Theological term
Union with Christ
128 sermons · All terms
The Incentives for Perseverance, Part 2
Paul's 'faithful saying' in 2 Timothy 2:11–13 supplies three conditional clauses that together form both an encouragement and a warning for the persevering Christian. The sermon exposits the believer's union with Christ in conversion (dying and rising with Him), the present communion that sustains endurance, and the solemn warning that denial of Christ evidences a faithlessness that Christ Himself will not overlook. The means of grace — Scripture, prayer, and corporate worship including the Lord's Supper — are set out as the God-appointed instruments by which believers are kept running the race.
The Incentives for Perseverance, Part 1
Paul's command to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3 — endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ — is not left without support. This sermon expounds 2 Timothy 2:8–10, identifying two of three incentives Paul provides for perseverance: the contemplation of Christ in his true humanity, Davidic lineage, and resurrection, and the conduct of Paul whose imprisonment and suffering demonstrate that the word of God cannot be chained. The doctrine of election underlies Paul's endurance, for he suffers all things for the sake of the elect, knowing that gospel preaching is the God-ordained means by which they obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Hearers are called to feed their souls on Christ through Scripture and to measure their own trials against the apostolic pattern of suffering for the gospel.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 3
The perfection, particularity, and certain application of Christ's saving work — as confessed in 2LCF 8.5, 6, and 8 — is examined through an extended exposition of Hebrews, John, Romans, and related texts. Christ's once-for-all sacrifice fully satisfied divine justice, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance for a fixed and particular multitude given to him by the Father before the world was. The confession's teaching is traced along three coordinates: the pactum salutis (the pre-temporal intra-Trinitarian covenant of redemption), the historia salutis (the historical accomplishment of salvation), and the ordo salutis (the Spirit's effectual application of that finished work to the elect). Believers are called to rest in the certainty that Christ's redemption is not a matter of 'perhaps' but of infallible, sovereign, and free grace from first to last.
1 Samuel 6
First Samuel 6 records the return of the Ark of the Covenant from Philistine territory to Israel, exposing both the sovereignty of God over pagan nations and the terrifying holiness of God that no sinner can approach unaided. The chapter moves through the Philistines' carefully devised test, the miracle of the lowing milk cows, the judgment on the men of Beth Shemesh who looked into the Ark, and the Ark's final lodging at Kirjath-Jearim — each episode demonstrating that God will not be manipulated, conquered, or treated with casual familiarity. The central question the men of Beth Shemesh cry out — 'Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?' — is the perennial question of every soul that has truly glimpsed the majesty of God, and the sermon answers it directly: Jesus Christ alone, the mediator of the new covenant, who by his obedience, death, and resurrection brings the elect into the presence of a consuming fire.
Crushing the Head
Romans 16:20 contains a striking promise — that the God of peace shall bruise Satan under the feet of his people. This sermon expounds that promise by tracing the crushing of Satan across five dimensions: historically at the cross, judicially in justification, experientially in the believer's security, ecclesiastically in the preservation of the church, and eschatologically at the end of days. The word translated 'shortly' is shown to carry connotations of certainty and sovereignty rather than mere temporal nearness, grounding the church's confidence in God's irreversible triumph over the adversary.
Author, Recipients, Greetings
Paul's opening two verses of 1 Timothy are not a mere literary formality but a carefully constructed theological foundation for the letter's entire argument against false teaching. The apostle's self-identification establishes his divine commission by the commandment of both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, marking a sharp contrast with the self-appointed teachers troubling the Ephesian church. Timothy is presented as Paul's legitimate representative — his "true son in the faith" — whose authority the congregation is bound to receive. The threefold greeting of grace, mercy, and peace names the indispensable resources that every minister, congregation, and unbeliever stands in need of, resources that flow from the Father and the Son and are grounded in justification by faith alone.
The Ultimate Reason for All Things
Romans 11:36 declares that all things are 'from him, through him, and to him' — asserting that God is the creator, sustainer, and ultimate end of everything that exists. This sermon works through Paul's doxology in its context of divine sovereignty over the withholding and dispensing of mercy, showing that the universe exists not for man's comfort but for the glory of God alone. The three prepositional phrases of the text ground the aseity and providence of God against any notion that man counsels, precedes, or rivals him. The sermon applies this by calling sinners to Christ as the only way guilty creatures return to a God-centered universe, and by pointing believers to the comfort that all things — including suffering — are governed by a God whose mercy dispenser never runs empty.
Tribulation and Joy
What should a Christian expect when faithfully following Christ in a world hostile to God? Drawing from 1 Peter 4:12–19, this sermon presents four imperatives for the suffering believer: expect tribulation as the normal experience of the Christian life, exult in it by recognising union with Christ in His sufferings, evaluate its cause to distinguish genuine persecution from self-inflicted consequence, and entrust the soul to God as a faithful Creator who sovereignly ordains and will ultimately vindicate His elect. The sermon closes with 2 Thessalonians 1 as apostolic confirmation that divine vindication of the church is certain and ought to sustain perseverance along the narrow way.
Revelation 1:4-6
Revelation 1:4–6 introduces the book of Revelation not with mystery or doom but with a carefully structured doxological greeting that grounds suffering believers in the triune God as the source of all grace and peace. The sermon works through the threefold office of Christ — prophet (faithful witness), priest (firstborn from the dead), and king (ruler over the kings of the earth) — demonstrating from Psalm 89, Acts 2, and Colossians 1 that Christ's royal reign is a present reality, not a future hope. The atonement is shown to be the irreducible distinction of Christianity: unlike every competing religion, the gospel is rooted in blood redemption, not moral example. Believers are called to resist anxiety and despair by fixing their gaze on the enthroned Lamb, whose sovereignty over all earthly powers has not diminished by one degree.
The Followers of the Lamb
Revelation 14:1–13 places the 144,000 followers of the Lamb in direct contrast to the beast-worshippers of Revelation 13, offering the persecuted church a vision of what God's redeemed people look like and where they are headed. Ten indicative characteristics are drawn from the text — from bearing God's seal of ownership to speaking truth, keeping the commandments, holding the faith of Jesus, and resting in death — not as commands to perform but as descriptions of those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The sermon insists that these marks flow from grace alone through redemption alone, and calls every hearer to hold the faith of Jesus with grip and resolve, especially when liberty is enjoyed, so that it will not be surrendered when trials arrive.
True Doctrine, Proper Conduct Part 2
Colossians 3:12–14 calls believers to put on the virtues that characterize the new man in Christ — not as a program of moral self-improvement, but as the necessary outflow of sovereign election, regeneration, and union with Christ. This sermon works through three things concerning the new man: his identity as the elect, holy, and beloved of God; his character as defined by five virtues (tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and longsuffering) expressed in community through forbearance and forgiveness; and his supreme obligation, which is love — the bond that gives luster and coherence to all the other graces. The controlling argument is that conformity to Christ begins not with behavioral resolve but with fixing the mind on Christ seated at the right hand of God, so that mortification of sin and putting on of virtue follow as fruit of knowing him.
True Doctrine, Proper Conduct
Colossians 3:1–11 establishes that right belief and right conduct are inseparable: orthodoxy produces orthopraxy. Working through Paul's commands to seek the things above and to mortify sin, this exposition demonstrates that the theological incentives of union with Christ — past death to the old man, present hiddenness in God, and future appearance in glory — are the only sufficient foundation for holy living. The vice lists of verses 5–11, covering both sins of the flesh and sins of the tongue, are shown to flow from a disordered mind rather than a regenerate one, and behavior modification apart from the new birth is exposed as an inadequate remedy. The sermon closes with a call to look to Christ crucified as the only ground for both justification and transformed conduct.
The People, The Prayer, The Response
Acts 4:23–31 records the response of the early Jerusalem church to persecution: rather than fleeing or retaliating, the believers gathered, prayed, and received divine empowerment to proclaim the gospel with boldness. The sermon expounds three features of that account — the character of the people (steadfast, prayerful, and united around the gospel), the theology embedded in their prayer (addressing God as Creator, Revelator, and Sovereign, and applying Psalm 2 to Christ), and God's answering response in the shaking of the place, the filling of the Spirit, and bold proclamation. Corporate prayer shaped by God's character and promises — not by circumstances — is the pattern the early church models for every subsequent generation of believers.
The Supremacy of Christ
Hebrews 1:1–3 presents seven interlocking evidences for the supremacy of Christ over the prophets: he is heir of all things, creator of all things, the brightness of God's glory, the express image of God's person, sovereign upholder of all creation, the once-for-all purger of sin, and the exalted King seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The sermon traces each claim through supporting texts in John, Colossians, 2 Corinthians, Acts, and Hebrews 7, demonstrating that Christ's superiority does not render the Old Testament void but rather fulfils it in his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. Delivered as preparation for the Lord's Supper, the message calls believers to feed upon the glory of Christ at the table and urges unbelievers to look to him alone for mercy.
The Preface to the Lord's Prayer
What does it mean to address God as 'Our Father in heaven' before a single petition is spoken? This sermon on Matthew 6:9 argues that the preface to the Lord's Prayer is not a formality but a theological foundation: the invocation shapes the entire posture of prayer. Six truths embedded in the two words 'Our Father' are examined — that God is personal, gracious, hearing, caring, loving, and alone to be addressed — followed by two truths in the phrase 'in heaven': that God is transcendent and omnipotent. The sermon closes with a pointed call to examine whether one can honestly pray 'Our Father' at all, since access to the Father comes only through faith in the Son.
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.
The Beatitudes in the Book of Revelation
The book of Revelation contains seven distinct beatitudes — pronouncements of blessing upon the people of God — that together form a portrait of genuine Christian blessedness from the opening verse to the book's close. Far from being a book of doom and curiosity about end-times figures, Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and its beatitudes reward those who read, hear, and keep its words. Each beatitude is examined in sequence, tracing themes of eternal rest, effectual calling, regeneration, and the restoration of Paradise lost in Adam through the obedience of the last Adam. The sermon calls hearers to find their joy and stability not in eschatological speculation but in the Lamb who sits upon the throne and gives his people the right to the tree of life.
The Privileged Status of the Believer
What does it mean that God calls sinners his children? Expositing 1 John 3:1, this sermon calls believers to stop and behold the sovereign, eternal, and demonstrated love of the Father that has brought those who were by nature children of wrath into the family of God through adoption and new birth. Five dimensions of that love are unfolded — its pre-temporal origin, its historical manifestation at the cross, its eternal duration, its concrete demonstration, and its sovereign bestowal by grace alone — drawn together through parallel reflection on Ephesians 3:14-19. The sermon closes by pressing believers to anchor their Christian health not primarily in activity but in knowing and meditating on the love of God revealed in Scripture.
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.
A Psalm of Comfort
Psalm 46 presents God as the impenetrable refuge and omnipotent strength of his covenant people — not by promising a trial-free life, but by declaring that the Divine Warrior and God of Jacob remains sovereign over every earthly catastrophe, political upheaval, and spiritual assault. The sermon traces four movements in the psalm: a statement of God's character to comfort, a contrast between earthly chaos and divine sovereignty to instruct, an invitation to behold God's works, and a command to be still and know that he is God. The practical summons is to resist paralysis and fear by cultivating theology proper — studying the character of God — because a revelation of God's character and glory is the best remedy for any trial.
The Resurrection of Our Bodies
What kind of body will believers have at the resurrection, and why must it be this body — the very one in which we now live — that is raised? Expounding 1 Corinthians 15, this sermon argues from Paul's seed analogy and the continuous 'it is sown / it is raised' language that there is an unbroken organic continuity between the present body and the glorified resurrection body. Three reasons are pressed as to why this particular body must be raised: Christ purchased it with his blood, it remains in vital union with him even in the grave, and raising it is part of the work the Father entrusted to the Son for the full accomplishment of salvation. Hearers are urged to mortify fleshly appetites, pursue zealous service for Christ, and find comfort in bereavement — all grounded in the certainty that these bodies will be raised.
Our Present Suffering vs. Our Future Glory
Romans 8:18 presents the Apostle Paul's carefully weighed reckoning of present Christian suffering set against the future glory promised to the children of God. This sermon expounds three dimensions of that verse: the nature of suffering in this present age, the content of the coming glory — reigning with Christ, being conformed to His image, and beholding Him face to face — and the accounting exercise by which Paul concludes that present afflictions are not worthy to be compared with what awaits the redeemed. Believers are exhorted to lift their eyes from present groaning to the certain inheritance secured in Christ, while the unconverted are warned that refusing Christ forfeits not only that glory but ensures a far worse eternal reckoning.
The Privileges of Christ's Church
1 Peter 2:9 presents the church with a fourfold corporate identity — chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, special people — rooted in what God originally purposed for Israel at Sinai and fulfilled in Christ. This sermon traces that identity from Exodus 19 through the failure of Old Covenant Israel, to its consummation in Christ who, by his obedience, death, and resurrection, purchased these privileges for his church. The God-centered function of this identity is the proclamation of God's excellencies, which demands a gospel rightly understood as centered on the doing, dying, and rising of Jesus Christ. Believers are called to take up the corporate privileges of access to God, prayer, praise, and the knowledge of God with the seriousness these mercies deserve.
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.
The Believer's Race
Hebrews 12:1 calls believers to run with endurance the race set before them, laying aside every encumbering weight and the sin that so easily ensnares. This exposition works through the believer's duty to persevere, the obstacles that must be stripped away, and the manner in which the race is to be run — with steady, joyful endurance rather than fitful bursts of zeal. The first of three incentives for faithful running is examined: the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11 and beyond, whose consistent testimony is not mere spectatorship but sworn witness that God is faithful to those who press on to the end. Hearers are called to repent of sluggishness, believe the gospel, and run — not by jet or celestial railroad, but as Christian ran in Pilgrim's Progress, pressing forward through trial toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Privileged Position Under the Promise
Galatians 3:26–29 sets forth three privileges belonging to every believer in Christ: filial identity as adopted sons of God, redemptive unity across all ethnic, social, and gender distinctions, and covenantal solidarity as Abraham's seed and heirs of the promise. Adoption receives sustained attention — defined against justification and the reception of the Spirit as a distinct blessing received by faith alone, carrying both the rights of sonship and the responsibility to live accordingly. The sermon rebuts two errors: the Judaizing demand that Gentiles supplement faith with circumcision, and the misreading of redemptive equality in verse 28 as abolishing role distinctions in the church and home. Hearers are pressed to resist every offer of spiritual addition to what Christ has fully secured, and to walk in love, light, and wisdom as befits sons of the living God.
The Foundation of Christian Baptism
The death of Christ is the foundation of Christian baptism — not water's mystical power, not human merit, but the overwhelming of the Son of God under the wrath of God in the place of sinners. Expounding Mark 10:35–45, this sermon argues that Jesus' reference to his own imminent 'baptism' is a direct anticipation of his atoning death under divine wrath, which is the basis on which believers' baptism derives its meaning. Baptism is then shown to be an ordinance that portrays — not provides — union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, the forgiveness of sins, and the call to walk in newness of life. The hearers are pressed to examine not their view of the mode or subject of baptism, but their personal saving interest in the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Defense of Justification by Faith Alone
Galatians 2:17–21 presents one of Paul's sharpest defenses of justification by faith alone, and this exposition works through three movements in the text: the proper and improper uses of the law (vv. 17–19), the personal experience of crucifixion with Christ as the ground of the justified life (v. 20), and the exclusivity of grace that renders any supplementation of the gospel a nullification of Christ's death (v. 21). The sermon exposes the logic of the objection that justification by faith makes Christ a 'minister of sin,' refutes it from the text, and shows that legalism — not antinomianism — is the true transgression of God's law. The central application is that any 'Christ-plus' system, whether formal theology or informal churchly shibboleths, empties Calvary of its meaning and must be resisted.