Theological term
Imputed Righteousness
165 sermons · All terms
The Resurrection and the Life, Part 2
John 11:17–37 records Jesus' arrival at Bethany and His decisive dialogue with Martha before the raising of Lazarus. The sermon expounds the fifth 'I Am' statement — 'I am the resurrection and the life' — showing that Jesus does not merely possess resurrection power but is its very ground and source, limiting physical death for all who believe and conferring spiritual life that can never be forfeited. Martha's confession that Jesus is 'the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world' is held up as a model of faith that does not wait on emotional confirmation, resting instead on the objective person and work of Christ alone.
The Royal Wedding
Psalm 45 presents a royal wedding between the divine King and his bride, the church, composed centuries before the incarnation as a song of love pointing directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon moves through four sections: the psalmist's overflowing intention, the perfections and divine-human person of the King, the instruction to the bride concerning faith and repentance, and the declaration of the King's eternal glory. Christ is shown to be fairer than all the sons of men, advancing his kingdom through truth, humility, and righteousness rather than deception, while his priestly office — not only his kingly conquest — is pressed upon the hearer as the only ground of hope for sinners. The bride is clothed not in her own righteousness but in the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith alone, to be brought with gladness into the King's palace.
The Believer's Response to Trials
James 1:2–8 addresses the believer's proper response to trials in a fallen world, pressing two demands: a joyful disposition toward suffering and a prayerful request for wisdom to navigate it. Drawing on John Calvin, Thomas Manton, and John Gill, the sermon distinguishes the trials of verse 2 (divine testing aimed at maturity) from the temptations of verse 13 (solicitations to sin), and traces the progression from endurance through testing to the perfection of verse 4. The sermon closes with a gospel call: the one who mastered suffering perfectly was Christ himself, whose righteousness is given to the believer by grace alone through faith alone.
The Two Builders
Matthew 7:24–29 concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable of two builders whose contrasting foundations — rock and sand — expose the decisive difference between saving faith and mere hearing. The sermon argues that true faith, sovereignly granted and resting on Christ alone, produces a life of obedience to his word, while the mere hearer — however impressed by the teaching — builds on shifting ground and faces a great and final ruin. The devil, the world, and remaining indwelling corruption all beat against both houses, but only the house founded on Christ stands. Hearers are urged to close with Christ now, trusting not in works or false religion but in his righteousness alone.
The Practice of the Early Church
Acts 2:41–47 describes the irreducible practices of the early church — the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer — and this sermon argues that those practices are not merely historical description but prescription for the church in every age. The gospel that created the church (sovereign grace working through proclamation to bring dead sinners to faith and repentance) also defines what the church does when it gathers. The sermon presses both the unconverted (to seek the Lord Jesus Christ in whom alone there is forgiveness and an imputed righteousness) and the congregation (to continue steadfastly in the ordained means of grace rather than chasing experience, ecstasy, or entertainment).
The Danger of Rejecting the Son, Part 2
John 8:25–29 confronts the persistent Jewish rejection of Jesus by pressing two questions: who is he, and what does his coming death mean? The sermon expounds Christ's identity as the eternal Son sent by the Father — God from God, light from light, true God from true God — and shows that his crucifixion and resurrection will vindicate that identity before the very men who condemned him. The active obedience of Christ, summarized in his declaration that he always does what pleases the Father, grounds the imputed righteousness sinners need for justification. Hearers are called to rest in the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, the knowledge of whom is itself the substance of eternal life.
2LCF Chapter 18 - Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
Assurance of salvation is grounded not in the strength of faith or the quality of obedience but in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel. This exposition of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 18 works through the four paragraphs of that chapter: assurance stated, assurance grounded, assurance realized, and assurance disquieted. The objective foundation of assurance is the active and passive obedience of Christ, proclaimed in the gospel and sealed to the believer by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Believers are called to rest upon Christ alone, to attend the ordinary means of grace, and to resist grounding their hope in their own acts of obedience.
The Promise of Eternal Life
Isaiah 55 presents God's universal, gracious, and free invitation for sinners to come to Christ for life eternal — an invitation that has never changed from Genesis to Revelation. The sermon expounds the chapter in two movements: the invitation to come (vv. 1–5), grounded in covenant promise and secured by the Davidic king, and the exhortation to believe and repent (vv. 6–13), which calls sinners to faith and a change of mind toward sin. God's thoughts are not man's thoughts precisely because He pardons abundantly where man would not, and His word goes forth with certain efficacy to accomplish all He purposes in the salvation of sinners from every nation.
The Feast of Tabernacles, Part 2
John 7:14–24 presents two confrontations: the Jews question Christ's authority, and Christ in turn questions the Jews' ethical integrity. The sermon works through three grounds of Christ's authority—his unity with the Father, the regenerate hearer's capacity to receive his word, and his mission to glorify the Father rather than himself—before turning to Christ's indictment of the Jews for plotting murder while professing fidelity to the Mosaic law. The exposition closes with Christ's appeal to righteous judgment over mere appearance, and the preacher applies the whole passage as a call to sinners to come and drink from the one who alone satisfies the soul's thirst.
The Conversion of Matthew
Matthew 9:9–13 records the sovereign call of a tax collector — among the most despised and morally compromised figures in first-century Jewish society — to follow Christ and ultimately to author the first Gospel. The sermon works through three movements: Christ's effectual call of Matthew to discipleship, the feast Matthew hosts to honour Christ and evangelize his associates, and the confrontation with the Pharisees in which Jesus declares the nature of his mission — not to call the self-righteous but sinners to repentance. The account is pressed into seven marks of genuine discipleship, closing with an appeal to the unconverted to look to Christ as the great physician of sin-sick souls.
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2
Ephesians 1:13–14 presents the Holy Spirit as both the seal and the guarantee of the believer's inheritance, grounding the security of salvation not in human performance but in the inseparable operations of the triune God. The sermon traces the instrumentality of the word of truth — showing that sinners must hear the gospel before they can believe — and then expounds the sealing of the Spirit as authentication, ownership, and security. The guarantee of the Spirit is the first installment of a heavenly inheritance that awaits the full redemption of the purchased possession at the consummation of the age. Believers are therefore urged to rest their assurance in the Father who chose, the Son who redeemed, and the Spirit who seals and guarantees.
Exodus 20:14, the 7th Commandment, Part 2
Expounding the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14), this study completes a survey of the sins the commandment prohibits — polygamy, prostitution, pornography, transvestitism, and transgenderism — before turning to the manner in which the commandment is violated: externally through the act, internally through lustful imagination, and verbally through corrupt speech. The Westminster Larger Catechism frames the duties required: chastity in body, mind, affections, words, and behavior. The threefold use of the law (civil, pedagogical, normative) is applied to contemporary sexual ethics, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is held out as the ground of gospel hope: the same sinners who practiced these things were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.
The Witnesses for the Defense
In John 5:31–40, Jesus faces charges of blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking and responds not by deflecting but by calling four corroborating witnesses to establish his consubstantiality with the Father: John the Baptist, his own works, the Father's testimony, and the Scriptures themselves. The sermon traces each witness in turn, showing that Christ's equality with God is not a later theological invention but the central claim of his own ministry, attested by every strand of divine revelation. The passage culminates in a sobering indictment: those who search the Scriptures seeking eternal life while refusing to come to Christ have missed the entire point of revelation, for Christ is the telos of all Scripture. Hearers are called to reckon with the gravity of sin and to come to Christ by grace through faith as the only ground of everlasting life.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the crowning proof that the Father accepted the Son's atoning work as a full satisfaction for sin. Expounding Matthew 28:1–10, this sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb — the arrival of the women, the descent of the angel, and the commission given to the first witnesses — and then the appearance of the risen Lord to those same women. The resurrection is not myth or fable but attested history, with details such as the folded burial cloth, the terrified guards, and the forthright identification of women as the primary witnesses all serving the integrity of the gospel record. The empty tomb grounds the Christian's confidence in the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ, and it calls every hearer to seek the risen Lord without fear.
The 4th Commandment (Part 2)
The fourth commandment's demand for Sabbath observance does not dissolve at the close of the Old Covenant; it runs through redemptive history and finds its New Covenant expression in the Lord's Day. Working through Matthew 5, Matthew 12, and Hebrews 4, this sermon argues that Christ upheld the moral law in both doctrine and practice, that his resurrection on the first day of the week grounds the shift from Saturday to Sunday, and that Hebrews 4:9's use of 'sabbatismos' constitutes a positive, unequivocal New Testament Sabbath ordinance for the people of God. The moral principle — one day in seven set apart for worship — is trans-covenantal; only its ceremonial aspect, the specific day, is conditioned by the covenant one inhabits. Believers are called to approach the Lord's Day not as a burden but as a gift that functions as a weekly foretaste and down payment of the eternal rest secured by Christ's finished work.
The Depravity of Man
Romans 1:18–32 presents the universal human condition as one of willful suppression of God's self-disclosure in creation, resulting in inexcusability before a holy God. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the revelation of divine wrath, the reason for that wrath in humanity's idolatrous exchange of the Creator for the creature, and the nature of God's judgment as a punitive giving-over of sinners to the very sins they pursued. The sermon argues that the preaching of the law — including the full weight of human depravity — is indispensable to the proclamation of the gospel, because sinners must understand their ruin before they will look to the remedy of blood atonement in Christ alone.
The Healing of the Nobleman's Son
John 4:43–54 records the second sign Jesus performed in Galilee: the healing of a royal official's son from a distance of sixteen miles. The passage exposes both the deficient faith that demands visible proof before believing and the sufficient power of Christ's spoken word, which heals without physical presence. The nobleman's earnest intercession for his dying son becomes a pointed application for parents to implore God persistently for their children's spiritual wellbeing. The sign itself points beyond physical healing to the life given to all who believe the word of Christ.
The Church's Compassion for Sufferers
Hebrews 13:3 commands believers to remember imprisoned and mistreated Christians not merely as a cognitive acknowledgment but as an active, embodied solidarity — 'as if chained with them.' The sermon expounds the duty, the objects, and the reason for this command, tracing the antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent from Genesis 3:15 through the New Testament persecution accounts. Drawing on 1 Peter 4, Hebrews 11, and Acts 12, the preacher grounds the church's compassion for sufferers in the one-body reality of 1 Corinthians 12, calling believers to importunate intercession for the persecuted church worldwide and to trust that God gives sustaining grace in the moment of trial.
The Pharisee and the Publican
This exposition of Luke 18:9–14 examines the parable of the Pharisee and the publican as a penetrating diagnosis of self-righteousness and a declaration of justification by faith alone. The sermon works through the occasion of the parable, the contrasted characters of the two men, and Christ's concluding verdict that the tax collector — not the Pharisee — went home justified. The central contention is that acceptance before God rests entirely on the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith, not on any moral performance or religious accomplishment, and that those who understand this will be marked by humility rather than contempt toward others.
The Hope of the Nations
Psalm 67 frames both the church's need for God's mercy and the church's missionary calling to the nations as inseparable realities. The psalmist's threefold petition — mercy, blessing, and communion with God for the church — is the ground from which prayer for the salvation, worship, and righteous governance of the nations flows. Drawing on the Aaronic blessing, the Abrahamic covenant, and the New Testament's Great Commission, the sermon argues that the church's received grace creates an inescapable obligation to proclaim that grace to the ends of the earth. The closing application calls the congregation to corporate prayer, support of the missionary enterprise, and fidelity to the gospel message as the only means God has ordained for the hope of the nations to be realized.
The Lord Jesus and the Demoniacs
Matthew 8:28–34 presents Christ's authority over demonic powers as a ground for confident trust in him as the Son of God. The demons' own confession — 'You Son of God' — exposes what the disciples have not yet grasped: that Jesus holds sovereign dominion over every spiritual power, including the devil himself. The exorcism at Gerasa is set within Matthew's sustained demonstration, across chapters 8–9, that the one who teaches with authority also acts with authority. If Christ has conquered death and the devil, every lesser affliction that threatens the people of God lies well within his sovereign reach.
The Trial before Pilate, Part 2
Matthew 27:15–23 records Pilate's attempt to grant amnesty to Jesus through the Passover prisoner-release custom, a device that exposes the cowardice of the Roman governor, the envious malice of the Jewish religious leaders, and the terrifying moral bankruptcy of mob rule. The passage is expounded under five heads — the custom of amnesty, the leaders' motivation of envy, the warning of Pilate's wife, the demand of the multitudes, and Pilate's cross-examination — each of which illuminates the comprehensive reach of human depravity. The substitution of Barabbas for Jesus is treated as emblematic of definite atonement: the just going to the cross in the place of the unjust, securing both the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone. Hearers are urged not to be carried along by ungodly leaders, to flee to Christ without delay, and to eat the Lord's Supper as a memorial of the blood atonement and active obedience of the Second Person of the Trinity wrought entirely on behalf of his people.
The Defense in Jerusalem
Acts 22 records Paul's defense before the Jerusalem mob and his invocation of Roman citizenship before the commander, and this exposition traces both movements as a pattern for how believers engage hostile civil and religious authorities. Paul's account of his conversion — his Jewish upbringing under Gamaliel, his confrontation with the risen Christ on the Damascus road, his instruction through Ananias, and his temple vision — demonstrates that he is not an enemy of Israel but rather the fulfillment of what a faithful reading of the Old Testament demands. The crowd's fury erupts not over Paul's biography but over Christ's commission to the Gentiles, exposing their rejection of covenant promises made to Abraham and repeated through the Psalms and prophets. The sermon closes by pressing Paul's gospel — blood atonement, imputed righteousness, and salvation by grace through faith — upon every hearer, including the worst of sinners.
How to Treat One Another in the Church
First Timothy 5:1–2 instructs Timothy — and by extension all Christians — on how to treat members of the congregation according to age and gender, framing those relationships by analogy to the family. The sermon grounds this instruction in the Fifth Commandment, drawing on Westminster Larger Catechism questions 124–131 to show that the commandment's scope extends beyond natural parents to all relationships of authority, age, and equality. Pastors must exhort older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with all purity — avoiding harshness on the one side and laxity or impropriety on the other. The closing application presses the doctrine of adoption: because believers are children of God and joint-heirs with Christ their elder brother, the church is a genuine household, and its members bear mutual responsibility to encourage and bear one another's burdens without waiting for pastoral direction.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 1
The trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57–64) was no honest hearing but a predetermined execution by the highest religious court in Israel, assembled in violation of their own law and Scripture. This sermon examines the setting of the hearing, the fraudulent witness testimony regarding the temple, and the high priest's sworn examination of Jesus — in which Christ openly affirms that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and Daniel's Son of Man. The temple charge against Jesus is shown to be a deliberate misquotation and misinterpretation of John 2:19, where Christ spoke not of the physical structure but of His own death and resurrection. The Sanhedrin's wickedness is set in sharp contrast to the resolve of Christ, who endures this sham trial in silence and then under oath, fulfilling Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7, in order to accomplish the salvation of His people.
The Meeting with James in Jerusalem
Acts 21:17–40 narrates Paul's final recorded visit to Jerusalem, where he meets with James and the elders before being seized by a mob in the temple. The sermon works through four aspects of the meeting — reception, report, response, and recommendation — to demonstrate that James and Paul were in full theological harmony, both preaching justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The arrest that follows illustrates both the rage of unbelieving Israel and the sovereign providence of God, who uses Roman civil authority to preserve his apostle. Hearers are urged to imitate Paul's spirit of conciliation on secondary matters, insist on the gospel above all else, and trust the God who receives sinners.
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.
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–20 calls the people of God to don the whole armor of God — not as an invitation to physical combat, but as a summons to faithful spiritual warfare against the devil and his hosts. The sermon works through three movements: the commands to be strong in the Lord and to put on the armor, the reasons rooted in the nature of the spiritual enemy, and a pastoral survey of each piece of armor from the belt of truth to the sword of the Spirit and prayer. The controlling emphasis falls on standing — not heroics, but covenantal steadfastness in union with Christ, who is already exalted far above all principalities and powers.
Waging the Good War
First Timothy 1:18–20 charges Timothy to wage the good warfare of the Christian faith, grounded in faith and a good conscience. This exposition identifies two weapons of the faithful minister—trust in the living God and a conscience calibrated by sound doctrine—set against the backdrop of false teachers who have shipwrecked the faith by rejecting the gospel of free and sovereign grace. The sermon then turns to the solemn consequence of neglecting that warfare, tracing the excommunication of Hymenaeus and Alexander as a case study in church discipline executed for the purity of the church and the potential restoration of the offender. Hearers are pressed to examine whether they possess genuine discernment regarding the gospel and genuine sensitivity toward sin, waging the warfare not to earn salvation but in response to the grace already secured in Christ.
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.