Theological term
Regeneration
224 sermons · All terms
The Believer's Race
Hebrews 12:1 commands the people of God to run with endurance the race set before them — a race marked by real obstacles, both the weights that encumber and the sins that ensnare. The sermon works through the broader perseverance theme of Hebrews, identifies the duty, obstacles, and manner of the Christian race, and then turns to the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11 as the primary incentive: not spectators watching the runner, but testimony from Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the judges, David, and the prophets that God is faithful in every conceivable circumstance. The appeal is not to muster willpower but to look by faith at those who have gone before, hear their unified witness that God upholds his people, and so press forward in the joy and gratitude that belongs to those justified by grace through faith in Christ.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The gospel was not discovered by human reason but revealed by divine initiative — beginning with the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 and unfolding through progressive special revelation. This session works through Chapter 20 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF), examining the promise of the gospel, the insufficiency of general revelation for salvation, the sovereign freedom of God in spreading the gospel, and the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's effectual work upon sinners dead in trespasses. The doctrinal stakes are practical: a right understanding of general and special revelation is the indispensable foundation for evangelical and missionary enterprise.
Anger at the Goodness of God
Jonah 4 exposes the problem of unrighteous anger with God's sovereignty, as the prophet sulks over the mercy God shows to Nineveh — the very enemies he wished to see destroyed. The passage sets God's character as the gracious covenant Lord, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness (Exodus 34), against Jonah's petty double standard: grieving more over a withered plant than over the souls of 120,000 people. God's gentle rebuke of Jonah magnifies rather than diminishes his sovereign mercy, which extends not merely to Israel but to the nations — a Gentile foretaste ultimately fulfilled in the proclamation of the gospel through Jesus Christ. The sermon calls hearers to repent of covetous anger at God's goodness toward others, and to trust that the same sovereign God who pitied Nineveh has pitied sinners in Christ Jesus.
Ask FGBC #17: What does it mean to repent and believe?
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin in the gospel call, yet they are not equals: the principal act of conversion is faith, and justification is by faith alone apart from works. Repentance, properly understood, is a change of mind concerning sin — not a moral clean-up prerequisite — and is itself a gracious gift granted by God (Acts 11:18). The elements of the ordo salutis (regeneration, repentance, faith, justification, adoption, the beginning of sanctification) occur simultaneously, not sequentially, and neonomianism is identified as a live danger whenever repentance is turned into a condition the sinner must satisfy before coming to Christ.
Ask FGBC #16: What is Free Will?
Free will is affirmed in Reformed Baptist theology, but the crucial question is not whether man has a will, but what that will is capable of choosing given man's location on the continuum of creation, fall, grace, and glory. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (chapters 3 and 9) teaches that God endows man with a will free from coercion, yet after the fall that will is bound toward sin and incapable of inclining toward what is spiritually good. Regeneration liberates the will, and so evangelism does not appeal to free will but to God's free grace, trusting him to open deaf ears and hardened hearts.
The Ground of Christian Love
What is the ground and shape of the command to 'love one another fervently with a pure heart'? Expounding 1 Peter 1:22–25, this sermon works through three movements: the exhortation to fervent, sincere Christian love; the foundation of that love in the new birth wrought through the incorruptible Word; and the motivation for that love in the stark contrast between the transient glory of man and the enduring Word of the Lord. The sermon draws on 1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 13 to define love's character and content, and closes with the assurance that the divine promise sealed in the gospel is itself imperishable — and therefore the sufficient ground for fervency in loving the brethren.
May 18 Sanders Holy Spirit and the Father
How does the Holy Spirit relate to God the Father, and what does that relationship mean for Christian worship and prayer? Working through a chapter on the Holy Spirit and the Father, this study traces the biblical pattern of 'from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit' — and its liturgical reverse, 'in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father' — as the framework for understanding both Trinitarian processions and the nature of true worship. The discussion addresses the Spirit's work in the old and new covenants, the cessation of the revelatory gifts at the completion of the New Testament canon, and the Spirit's role in empowering prayer, drawing particularly on John Owen's treatment of Ephesians 2:18 and Romans 8:26-27.
2LCF Chapter 13 - Of Sanctification
Second London Confession of Faith Chapter 13 examines sanctification as an inseparable fruit of justification, rooted entirely in the sovereign grace of God rather than human merit or striving. The confession teaches that sanctification is real and personal moral transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit through the Word, yet remains imperfect in this life — a continual war between flesh and Spirit in which remaining corruption may at times prevail. The critical distinction between justification (Christ's forensic work for us) and sanctification (the Spirit's transforming work in us) guards against both Roman Catholic conflation and Protestant antinomianism, keeping Christ's righteousness alone as the ground of acceptance before God.
The Exceeding Greatness of God's Almighty Power
Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:19–23 that believers would know the exceeding greatness of God's almighty power raises the question of what that power actually is and what it has accomplished. This sermon works through three interlocking realities: the supremacy of God's omnipotence as a timeless, self-existent, and inexhaustible divine attribute; its decisive demonstration in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ; and the immensity of that exaltation, whereby Christ reigns as head over all creation and over his church. The practical weight falls on believers — the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that calls, regenerates, preserves, and will finally resurrect all who are united to him.
The Nature of the Holy Spirit
How does Jesus comfort his disciples in the upper room by pointing them to the Holy Spirit, and what does that reveal about who God is? Expounding John 14:16–18, this sermon works through four aspects of the Spirit's nature drawn from the text: the distinction of persons in the Godhead, the unity of the Godhead, the world's ignorance of the Spirit, and the believer's knowledge of him. The eternal processions — the Father unbegotten, the Son eternally begotten, the Spirit proceeding from Father and Son — ground the temporal missions in which the Father sends the Son and the Father and Son send the Spirit for the salvation of God's people. The congregation is called to hold fast to the Trinitarian guardrails of the creeds and the 1689 confession, to resist the modalism and Arianism that perennially distort who God is, and to rest in the gospel of free and sovereign grace through faith in the one who declared 'I am.'
2LCF Chapter 12 - Of Adoption
The doctrine of adoption, as set forth in chapter 12 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is grounded exclusively in the justified sinner's union with Christ and utterly excludes human merit, free will, or moral achievement as its basis. Drawing on both Pauline and Johannine categories — legal adoption and organic new birth — the sermon demonstrates that these are complementary facets of the single truth that God receives sinners into His family as sons and heirs. The benefits of adoption are fourfold: inclusion in the family of God, reception of the Spirit of adoption with access to the Father, fatherly treatment (pity, protection, provision, and chastening), and the sealed inheritance of everlasting salvation. Adopted sons and daughters are therefore called to walk in love, light, and wisdom — not as a condition of sonship, but as its proper fruit.
The Mission of the Disciples, Part 2
John 14:16–18 presents Christ's promise to send the Holy Spirit as the resource by which the disciples would carry out the greater works of the gospel mission. This sermon works through the foundation of that promise — salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the love that flows from justification as the animating power of obedience and mission — before pausing to mount a sustained defense of Trinitarian theology proper. The preacher argues that biblicism without creedal guardrails, anti-intellectualism, and laziness have left the contemporary church vulnerable to the same Trinitarian errors the Nicene and Chalcedonian fathers labored to foreclose, and calls the congregation to pursue the knowledge of the triune God as the very substance of eternal life.
Ask FGBC #4: Is Accepting Salvation a Choice? (Hyper-Calvinism)
Is accepting salvation a choice, and does that choice conflict with divine election? This Q&A addresses the relationship between the general call of the gospel and the effectual call of God, arguing that human faith is a real act of the will, but one that presupposes prior regeneration — sinners are dead in trespasses and sins and must be born again before they can believe. The discussion also addresses the pastoral problem of assurance, directing struggling believers away from introspection and personal performance toward the objectivity of Christ's finished work and his ongoing intercession as High Priest and advocate.
The Mission of the Disciples, Part 1
John 14:12–15 addresses the mission Christ assigns to His disciples and the obedience He requires of them in light of His imminent ascension. The 'greater works' the disciples will perform are not a competition with Christ's own ministry but are the works of the ascended, reigning Christ accomplished through His disciples by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from the Father. Prayer in Christ's name is examined in its tight missional context — the asking that drives the greater works — and is shown to be governed by the will of God rather than functioning as a blank check. The sermon closes by distinguishing loving obedience as the fruit, not the ground, of justification by faith alone, grounding the entire missionary enterprise in the grace that has already been given.
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 Announcement of the Betrayal
John 13:18–30 records Jesus announcing the betrayal of Judas Iscariot in the upper room, and this exposition works through the passage in two movements: the announcement of the betrayal (vv. 18–20) and the identification of the betrayer (vv. 21–30). Three features of the announcement receive careful attention — the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 in Christ's passion, the absolute divinity of Christ declared in the repeated 'I am' of verse 19 (grounded in Exodus 3:14), and the nature of apostolic discipleship as delegated ambassadorship. The removal of Judas from the disciple group exposes the distinction between holding church office and possessing saving grace, a distinction pressed as a question of self-examination for every hearer.
The Demonstration of Servanthood
John 13:4–17 presents the foot washing not merely as an act of hospitality but as an emblem pointing simultaneously to the incarnation, the passion, regeneration, justification, and sanctification. The Son of God who stoops to wash the dirty feet of dirty men is the same Son of God who goes to the cross to wash the dirty hearts of dirty sinners. Peter's initial refusal and subsequent capitulation illustrate the sinner's need for union with Christ — a union granted only through being washed, born again, and cleansed by the blood of Christ. Disciples who have received this washing are therefore obligated to go and serve others in humility, self-sacrifice, and love as the means by which they advance the gospel.
The Appearance of the Love of God
Though mankind stands condemned under the description of Titus 3:3 — foolish, disobedient, enslaved to lusts and malice — the kindness and love of God the Father appeared supremely in the incarnation of the Son to rescue dead sinners by sovereign mercy alone. This sermon expounds Titus 3:4–8 under three headings: the appearance of the love of God, the application of the grace of God in regeneration and justification, and the affirmation of the gospel as the faithful saying ministers must constantly proclaim. The ordered sequence of the text is decisive: justification by grace through faith is the condition; good works are the consequent fruit, never the ground.
The Explanation of the Jews' Unbelief
John 12:37–41 presents a theology of unbelief: despite the abundance of miraculous signs performed before their eyes, the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus refused to believe. The sermon examines their question about the Messiah's death in verses 34–36, shows their partial but deficient grasp of Old Testament prophecy, and then expounds John's double appeal to Isaiah — Isaiah 53:1 on the rejection of the servant's report, and Isaiah 6:9–10 on the divine judicial hardening of those who persistently resist. The unbelief of Jesus' hearers was not a failure of his ministry but the precise fulfillment of what God had foretold through his prophet, confirming that regeneration and faith are gifts of sovereign grace, not products of evidential persuasion. The sermon closes with a direct call to believe in the light while it may be found, grounded in the glory of the incarnate Son that Isaiah himself beheld in the throne room.
The Explanation of the Hour, Part 2
John 12:31–32 sets forth three consequences of Christ's lifting up on the cross: the judgment of the world, the triumph over the devil, and the salvation of sinners drawn to him by effectual calling. The cross is not one event among many but the focal point of all history — the hour in which the world is judged, Satan is cast out, and God sovereignly draws his elect from every nation to himself. The sermon closes with an urgent call to believe in Christ while the light remains, receiving by faith alone the forgiveness and alien righteousness his death and life secure.
The Cessation of Revelatory Gifts
First Corinthians 13:8–13 declares that tongues, prophecy, and words of knowledge have a designed and determined end, giving way to the completed New Testament canon. This sermon argues from Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 13–14, Hebrews 1–2, Ephesians 2, and Daniel 9 that the revelatory gifts were temporary, apostolic, and tied to the first advent of Christ and the foundational era of the church. The 'perfect' of 1 Corinthians 13:10 refers not to the eschatological consummation but to the inscripturated fullness of divine revelation in the New Testament scriptures. Christians today are called to glory in the completed Word of God and in the abiding work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and illumination, rather than seeking gifts that have ceased.
The Triumph of the Church
Matthew 16:13–18 presents three interlocking realities about Christ and his church: the identity of Christ confessed by Simon Peter, the divine source of that confession, and the indestructible promise Christ appends to his church. The rock upon which the church is built is not Peter's person but the Christ Peter confessed — the second person of the triune God who assumed humanity, died, and rose for his people. Christ himself is the builder, foundation, and protector of the church, which means the gates of Hades assault the church not as a conquering force but as a defensive one being overrun by the church's gospel advance. The practical summons is for the church to fulfil her three marks — the preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline — with the confidence that Christ's triumphant headship guarantees the church's survival into the eschaton.
Salvation, Not Judgement
Luke 9:51–56 presents Christ setting his face toward Jerusalem with the cross and his ascension before him, while James and John, shaped by the contentious spirit of their day, demand fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that had refused to receive him. The sermon expounds why Christ rebuked them: his ministry is one of salvation and life, not judgment and destruction, and the spirit that calls for condemnation of the ungodly misunderstands the nature of his mission. Believers are therefore called to imitate Christ's patience and mercy toward those who reject the gospel — going to another village rather than returning contempt for contempt.
The Arrival of the Hour
John 12:20–26 presents the arrival of the appointed 'hour' — the cross — through two interconnected scenes: Gentile Greeks seeking an audience with Jesus, and Christ's own declaration that the Son of Man must be glorified through death. The universal scope of redemption, foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament and confirmed in the Greeks' arrival, demonstrates that Israel's Messiah is the Savior of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Christ's death is not merely exemplary but substitutionary and necessary — the grain of wheat that must fall and die to produce much fruit — grounding both the imputation of His righteousness to believers and the certainty of their eternal union with Him. Genuine discipleship flows from this: those who by grace receive Christ are marked by a radical reorientation away from self-love and this present evil age toward willing service and following of the Lamb.
A Harvest from an Unlikely Place
John 4:7–42 records Jesus crossing deep cultural, ethnic, and religious barriers to bring the gospel to a Samaritan woman and, through her testimony, to an entire village. The sermon works through three movements in the passage: Jesus sowing gospel seed by patiently steering the conversation from physical water to living water and then to his own messianic identity; Jesus reorienting his horizontally focused disciples to see the spiritual harvest already approaching; and Jesus and his disciples reaping that harvest among the despised Samaritans. The passage is applied as a missionary mandate — to cross ethnic and cultural boundaries, to address sin honestly, to keep Christ as the centre of every gospel presentation, and to lift our eyes to the 'Samaritans' in our own communities and the changing demographics of our cities.
How the Gospel Brings Change
The short letter of Philemon presents the gospel's power not merely to declare sinners righteous but to produce visible, concrete change in behavior and in human relationships. Paul's appeal to Philemon on behalf of the runaway slave Onesimus illustrates how regeneration transforms a person — one who was once unprofitable becomes profitable — and how that same gospel demands a corresponding transformation in how believers treat one another. The sermon traces Paul's careful, love-driven appeal (vv. 8–11) and the theological grounding of his request for Onesimus' reception (vv. 12–16), showing that God's sovereign providence over Onesimus' flight to Rome underscores the principle of Genesis 50:20: what men mean for evil, God means for good. Hearers are called to extend the same patient, gracious forgiveness to others that God in Christ has extended to them.
The Resurrection and the Life, Part 3
John 11:28–37 confronts the reader with the full weight of Christ's hypostatic union: the same person who will momentarily command a dead man to walk is here groaning in anger and weeping at the graveside. This passage presses the question of the Savior's true humanity — that he assumed human nature with all its essential properties and common infirmities, yet without sin — as the indispensable ground of redemption. The sermon traces Mary's complaint, the Lord's outrage at the ravages of sin and death, and his tears as expressions of genuine human emotion consistent with immutability in the divine nature, drawing on the Westminster Larger Catechism's answers on why the Mediator must be both God and man. The hearer is finally confronted with the same question Jesus put to Martha: 'Do you believe this?'
The Conduct of the New Man, Part 3
Ephesians 5:1–2 concludes Paul's extended exhortation on the conduct of the new man (Ephesians 4:17–5:2), calling believers to be imitators of God as dear children and to walk in love. The basis for this imitation is theological: God is definitionally love (1 John 4:8, 16), believers have been adopted into his family by sovereign election and effectual grace, and family membership carries both privilege and responsibility. The motivation for walking in love is the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ, whose self-offering was an acceptable sacrifice to the Father — the antitype of the Old Testament burnt offering — and whose love supplies both the standard and the ground for all Christian love toward God and neighbour.
The Conduct of the New Man, Part 2
Ephesians 4:29–32 calls believers to put off corrupt speech and bitter dispositions and to put on edifying words and a forgiving heart — not as conditions for salvation, but as conduct that flows necessarily from it. The sermon exposits the structure of Paul's exhortations: a prohibition, a positive exhortation, and a motivation in each subsection. Corrupt speech grieves the Holy Spirit, who has sealed believers for the day of redemption; and bitterness, wrath, clamor, and evil speaking are symptoms of the old man that must be mortified. The sermon closes with the ground of all Christian forgiveness: God in Christ has already forgiven us, and that forgiveness is the cause, not the goal, of our forgiveness toward others.
The Conduct of the New Man, Part 1
Ephesians 4:25–28 grounds the Christian's ethical conduct not in legal compulsion but in the indicative of redemption: the old man has been put off, the mind is being renewed, and the new man has been put on. This sermon works through three prohibited actions — lying, sinful anger, and theft — each examined under its corresponding commandment from the Decalogue (the Ninth, Sixth, and Eighth), with a prohibition, an exhortation, and a motivation for each. The ethical demands of the New Covenant are not a new law but the restoration of the creational law now internalized by the Spirit according to Jeremiah 31:31–34. The hearer is called to put off deceit, guard against nursed anger that gives opportunity to the devil, and replace theft with diligent labor aimed at charitable surplus.