Theological term
Particular Providence
10 sermons · All terms
The Decision of Pilate
Pilate's encounter with the condemned Christ in John 19:5–16 exposes three interlocking realities: Pilate's own tension between justice and political cowardice, the divine authority behind all earthly power, and the sovereign verdict that sends the Son of God to the cross. The crowd's cry "Crucify him" and Pilate's capitulation, far from frustrating God's plan, enact it — the last Adam standing in judgment to accomplish what the first Adam forfeited. The sermon calls every hearer to look in faith to the one delivered up by divine appointment, receiving through his blood the forgiveness and imputed righteousness that alone secures acceptance before God.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 6
Acts 17:16–21 presents the Apostle Paul in Athens, a city saturated with idolatry and celebrated for its philosophical culture. The sermon traces three movements in this brief passage: Paul's provocation of spirit at the sight of rampant idolatry, his deliberate response of preaching Christ in both the synagogue and the public marketplace, and his engagement with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who summon him to the Areopagus. Paul's example establishes that righteous anger at the transgression of the First and Second Commandments, mingled with grief and compassion, is a mark of God's people — and that the fitting response to such provocation is not silence but the proclamation of Jesus and the resurrection.
The Prophet Under the Broom Tree
What was Elijah actually doing under the broom tree — fleeing in faithless self-pity, or acting out of zealous grief for the glory of God? Working through 1 Kings 19:1–18, this sermon challenges the dominant commentatorial tradition that reads Elijah's flight and depression as a crisis of faith, arguing instead that his despondency was provoked by legitimate covenantal grief over Israel's continued apostasy after the contest at Carmel. God's response — rest, food, a journey to Horeb, and a formal covenant lawsuit — vindicates the prophet and reveals the divine program of justice and grace through Hazael, Jehu, Elisha, and a reserved remnant of 7,000. The pastoral application is direct: faithful people suffer depression, and those who minister to them must respond with the same patience, kindness, and provision that Yahweh himself showed to Elijah.
The Announcement of the Coming King
Isaiah 9:6–7 announces a coming King whose titles — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — identify both his divine nature and his redemptive office. Preached against the backdrop of the 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy, this exposition argues that the world's violence and depravity find their only explanation in the doctrine of human sin and their only remedy in the incarnate Son of God. The sermon works through seven descriptors of Christ in verse 6 and five characteristics of his kingdom in verse 7, culminating in the assurance that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts — not human effort — secures and advances Christ's everlasting reign.
Exclusive Commitment to God
Joshua 24 presents a covenant ratification ceremony at Shechem in which Joshua calls Israel to exclusive, whole-soul commitment to Yahweh on the basis of what God has done — not what Israel has merited. The sermon works through the chapter in two movements: a review of covenant history that highlights the grace, pace, ways, and power of God, and the demand for covenant commitment that is at once logical, exclusive, and serious. The sobering counter-intuitive move of Joshua — telling an eager people 'you cannot serve the Lord' — exposes the blathering self-confidence of emotional religion and drives the hearer back to dependence on divine grace from first to last.
A Centurion Came to Him
Matthew 8:5–13 presents a Roman centurion whose faith Jesus described as unparalleled in Israel, and this exposition draws out six marks of that saving faith: it seeks mercy, confesses unworthiness, rests on Christ's word alone, recognises his sovereign authority, finds hope outside superstition and ceremony, and is always rewarded by God. The sermon opens by distinguishing miracles that illustrate sovereign regeneration from those that illustrate the reception of sinners who come in faith, placing this healing firmly in the second category. A closing contrast with Mark 6:1–6 — where Jesus marvelled at the absence of faith in his own hometown — presses the application: privilege without faith forfeits blessing, while humble confidence in Christ's word is always honoured.
The Persecution of the Church and the Power of God
Acts 12 sets the persecution of the early church against the sovereign power of God: Herod executes James, imprisons Peter with an overwhelming guard, and receives divine worship — yet God delivers Peter through angelic intervention, strikes Herod dead for his idolatry, and the Word of God grows and multiplies. The chapter exposes both the reality of suffering for Christ's people and the futility of every human attempt to extinguish the gospel. Four movements structure the exposition: the persecution of the church, Peter's miraculous escape, the judgment of Herod Agrippa, and Luke's progress report on the unstoppable advance of God's Word. The sermon calls hearers to honest reckoning with suffering, earnest corporate prayer, and worship of the God who shares his glory with no one.
The Church in Light of Her Reigning King
Acts 4:23–31 records the early church's response to persecution: not a plea for escape, but a theologically grounded prayer for boldness. Working through this passage, the sermon traces four features of the church under pressure — her unity, her confession of God as Creator, Revealer, and Sovereign Orchestrator, her petition for gospel courage, and the divine blessing that follows. The sermon draws on Psalm 2 as the interpretive key, showing that the rage of the nations against Christ and his people is met by the laughter of the enthroned King, and that Christians in every age are called to rest on God's absolute sovereignty and pray for boldness to proclaim Christ crucified and risen.
The Fall of Nineveh
Nahum 2–3 presents one of Scripture's most vivid and theologically precise announcements of divine judgment: the total destruction of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. The sermon works through chapter 2 as a prophetic description of the city's fall — its siege, compromise, plunder, and humiliation — and chapter 3 as a theological explanation, identifying the specific sins (murder, deceit, false religion) that called down God's wrath. The sovereignty of God over history is the governing doctrine: it is Yahweh, not merely the Babylonian-Median-Scythian coalition, who scatters Nineveh and fulfils every detail Nahum foretold a generation before 612 BC. The sermon closes with a call to consider the final judgment, to reject the comfortable lie that God's patience signals indifference, and to flee to the mercy of Christ before that mercy gives way irrevocably to justice.
The Comforting Truth of God's Judgment
Nahum 1 opens with a stark declaration: the God who is slow to anger will not acquit the wicked, and no power on earth — not even the Assyrian Empire at the height of its brutality — can withstand His coming in judgment. This expository survey of Nahum 1 grounds the doctrine of divine wrath in the character of God Himself: His jealousy, His patience, and His sovereign control over history. The sermon argues that far from being an embarrassment, the judgment of God is the very foundation of Christian comfort, because the same God who destroys His enemies is a stronghold for those who trust in Him. The pressing application is direct: every hearer must answer whether they can stand before His indignation, and if not, must flee to Christ before that day arrives.