Topic
Apologetics
374 sermons · All topics
The Conquering Power of the Davidic Son
Matthew 12:22–30 presents the healing of a demon-possessed, blind, and mute man as the occasion for a decisive confrontation over the identity of Jesus as the Davidic Son. The multitudes ask whether this could be the Son of David; the Pharisees respond by attributing Christ's power to Beelzebub. Jesus refutes this accusation with two arguments — a divided kingdom cannot stand, and the Jewish exorcists the Pharisees approve operate by the same power Christ claims — then draws three implications: the kingdom of God has arrived, the strong man has been bound, and there is no neutral ground. The sermon calls hearers to reckon with the absolute antithesis between the two kingdoms and to flee by faith to the conquering Davidic Son.
Joshua 11
Joshua 11 records the northern campaign of the Israelite conquest, in which a massive coalition of Canaanite kings assembles against Israel with numerical and technological superiority, only to be routed by the hand of God. The chapter closes with a sweeping summary of the entire conquest, highlighting three interlocking themes: divine sovereignty in hardening the hearts of Israel's enemies, the faithful obedience of Joshua who left nothing undone of all God commanded, and the long, gradual character of the conquest that models durable fidelity for the people of God across generations. The sermon draws a direct line from Joshua's seven years of warfare to the church's calling to patient, faithful labor in the Great Commission, resisting any expectation of immediate success.
A Question from a Prisoner
John the Baptist, imprisoned by Herod Antipas, sends disciples to ask Jesus whether he is the coming Messiah or whether Israel should await another. This sermon works through Matthew 11:2–6 in four parts — the situation, the question, the affirmation, and the beatitude — arguing that John's doubt was not a denial of Christ's identity but a struggle with the messianic agenda: why was the expected judgment not falling, and why was he still in chains? Jesus answers not with a bare 'yes' but by pointing to the fulfillment of Isaiah's servant-of-the-Lord passages, showing that the messianic age had arrived in healing, raising, and — most miraculously of all — the preaching of the gospel to the poor. The beatitude of verse 6 calls every believer, then and now, not to be scandalized by a Christ whose kingdom advances differently than expected, and to steady doubting hearts in the Scriptures rather than in the comforts of the world.
Acts 17:16-34
Paul's address to the Athenian philosophers in Acts 17:16–34 stands as the biblical model for proclaiming the gospel to a pagan audience that lacks the foundation of Old Testament revelation. The sermon works through the setting, the sermon, and the summary of Paul's speech, showing how he confronts idolatry as genuine moral offense against the Creator, not as an approximate form of true religion, and how he frames the resurrection not as a proposition to be proved but as God's appointed assurance of coming judgment. The three responses Paul receives — mockery, curiosity, and belief — are the same responses faithful gospel proclamation produces in every generation.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, Part 1
What does it mean that 'all Scripture is given by inspiration of God'? This study of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 examines the doctrine of Scripture under three headings: its extent (the full Old and New Testaments as God-breathed canon), its character (Theopneustos — God-breathed, not merely humanly inspired), and its utility (profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness). The apostolic authority undergirding the New Testament canon is traced through the writings of Peter, Paul, and the early church fathers, establishing that the closed canon is the sufficient and final Word of the Covenant Lord. Hearers are called to give themselves to private Scripture reading, memorization, family worship, and faithful attendance upon the preached Word.
Words to Live By
Four terse imperatives close Paul's first letter to Corinth — 'be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong' — and each one names an indispensable quality of the Christian life. This sermon works through 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 by unpacking vigilance, faithfulness, courage, and strength as the four great principles believers must pursue, set against the twin dangers of a deceitful heart and a culture bent on denying God's reality and authority. The exposition concludes with 1 Corinthians 13, showing that all four watchwords must be permeated by love, lest strength become harshness and courage become aggression.
The Response to Persecution
Matthew 10:24–33 confronts disciples with the certainty of persecution and the threefold answer Christ gives to the fear that persecution produces. Jesus establishes first that suffering at the hands of men is inevitable — if they called the Master Beelzebul, they will do the same to his servants — and then forbids fear on three grounds: the gospel's truth will be fully proclaimed, persecutors can only kill the body while God alone holds power over soul and body, and God's sovereign providence extends even to sparrows and the hairs of one's head. The passage closes with a solemn double verdict: those who confess Christ before men will be confessed by Christ before the Father, while those who deny him will be denied — a call to bold, faithful witness grounded in the fear of God rather than the fear of man.
Justification By Faith Alone
Philippians 3:7–11 presents the Apostle Paul's own testimony as the sharpest exposition of justification by faith alone: he counted every religious credential as loss in order to be found in Christ, 'not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.' The sermon works through Paul's possession of Christ (vv. 7–8), his position in Christ (v. 9), and his privileges in Christ (vv. 10–11), giving sustained attention to the forensic character of justification — pardon of sin and imputation of Christ's righteousness — as defined by the 1689 London Baptist Confession 11.1 and the Westminster Shorter Catechism Q33. The Roman Catholic doctrine of justification, as codified at the Council of Trent (Canons 9 and 11), is examined as a counter-example, demonstrating that any conflation of justification with sanctification destroys assurance and leaves the dying sinner without the comfort of Romans 8:1.
The Slaying of the Giant
The account of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 is not primarily a lesson in human courage or self-confidence, but a declaration that the battle belongs to the Lord and that God vindicates his name through unassuming instruments. The sermon works through the final section of the chapter in six movements — from Saul's faithless objection to David's theological confidence, from Goliath's arrogant threat to David's sober counter-promise, and from the quick duel to its far-reaching aftermath. David's trust in the God who delivered him from lion and bear is held up as the pattern of saving faith: historical retrospect grounding confident expectation. The whole account is read typologically, with David as a type of Christ — the one sent by his father, of unassuming appearance, to conquer a mighty foe on behalf of his people, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel.
Wage the Good Warfare
Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18–20 — to wage the good warfare — is the ground for a sustained argument that gospel ministry requires both the positive exposition of truth and the courageous refutation of error. The sermon works through the basis of that charge (prophetic appointment), its necessary instruments (faith and a good conscience), and the catastrophic consequences of rejecting those instruments, illustrated by the named cases of Hymenaeus and Alexander. Church discipline, including excommunication into the realm of Satan, is presented not merely as punitive but as remedial — aimed at the repentance and restoration of the erring sinner. Every Christian, not only ordained ministers, is called to maintain fidelity to Christ and his gospel as soldiers and sailors in a genuine spiritual combat.
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.
Deuteronomy 24
Deuteronomy 24:6–25:3 sets forth miscellaneous laws governing pledges, kidnapping, infectious disease, hired labor, personal criminal liability, justice toward the vulnerable, gleaning for the poor, and corporal punishment. Far from being a barbaric ancient code, these statutes display the equity, wisdom, and holiness of God's character, and they stand as a rebuke to modern assumptions about criminal justice. The sermon argues that the biblical framework of restitution, capital punishment, and regulated corporal punishment is more humane than the modern prison system, and that Israel's conduct under these laws was intended to be a witness to surrounding nations of the glory of God — an obligation the church inherits in its own generation.
A Lofty Confession of Faith
Thomas's refusal to believe the apostolic witness to the resurrection exposes a posture common to all people: dictating the terms by which they will believe. Yet Christ condescends with sovereign grace to meet Thomas in his obstinance, drawing from him the highest Christological confession in the fourth Gospel — 'My Lord and my God.' John's purpose in recording these events is stated explicitly: that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so receive life in his name. The sermon presses every hearer to ask whether they can claim Christ with Thomas's personal possessive — 'my Lord and my God' — and warns against every attempt to negotiate terms with God before believing.
Jesus was Born to Reign
What does it mean that the eternal Son of God was born? John 18:37 places the incarnation in its most demanding context: Jesus, exhausted and on trial before Pilate, declares with quiet certainty, 'For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world.' This sermon exposits the Roman trial narrative of John 18:28–38, arguing that Christ's birth must be understood not sentimentally but regally — he was born to reign as King of Kings, bearing witness to truth as the instrument of his conquest, and ruling a kingdom whose origin and character are altogether unlike any earthly empire. The hearer is called to examine whether they hear Christ's voice as subjects of his kingdom, and to rest their standing before God not in their own righteousness but in the righteousness that comes through faith in him.
The Exhortation and the Benediction
2 Thessalonians 2:15–17 closes a condensed apostolic letter with an exhortation and a benediction, and this sermon expounds both in turn. The exhortation — 'stand fast and hold the traditions' — summons believers to a posture of resolute, unified, apologetically vigorous fidelity to revealed apostolic doctrine, grounded in the certainty that the triune God saves from election to glorification. The benediction that follows prays that the same God who has loved his people and given them everlasting consolation by grace would comfort their hearts through believing the truth of Scripture and establish them in every good word and work. Listeners are called to resist the temptation to seek temporal, emotional remedies for troubled hearts, and instead to plant their eyes in the unshakeable promises of Holy Scripture.
John 1:12-13
What is saving faith, and how does it relate to knowledge, truth, and the new birth? Expounding John 1:12–13, this study argues that saving faith is not a leap into uncertainty, a vague encounter with a divine person, or something greater than opinion but less than knowledge — it is genuine knowledge of revealed truth, specifically the propositional truths of Holy Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. The study establishes four foundational principles: regeneration must precede faith, truth is the instrumental cause and object of faith, Jesus Christ is the central content of that truth, and faith ordinarily comes through the preaching of the word.
The Two Trees
Matthew 7:15–20 records Christ's warning against false prophets who enter the community of disciples disguised as sheep while remaining ravenous wolves within. The sermon works through two broad sections: the nature of false prophets (their deception, intention, and manifestation) and the parable of the two trees, arguing that the 'fruit' by which false prophets are known is primarily their doctrine rather than their outward conduct. Believers are not left helpless — Christ assumes his people, equipped with Scripture and the Spirit, are able to identify and resist false teachers whose ultimate end, along with those who follow them, is eternal destruction.
The Amazing Son of David
Matthew 12:22–23 presents a man who is demon-possessed, blind, and mute — and whom Jesus heals instantly and completely, prompting the crowd to ask whether he could be the Son of David. This sermon argues that the miracle is not merely a historical curiosity but a divinely ordered proof of Christ's messiahship and a living picture of every sinner's spiritual condition before grace: blind to God, mute in his praise, and enslaved to Satan. The exposition moves from the messianic significance of the healing, to the spiritual blindness and muteness that characterise all natural men, to the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work to deliver the most desperate of sinners. Hearers are called to come to Christ without delay, assured that no case is too hopeless for the Son of David.
Deuteronomy 19
Deuteronomy 19 addresses three domains of civil and judicial justice under the Mosaic law: the cities of refuge for accidental homicide, the prohibition against moving a neighbor's landmark, and the law governing witnesses and perjury. The cities of refuge reveal that God's law is concerned equally with punishing the guilty and protecting the judicially innocent — unexecuted murder and the execution of an innocent man both bring blood guilt upon the land. The law of witnesses, culminating in the lex talionis applied to the false witness, demonstrates that God does not take perjury lightly, and that biblical judicial procedure builds in structural safeguards against abuse.
The Demand for Discernment
Matthew 7:6 stands in deliberate tension with the prohibition against judgmentalism in verses 1–5: the same Christ who forbids a censorious spirit toward brothers commands his disciples to exercise discernment toward those who are enemies of the gospel. The sermon traces the identity of the 'dogs' and 'swine' — not ordinary unbelievers, but those whose hardened contempt for God makes continued proclamation a cause for further blasphemy and personal danger. Working through the ministries of Jesus and Paul in the Gospels, Acts, and 2 Timothy, the sermon demonstrates that this principle is not theoretical but was applied repeatedly in apostolic practice. The hearer is called to pursue wisdom through prayer, to refuse political correctness as a guide for gospel witness, and to maintain the balance Christ himself models: compassion toward weak brethren, patient witness to ordinary unbelievers, and principled restraint before confirmed enemies of the truth.
Acts 3
Acts 3 provides the occasion for examining the constituent elements of apostolic gospel proclamation throughout the Book of Acts. Working from F.F. Bruce's fourfold structure and expanding it to eight points, the study traces how Peter's sermon in Acts 3:11–26 typifies the apostolic pattern: announcing prophetic fulfillment, presenting the objective work of Christ as the gospel, declaring Christ's exaltation, employing Scripture as apologetic witness, pronouncing blood-guiltiness upon the guilty audience, warning of coming judgment, calling for repentance, and attaching a covenant promise to those who believe. Central to the study is a careful definition of the gospel itself — grounded in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 and Romans 4:25 — distinguishing the Historia Salutis (redemption accomplished in Christ's death and resurrection) from the Ordo Salutis (its spiritual application), and insisting that regeneration, glorification, and the evangelical command to believe are effects or consequences of the gospel rather than the gospel itself.
Seduction to Idolatry
Deuteronomy 13 confronts Israel — and the church — with three escalating scenarios of seduction to idolatry: the false prophet who performs genuine signs and wonders, the intimate family member who whispers in private, and the city that has given itself wholly over to apostasy. The sermon argues that the severity of the prescribed penalties is not barbarism but proportionate justice rooted in the holiness, jealousy, and justice of the God who redeemed Israel by sovereign grace — and that the New Testament, far from softening this standard, intensifies it in passages such as Galatians 1:8-9 and 1 Corinthians 16:22. Throughout, the preacher insists that the church today does not wield the civil sword, but must nonetheless take with utmost seriousness the danger of idolatry in all its forms — including the subtlest idol of self — and find refuge from it only in the cross of Christ.
Jude
Jude's brief epistle opens with a thesis that reorients the entire letter: believers are to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This study of Jude 1 works through three movements — the command to contend (v. 3), the reason for it (v. 4), and the means of defense (vv. 17–21) — demonstrating that the obligation to guard and propagate Christian truth falls on every believer, not merely ordained officers or parachurch specialists. The apostates Jude describes are shown to be ungodly, secretive, and antinomian, but God's sovereign judgment over Egypt, the fallen angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah supplies the confidence the church needs to contend without fear. The practical strategy is simple: build yourselves up on the holy faith through Scripture, pray in the Holy Spirit, and look for the mercy of Christ — all while engaging opponents with earnestness and genuine Christ-like character.
Two Types of Theological Speech, Part 1
Malachi 3:13–15 exposes three forms of harsh theological speech that were as common in fifth-century Judah as they are in the twenty-first-century church: the pragmatic complaint that serving God is useless, the mercenary demand that obedience must yield personal profit, and the protest that God's governance is unfair. The sermon argues that each of these postures treats God as a lucky charm whose sole purpose is human happiness, and so constitutes blasphemy against the sovereign Lord of all. The remedy is not self-reformation but the gospel itself — beholding Christ as the chief treasure, the pearl of great price, in whom the believer finds everything that the complainers were wrongly seeking from God.
Happiness in Knowing Jesus
Peter's confession in Matthew 16:13–17 — 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' — stands as the theological heart of Matthew's Gospel and the definitive answer to the question Christ puts to every hearer: who do you say that I am? The sermon traces the progressive disclosure of Christ's identity to the disciples, distinguishes His title of function (Christ, the promised Messiah) from His title of being (Son of the living God, co-eternal within the triune Godhead), and grounds Peter's right answer not in flesh-and-blood reasoning but in the sovereign, revelatory grace of the Father. The central application is that all true happiness belongs to those who know Christ, and that this knowledge — divinely given, not humanly achieved — is the supreme blessing of the Christian life.
Of Peter, Popes, and Promises
Matthew 16:18 — 'I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it' — is one of the most contested verses in church history, carrying enormous weight in the Roman Catholic claim to Petrine primacy and the papal succession. This sermon works through three elements of the verse: the proper identification of 'the rock' (Peter as confessor, not as papal foundation), the nature and certainty of Christ's twofold promise to build and to prevail, and the historical evidence of that promise's fulfillment from Pentecost through the Reformation to the present. The church is called to a long-sighted, history-conscious confidence grounded not in circumstances but in the unbreakable promise of the risen Christ who saves, sends, applies, and continually builds.
The Plan for the Conquest
Deuteronomy 7:6–16 sets forth the basis and practical implications of Israel's distinction from the Canaanite nations as they prepare to enter the promised land. The passage grounds Israel's identity — as a holy people, a chosen people, and God's special treasure — not in their numbers, righteousness, or achievement, but solely in the sovereign, covenant-keeping love of God. The sermon traces this language of election through Exodus 19, the wider book of Deuteronomy, and into the New Testament, demonstrating one continuous people of God across the covenants and directly challenging the two-peoples framework of classic dispensationalism. The practical implication Moses draws on the plains of Moab is that right theology must precede and fuel right obedience: knowing the faithful, merciful, and just God of the covenant is what equips the people to enter the land, resist idolatry, and inherit the promised blessings.
Paul at Athens
Acts 17:16–34 records Paul's proclamation of the Christian worldview at the Areopagus in Athens — a city saturated with idolatry and home to Epicurean and Stoic philosophy. Paul does not simply offer historical evidences for the resurrection but instead sets forth God as creator, sovereign ruler over the nations, the only legitimate object of worship, and the coming judge — grounding the resurrection and the call to repentance in a comprehensive biblical theology. The sermon draws out the pattern of Paul's method: provoked by idolatry, he reasons in the synagogue and marketplace, addresses his audience on their own terms without compromising the truth, and calls all men everywhere to repent. Believers today are urged to cultivate the same burden for souls, to know the gospel accurately, and to carry it faithfully into a culture that remains, in its own way, given over to idols.
The Historical Veracity of the Resurrection
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a peripheral doctrine but the vital, non-negotiable centre of Christian faith and proclamation. This exposition of Matthew 28 examines the historical veracity of the resurrection through three general arguments — the character of Scripture as inspired and inerrant, the straightforward historical precision of the Gospel accounts, and the authors' own stated commitment to eyewitness certainty — followed by two specific evidences: the empty tomb and the post-crucifixion appearances of Christ. The sermon applies these evidences to call believers to find their chief comfort not in self-examination or works but in the crucified and risen Savior, and to call unbelievers to bow the knee to the risen King who alone saves sinners from their sins.