Theological term
Regulative Principle of Worship
195 sermons · All terms
The 3rd Petition: God's Will, Part 2
The third petition of the Lord's Prayer — 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' — carries implications far beyond personal piety, extending to the doctrine, worship, and practice of the visible church and to the ordering of society itself. This sermon works through what it means to pray this petition with reference to the church: that pure doctrine would be prized, that worship would be regulated by God's own revealed standard rather than human preference, and that the Spirit-filled life described in Ephesians 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5 would characterise the gathered people of God. The sermon closes by pressing the individual Christian to acknowledge the perversity of the fallen will and the utter necessity of divine enablement — for neither church nor society nor the believer himself can comply with this petition's demands apart from God's grace.
The First Petition of the Lord's Prayer
The first petition of the Lord's Prayer, 'Hallowed be Your name' (Matthew 6:9), confronts the creature's instinctive self-centeredness with the prior claim of God's glory. The sermon unfolds the meaning of God's name — his triune being, his attributes, and his word — before explaining that the petition does not pray God into holiness but calls the creature to recognize and reflect holiness that already belongs to God essentially. Five practical particulars for praying this petition are drawn out: knowing, professing, depending on, esteeming, and promoting the divine name — with the sobering insistence, drawn from John Owen, that he who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays.
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.
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
What does it mean to be a peacemaker, and where does such a disposition come from? This exposition of Matthew 5:9 argues that the peacemaker's beatitude is not a call to passive conflict-avoidance but a supernaturally implanted disposition — rooted in justification by faith alone and sourced in the triune God — that actively pursues reconciliation in every sphere of life. The sermon traces Christ's person and cross-work through Ephesians 2 and Colossians 1 to show that peace with God through the blood of Christ is the necessary foundation for all horizontal peacemaking. Hearers are called to self-examination, to learn the discipline of silence and humility, and to carry the gospel of peace to those still at enmity with God.
The Throne Room
Revelation 4–5 presents the throne room of heaven as God's direct answer to the suffering and persecution of His church on earth: the Creator-God sits enthroned in unapproachable majesty, and the slain Lamb alone is worthy to open the scroll of judgment because He has redeemed a people to God by His blood out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The vision calls the church to twin responses of humility and praise, understanding that proximity to the glory of God slays pride and produces worship. Particular redemption is grounded in the new song of Revelation 5:9, which defines the 'world' of John 3:16 not as every sinner without exception but as the elect drawn from all peoples. The sermon closes by setting redemption and damnation side by side, urging unbelievers to flee the wrath of the Lamb by trusting in the cross of the Lamb.
The Marks of a Spirit-Filled Church
Acts 2:40–47 presents the most Spirit-filled congregation in redemptive history — the church at Pentecost — and the marks it bore were not spectacular innovations but simple, steadfast worship: the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. This sermon examines the convicting, converting work of Peter's Pentecost sermon and the fourfold pattern of New Covenant worship that followed, arguing that genuine Spirit-filling produces ordered, Word-centered, corporate devotion, not experiential novelty. The regulative principle of worship, as confessed in 1689 LBCF chapter 22, frames the application: God himself prescribes the acceptable elements of worship, and any departure from that prescription — however creative — is a departure from Scripture. The closing exhortation presses both the converted and the unconverted: those in Christ are called to continue steadfastly in these ordained means; those outside Christ are called to believe the gospel and enter true worship for the first time.
The Works of the Flesh
Galatians 5:19–21 presents Paul's catalog of the works of the flesh as a concrete definition of what it means to fail to walk in the Spirit — the very Spirit given to those justified by faith alone. This exposition works through four categories of fleshly sin: sexual immorality, religious apostasy, disorders in personal relationships, and intemperance, drawing on the Westminster Larger Catechism to illuminate each category's depth and breadth. The critical distinction the sermon presses is between remaining corruption (the struggle every believer knows) and reigning corruption (the habitual, unrepentant practice that marks the unconverted). The sermon closes by directing hearers to the active obedience and atoning death of Christ as the only ground of hope in the face of this condemning list.
The Temptation of the Son of God
Matthew 4:1–11 presents the temptation of the Son of God not primarily as a lesson in spiritual disciplines but as a decisive act of covenant representation. Jesus enters the wilderness as the second Adam and the true Israel, succeeding where both failed, and by his perfect obedience in the face of Satan's three assaults he wins the righteousness that his people cannot secure for themselves. The sword he wields in each temptation is the word of God drawn from Deuteronomy, demonstrating that Scripture rightly understood cuts down every distortion the devil brings. The hearer is called to see in this passage not a pattern for imitation but the champion of redemption securing a righteousness that is credited to every sinner who looks to Christ in faith.
The Murderers, The Martyr, The Messiah
Acts 6:8–7:60 narrates the trial and martyrdom of Stephen, the first martyr of the church, and this exposition uses that narrative to examine biblical anthropology under three headings: the murderers, the martyr, and the Messiah. The unbelieving council is shown to embody the sevenfold wickedness of Proverbs 6:16–19 — lying, stirring up discord, shedding innocent blood — while Stephen demonstrates composure, Christ-centeredness, and wholesome severity grounded in redemptive history from Genesis to Malachi. Christ's primacy frames everything: His innocence as 'the Just One,' His standing at the right hand of God in judgment over His enemies, and His readiness to receive Stephen's spirit into glory. Hearers are called to repent when indicted by truth rather than gnashing their teeth, to respond to opposition with Christ-exalting composure, and, if yet outside of Christ, to flee to Him before the day of final judgment.
The Identity of the Church
What is the church, and what is she for? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon sets out the identity and confession of the church under three descriptions Paul gives: the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth. The church's unique institutional privilege — distinct from family and state — is to proclaim, defend, and propagate the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. The sermon closes with a call to resist pragmatism, hold fast to sound doctrine, and enter the house of God through Christ alone.
Thanksgiving for God's Mercy
Psalm 103 grounds thanksgiving not in comfortable circumstances but in the character and acts of God toward sinners — his pardoning of iniquity, his redemption from destruction, and his everlasting mercy toward those who fear him. Working through David's psalm, this exposition unfolds three movements: a deliberate self-exhortation to bless God, a catalog of reasons to bless him spanning personal and corporate blessings, and a universal summons calling angels and all creation to join in praise. The sermon presses the hearer to recognize that forgetting God's benefits breeds apostasy, while rehearsing them — above all the forgiveness secured at the cross — is the only path to genuine, intelligent worship.
An Appeal to the Galatians' Experience
Galatians 3:1–5 records Paul's appeal to the Galatians' own conversion experience as evidence that justification is by faith alone, apart from works of the law. Paul's six rhetorical questions expose the folly of supplementing or completing the finished work of Christ with law-keeping, circumcision, or any covenantal faithfulness — a bewitchment the Judaizers were actively promoting. The sermon works through five observations on the passage: the Galatians were being led astray doctrinally, they had received the Gospel through apostolic preaching, they received the Spirit by the hearing of faith, they must resist the heresy of seeking perfection by works, and they must hold fast to the exclusivity of faith alone. The application is direct: justification is a complete, once-for-all legal declaration, never supplemented by works, and to depart from it — whether toward Rome, the new perspective on Paul, or the federal vision — is to fall under a wicked spell.
I'm in Church Because...
What are the right reasons for a Christian to gather with the church? This sermon on 1 Timothy 3:15, ranging across Hebrews 10, Acts 20, Revelation 1, and 1 Corinthians 11, argues that the motives driving church attendance must be theological and divine rather than aesthetic or consumerist. Seven reasons are set forth: the perfect crosswork of Christ, the identity of the church as the house of the living God, the presence of the reigning Christ among his churches, the church as pillar and ground of the truth, the church as God's ordained place for the care of his sheep, the administration of the Lord's Supper, and the mutual building up of the saints. The sermon closes with a call to enter the assembly for high and holy reasons — as both a commanded duty and a joyful privilege before the triune God.
John, Brother and Companion of the Persecuted
Revelation 1:9–11 introduces John not as a remote visionary but as a brother and companion sharing in the tribulation, kingdom, and patience of Jesus Christ — writing from Patmos, where he was banished for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. The sermon examines three dimensions of John's identity as author: his solidarity with persecuted believers, his present experience of exile, and the divine commission he receives from the Alpha and the Omega, whose self-identification as the First and the Last establishes the explicit deity of Christ. Christians are called to embrace a joyful rather than merely resigned response to affliction, to reclaim a robust confidence in the present reign of Christ over all things, and to be devoted to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ regardless of whether they face first-century intensity of persecution or the subtler trials of the modern West.
The Vision of One Like the Son of Man
Revelation 1:9–19 presents John's vision of the ascended and glorified Christ, identifying him as the Danielic Son of Man who has received dominion, glory, and an everlasting kingdom. The sermon works through three movements: the content of the vision itself (Christ's high priesthood, sovereign rule, all-seeing knowledge, inexorable judgment, conquering word, and restored pre-incarnate glory), John's prostrate response as the only fitting posture before such majesty, and the threefold comfort Christ speaks over the fallen apostle — his eternality, his resurrection victory, and his sovereign ownership of the keys of Hades and death. The exhortation is to wake and sleep with this exalted Christ consciously held before the heart, and to flee the passing pleasures of sin by bending the knee to the King of Kings.