Theological term
Imputation
654 sermons · All terms
The Antitype of the Temple
John 2:18–25 presents Jesus as the antitype of the Old Testament temple — the reality to which the type pointed and in which it finds its fulfillment and realization. The Jews' demand for a sign of his authority after the temple cleansing is answered by the one definitive sign: the death and resurrection of Christ, which the apostle John interprets for the reader in verses 21–22. The sermon also treats the omniscience of Christ as evidence of his divinity, demonstrated in his refusal to entrust himself to those whose belief was superficial and temporary. Hearers are called to flee to Christ in genuine faith and repentance, receiving both forgiveness of sin and the imputed righteousness of Christ that avails before the Father.
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.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 2
Matthew 27:39–44 records the threefold mockery of Christ on the cross — by passing bystanders, by the chief priests and scribes, and by the robbers crucified alongside him. Each taunt — that he could not save himself, that his kingship was fraudulent, that his claim to divine sonship was false — is shown to be an ironic confirmation of the very things the mockers deny: Christ's identity as temple builder, King of Israel, and Son of God. His refusal to descend from the cross is not weakness but the perfect obedience of the covenant of redemption, the very means by which he saves his people from their sins. The sermon closes with the conversion of the penitent thief as a trophy of sovereign grace and an argument for faith in a willing Savior.
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 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 Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 2
John 1:29 records the Baptist's singular declaration — 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — a phrase saturated with the weight of Old Testament redemptive history. This sermon works through the theological freight of that title, tracing the Lamb through Genesis 22, Leviticus 16, and Isaiah 53 to show that Christ's mission is substitutionary blood atonement: he takes up the sin of his people in order to take it away entirely. The 'world' from which sin is removed is not every individual without exception but men and women without ethnic or national distinction, saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 1
John 1:19–28 records the official interrogation of John the Baptist by a delegation sent from Jerusalem to establish his identity and authority. The Baptist's threefold denial — he is not the Christ, not Elijah bodily returned, not the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 — is matched by his positive confession as the voice of Isaiah 40, the forerunner who prepares the way of Yahweh and thereby implicitly confesses the deity of Jesus. The sermon traces the Baptist's testimony through Luke 1's prophecy of Zacharias, the Transfiguration account in Matthew 17, and the prologue of John 1, showing that the Baptist preached not only repentance but the remission of sins through the coming Messiah — that is, justification by faith alone. The governing application is that Christ's people exist to proclaim His preeminence, following the Baptist's model of humble, courageous, light-and-heat ministry that makes nothing of self and everything of Jesus.
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 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.
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 Trial Before Pilate, Part 3
Matthew 27:24–26 records the sentencing of Jesus by Pontius Pilate — the culmination of a trial in which the governor thrice declared the accused innocent yet delivered him to crucifixion anyway. The sermon examines Pilate's hypocritical self-absolution by the washing of hands, the crowd's willing acceptance of blood-guilt and its ominous extension to their children, and the formal scourging and condemnation of Christ. Throughout, the exposition presses the double benefit of the gospel: the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness received by faith alone, both grounded in the penal substitutionary atonement symbolised by Barabbas going free while the just one goes to the cross.
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 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 Problem of Sin and the Mercy of God
Proverbs 28:13 sets the problem of sin and its remedy in sharp relief: the one who covers his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes sin will have mercy. The sermon works through the anatomy of sin-covering — denial, minimization, blame-shifting, and self-righteousness — with biblical examples ranging from Adam and Eve to Ananias and Sapphira, demonstrating the futility of every human attempt at self-atonement. Confession is shown to be not merely verbal acknowledgment but a saving act of faith in Christ, inseparably joined to repentance, whereby the sinner lays the hand of faith upon the surety of the new covenant and receives imputed righteousness. The closing application calls both unbeliever and believer to stop covering sin and look in faith to Christ, the only authorized covering for guilt before a holy God.
The Christian Sabbath, Part 2
The Christian Sabbath, grounded in both creation and redemption, does not cease in the New Covenant but is transformed by the resurrection of Christ from the seventh day to the first day of the week. Working through the ministry of Christ in Matthew 5 and 12, the resurrection accounts across all four Gospels, and the apostolic teaching in Hebrews 4, Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 16, and Revelation 1, this exposition argues that the moral obligation of one day in seven for the worship of God remains perpetually binding on the church. The shift from Saturday to Sunday Sabbath is grounded in Christ's completed redemptive work, which mirrors the Father's rest at the close of creation, establishing the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath. Believers are called to receive this day not as a legal burden but as a gracious gift from God, a weekly foretaste of the consummate rest that awaits the people of God.
The Trial before Pilate, Part 1
Matthew 27:11–14 records the first stage of Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate — his interrogation by the Roman governor. The passage unfolds in three movements: Pilate's opening question and Christ's guarded affirmation that he is indeed King of the Jews, the formal accusations brought by the chief priests and elders against which Jesus remains silent, and Pilate's astonished second question met again with silence. Christ's silence before Pilate is not passivity but purposeful obedience — fulfilling the fourth servant song of Isaiah 53 and accomplishing the active righteousness that is imputed to his people in justification. The sermon drives toward the twin realities of forgiveness and positive imputation: Christ's silence secured not only the remission of sins but the righteousness that avails with God, so that his people stand before the Father clothed in another's merit rather than their own.
The Believer's Gratitude Toward God
Psalm 103 grounds thanksgiving not in vague sentiment but in the specific mercies of a covenant-keeping God toward those He has redeemed. Working through David's threefold structure — the reminder to bless God, the reasons for blessing God, and the reflection on God's kingdom — the sermon traces the chief benefit of divine grace as the forgiveness of sins accomplished in Christ, before moving outward to temporal providences, divine mercy measured against human frailty, and the universal summons of all creation to praise. The sermon draws on Deuteronomy's warnings against forgetting God's benefits and Paul's account of the worthy walk in Colossians 1 to show that detailed, specific thanksgiving is a mark of those who have received grace. The congregation is called to speak to their own souls, directing them away from self-absorption and toward the God whose mercy extends from everlasting to everlasting.
The Gospel and Jerusalem Sinners
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:22–42 presents the gospel as an objective message focused on the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ — not a feeling or a personal response. This exposition works through Peter's call to repentance and baptism, the nature of imputed righteousness received by faith alone, and the sovereign scope of God's grace that reaches even the murderers of Christ. The sermon closes with the practice of the early church — steadfast continuance in apostolic doctrine, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, and prayer — as the pattern for all who are genuinely saved by grace.
The Anointing of David
God's rejection of Saul and anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16 sets the stage for one of the richest typological passages in the Old Testament. The sermon traces two movements — God's sovereign selection of David at Bethlehem and David's providential entry into Saul's court — to establish that God judges by the heart rather than outward appearance, that the reception of the Spirit precedes conflict rather than eliminating it, and that David's entire narrative points forward to his greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listeners are called to resist the health-and-wealth error that trials signal divine disfavor, to tend the inner man before God in private, and to rest in the one through whom the righteousness David celebrated by faith is actually accomplished and imputed.
The Rejection of Saul by the Lord, Part 2
The rejection of Saul in 1 Samuel 15:24–35 exposes the anatomy of false repentance, the character of a reprobate, and the nature of a God who does not change. The sermon works through Saul's admission of guilt, Samuel's execution of Agag, and the theological tension between God's expressed regret and his immutability, resolving that tension through the doctrines of divine impassibility and anthropopathism. The justice of God in dispatching the wicked is shown to be a cause for righteous rejoicing, not moral discomfort, as texts from Judges 4–5 and Proverbs 11 confirm. Saul's downward trajectory — blame-shifting, false piety, delusion, fake repentance, and apostasy — is held up as a warning that great privilege does not equal saving grace, while Christ's imputed righteousness is offered as the only ground of true standing before God.
Sunday School - Sept 6 - Self-Defense, Part 1/2
What does Scripture teach about the right of individuals to use lethal force in self-defense? Working through Exodus 22:2–3, a range of Old Testament illustrations, and the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, this study argues that defensive homicide is not murder and is consistent with the whole counsel of God's law. The session also draws on Francis Turretin's four conditions for lawful self-defense and the Westminster Larger Catechism's treatment of the sixth commandment, situating the biblical case within the broader Reformed and historic Christian tradition. The study closes by distinguishing private revenge — which Scripture forbids — from necessary defense of life, family, and property, which Scripture assumes and authorizes.
The Lord's Betrayal in the Garden
Matthew 26:47–50, read alongside John 18:1–11, presents the betrayal of the Son of God in Gethsemane as the arrival of the cup of divine wrath — the hour for which he came. The sermon traces three aspects of the betrayal: its significance as the fulfillment of prophecy and the onset of Messianic suffering, the diabolical plan coordinated by Judas and the religious leaders, and the execution of that plan through a hypocritical kiss. The exposition then turns to John 18 to show that even as Christ surrendered, he revealed his divine identity by the words 'I Am,' causing the armed mob to draw back and fall to the ground — a display of the glory that will be fully manifested at his return. The central application is twofold: believers are called to stand in awe of the active obedience and voluntary self-surrender of Christ whose righteousness is imputed to them, and unbelievers are warned that the only preparation for facing that glory is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Third Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 20:1–16 narrates Paul's closing movements on his third missionary journey — through Macedonia and Greece, into Troas where Eutychus falls to his death and is raised, and then south toward Jerusalem. The passage is used to argue that the early church's pattern of worship is not merely descriptive but carries prescriptive force: the Lord's Day (the first day of the week), corporate assembly, the Lord's Supper, and the preaching of God's Word are the God-ordained elements of Christian worship, regulated by Scripture alone. Cessationist and confessional commitments frame the reading throughout, and the sermon closes with a direct call to sinners to trust in Christ's imputed righteousness and atoning blood as the only ground of salvation.
Pressing On In Christ for Sanctification
Philippians 3:10–21 sets out the doctrine of sanctification as the necessary and purposeful continuation of justification — not its cause. The justified believer, having been conformed to Christ's death by the Spirit's regenerating work (Romans 6), is called to press forward in mortification of the old nature and vivification of the new, never resting in past attainments. Christ's purpose in saving sinners is not merely to deliver them from hell but to conform them to his image for the glory of God — the ordo salutis moving through justification and sanctification toward final glorification. The sermon calls believers to disciplined, Christ-dependent pressing on through Word, prayer, church attendance, and zealous good works, while warning that those who corrupt the gospel by mingling works with grace are enemies of the cross whose end is destruction.
All Of Christ For Justification
Philippians 3:1–9 presents the apostle Paul's radical revaluation of every religious credential he possessed, moving them all from the gain column to the loss column so that Christ alone might occupy the place of righteousness before God. This sermon expounds what it means to have no confidence in the flesh: that justification rests on Christ's perfect active obedience imputed to the believer, not on any combination of works, faith, and sincere effort. The loss column of sin is dealt with equally fully — Christ bearing the certificate of debt and nailing it to the cross, cancelling the debt in its entirety. Hearers are called to count all self-generated merit as rubbish and to rest, passively and completely, in Christ's righteousness received through faith alone.
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 Thief on the Cross
What does the conversion of a man guilty of insurrection and murder on the day of his execution reveal about the grace of God? This exposition of Luke 23:39–43 traces the marks of sovereign grace in the dying thief — his fear of God, his ownership of personal guilt, his acknowledgment of Christ's sinlessness, and his faith cast entirely upon a crucified Lord — before turning to the willing and able Savior who, in the extremity of his own suffering, assures a notorious criminal of immediate paradise. The sermon argues that justification is by faith alone, apart from works, baptism, or religious knowledge, and that the distinguishing mercy shown to one thief and withheld from the other is the clearest emblem of sovereign grace. Hearers are pressed not to presume on a deathbed conversion but to cast themselves now, by grace, upon the mercy of Christ.
The Messiah, The Baptist, And The Kingdom
Matthew 11:2–15 presents three interlocking questions: who is Jesus the Messiah, who is John the Baptist, and what is the nature of the kingdom of heaven? The sermon works through John's imprisoned inquiry — not as rank unbelief but as a struggle with the shape of the messianic agenda — and Christ's answer, which grounds assurance in fulfilled Old Testament prophecy rather than in political deliverance. John is then assessed by Christ himself as more than a prophet, the very subject of Malachi's covenant-messenger prophecy, a man of unflinching courage who stands as a model for preachers and all believers. The enigmatic kingdom-violence saying of verse 12 is read as a positive-negative pairing: the kingdom forcefully advances through proclamation and regeneration, but violent men persist in opposing and plundering it until Christ's enemies are made his footstool.
The Third Missionary Journey, Part 2
Acts 19:11–22 presents four movements in Paul's ministry at Ephesus: the unusual miracles God works through him, the humiliating defeat of the itinerant Jewish exorcists who invoke Christ's name without saving faith, the voluntary burning of occult books by Ephesian believers as fruits of genuine repentance, and a Lukan progress report declaring that the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. The sermon argues for cessationism — that the apostolic sign-gifts authenticated the apostles and their message and have ceased with the closing of the canon — while exposing the fraudulence of those who imitate them today. Believers are called to examine all teachers by Scripture, to expect progressive fruits of repentance throughout the Christian life, and to take confident hope from the unstoppable advance of the gospel.