Theological term
Monotheism
11 sermons · All terms
A Trinitarian Blessing
What does it mean for a church letter full of conflict, rebuke, and difficult confrontation to close with a sweeping word of blessing? Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14 — the most elevated Trinitarian affirmation in the New Testament — does exactly that, pronouncing grace, love, and communion upon a fractious and sinning congregation without exception. The sermon distinguishes the benediction (a word of blessing descending from heaven to God's people) from the doxology (praise ascending from earth to God), tracing how each element of the Trinitarian blessing — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit — flows downward from the triune God as spiritual reality, not mere concept. The application is pointed: whatever the believer's besetting sin, weakness of assurance, or relational difficulty, the remedy begins not with human effort but with receiving the grace, love, and fellowship that the triune God lavishes upon his people.
CTF 2024 Session 3: A Robust Defense of the Scriptures
Creeds and confessions are not supplements to Scripture but summaries of its central propositional content, necessary for intelligent faith, faithful evangelism, and the defense of orthodoxy. Drawing on Romans 12:1-2, James Renihan argues that right living always flows from right believing, and that the theological, ethical, and redemptive-historical dimensions of Scripture all demand that Christians be able to articulate the facts of the faith. Confessions function positively to state the contents of the faith and connect believers across time and place, and negatively to identify error and mark the boundaries of true Christianity. The session closes with a survey of confessional language embedded in the New Testament itself — from the Shema to the apostolic christological summaries — demonstrating that creeds are not a human invention imposed on Scripture but a distillation of what Scripture already teaches.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity is the capstone of the confession's treatment of God, asserting that the one divine and infinite being eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three subsistences of one substance, power, and eternity, each possessing the whole divine essence undivided. This session works through six confessional affirmations: that Trinitarian monotheism excludes tritheism; that confessing one God in three persons is no contradiction; that the persons do not collectively comprise God in fractional parts; that the persons are distinguished solely by their eternal relations of origin; that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are fully co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial; and that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a cold academic exercise but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him.
The Rejection of the Son
John 5:41–47 records Christ's closing rebuke to the Jewish religious leaders who rejected Him despite the testimony of John the Baptist, His works, the Father, and the Scriptures. The sermon expounds two principal charges Jesus levels against His opponents: their refusal to receive the honor that comes from God alone, and their complete absence of love for God — demonstrated precisely by their rejection of the One the Father sent. Working through the accusation by Moses in verses 45–47, the exposition shows that to reject Christ is simultaneously to reject Moses, to reject the Father, and to worship an idol in place of the living God. The sermon closes with a call to receive Christ by faith, in whom alone eternal life is found.
Genesis 30:25-31:21
Genesis 30:25–31:21 narrates Jacob's negotiation with Laban over wages, his departure from Haran, and his flight toward Canaan after twenty years of servitude. The central question the passage presses is whether Jacob's prosperity arose from his own shrewdness or from the sovereign God of the covenant — and the narrative answers decisively in favor of divine providence, paralleling the earlier mandrakes episode in chapter 30 and anticipating the Exodus. The sermon traces Jacob's spiritual maturity, the covenantal logic that ties the Abrahamic land-and-seed promise to this one family's preservation, and God's faithfulness to His people in both prosperity and affliction.
2 Kings 5
2 Kings 5 presents the curing and conversion of Naaman, commander of the Syrian army, as a window into the comprehensive sovereignty of God, the free grace of God, and the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant promises of Israel's God. Working through three sections — the sovereignty of God (vv. 1–8), the healing of Naaman (vv. 9–19), and the greed of Gehazi (vv. 20–27) — the exposition argues that the greater miracle is not Naaman's cleansed skin but his cleansed idolatry, his monotheistic confession of Yahweh as the only God in all the earth. The simplicity, exclusivity, and freeness of God's grace illustrated in Elisha's instruction to wash in the Jordan anticipate the gospel itself, while Gehazi's attempt to monetise the cure warns against every addition to grace.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 2, is approached here through three progressive affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Reformed confessional tradition: God is, God is one, and God is one in three persons. The incomprehensibility of God frames the entire study — not that He cannot be known, but that He cannot be exhaustively comprehended by any creaturely mind. Moving from general revelation through the law of nature to the biblical witness of monotheism and finally to the Trinitarian distinctions of unbegottenness, eternal generation, and eternal procession, the sermon demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculative theology but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.
The Vainglory, the Virtue, and the Verity (Part 2)
Jeremiah 9:23–24 sets a prohibitive warning against glorying in wisdom, strength, and riches, and answers it with a positive prescription: glory exclusively in the understanding and knowledge of God. This sermon (Part 2) works through the 'virtue' and the 'verity' of that text — the virtue being the necessity of knowing God (as the source of all true wisdom, everlasting life, and proper humility), and the verity being the three attendant truths God announces about himself: he alone is the Lord, he exercises loving-kindness, and he governs in judgment and righteousness. The sermon closes with a direct call to those outside of Christ to abandon vainglorious boasting and close with the one in whom true wisdom, strength, and riches are found.
Marks of a Real Christian
Deuteronomy 6:1–15 sets before Israel — and by extension all covenant people — seven marks of genuine, healthy Christian living: loving God, fearing God, obeying God, holding to sound doctrine, desiring heart religion, promoting truth to the next generation, and prizing the Word of God. The passage then turns to cautions against apostasy, warning that material abundance, forgetfulness of God, and idolatry are constant threats in every era of redemptive history, not merely in the Old Covenant. The sermon closes with a direct gospel appeal: these marks of real Christianity can only be pursued by those who first come to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.3)
What does it mean to confess that God is one being subsisting in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? This study of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 2, paragraph 3 works through the classical Trinitarian formulation upheld by the particular Baptists, tracing its foundations in Scripture, its continuity with the ecumenical creeds, and the Baptist Confession's terminological improvement of 'subsistences' over 'persons.' The exposition addresses the unity and equality of the three subsistences, the personal distinctions expressed by eternal generation and procession, and the practical necessity of robust Trinitarian confession in an age of continuing anti-Trinitarian error.
The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity — one God eternally subsisting in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is defined, defended against historic and contemporary errors, and displayed across the whole of Scripture. The sermon works through three movements: first defining the doctrine precisely (one in essence, three in person), then defending it against polytheism, Arianism, and modalism, and finally displaying its pervasive witness throughout both Testaments. The doctrine is shown to be not a cold theological abstraction but the very foundation of salvation, worship, and the believer's communion with the triune God.