Theological term
TULIP
3 sermons · All terms
What is Hyper-Calvinism?
Hyper-Calvinism so elevates the sovereignty of God that it cancels out the responsibility of man, producing a fatalism that paralyses sinners rather than calling them to repentance and faith. Over against both hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism, apostolic gospel preaching holds divine sovereignty and human responsibility as 100% true simultaneously — friends, not rivals requiring balance. The gospel is propositional revelation concerning Christ's life of perfect obedience, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection, and sinners are commanded to believe and repent on the authority of that word alone. The brazen serpent of Numbers 21 illustrates the point: the remedy is look and live, not first examine yourself and then look.
The Content of Doxology
Jude's closing doxology (vv. 24–25) is not mere liturgical ornament but a theologically loaded ascription of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ that answers the heresy Jude has been combating throughout the epistle. The sermon works through three observations: Christ's exclusive preservation of his people, his singular greatness as the only God, the only Savior, and the only wise one, and the deserved praise that flows from those realities. The practical force is that the Christian's confidence under trial and the church's resistance to false teaching both rest on this one Christ, who keeps, presents faultless, and reigns with glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forever.
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church
The four classical attributes of the church — one, holy, catholic, and apostolic — are not ecclesiastical slogans but biblical realities grounded in the redemptive work of Christ. Drawing from John 10:14–16 and John 17:15–23, this sermon argues that each attribute finds its source in Christ alone: his atoning blood purchases a universal people, his sanctifying work makes the church holy, his intercession secures her unity, and his apostles' doctrine defines her apostolicity. The sermon closes with a direct call to repentance for those outside of Christ and a summons to every believer to walk worthily of these gospel-given realities.