration rather than human religious sentiment, and that an inspired Bible is necessarily infallible and inerrant. Believers are therefore called to immerse themselves in the whole counsel of Scripture, to develop a consistent systematic theology, and to be ready to proclaim and defend the gospel without hesitation.
The Need for Biblical Mindedness
Colossians 3:1–4 grounds every practical exhortation in the chapter — about marriage, work, and social relations — in a prior command: set your mind on things above. This sermon argues that Christianity is fundamentally a religion of knowledge, that the image of God in man is expressed chiefly through rational thought, and that biblical mindedness is the necessary foundation for worship, sanctification, and faithful witness. The command to seek heavenly things is rooted in three theological realities — the believer's past death with Christ, present hiddenness in Christ, and future appearing with Christ in glory — and is pursued not through legalism, mysticism, or asceticism, but through prayerful study of Scripture.
The Book of Jude
The epistle of Jude issues an urgent call to God's people to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, in the face of ungodly men who have crept unnoticed into the church and are turning the grace of God into a license for immorality. Working through all twenty-five verses, this exposition traces the letter's anatomy — salutation, statement of purpose, denunciation and doom of the heretics, positive exhortations to believers, and closing doxology — showing that Jude's 'sandwich' structure encloses a hard confrontation with false teaching within the glorious realities of calling, sanctification, and preservation in Christ. The sermon argues that the body of objective doctrinal truth committed to the church must be held with zeal, not limp-wristedly accommodated to include those who deny the sovereign lordship of Christ. Believers are to rejoice in their preservation, know troublemakers for what they are, and deal pastorally but distinctly with those in danger of or already ensnared by heresy.
The Riches of Christ
2 Corinthians 8:9 situates a mundane financial appeal within a profound Christological argument: because Christ voluntarily exchanged the riches of his pre-incarnate glory for the poverty of humiliation and crucifixion, his people have been made spiritually rich beyond measure. The sermon traces three movements — the pre-incarnate riches of Christ, the depths of his humiliation, and the spiritual blessings he secures for his people — drawing on parallel passages in Philippians 2, Ephesians 1, and 1 Corinthians 1 and 30. The application presses believers to reckon daily with their possession of imputed righteousness, sanctification, and redemption as the only sufficient motive for generous, gospel-driven obedience.
The Redemptive Act of God
Colossians 2:13–15 sets out four distinct facets of God's one redemptive act accomplished through Christ: regeneration of the spiritually dead, forgiveness of all trespasses, cancellation of the debt of law-breaking, and disarming of demonic principalities and powers at the cross. The totality of this divine work leaves no room for human supplement — not asceticism, not mysticism, not legalism — because God in Christ has secured the salvation of his elect entirely and irrevocably. The sermon presses believers toward grounding their daily assurance not in personal performance but in these objective acts of God recorded in Scripture.
A Word for Fathers
Ephesians 6:1–4 addresses fathers and the entire domestic order within which fatherhood functions — husbands as servant-leaders of their wives, wives submitting and rendering respect, and children obeying and honoring their parents. The sermon argues that God invests fathers with real, God-given authority, and that this authority carries commensurate responsibility: to lead sacrificially, to disciple, to nourish, and to discipline without provoking to wrath. Throughout, the gospel grounds the whole: no husband, wife, or child meets these standards perfectly, and the righteousness required is found only in Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by faith.
Christ's Circumcision
Colossians 2:11–12 is frequently marshalled by paedobaptists to argue that baptism has replaced circumcision as the covenant sign and therefore ought to be administered to infants, but the passage cannot bear that weight. This sermon works through three preliminary observations — the structure of covenant theology, the relationship between circumcision and baptism, and the actual point of the passage — before exegeting verses 11–12 directly. The circumcision Paul describes is spiritual regeneration performed by Christ without hands, and baptism is its retrospective public sign, not a parallel to the prospective sign of physical circumcision given to Abraham's infant sons. The sermon closes with a sharp warning against any gospel that supplements Christ's finished work, insisting that justification is an alien, forensic righteousness imputed to the believer by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Encouraging Words for a Discouraging Time
Haggai 2:1–9 addresses a community of returned exiles who, after a sixteen-year building hiatus, have resumed construction on the Second Temple only to find themselves discouraged by its apparent insignificance compared to Solomon's. The sermon works through three movements in the text: the reality of the people's discouragement, the threefold faith required for present obedience (in God's presence, his covenant, and his Spirit), and the promise of a future glory that finds its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament's own interpretation of Haggai's 'shaking' language in Hebrews 12 is brought to bear, showing that the prophet points forward to the covenantal transformation inaugurated by Christ — the one who is himself both the desire of all nations and the only source of the peace Haggai promises.
But Now Christ is Risen
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral doctrine but an inseparable component of the gospel itself — Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15 demands that it be treated as a truth of the first rank. This exposition works through four movements: the resurrection's cardinal importance, its absolute certainty established by both Old Testament Scripture and eyewitness testimony, the devastating logical implications if it were false, and the blessed realities that flow from the fact that Christ is indeed risen. Believers are called to find in the risen Christ the ground of their regeneration, justification, sanctification, and hope; unbelievers are warned that the same resurrection that secures salvation for the elect guarantees a righteous judgment against all who reject it.
The Blood of the New Covenant
Matthew 26:28 records Jesus declaring that his blood is 'the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.' This sermon traces the New Covenant from its prophetic anticipation in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, through its inauguration in Christ's atoning death, to its final consummation in the eternal state. The means of ratification is not the blood of bulls and goats but Christ's own blood, which alone secures forgiveness, regeneration, and union with God. Believers are called to come to the Lord's Supper not with cold formality but with the solemn joy of those whose sins are fully and finally remitted by sovereign grace.
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church
The four classical attributes of the church — one, holy, catholic, and apostolic — are not ecclesiastical slogans but biblical realities grounded in the redemptive work of Christ. Drawing from John 10:14–16 and John 17:15–23, this sermon argues that each attribute finds its source in Christ alone: his atoning blood purchases a universal people, his sanctifying work makes the church holy, his intercession secures her unity, and his apostles' doctrine defines her apostolicity. The sermon closes with a direct call to repentance for those outside of Christ and a summons to every believer to walk worthily of these gospel-given realities.
We Esteemed Him Not
Isaiah 53:3 contains a startling corporate confession: 'He was despised and we did not esteem Him.' This sermon works through that verse in its full context, first establishing that Isaiah 53 speaks exclusively of the penal substitutionary work of Jesus Christ, then examining four questions about biblical esteem — that we did not esteem Him, why we did not, why we now do, and why He is worthy of highest esteem. The explanation for both our former contempt and our present esteem rests entirely on sovereign grace: men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins, and it is God alone who makes the dead alive, producing the faith by which Christ becomes precious to His people. The sermon closes with a call to revive a love for Christ, to pray for rulers, and to warn the unconverted that the same Christ who is 'altogether lovely' to believers will be a terror to those who refuse to bend the knee.
Redemption Through the Curse Bearer
Galatians 3:10–14 presents two mutually exclusive grounds on which a sinner might attempt to stand before God: the works of the law, which place every performer under a divine curse, or faith in Christ, who became that curse in the place of his people. This sermon expounds the universal and just nature of the curse fallen humanity labors under, the identity and substitutionary work of the Redeemer who bore it, and the nature of redemption as a purchased liberation from condemnation. The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is brought alongside Galatians 3 to press the willingness and joy of Christ in receiving sinners, calling every hearer to look to him in faith rather than to any measure of personal law-keeping.
The Nature of Redemption
Galatians 3:10–14 presents redemption as covenantal, instantaneous, complete, and secure — four properties the apostle Paul grounds not in the believer's performance but in Christ's atoning work at Calvary. The sermon traces the Abrahamic promise through the whole Bible to show that Gentile believers are not a divine afterthought but the planned heirs of a covenant stretching from Genesis to the gift of the Spirit. Assurance of salvation belongs to justification, not sanctification, so that a believer's peace with God rests on Christ's cross-work rather than personal obedience. Three closing applications address the lawful use of the law for the believer, the biblical doctrine of cessationism, and the duty to preach the law faithfully to unconverted sinners.
A Tale of Two Lambs: Typology of the Passover Lamb
The Passover ordinance of Exodus 12 is not merely an ancient Israelite ritual but an exact typological prefigurement of the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ. Through eight points of comparison — the lamb's unblemished character, its prime age, its public slaughter by the congregation of Israel, the inestimable value of its blood, its blood's power to deliver from destruction, the thoroughness of its roasting, the preservation of its bones, and its being eaten — the sermon demonstrates that the Passover lamb was designed by God to point forward to Christ as the true and final Passover sacrifice. Sinners are called to behold the Lamb of God, to trust in his blood alone for refuge from divine wrath, and to rejoice in the new-covenant redemption he has accomplished.
Abraham's Faith and God's Promise
Genesis 22 presents the supreme test of Abraham's faith: the commanded sacrifice of Isaac, the son of promise. The passage is expounded under three headings — the presentation of the test (vv. 1–2), the obedience of Abraham (vv. 3–10), and the approval of God (vv. 11–19) — with close attention to the three-day journey, Abraham's silent faith, and his confession that 'God will provide.' The sermon moves from the historical narrative to its Christological typology: Abraham foreshadows the Father, Isaac foreshadows the Son, and the substitutionary ram of verse 13 foreshadows the Lamb of God, so that Yahweh-Yireh finds its ultimate fulfilment at Calvary. Hearers are called to the same contrary-to-hope, unwavering trust in the promising God that marked Abraham's life.
The Lawful Uses of God's Law
The law of God is good when used lawfully — and Scripture identifies three distinct lawful uses that the church must recover. Drawing from 1 Timothy 1:8–11 and ranging across Romans, Galatians, and the Westminster Larger Catechism, this sermon exposits the threefold use of the law (civil, pedagogical, normative) as the historically Reformed framework for understanding law and gospel. The civil use restrains wickedness in society; the pedagogical use exposes sin and drives sinners to Christ; the normative use provides the regenerate with a pattern of holy conduct that the indwelling Spirit enables them to pursue freely. The central burden of the sermon is that stripping law from gospel preaching produces a generation that wants comfort rather than righteousness, and that a high view of the law is inseparable from a high view of the Redeemer.
Paul's Sufferings for Christ and the Church
Colossians 1:24 confronts the assumption — doctrinal or practical — that the Christian life is one of health, wealth, and prosperity. Paul's declaration that he rejoices in his sufferings for the church raises two difficult questions: what does it mean to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, and why would any apostle rejoice in prison, beatings, and stonings? This exposition works through both questions, demolishing the Roman Catholic reading that Christ's atonement was incomplete, and arguing instead that Christ so identifies with His body that their sufferings are in some sense His own, and that Paul's willingness to absorb suffering on behalf of the church is the pattern of genuine Christian ministry and churchmanship.
From Alienation to Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21–23 sets before the reader a stark before-and-after portrait of what redemption accomplishes: sinners who were actively alienated from God and enemies in their minds, now reconciled through the physical death of Christ and destined to stand holy, blameless, and above reproach before the judgment seat. The passage distinguishes sharply between the reason for reconciliation and its purpose — God does not reconcile because we are holy, but in order to present us holy, grounding justification entirely in imputed righteousness rather than moral attainment. The sermon works through four movements in the text — the previous state of alienation, the present condition of reconciliation, the future destiny of vindication at judgment, and the present duty of grounded, steadfast perseverance in the faith — with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints serving as the practical crown of the exposition.