Theological term
Monergism
21 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 10 - Of Effectual Calling
Effectual calling is the sovereign, gracious act by which God brings those predestinated unto eternal life from spiritual death to faith in Christ, through His word and Spirit, with no contribution from the creature. This lesson works through all four paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 10, tracing the definition and character of the effectual call, its Trinitarian foundation, the two-fold nature of outward word and inward Spirit, the extraordinary provision for elect infants and those incapable of hearing the word, and the fixed inability of the reprobate. The session closes by pressing the doctrine against Pelagian, Semi-Pelagian, Arminian, Socinian, and Roman Catholic errors, and by insisting that there is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ for those who receive not the Christian religion.
The Vine, the Vinedresser, and the Branches, Part 2
John 15:3–8 sets forth the doctrines of regeneration, justification, and sanctification through the metaphor of the vine and branches. The passage establishes that union with Christ — not moral resolve or covenantal externalism — is both the ground and the sustaining power of the Christian life. The sermon refutes paedo-baptist readings of the text and the health-wealth distortion of Christ's promise of answered prayer, arguing instead that fruitbearing flows necessarily from a living faith-union with the true vine. The exhortation to abide is therefore not a condition of salvation but the calling of those already justified freely by grace.
2LCF Chapter 10 - Of Effectual Calling
2LCF Chapter 10 expounds the doctrine of effectual calling — the sovereign, monergistic act by which God brings elect sinners from spiritual death to life in Jesus Christ. The chapter is read in full and examined in four paragraphs, with sustained attention given to the definition of effectual calling (paragraph 1) and its exclusively divine power (paragraph 2). God calls none but the predestinated, acts in his own appointed time, works through Word and Spirit, and employs no less power than that which raised Christ from the dead — leaving no room for human agency or merit in salvation. The session closes with brief pastoral notes on elect infants and the non-effectual gospel call, followed by congregational questions on infant salvation and the theology of divine simplicity undergirding unconditional election.
The Saving Grace of God, Part 3
Ephesians 2:8–10 demolishes every notion that the sinner contributes to his own salvation, whether by supplying the faith or by bringing meritorious works. This sermon works through the passage in two movements: the application of redemptive grace in verses 8–9, where salvation is shown to be by grace alone through a faith that is itself God's gift and not the sinner's offering, and the consequence of redemptive grace in verse 10, where the good works of the justified are presented not as the cause or condition of salvation but as its God-prepared effect. The controlling purpose is doxological — that in every age where sinners are saved, the exceeding riches of God's grace in Christ Jesus are displayed, and God alone receives the glory.
2LCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
Saving faith is the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit, worked in the hearts of the elect through the ministry of the Word, enabling them to trust in Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. This study of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 14 distinguishes true saving faith from temporary or false faith, establishes that faith is built on knowledge rather than religious emotion or experience, and traces the three classical elements of faith — notitia, assensus, and fiducia — while guarding against both the mysticism that smuggles emotion into the essence of faith and the rationalism that mistakes bare intellectual assent for it. The practical burden throughout is that the proper object of saving faith is Christ and his work alone, and that assurance, while distinct from faith itself, grows through the appointed means of grace.
2LCF Chapter 9 - Of Free Will
What does it mean that human beings have 'free will'? This confession-study exposition of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 9 argues that free will is real but always conditioned by the moral state of the heart — whether man is in original innocency, post-lapsarian sin, the state of grace, or the state of glory. The fourfold framework drawn from the Confession exposes the Pelagian and Arminian error of treating free will as unqualified and neutral, while grounding the sinner's inability and the believer's renewal entirely in sovereign, monergistic grace. The study closes with the pastoral application that even the believer's ongoing corruption is no surprise, and that the state of glory — not the present age — is where the will is at last perfectly and immutably free to good alone.
Introduction to the Book of Exodus
The book of Exodus is not a standalone document but the second movement of the Pentateuch, continuing the story of the covenant people from Genesis through to their deliverance from Egypt, the giving of the law at Sinai, and the construction of the tabernacle. This introductory study surveys the book's structure through three themes — deliverance, demand, and dwelling — and traces how each anticipates Christ: Moses as covenant mediator prefiguring the greater Mediator, the Passover lamb pointing to the sacrifice of Christ, and the tabernacle foreshadowing the incarnation. The threefold division of God's law (moral, judicial, ceremonial) is explained with reference to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, with particular attention to why the moral law remains perpetually binding while the judicial and ceremonial laws have expired. The study closes by applying the Immanuel principle — that God redeems his people in order to commune with them — to the corporate worship of the New Covenant church.
Of Sanctification (2LCF 13)
What does it mean to be sanctified, and how does that work itself out in the Christian life? Working from 2LCF Chapter 13 and Ephesians 4:17–24 as a core text, this teaching distinguishes definitive sanctification — the once-for-all, irreversible breach with the dominion of sin that occurs at union with Christ — from the progressive sanctification that follows as the Spirit applies Christ's death and resurrection to the believer's daily conflict with the flesh, the world, and the devil. The confession's three paragraphs frame the exposition: the inception and source of sanctification in Christ's virtue, the imperfect yet real struggle with indwelling sin, and the certain progress of grace toward evangelical obedience. Believers are called to reckon themselves dead to sin, take up the means of grace daily, and press on toward holiness as those who are already God's special possession.
Of Effectual Calling (2LCF 10)
Effectual calling — the internal, sovereign act by which God draws his elect from death to life by his Word and Spirit — is the focus of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 10. This study works through all four paragraphs of the chapter, tracing the monergistic character of the call: it originates in God's eternal predestination, operates independently of anything foreseen in the creature, and is accomplished by a power no less than that which raised Christ from the dead. The chapter's handling of elect infants, the mentally incapable, the non-elect, and the heathen is examined in turn, with sustained application to evangelical method, the centrality of the cross in preaching, and the believer's dependence upon God in prayer and witness.
The New Birth
John 3:1–10 presents Jesus' declaration to Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again — a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, not a human decision or cooperative effort. This sermon traces the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus through three movements: Nicodemus's implicit question, Christ's response, and Christ's indictment of Nicodemus's ignorance of what the Old Testament — particularly Ezekiel 36:25–27 — had already taught about new-covenant regeneration. The doctrine of the new birth is expounded as thoroughly monergistic: God alone acts, man is passive, and faith and repentance are fruits of regeneration rather than its cause. Believers are called to examine the evidences of genuine new birth — faith in Christ, love of the brethren, and overcoming the world — while the unconverted are directed to look to Christ and believe the gospel.
2LCF Chapter 10 - Of Effectual Calling
Effectual calling is the sovereign, monergistic act by which God brings his elect out of spiritual death and into saving union with Christ — by his Word and Spirit alone, apart from any foreseen merit or creaturely co-operation. Walking through 2LCF Chapter 10, paragraphs 1–4, this study situates effectual calling within the broader covenant structure of the confession, distinguishing it from the general gospel call that goes forth indiscriminately to all. The session addresses the regenerating work of the Spirit, the doctrinal grounding of infant salvation, the exclusion of the non-elect from saving grace, and the eternal perdition of those outside Christ regardless of moral sincerity — with a sustained application to how these truths ought to shape corporate prayer and gospel proclamation.
2LCF Chapter 9 - Of Free Will
The doctrine of free will, as confessed in chapter 9 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is neither denied nor affirmed without qualification — it is carefully defined in relation to the fourfold state of man. In the state of innocency man possessed genuine freedom to do good, yet was mutable; in the state of sin he retains natural liberty of choice but has wholly lost all ability to will any spiritual good; in the state of grace God monergistically transfers the sinner from bondage into freedom to will and do what is spiritually good, yet remaining corruption sustains a continual warfare within; and in the state of glory the will is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone. The central pastoral application is that a true grasp of total depravity and total inability is the only ground on which amazing grace is truly amazing, and the presence of ongoing battle against sin — not its absence — is the mark of regenerate life.
The One Who Justifies the Ungodly
Romans 4:5 announces that God justifies the ungodly — a declaration that seems to violate the standard of Proverbs 17:15, which condemns justifying the wicked. The doctrine of imputation resolves the apparent tension: God reckons, credits, and accounts righteousness to sinners not on the basis of moral transformation but on the basis of Christ's active and passive obedience received through faith alone. Three acts of imputation structure the biblical argument — Adam's sin imputed to his posterity, the elect's sin imputed to Christ, and Christ's righteousness imputed to the elect — establishing that the gospel upholds rather than undermines divine justice. This sermon was preached in the context of a Lord's Supper service, directing communicants away from any sense of personal worthiness and toward the finished work of Christ as the sole ground of acceptance before God.
From Alienation to Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21–22 sets the alienation and enmity of sinners against the sovereign, monergistic reconciliation God effects through the incarnate death of His Son. The sermon moves through three aspects of the Colossian believers' transformation: their previous state as those alienated from God, hostile in mind, and outwardly manifesting wicked works; their present status as those God has reconciled through the physical, substitutionary death of Christ; and their future blessedness as those being presented holy, blameless, and above reproach — a goal that is the consequence of reconciliation, never its cause. Communion is the occasion for this exposition, pressing believers to remember the depth of the grace that drew them out of enmity and into fellowship with God.
A Filthy Priest and the Grace of God
Zechariah 3 sets before the reader a courtroom scene in which Joshua the high priest — clothed in garments the Hebrew describes with language reserved for human feces and vomit — stands before the Lord with Satan at his right hand, ready to accuse. The vision is an unsparing portrait of what every sinner looks like before a holy God, and the response is entirely God's: He silences the accuser, strips the filthy garments, and clothes Joshua in an alien righteousness he did nothing to earn. The sermon expounds this fourth night vision under three headings — the cleansing of Joshua, the charge given to Joshua, and the promise concerning the Branch — demonstrating that the imputation of Christ's righteousness is not a Reformation novelty but a reality enacted in visible, typological form five centuries before Calvary. The application drives toward assurance grounded not in the believer's obedience but in sovereign election and justifying grace, while calling the unconverted to believe on the Branch who came to do what God purposed for Him.
The Demonstration of God's Love
Romans 5:8 encapsulates the entire gospel in a single verse: God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This sermon works through Romans 5:6–11 to establish that the objects of God's redeeming love were helpless, ungodly, sinners, and active enemies of God — leaving no ground for human merit in salvation. The demonstration of that love at Calvary is the sole foundation of justification, reconciliation, and assurance, and it calls the redeemed to a joy that fuels genuine gospel holiness rather than moralistic striving.
The Supremacy of Christ
Hebrews 1:1–3 presents seven interlocking evidences for the supremacy of Christ over the prophets: he is heir of all things, creator of all things, the brightness of God's glory, the express image of God's person, sovereign upholder of all creation, the once-for-all purger of sin, and the exalted King seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The sermon traces each claim through supporting texts in John, Colossians, 2 Corinthians, Acts, and Hebrews 7, demonstrating that Christ's superiority does not render the Old Testament void but rather fulfils it in his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. Delivered as preparation for the Lord's Supper, the message calls believers to feed upon the glory of Christ at the table and urges unbelievers to look to him alone for mercy.
The Plan of Salvation
Two verses in 2 Timothy 1 contain a concentrated summary of the entire plan of salvation, and this sermon unpacks five observations from that text: God alone saves, the effectual call is the means employed, the basis is divine purpose and grace rather than human works, the plan originates before time began in the counsel of the triune God, and it is executed in history through the doing, dying, and rising of Jesus Christ. The sermon sets monergism against every form of synergism, argues that Athanasius's soteriological defense of Christ's deity depends on the incapacity of man to save himself, and traces the pactum salutis through John 17, Romans 16, and Ephesians 1. The hearer is pressed to rest all assurance on the finished work of Christ alone and to give God all praise for a salvation that is his from first to last.
The Pure in Heart
What does it mean to be pure in heart, and how can sinners whose hearts are described in Scripture as deceitful and desperately wicked ever attain it? Expounding the sixth Beatitude in Matthew 5:8, this sermon works through four observations: the description of heart purity as single-minded devotion and internal righteousness (in contrast to the Pharisees' meticulous external compliance); the source of that purity in the sovereign, monergistic grace of the triune God — the Father's electing work, the Son's atoning blood and imputed righteousness, and the Spirit's indwelling power; the cultivation of purity through meditation on the gospel, prayer, and Scripture as God's binding command; and the promise that the pure in heart shall see God, a beatific vision already begun in creation, providence, and redemption, and consummated in the new creation of Revelation 21–22. Hearers are called to rest not in civility or external compliance but to flee to Christ, whose blood alone cleanses the heart, and to pursue purity by dwelling deeply in the gospel.
Salvation in James' Theology
James 1:18 — 'of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth' — is the doctrinal anchor that prevents James 2:24 from being read as a rival scheme of salvation to Paul's. This sermon argues that James teaches the same sovereign, monergistic regeneration and the same grace-alone, faith-alone soteriology as Paul, and that the 'justification by works' of James 2 concerns the outward demonstration of an already-accomplished divine act, not the ground of that act. The practical thrust is that those who claim justification by God's free grace must align their conduct with that claim — bridling the tongue, caring for widows and orphans, and being doers of the word — because true biblical faith inevitably produces works.
Five Truths that Demonstrate God's Glory, Part 2
Ephesians 1:3–14 sets the stage for the final two of five truths that demonstrate God's glory in salvation: irresistible grace and the preservation and perseverance of the saints. Drawing from Ezekiel 36, John 6, Romans 8, and Philippians 2, the sermon argues that regeneration precedes and produces saving faith (monergism), that God irresistibly draws the elect by transforming the heart rather than overriding the will, and that those united to Christ by grace alone through faith alone are kept by God until final glorification. The practical conclusion is that genuine salvation issues in Spirit-wrought perseverance expressed through the ordinary means of grace, grounded in gratitude for God's sovereign mercy.