Theological term
Sphere Sovereignty
3 sermons · All terms
The Ethics of Motherhood
Titus 2:3–5 sets older women in the church as instructors of younger women in the domestic virtues that honor the created order and adorn the doctrine of God. Against a cultural moment that treats the word 'mother' as offensive and obliterates God-wrought gender distinction, the passage calls women to love husbands and children, to exercise discretion, chastity, and diligence in the home, and to submit to their own husbands — not as cultural accommodation but as a reflection of the eternal created order grounded in Genesis and reaffirmed by Christ's redemption. The overarching rationale Paul supplies is theological: the conduct of women in household and church either blasphemes or adorns the Word of God before a watching world. The sermon closes by grounding every duty in grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, warning that no degree of faithful motherhood constitutes grounds for justification.
The Healing of the Lame Man
Acts 3:1–10 records the healing of a man lame from birth at the gate called Beautiful, and this exposition argues that the miracle is not an isolated wonder but a typological and redemptive event that displays the name and power of Jesus Christ while setting the stage for apostolic gospel proclamation. The man's condition — congenital, public, and long-standing — ensures that the miracle is conspicuous and undeniable, functioning to authenticate the apostles as God's spokesmen and to magnify the glory of the enthroned Christ. The church's calling, illustrated by Peter's declaration that he possesses no silver or gold but only the name of Christ, is the proclamation of the gospel and the forgiveness of sins, not the amelioration of every temporal need society presents. Those genuinely conquered by sovereign grace, like the healed man, are marked by worship, praise, and desire for the public means of grace.
2LCF Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate
Civil government is not a social convention or mere human compact but a divinely instituted ordinance answerable to God Most High — and that divine origin is simultaneously the source of its authority and the boundary of its competence. This study of 2LCF Chapter 24 works through three paragraphs: the nature, purpose, and power of the magistrate (including the sword and capital punishment); the lawfulness of Christian participation in government against Anabaptist objections; and the Christian's duties of submission and intercession toward civil rulers. The abiding application is that Christians must neither deify the state nor abandon it, but submit to it in all lawful things, resist it when it commands sin, and pray for the conversion and restraint of those who govern.