Theological term
Sola Scriptura
62 sermons · All terms
The Book of Jude
The epistle of Jude issues an urgent call to God's people to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, in the face of ungodly men who have crept unnoticed into the church and are turning the grace of God into a license for immorality. Working through all twenty-five verses, this exposition traces the letter's anatomy — salutation, statement of purpose, denunciation and doom of the heretics, positive exhortations to believers, and closing doxology — showing that Jude's 'sandwich' structure encloses a hard confrontation with false teaching within the glorious realities of calling, sanctification, and preservation in Christ. The sermon argues that the body of objective doctrinal truth committed to the church must be held with zeal, not limp-wristedly accommodated to include those who deny the sovereign lordship of Christ. Believers are to rejoice in their preservation, know troublemakers for what they are, and deal pastorally but distinctly with those in danger of or already ensnared by heresy.
Brethren Beloved by the Lord
Paul's contrast in 2 Thessalonians 2:13–15 between those who perish in unrighteousness and those who are 'brethren beloved by the Lord' opens onto the full architecture of sovereign grace: election grounded not in foreseen merit but in the eternal love of God the Father, salvation worked out through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, and the whole chain sealed unto glorification. The sermon presses the doctrines of unconditional election and the effectual call into pastoral and doxological form, refusing cold dogmatism in favour of wonder that God would set his love upon sinners dead in trespasses. Hearers are exhorted to stand fast in apostolic tradition, to abound in love toward one another, and to grow in sanctification through the word — and unbelievers are warned that the same Christ who comforts the beloved will consume with the breath of his mouth those who had pleasure in unrighteousness.