Theological term
Pelagianism
12 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.
Ask FGBC #5 - Are people who “chose” for Jesus actually saved?
This pastoral Q&A addresses whether Christians who use Arminian or synergistic language — 'I chose Jesus,' 'I accepted Jesus' — are genuinely saved, or whether such language betrays a fatal misunderstanding of the gospel. The response distinguishes sloppy speech from substantive doctrinal error, urging a judgment of charity toward those lacking theological precision while insisting that doctrinal faithfulness is essential to Christian identity. The episode closes with a call for patience with new believers growing in understanding and for the importance of sound preaching and good church membership as the ordinary means by which precision is cultivated over time.
The Meeting with Nicodemus
John 3:1–10 presents Jesus confronting Nicodemus — a ruler of the Sanhedrin sent by the Jerusalem religious leadership — with the doctrine of regeneration: that a man must be born again, born from above, before he can see or enter the kingdom of God. The sermon argues that the new birth is entirely a sovereign act of God Most High, not a command for the sinner to obey by his own power, and that regeneration logically precedes and produces saving faith rather than following it. Those born of God will evidence that new life through faith in Christ, a practice of righteousness, love for the brethren, and an overcoming of the world.
The Mission of the Word, Part 2
John 1:10–13 presents two contrasting responses to the mission of the incarnate Word: the rejection of the world and of Israel, and the reception of those upon whom Christ confers the right to become children of God. The sermon works through the threefold use of 'world' in verse 10, the parallel between Israel's ancient rebellion and their rejection of the Messiah, and the sovereign grace underlying faith and new birth in verses 12–13. Central to the exposition is the Reformed insistence that regeneration precedes faith — those who receive Christ by believing do so because they have first been born of God — against both Pelagian and Arminian construals of conversion.
Genesis 44-45
Genesis 44–45 presents the arrest of Joseph's brothers, Judah's substitutionary intercession for Benjamin, and Joseph's dramatic self-disclosure — all framed by a fourfold emphasis on the providence of God. The separation between chapters 44 and 45 artificially interrupts what is one of the most theologically dense scenes in the entire Pentateuch: Judah, the man who once sold Joseph into slavery, now offers himself as a slave in Benjamin's place, functioning as a type of Christ. Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers flows directly from his theological grasp of divine sovereignty, demonstrating that a right understanding of providence is the engine of genuine forgiveness. The sermon closes with the typological significance of both Judah and Joseph as portraits of the Lord Jesus Christ embedded in the redemptive narrative of Scripture.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is examined as a biblical mandate rooted in the sanctity of human life as image-bearers of God, tracing the consistent teaching of Scripture from Genesis 9:6 through Romans 13:1–4. The sermon argues that the Noahic covenant establishes civil government's God-given authority to execute murderers, an authority confirmed rather than overturned in the New Testament. Common objections — from the sixth commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, the woman caught in adultery, and concerns about deterrence and salvation — are answered exegetically. Believers are called to submit to governing authorities as God's ministers of wrath, to pray the imprecatory psalms, and to reject both personal vengeance and the sentimental rejection of God's revealed standard of justice.
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 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 Warning Against Heresy
Matthew 16:5–12 records Christ's warning to His disciples to 'take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees' — a command the disciples immediately misread as a remark about physical bread. This exposition works through three movements: the warning Christ issues, the disciples' failure to comprehend it, and the clarification Christ graciously provides. The sermon argues that a small doctrinal error, like leaven, silently pervades and corrupts an entire religious system, and draws direct lines from Pharisaic works-righteousness and Sadducean rationalism to contemporary threats — Arminianism, Roman Catholic merit theology, and theological liberalism. The congregation is urged to prize the means of grace, resist the addition of human tradition to Scripture, and rest in justification by faith alone in Christ alone, recognising that it is revealed truth, not human will, that produces saving faith.
The Example of Abraham
Galatians 3:6–9 presents Abraham as Paul's decisive scriptural witness against the Judaizing demand for circumcision alongside faith. Drawing from Genesis 15:6, Paul demonstrates that Abraham's justification was by faith alone — faith as the instrument, not the ground, by which righteousness was reckoned to his account — and that this same faith-righteousness is the only basis on which anyone, Jew or Gentile, stands as a son of Abraham. The sermon works through four theological implications: imputed righteousness comes through faith alone, sonship to Abraham belongs only to the believing, Scripture itself preached the gospel to Abraham in advance, and the blessing of God falls exclusively on those who share Abraham's faith. Hearers are called to rest in the peace, gratitude, and humility that flow from justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and to guard against every system — ancient or modern — that supplements faith with human merit.
Paul's Astonishment at the Galatians' Desertion
Paul's opening words in Galatians 1:6–10 omit his characteristic thanksgiving and replace it with astonishment, signalling that the Galatian churches' drift toward a works-plus-faith gospel is not a minor doctrinal adjustment but a desertion from Christ and a perversion of the gospel of grace. The sermon expounds the gravity of that defection — the Judaizers were not denying Christ's existence but insisting that faith in Christ must be supplemented by law-keeping, a move Paul condemns as abandoning a religion of grace for a religion of merit. The anathema Paul pronounces is not mere church discipline but exposure to the judicial wrath of God, and it falls on any messenger — apostle or angel — who deviates from the fixed gospel tradition. Hearers are called to resist doctrinal indifference, imprecision, compromise, and novelty, and to rest in the active and passive obedience of Christ imputed to the believer by faith alone.
A House for the Lord
Haggai 1 confronts the people of God with misplaced priorities: sixteen years after returning from Babylonian exile, the foundation of the Lord's house lay exposed while the people paneled their own homes and filled their own comforts. The sermon situates the book within the history of the restoration period — from Cyrus's edict through the eventual completion of the second temple — and argues that the people's neglect of the temple was not merely architectural indifference but a rejection of God's presence among them. God's covenantal judgment fell in material scarcity and providential drought, precisely as Moses had warned in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. The chapter closes with genuine repentance, divine reassurance, and the Spirit-wrought enablement that always accompanies God's call to a great work — pressing the congregation to examine their priorities, investments, and worldview in light of Matthew 6:33.