Theological term
Sola Fide
279 sermons · All terms
Philippians 3
Paul's account of his own conversion and apostolic suffering in Philippians 3:7–11 sets forth the believer's possession of Christ, position in Christ, and privileges flowing from union with Christ. The sermon expounds the doctrine of justification by faith alone, distinguishing the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith as instrument from any righteousness derived from law-keeping or personal merit. The Zechariah 3 vision of Joshua the high priest illustrates the two components of justification — pardon of sin and the clothing of the sinner in Christ's righteousness — as wholly God's initiative. Understanding this doctrine is shown to be the ground of genuine assurance, the antidote to legalism, and the only proper basis for a God-honoring sanctification.
The Marriage Relationship
Colossians 3:18–19 calls wives to submit to their own husbands and husbands to love their wives without bitterness — two commands that cut precisely against the natural grain of each. This sermon argues that both duties are grounded not in social utility or natural sentiment but in the gospel itself: the wife's submission images Christ's submission to the Father, and the husband's love images Christ's self-sacrificial love for the church. The sermon draws on Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, and 1 Corinthians 11 to show that ontological equality between husband and wife is fully compatible with functional differentiation of role, and closes by pressing both commands back onto the cross as the only sufficient motive and resource for obedience.
The Corporate Conduct of the Believer
Colossians 3:15–17 sets out three governing marks of the believer's corporate life in the church: the peace of Christ ruling as referee over all relationships, the Word of Christ dwelling richly as the church's food and curriculum, and every act done in the name of Christ to the Father's glory. The sermon insists that these marks flow not from moral effort but from the gospel itself — from justification by faith, which produces peace with God that must then govern peace among God's people. Believers are exhorted to be gluttons for Scripture, to sing doctrinally sound psalms and hymns that are God-exalting rather than self-centered, and to cultivate gratitude as a constant recognition that all goodness is grace.
Undivided Submission to One Master
Matthew 6:24 confronts the hearer with an absolute either-or: no one can serve two masters. This sermon expounds the third of Christ's three metaphors in Matthew 6:19-24 — after heavenly treasure and single-eyed devotion — pressing the claim that total submission belongs to God alone, and that divided loyalty to God and Mammon is not merely difficult but impossible. A careful distinction between condition and consequence grounds the exposition: the loyalty Christ demands is never the basis of acceptance with God, which rests entirely on Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by grace alone through faith alone. The sermon closes with a direct call to the unbeliever to look to Christ and be freed from the slave market of sin.
The Finished Work of Christ
When Jesus declared 'It is finished' (John 19:30), he was not announcing defeat but uttering a triumphant cry of completion — the single Greek verb teleo carrying the force of a paid-in-full receipt. This sermon expounds the finished work of Christ under three headings: its fulfillment of all prior Scripture and typology, the glory it reveals in the Son's perfect filial obedience to the Father, and the comfort it secures for the church. That comfort is fourfold and concrete: the forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood, the imputation of his active obedience as the believer's righteousness, peace with God through justification by faith alone, and the purchased inheritance of eternal life — leaving the believer with no ground for despair and every ground for worship.
True and False Religion: Fasting
True religious fasting is assumed by Christ, not commanded as a merit-earning ritual, and is to be practiced in secret before God alone. Expounding Matthew 6:16–18 within the broader Sermon on the Mount context of exceeding Pharisaic righteousness, this sermon examines fasting under three headings: the assumption that the regenerate will fast, the warning against hypocritical display for human approval, and the corrective of ordinary, unannounced normalcy in one's daily conduct. The controlling application is that the believer's religious observances — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — flow from justifying grace already received, not toward securing acceptance with God, which rests solely on the active and passive obedience of Christ imputed by faith.
The 5th Petition: Forgiveness
What does it mean to pray 'forgive us our debts' when the believer has already been justified by faith alone? This exposition of Matthew 6:12 and 14–15 distinguishes between God's forensic pardon of the sinner and the ongoing filial forgiveness a child of God seeks from his Father in the life of sanctification. Six reasons are given for the necessity of this daily petition — remaining corruption, desire for the smile of God, consciousness of sin's evil, trust in divine mercy, renunciation of self-righteousness, and acknowledgment of Christ's sufficient atonement. The sermon closes by pressing the inseparable link between receiving forgiveness and extending it: an unforgiving spirit that approaches God for pardon is a form of hypocrisy, while those who freely forgive others give evidence that sovereign grace has genuinely worked in their hearts.
Peace Upon the Israel of God
Galatians 6:16–18 closes Paul's polemical epistle with a benediction of peace and mercy upon 'the Israel of God,' a phrase that has generated significant debate between covenant and dispensational readings of Scripture. This exposition argues that Paul is not reintroducing an ethnic distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers but is rather identifying the entire church — Jew and Gentile united in Christ — as the one Israel of God, in fulfillment of the prophetic promises of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets. The marks Paul bears in his body (v. 17) are not a lamentation but an apostolic badge of identification with the crucified and risen Lord who has inaugurated the new creation. The sermon closes by drawing together the epistle's central burden: justification is by faith alone in Christ alone, and the Christian's only boast is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
True and False Religion: Almsgiving
Matthew 6:1–4 expounds the general principle governing all acts of Christian piety: deeds of righteousness are corrupted not by their practice but by the motive of seeking human approval. Christ assumes that His redeemed people will give alms, but He warns that charitable deeds performed to secure the praise of men constitute a completed transaction — the hypocrite receives his reward in full and forfeits the approval of God. The positive instruction calls for a secrecy so thorough that the believer guards against self-congratulation, resting in the promise that the Father who sees in secret will reward openly. The sermon grounds the call to cheerful, hidden generosity in the supreme act of almsgiving: Christ leaving the riches of heaven to become poor, that sinners through His poverty might become rich.
The Motivation Behind False Religion
Galatians 6:11–13 exposes the threefold motivation driving those who distort the gospel by adding law-keeping to faith as a condition of justification. The Judaizers pursued circumcision adherents to make a good showing in the flesh, to escape the persecution that the exclusive claims of the cross inevitably provoke, and to boast in the numbers of their converts — all motivations rooted in the externals of religion rather than in the finished work of Christ. Paul's polemic against this Judaizing tendency applies equally to Rome and to any system that mingles law and grace, for to mingle them is to end with neither. The sermon calls believers to boast in the cross of Christ alone and confronts the unconverted with the impossibility of rendering the personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience God demands.
The Third Commandment: Oath-Taking
Jesus' instruction in Matthew 5:33–37 is not a universal prohibition against oath-taking but a condemnation of the Pharisaic practice of swearing by created things — heaven, earth, Jerusalem, one's own head — as a device to lend apparent solemnity to speech while evading accountability to God. The sermon exposes this abuse by tracing the Old Testament's positive teaching on oaths, demonstrating from Christ's own submission to adjuration in Matthew 26 and from Paul's sworn affirmations that lawful oath-taking remains valid. The corrective Jesus offers is the kingdom ethic of simple truthfulness: the citizen of Christ's kingdom needs no oath to be believed, because his yes is yes and his no is no, and any compulsion to pad speech beyond this reveals the depraved bent traced ultimately to the father of lies. The Sermon on the Mount, rightly understood, drives the hearer to the cross, where Christ — who honored every commandment and swore to his own hurt — provides the righteousness no oath-keeper can supply for himself.
The Seventh Commandment, Part 2
Matthew 5:31–32 sits within Jesus' exposition of the Seventh Commandment, where He corrects not the Mosaic legislation of Deuteronomy 24 but the Pharisaic distortion of it that permitted divorce for virtually any cause. The sermon argues that Jesus' exception clause — 'except for porneia' — establishes sexual immorality as the one lawful ground for divorce, and that the final clause of verse 32 ('whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery') must be read as applying only to unlawfully divorced women, not as a universal prohibition on all remarriage after any divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1–4 is examined at length to demonstrate that remarriage after a lawful divorce was never treated as adultery under the Mosaic economy — a point confirmed by the death penalty for adultery in Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 22. The sermon closes with pastoral implications: upholding the sanctity of marriage as a creation ordinance, extending genuine gospel mercy to those who have sinned or been sinned against in divorce, and calling God's people to fidelity that surpasses the world's standards.
The Blessing of Christian Baptism
Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament instituted by Jesus Christ, and this sermon examines what it means, who its proper subjects are, and why it is necessary. Working from Matthew 28:18-20 and the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 29, the sermon argues that baptism is a nonverbal proclamation of the gospel, signifying union with Christ in his death and resurrection, the forgiveness of sins through his blood, and the believer's public consecration to walk in newness of life. Against both baptismal regeneration and indiscriminate administration, the sermon grounds believers' baptism in the New Covenant community described in Jeremiah 31 and demonstrated throughout the book of Acts, where profession of faith consistently precedes the ordinance. The sermon closes by urging baptized believers to recall their baptism as a summons to holiness, and by calling the unbaptized to trust in Christ alone, in whom every spiritual blessing is secured.
Christ our Confidence
Philippians 3:4–9 contains what the Apostle Paul presents as a death blow to works-righteousness: his own autobiography deployed as a hypothetical argument that demolishes confidence in the flesh. Paul demonstrates that if Jewish ethnicity, religious pedigree, and meticulous law-keeping could merit standing before God, he would be the undisputed champion — yet he counts every such credential as rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. The righteousness that justifies is not one's own; it comes from God through faith, grounded in the imputed obedience of Christ and received by union with him. Hearers are called to rest confidence solely in Christ, to let good works flow from the fount of an already-declared righteousness rather than from any attempt to earn divine favor, and to be zealous in guarding this truth against every form of works-righteousness.
The Thief on the Cross
The conversion of the thief on the cross in Luke 23:39–43 raises an urgent double question: how does a murderous criminal enter paradise moments before death, and what does his transformation reveal about the character of Christ as Savior? The sermon traces five marks of genuine conversion in the thief — concern for others, fear of God's judgment, ownership of guilt, confession of Christ's holiness, and casting himself wholly upon divine mercy — before turning to Christ's response as a willing, able, and glorious Savior. Three conclusions follow: the passage teaches the nature of the Savior, the sovereignty of grace in salvation, and that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, with no contribution of works, baptism, or covenant faithfulness on the part of the saved sinner.
The Witness of the Kingdom
Matthew 5:13–16 identifies the disciples of Christ as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, pressing believers into active engagement with a fallen society rather than withdrawal from it. The Beatitudes (vv. 3–12) describe the distinctive character of those saved by grace alone through faith alone; vv. 13–16 describe how those same people function in a world of unbelief as seasoning and preserving agents who radiate the knowledge of Christ. The warning is pointed: salt that loses its savor is good for nothing, and light hidden under a basket defeats its own purpose. The ultimate goal of Christian witness is not social improvement or personal acclaim but the glorifying of the Father in heaven — a witness grounded in and empowered by the one Scripture calls the faithful witness, Jesus Christ himself.
Blessed are the Merciful
Matthew 5:7 — 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' — is expounded as an indicative declaration about the character of kingdom citizens, not an imperative condition for earning divine favor. Mercy is defined as pity joined to active relief: grace addresses men in their sin, mercy addresses men in the misery that results from sin. The sermon traces mercy through its description, its illustration in the character of God and the ministry of Christ, its supernatural source in regenerating grace, its attractiveness in family, church, and world, and its eschatological promise. Those who have genuinely received Christ's mercy will manifest mercy toward others; the persistent absence of mercy is evidence that one has never truly known the grace of God.
Christ Our Propitiation
Romans 3:25–26 stands at what Martin Luther called 'the chief point of the whole Bible,' and this sermon expounds why: the cross is not only a display of divine love but a vindication of divine righteousness. Two theological words — redemption and propitiation — carry the weight of the exposition: redemption addresses humanity's bondage; propitiation addresses humanity's liability to the wrath of God, which Christ exhausted in himself on behalf of his people. The sermon argues that God's justice and God's justifying mercy are not in tension but cohere perfectly at Calvary, and calls every hearer to rest that case not on moral performance but on faith alone in Christ alone.
The Pursuit of Righteousness
Matthew 5:6 pronounces blessing upon those who hunger and thirst for righteousness — a disposition that no fallen person possesses by nature but that the Holy Spirit produces in every regenerate soul. The sermon works through six observations on the text: the metaphor of hunger and thirst, the nature of the righteousness in view (right conduct and godliness flowing from justification, not justification itself), the means by which the spiritually hungry pursue it, the hindrances to avoid, the meek disposition that accompanies the pursuit, and the eschatological filling God promises. Because justification always precedes sanctification, all pursuit of righteousness rests on Christ's finished obedience imputed to the believer — and those who have never hungered for righteousness are called to believe the gospel and receive the righteousness of another.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
Meekness, as Jesus pronounces it in Matthew 5:5, is not weakness or passivity but power under control — strength governed by the Holy Spirit and expressed in humble, others-centered living. Drawing on the Beatitudes' presupposition of saving grace, the sermon defines meekness through Scripture, Puritan writers, and biblical exemplars including Moses, Christ, Timothy, Epaphroditus, and the apostle Paul. Philippians 2:1–11 serves as the extended doctrinal and practical illustration, showing that esteeming others as better than oneself flows from the gospel logic of Christ's own self-humiliation. The sermon closes with six concrete marks of meekness and a call to unbelievers to seek justification by faith in Christ, from which true meekness flows.
The Dawn of the Messianic Light
Matthew 4:12–17 marks the dawn of Jesus' public ministry in Galilee, a region steeped in centuries of spiritual and political darkness. Drawing on Isaiah 9:1–2, Matthew demonstrates that Christ's settlement in Capernaum was not incidental but theologically purposeful — the fulfillment of God's promise that light would break upon the people sitting in the shadow of death. The sermon expounds the wretched spiritual condition of those in darkness, the messianic identity of Jesus as Isaiah's promised light, and the content of his first proclamation: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Hearers are pressed to examine whether they have come to the light of Christ or remain in the self-satisfied darkness of moralistic religion.
The Culmination of God's Plan for the World
Acts 17:30–31 presents the resurrection of Christ not merely as a past historical event but as the divine guarantee of a coming universal judgment. Paul's Areopagus sermon situates God's appointment of Jesus as judge within the framework of creation, providence, and exclusive worship, demonstrating that to deny the creator is to suppress the reality of the judge. The sermon traces five particulars of Paul's address — God as creator, ruler of nations, the only proper object of worship, the appointer of a day of judgment, and the ordainer of Christ as judge — and calls every hearer to flee to Christ alone, who is both savior and coming judge.
The Creepers, The Contenders, and The Keeper
The epistle of Jude addresses a crisis in the early church: ungodly men have crept in unnoticed, turning the grace of God into a license for lewdness and denying the Lord Jesus Christ. This exposition works through Jude's single chapter under three headings — the creeping ones (false teachers characterized by sixfold ungodliness and certain condemnation), the contending ones (the called, sanctified, and preserved who are charged to earnestly defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints), and the one who keeps them (Jesus Christ as keeper, master, eschatological judge, and sender of apostolic messengers). The sermon presses the cessationist and confessional conviction that the canon is closed and the faith delivered once for all, and closes with a call for both unbelievers to flee to Christ and believers to hold fast to gospel doctrine with theological love rather than cold dogmatism.
The Good Shepherd
John 10:1–21 presents Christ under two complementary images — the door and the Good Shepherd — images that together exclude every other ground of salvation and every other claimant to spiritual authority. The Pharisees of John 9 stand as the type of all false shepherds who steal, kill, and destroy; Christ alone enters through the proper door, knows his sheep by name, and lays down his life as a willing substitute in their place. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is the hinge of the passage: the sheep deserve to die, and the Shepherd dies in their stead, not as a moral example or martyr but as the divinely appointed substitute. The sermon calls the unconverted to come through this door in faith and the converted to rejoice in the intimate, abundant life that union with the Good Shepherd secures.
Justification
Romans 3:24 stands as the doctrinal heartbeat of the gospel: guilty sinners are declared righteous before a holy God freely, as a gift, on the sole ground of the redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus. The sermon expounds each word of that verse — 'justified,' 'freely,' 'by his grace,' and 'through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' — to show that justification is a forensic declaration of changed status, not a moral transformation, and that it rests entirely on Christ's atoning blood and imputed righteousness, received through faith alone. A running contrast is drawn between earthly judges who rightly condemn the guilty and the divine Judge who justifies the ungodly without compromising his justice, because the penalty was fully borne by the Son. The sermon closes by tracing the necessary fruit of justification — humility, assurance, and a transformed life bearing the likeness of Christ — while guarding the distinction between justification and sanctification.
Condemnation for the False Teachers
Galatians 5:7–12 closes Paul's doctrinal argument against the Judaizers by issuing a sharp double verdict: pastoral confidence that the Galatians will return to the truth, and solemn warning that those who corrupt the gospel of grace will bear divine judgment. The passage is expounded under two headings — the apostle's confidence (vv. 7–10) and the apostle's practice (vv. 11–12) — with particular attention to why 'obeying the truth' is synonymous with believing the gospel, why even a small admixture of law-keeping to faith ruins the whole, and why Paul's imprecation in verse 12 is not harshness but a righteous jealousy for the glory of God. The sermon calls every hearer to examine whether they have truly believed on Christ alone for justification, and warns that those who hinder others from doing so face a judgment far worse than any earthly penalty.
The Ministry of John the Baptist
John the Baptist's ministry in Matthew 3:1–6 is examined as the divinely appointed fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3, marking the end of four centuries of prophetic silence and the inauguration of the messianic kingdom. John appears as the promised Elijah-figure whose wilderness preaching summons Israel to genuine repentance — a thoroughgoing change of mind that produces visible fruit — in preparation for the coming of Yahweh himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The sermon presses the doctrinal content of John's call to repentance against shallow professions of faith, asking whether hearers have truly forsaken sin and entered the kingdom of God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The Necessity of Contending for the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely theologians or specialists — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon expounds the command itself, the reason Jude gives (the covert infiltration of ungodly apostates who pervert grace and deny Christ), and the threefold means of defense in verses 20–21: building oneself up in the holy faith through Scripture, praying in the Holy Spirit, and living in hopeful expectation of Christ's return. The sermon closes by urging that contention be conducted with Christian charity, humility, and freedom from pride, in keeping with the pattern of the apostles and the Lord Jesus himself.
The Apostle's Paternal Appeal to the Galatians
Galatians 4:12–20 presents the Apostle Paul's most personal and emotionally charged appeal in the letter — not a doctrinal argument but a pastoral one, grounded in shared history and genuine affection. The sermon expounds two movements in the passage: a reminder of the filial relationship Paul shared with the Galatians on his first visit among them, and a warning against the Judaizers whose zealous courtship of the Galatians serves not the glory of Christ but the aggrandisement of themselves. Throughout, the preacher presses the point that sound doctrine and warm pastoral affection are inseparable — contending for justification by faith alone must be done with the heart of a nursing mother and a grieving father, not merely the pen of a polemicist.
The Cross as the Manifestation of God's Love
John 3:16, which Martin Luther called 'the Bible in miniature,' sets forth the cross as the supreme manifestation of God's love toward a sinful world. Drawing on the context of Nicodemus's night visit and the typology of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21, five observations unfold: the cross is God's appointed remedy, the measure of His immeasurable love, the vehicle of His gracious gift, the object of saving faith, and the source of everlasting life. The sermon presses the particularity of the gospel against both universalist and Arminian misreadings of 'the world,' insisting that saving faith is exclusively in Christ alone — the only pole to which the bitten sinner must look and live.