Topic
Apologetics
6 sermons · All topics
The Exhortation to Wage the Good Warfare
Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18–20 is a summons to wage good warfare against false teaching — a warfare grounded in Timothy's apostolic authority, prophetic calling, and possession of faith and a good conscience. The sermon exposes the defection of Hymenaeus and Alexander as the concrete conflict that makes this warfare necessary, tracing their blasphemy to a rejection of both the objective content of the faith and a good conscience. The application presses the church to hold the line through faithful exposition, qualified eldership, and the exercise of church discipline, all in defence of the gospel that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
2LBC Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate
What authority does civil government possess, and what are its limits? Working through 2nd London Baptist Confession Chapter 24, this study argues that God alone is the ultimate sovereign who ordains civil magistrates for two ends: his own glory and the public good of man, expressed concretely in the maintenance of justice and peace. The confession deliberately repudiates the Anabaptist rejection of Christian participation in civil office, affirming that believers may lawfully serve as magistrates, soldiers, and executioners of justice. Christians are called to submit to civil authority in all lawful things for conscience's sake and to pray persistently for governing authorities, so that the church may worship freely and fulfil her gospel mission without hindrance.
The Conversion of the Apostle Paul
Paul's gratitude in 1 Timothy 1:12–14 is inseparable from the account of his own conversion — from blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man to apostle and chief exhibit of sovereign mercy. The passage establishes that Christ himself is the enabler of true gospel ministers, in deliberate contrast to the false teachers in Ephesus who were self-appointed desirers of the law. Paul's ignorance in unbelief before Damascus belongs to a different moral category than the willful, post-enlightenment sin of those who profess Christ and then turn against him. The text drives toward verse 15: the exceedingly abundant grace poured out on the chief of sinners is the pattern and ground of hope for every sinner who comes to Christ.
2LBC Chapter 24 - Of the Civil Magistrate
Chapter 24 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession addresses the divine origin, scope, and limits of civil government, the lawfulness of Christian participation in that government, and the Christian's duty of submission and prayer toward governing authorities. The confession roots civil magistracy in God's sovereign ordination, limits its authority to the maintenance of justice and peace, and explicitly rejects the Anabaptist position that Christians may not hold civil office or bear arms. Listeners are called to think carefully about voting, praying for rulers, and obeying governing authorities in all lawful commands — while refusing compliance whenever the state commands what God forbids.
CTF 2026: Q&A Panel Discussion
A conference Q&A panel explores difficult questions arising from the doctrine of God's exhaustive decree, including federal headship and the fall, the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the authorship of sin, the infralapsarian and supralapsarian debate, and the legitimacy of the free offer of the gospel. The panelists frankly acknowledge the limits of creaturely knowledge before the secret things of God, grounding their answers in Scripture, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and the tradition of Reformed orthodoxy. Practical counsel closes the session: those newly awakened to Reformed theology are urged to slow down, submit to the ordinary means of grace, read widely before entering debates, and avoid unaccountable online discourse.
CTF 2026 - Session 2: Introducing “Of God’s Decree”
God's decree, as confessed in Chapter Three of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, is a revealed mystery demanding both theological precision and creaturely humility. The scope of that decree is comprehensive — God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass — and yet it must be carefully distinguished from God's will of precept, from any necessity of nature, and from any conferral of actual being through the decree itself. Three guiding principles govern the study: the decree is not our moral duty, it remains largely veiled despite scriptural revelation, and any engagement with it requires a robust Creator-creature distinction throughout. The pressing question raised by so radical a scope — whether God is therefore the author of sin — is the burden taken up in the subsequent lecture.