Theological term
Justification
521 sermons · All terms
The Resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christian hope, the confirmation of Old Testament prophecy, and the grounds of both justification and coming judgment. Working through John 20:1–10, this sermon examines the discovery and investigation of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the beloved disciple John, noting the eyewitness character of the narrative and the theological significance of the burial cloths. The shift from the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week is grounded in Hebrews 4 and the pattern of new creation. The empty tomb preaches comfort to the believer and the certainty of judgment to the unbeliever, calling all to repent and believe on the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The Burial of Christ
The burial of Jesus Christ in John 19:38–42 and Matthew 27:62–66 is not a peripheral narrative detail but a theological linchpin between the humiliation of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection. Through the actions of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus — two secret disciples emboldened by the death of Christ — the gospel accounts establish the true humanity of the Son of God, confirm the reality of his death against ancient and modern denials, and set the stage for the empty tomb. The security measures taken by the Sanhedrin, far from suppressing the resurrection, served only to make the miracle undeniable and the wrath of men an instrument of God's glory. Sinners are called to receive the gospel as historical fact: that Christ died for sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
The Power and Wisdom of God
How can God justify the ungodly without compromising his justice, and why does the design of salvation leave no room for human boasting? Expounding 1 Corinthians 1:30–31 against the backdrop of Paul's extended contrast between divine and worldly wisdom, this sermon traces the source, content, and goal of every spiritual blessing the believer possesses. Christ is shown to be the believer's righteousness, sanctification, and redemption not as a description of the Christian's progress but as an objective account of what he accomplished as the covenant head of his people. The sermon concludes that because union with Christ is the sole ground of salvation, all glory belongs to God alone — a truth Paul anchors in Jeremiah's call to glory only in the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
The Decision of Pilate, Part 2
John 19:9–16 records the exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate that culminates in the verdict of crucifixion. This sermon works through Pilate's confusion and arrogant assertion of authority, Christ's counter-declaration that all governing power derives from God Most High, and the theological weight of the greater sin belonging to those who delivered Christ up. The death of the Lamb of God at the hour of Passover preparation is no accident — it is the predetermined plan of the Father, the fulfillment of every Passover sacrifice, and the ground of forgiveness for wretched sinners who look to Christ in faith.
The Believer in a Sinful Generation
Philippians 2:14–18 grounds the believer's daily conduct in a theology of sanctification and election: the command to do all things without complaining or disputing flows from the purpose of God to make his people blameless and harmless, validating their identity as children of God in a crooked and perverse generation. Drawing on the wilderness generation of Numbers and the Deuteronomy 32 backdrop Paul himself invokes, the sermon traces the catastrophic pattern of grumbling as a failure to submit to divine providence, and contrasts it with the church's calling to shine as lights and hold forth the word of life. The commendation of joy in verses 17–18 is grounded in Paul's readiness for martyrdom and his deep pastoral investment in the Philippians' growth, showing that the minister's eschatological joy is bound up with his people's faithful walk. The concrete application is simple: be blameless in yourself, peaceable toward the church, and a shining light in the world by faithful presence and gospel proclamation rather than withdrawal.
The Importance of Spiritual Exercise
Philippians 2:12–13 is not a self-salvation passage but a call to Spirit-enabled perseverance rooted in the sovereign grace of God. The sermon expounds the believer's responsibility to 'work out' a salvation already given — not to attain it, but to live in conscious, fear-driven obedience to the God who both justifies and sanctifies. Against hyper-Calvinist passivity on one side and Arminian self-effort on the other, the text holds together human duty and divine empowerment: God works in believers both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. The practical summons is to pursue sanctification — the whole of it, fear, trembling, cross-contemplation, and dependence on the Spirit — as those destined for glorification.
The Hope of the Nations
Psalm 67 is a missionary psalm in which the psalmist first petitions God on behalf of the church — for mercy, blessing, and the communion of God's presence — and then turns those blessings outward, praying that the nations would be saved, become worshipers of the true God, and come under His righteous rule. The Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6 stands behind verse 1, and the 'that' of verse 2 reveals the logic of all divine blessing: the church is enriched by God in order to become a conduit of His saving way to the ends of the earth. The sermon closes by calling the congregation to pray with the confident expectation of verses 6 and 7 — that God shall bless His people and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him — tying the psalm's vision directly to Christ's Great Commission.
Julian and Raelene's Wedding
A Reformed Baptist wedding homily expounds the institution of marriage in Genesis 2:18-25, the fall into sin in Genesis 3, and the first gospel promise of Genesis 3:15 as the theological ground on which Christian marriage stands. The sermon traces how the Apostle Paul's teaching in Ephesians 5:22-33 — the husband to lovingly lead, the wife to honor and submit — flows from the creation order and points beyond itself to Christ and his church. The homily closes by calling every attendee, believer and unbeliever alike, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, whose obedient life, atoning death, and resurrection are the only answer to the sin that corrupts marriage and every human relationship.
The Faithful Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 grounds this sermon on the faithful Christian mother in four doctrinal categories: her condition before God, her influence over her children, her authority over her children, and her responsibility toward her children. The fear of the Lord that marks the virtuous woman is not a natural disposition but a new-covenant gift of sovereign grace, as Jeremiah 32:40 and Romans 3:18 together demonstrate. Because salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, the mother's instruction, example, discipline, and love flow from a regenerate heart rather than from moralism. Mothers are exhorted to maintain dependence on God, to ground child-rearing in Scripture rather than cultural trends, and to persevere in a calling that is high, demanding, and ultimately accountable to God.
Ask FGBC #42: What Words Aren't In The Bible But Help Protect Its Teachings?
Scripture and theology regularly employ concepts that require precise extra-biblical vocabulary to guard against error and heresy. This Q&A session works through a range of theological terms — Trinity, consubstantiality, partitive exegesis, inseparable operations, and more — explaining why the church has historically coined and defended such language rather than restricting itself to bare biblical words. The discussion traces how heretics from the Arians to the Anomeans exploited the refusal to use extra-biblical terms, and why the apostolic mandate to 'earnestly contend for the faith' requires the full use of theological grammar inherited from the church's confessional tradition.
Light Prevails Over Darkness
Ephesians 5:13–14 sets before the hearer a decisive confrontation: the light of Christ exposes the darkness of sin, spiritual blindness, and death, and effectually calls sinners to life. The sermon traces the contextual contrast between spiritual darkness and light, the two components by which Christ's light operates (the external word and the internal work of the Spirit), and the gospel call to awake and arise. Justification by faith alone — faith as the sole instrument by which the sinner receives and rests on Christ's imputed righteousness — is the doctrinal center from which applications to the unbeliever, the backslidden, and the walking believer are drawn.
The Gospel's Indispensable Glory
What is the gospel? Paul's answer in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 is not what we do or feel, but the objective, once-for-all work of the Lord Jesus Christ: his death for sins, his burial, and his bodily resurrection on the third day according to the Scriptures. This sermon works through two categories — the necessity of the gospel and its essential content — showing that the gospel is both the lifeblood of Christian existence and the only ground of justification and resurrection hope. The sermon closes with a direct summons: for the Christian, the risen Christ is blessed Savior and interceding High Priest; for the unbeliever, he is the coming Judge.
The Resurrection and Justification
Romans 4:25 binds the death and resurrection of Christ together as twin pillars of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Christ was delivered up because of the offenses of his people — bearing the substitutionary curse that divine justice demanded — and was raised because of their justification, the resurrection serving as the Father's public testimony that satisfaction had been rendered and righteousness secured. The sermon works through four reasons why Paul links the resurrection to justification: the resurrection declared Christ to be the Son of God with power, testified that his sacrifice was accepted, confirmed that satisfaction was rendered, and marked the completion of redemption and the inauguration of Christ's present session. Believers are called to rest their entire confidence for standing before God on this finished work, and the unconverted are urged to confess and believe in the risen Lord Jesus.
Live Stream - April 13, 2025
Philippians 2:9–11 sets forth the exaltation of Christ as the direct consequence and divine vindication of his humiliation. The sermon works through three considerations in the nature of that exaltation — the consequences of Christ's humiliation for the sinner (freedom from sin's penalty and power, from Satan's bondage, from the law's curse, and free access to God), the Father's approbation of the Son's finished work, and the manifestation of Christ's divine identity in the name given above every name. The significance of the exaltation presses toward a universal, unavoidable submission: every knee will bow and every tongue confess, whether in saving faith now or in compelled acknowledgment on the last day. The sermon closes by pressing sinners to confess Christ willingly in the present day and by reminding believers that the pattern of Christ's humiliation leading to exaltation both grounds their salvation in his active and passive obedience and shapes their life of humble, others-centered love in the church.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 9
John 17:24–26 records the final petition of Christ's high priestly prayer: that those given to him by the Father would be with him in glory and behold his mediatorial splendor. The sermon traces the theological logic from election and effectual calling through justification to glorification, grounding the certainty of the believer's future glory in the Father's eternal love for the Son and the irreversible decree of God. Along the way, the sermon addresses the relationship between sovereign election and the free offer of the gospel, arguing that the doctrines of sovereign grace are the very foundation of evangelism, not a barrier to it. The practical exhortation is twofold: let the hope of future glory fuel present sanctification, and let the love and presence of God sustain patient endurance through affliction.
Our Robe of Beauty
Galatians 2:16 presents a five-fold declaration that justification is by faith alone and not by the works of the law — a doctrine that stands at the very heart of the Christian gospel. This sermon works through four categories: a definition of justification as a forensic declaration set in opposition to condemnation, its foundation in the obedience and satisfaction of Christ alone (not infused righteousness, works, the act of faith, or evangelical obedience), the transaction of imputation by which sin is credited to Christ and his righteousness credited to the believer, and faith as the empty instrument that receives rather than earns that righteousness. The pastoral application presses the believer's assurance away from inward evidences toward the finished work of Christ, and calls the unconverted to look to Christ in faith as their only standing before a holy God.
The Woman Who Was a Sinner
Luke 7:36–50 presents three persons — the woman who was a sinner, the judgmental Pharisee Simon, and the Savior — to demonstrate that Christ freely receives and forgives notorious sinners, and that the devotion the woman shows is not the cause of her forgiveness but the consequence of it. The sermon argues she had already been saved before entering Simon's house, and that her tears, hair, and ointment are the fruit of a faith already given, not works by which she procured salvation. Against the self-righteous contempt of Simon, who mistakes moral superiority for spiritual standing, Christ's declaration 'your faith has saved you' makes plain that free forgiveness is received instrumentally through faith alone and expressed afterward in love. Believers are called to examine whether their own lives reflect the same gratitude this woman showed — not by manufactured effort, but by pondering the greatness of what they have been freely forgiven.
The Believer's Response to Trials
James 1:2–8 addresses the Christian's response to trials — not with grief or complaint, but with counted joy grounded in a clear theological understanding of God's purpose in suffering. The sermon works through two movements: the believer's response to trials in verses 2–4 (identifying, expecting, and rightly receiving them) and the believer's request during trials in verses 5–8 (seeking wisdom from a generous God and coming in faith without double-mindedness). The central application is that Christians must lay up this theology before trials arrive, so that when affliction comes, they are equipped to respond with settledness, faith, and prayer rather than anger or despair.
Trinitarian Assurance
Ephesians 1:3–14 presents a Trinitarian doxology in which the Father's election and predestination, the Son's redemption through His blood, and the Spirit's sealing together constitute the full ground of the believer's assurance. The passage resists any reduction of the three persons to isolated roles, insisting on inseparable operations even as Paul shines distinct light on each person's work. The sermon argues that the Christian's assurance must be anchored not in self-examination of fruit-bearing but in the objective, Trinitarian work of God accomplished entirely outside of us in Christ.
The Conversion of Matthew
Matthew 9:9-13 presents the sovereign call of Christ to Matthew, a tax collector despised in first-century Jewish society as a collaborator with Gentile oppressors and a companion of sinners. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the authoritative call that produced immediate discipleship, the feast Matthew threw to honor Christ and evangelize his former associates, and Christ's threefold response to the Pharisees' complaint — identifying himself as a physician to the sick, appealing to Hosea 6:6 against mere external religion, and declaring his mission to call sinners to repentance. The central application is that no sinner is too notorious to be received by Christ, and Matthew's immediate rising and following is held up as the pattern for genuine repentance and faith.
The Law Concerning Offerings and Vows
Numbers 28–30 presents the divinely regulated calendar of offerings and the law governing vows in Old Covenant Israel, both of which underscore that Israel was not merely a migrating people but a covenant community ordered by the worship of God. The offerings — daily, Sabbath, monthly, and the seven yearly feasts — served to remind Israel of their redemptive history, promote joy and community, resist idolatry, and ensure rest in God's presence, all of which find their fulfillment in Christ. The law of vows in chapter 30 teaches the sanctity of truth, the binding nature of solemn commitments made before God, and the complementarian order in which a woman's vow was subject to the authority of her father or husband. Together these chapters call the New Covenant believer to faithful, regulated worship, truthful speech, and lives of sanctification that flow from justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Baptism - Chauncey Knegt
Three believers are baptized by immersion upon personal profession of faith and repentance, following the pattern of believers' baptism as confessed in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Each candidate gives testimony to the sovereign grace of God in their conversion — from effectual calling under the preached word, to assurance grounded in the finished work of Christ, to the covenant obligations of church membership. The service underscores that baptism is a sign of union with Christ in his death and resurrection, a public act of obedience to Christ's command, and the believer's entry into the mutual accountabilities of a local church.
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's reign, celebrated across 1 Kings 3–10 as a golden age of wisdom and divine blessing, collapses in chapter 11 under the weight of multiplied foreign wives and the idolatry they drew him into — a direct violation of the Mosaic prohibitions in Deuteronomy 7 and 17. The sermon traces the idolatry itself (vv. 1–8) and the divine response (vv. 9–13), showing that Solomon's sin was aggravated by his knowledge of the law, the good example of his father David, and two personal appearances of God. From this sobering case the sermon draws eight practical warnings: that experience, godly example, knowledge, and wisdom are not in themselves sufficient to secure present faithfulness, and that the believer's only safeguard is constant dependence on the Holy Spirit and a mind rooted in Scripture.
The Glory of Christ's Departure, Part 2
John 16:29–33 closes the Upper Room Discourse with two movements: the disciples' partial yet progressing confession of Christ's omniscience, authority, and divine origin, and Christ's triumphant declaration that he has overcome the world. The disciples' imperfect understanding — soon to be perfected on the day of Pentecost through the Spirit's coming — is met not with rebuke but with Christ's desire for their peace, even as he foreknows their abandonment of him at the cross. The sermon grounds Christian courage in the face of tribulation not in human resolve but in the objective, accomplished victory of the enthroned Christ, whose current session at the Father's right hand is the only sufficient foundation for the church's advance through suffering.
The Oracles of Balaam, Part 1
Numbers 23 records the first two oracles of Balaam, in which God sovereignly overturns Balak's hired curse and compels a pagan seer to pronounce blessing upon Israel instead. The first oracle establishes the singularity of the covenant people — a nation dwelling apart, not reckoned among the nations — and the impossibility of cursing those whom God has not cursed. The second oracle grounds that protection in the immutability of God: because God is not a man that he should lie or repent of his word, no sorcery or divination can prevail against Jacob. The passage ultimately anticipates Romans 8:31 — if God is for his people, no Balak, no Balaam, and no adversary can stand against them.
The Riches of God's Grace
Ephesians 1:7 declares that believers possess redemption through Christ's blood and the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God's grace. This sermon works through the triune shape of salvation in Ephesians 1:3–14, arguing that the redeemed are not a class of morally capable people who needed modest assistance, but guilty sinners who required blood atonement, divine election, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit. The cross is shown to satisfy divine justice as well as display divine love — God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, as Paul argues in Romans 3:21–26. The sermon closes with a direct application to baptism, presenting the ordinance as an outward declaration of the inward forgiveness and righteousness received through union with Christ.
The Glory of Christ's Departure, Part 1
John 16:25–28 records the climactic doctrinal statement of the Upper Room Discourse, in which Christ declares His eternal generation from the Father, His incarnation into the world, and His impending ascension back to the Father. The sermon works through three heads: the manner of Christ's instruction in figurative language and the Spirit's coming role in illuminating the disciples; the access believers have to the Father through the Son in prayer; and the doctrinal creed embedded in verse 28, treating eternal generation, incarnation, and ascension in sequence. The unchanging love of the Father for those who are in Christ by grace through faith is held out both as the chief encouragement for disciples going into a world of tribulation and as the ground of the gospel call to sinners to look to Christ for blood and righteousness.
The Spirit's Ministry to the Apostles
John 16:12–15 presents the Spirit's ministry to the apostles as the continuation and completion of Christ's own self-disclosure to the disciples. The sermon expounds Jesus' promise that the Spirit of Truth will guide the apostles into all truth, situating that promise within the doctrine of the Trinity — specifically the eternal processions of the Son and Spirit and their corresponding temporal missions. The Spirit's 'not speaking on his own authority' is shown to mirror Christ's own language about receiving all things from the Father, testifying not to any inferiority of persons but to the consubstantiality of the three divine persons, each possessing the whole divine essence undivided. The congregation is called to pursue the knowledge of the triune God as the foundation for every other duty of the Christian life.
The Vindication of the Aaronic Priesthood
Numbers 16:41–17 records the immediate aftermath of Korah's rebellion: Israel accuses Moses and Aaron of murder, God's wrath breaks out in a plague, and Aaron runs into the congregation with a censer to make atonement, standing between the dead and the living until the plague stops. Chapter 17 then confirms the Aaronic priesthood definitively when Aaron's rod alone buds, blossoms, and produces ripe almonds, functioning as a perpetual sign against any future usurper of the priestly office. The typological weight of Aaron's intercession in verse 48 points forward to Christ, who stands between dead sinners and the wrath of God, propitating that wrath by his blood. The sermon calls hearers to recognize both the sinfulness of Israel's hasty accusation and the glory of the priestly atonement that alone grants the unholy access to a holy God.
The Spirit's Conviction of the World
The Holy Spirit's conviction of the world — of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment — is not a promise that every hearer will be saved, but a declaration that the Spirit will confirm the identity and vindication of Jesus Christ through the apostolic proclamation. Drawing on John 16:8–11 alongside Acts 2 and Acts 24, this sermon argues that the Spirit's primary work in the world is to expose unbelief in Christ, to declare the sufficiency of Christ's imputed righteousness, and to announce the judgment already rendered against the ruler of this world at the cross. The church's calling is therefore not to measure success by numerical response but to preach sin, righteousness, and judgment faithfully, trusting the Spirit to do His own sovereign work.