Topic
Bibliology
415 sermons · All topics
The Identity of the Son of Man
Matthew 16:13–17 confronts every hearer with the most consequential question ever asked: who is the Son of Man? Working through Christ's question to the disciples, Peter's confession, and the beatitude Jesus pronounces over him, this exposition demonstrates that the title 'Son of Man' points not primarily to Christ's humanity but to Daniel's cosmic ruler given an everlasting dominion, and that Peter's identification of Jesus as 'the Christ, the Son of the living God' is the climax of Matthew's Galilean narrative. The sermon argues that this confession is not the product of human wisdom or religious sensitivity but of the Father's sovereign, gracious act of revelation — and that those who receive it are called to live and die in accordance with it.
Divine Impassibility (2LCF 2.1)
Divine impassibility — the classical Christian teaching that God does not undergo inner emotional changes of state, whether from without by his creatures or from within by himself — is the subject of this exposition of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 2, paragraph 1. The confession's phrase 'without passions' is shown to be an entailment of divine immutability, simplicity, and aseity: a God who could be moved, excited, or disturbed would be neither most absolute nor self-sufficient. Biblical texts establishing divine immutability ground the argument, while the phenomenon of anthropopathism in Scripture (God 'grieved in his heart,' God 'crying out like a woman in labor') is explained through the category of revelatory condescension — God lisping, as it were, to finite creatures — not as evidence of genuine emotional change in the divine being. The doctrine is shown to yield concrete pastoral fruit: it protects the uniqueness of the incarnation, grounds the believer's comfort in a God who is most loving without ebb or flow, and fuels doxology.
The Final Charge
The final two verses of 1 Timothy close Paul's first letter to Timothy with a charge that is as urgent as it is simple: guard the deposit and avoid the dangers. This sermon works through the nature of that deposit — the gospel of God, owned by God, entrusted to Paul and passed to Timothy and the church as stewards — and the dangers that threaten it: the profane and idle babblings of false teachers whose contradictions are falsely called knowledge. The application presses the church to see that faithful gospel preaching is inseparable from the glory of God, the edification of believers, and the salvation of sinners, and that the only power sufficient to sustain that fidelity is the grace with which Paul both opens and closes the epistle.
The Warning Against Heresy
Matthew 16:5–12 records Christ's warning to His disciples to 'take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees' — a command the disciples immediately misread as a remark about physical bread. This exposition works through three movements: the warning Christ issues, the disciples' failure to comprehend it, and the clarification Christ graciously provides. The sermon argues that a small doctrinal error, like leaven, silently pervades and corrupts an entire religious system, and draws direct lines from Pharisaic works-righteousness and Sadducean rationalism to contemporary threats — Arminianism, Roman Catholic merit theology, and theological liberalism. The congregation is urged to prize the means of grace, resist the addition of human tradition to Scripture, and rest in justification by faith alone in Christ alone, recognising that it is revealed truth, not human will, that produces saving faith.
Divine Simplicity 2 - Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
What does it mean to say God is 'without parts,' and why does it matter for every other divine attribute? This second session on divine simplicity (2LCF 2.1–3) continues an expository study of the Second London Baptist Confession's opening chapter on God, working through the classical doctrine that God is not composed of physical, metaphysical, or logical parts — a doctrine historically attested from the church fathers through the Reformation and represented in every major Reformed confession. The session focuses especially on God's pure actuality (the denial of act-and-potency composition), the inseparability of God as knower, knowing, and things known, and the impossibility of God being both agent and patient — showing that divine simplicity is the ontological foundation for God's immutability, independence, absoluteness, unity, and infinite love.
The Prayer of the Early Church, Part 2
Acts 4:29–31 presents the early church's prayer as a model for Christian supplication: addressed to the sovereign Creator, Revelator, and Governor of all things, and shaped by three specific requests — the administration of justice against gospel opposition, boldness to proclaim Christ regardless of human threat, and continued confirmation of apostolic preaching through the miraculous. The sermon then traces God's threefold response: an indication of his presence in the shaking of the place, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the provision of courage that immediately issued in bold gospel proclamation. The chief application is that Christians must follow this pattern — coming to God in humble recognition of who he is, praying for justice, courage, and vindication of the word, and trusting that God gives strength and boldness to his people rather than stirring up those things from within themselves.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-2)
What does it mean that God is omnipresent, and how does his omniscience differ from all creaturely knowledge? Working through the second chapter of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this study examines the divine attributes of omnipresence and omniscience with theological precision, drawing on Scripture, the church fathers, the Reformers, and the Reformed orthodox tradition. God's omnipresence is grounded not in his omnipotence or omniscience but in his infinity and immensity — he fills all of heaven and earth repletively, with his whole being, while remaining utterly transcendent and uncircumscribed by creation. God's omniscience is equally distinguished from creaturely knowing: he knows all things not discursively, derivatively, or by foreknowledge acquired through observation, but intuitively, independently, and eternally, in one simple act of self-knowledge.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2.1-3)
What does it mean to confess that the Lord our God is but one only living and true God, infinite in being and perfection? This session opens a multi-week study of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 2, introducing the doctrine of God (theology proper) with attention to divine singularity (Christian monotheism against polytheism, monolatry, and tritheism) and the three divine omniperfections, treating omnipotence in particular depth. Five interpretive cautions frame the study: the ontological chasm between Creator and creature, the legitimacy of biblical speculation, the revelatory condescension of God in anthropomorphic language, the necessity of reading any text in light of the whole canon, and the call to sustained mental exertion in theological study.
The Indictment of False Teachers
False teachers are identified in 1 Timothy 6:3–5 not only by their departure from apostolic doctrine but by the character it produces: pride, ignorance, an obsessive craving for controversy, and a materialistic motivation that treats religion as a revenue stream. The sermon argues that what a man believes concerning God inevitably shapes how he lives under God, so that heterodoxy and ungodliness are inseparable fruits of the same root. The congregation is called to cultivate discernment through saturation in Scripture and confessional theology, so that the orthodox may recognize and withdraw from ravenous wolves before damage is done to Christ's flock.
The Identity of the New Testament (1.2-3)
What gives the church the right to declare these 27 books—and no others—the Word of God? This session works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 1, paragraphs 2 and 3, to answer that question by examining the origins of the New Testament canon and the three attributes by which canonical books are recognized: divine qualities, corporate reception, and apostolic origin. Drawing extensively on Michael Kruger's scholarship, the lesson demonstrates that the canon was neither a fourth-century political invention nor a community preference, but a self-authenticating body of Scripture whose recognition by the church was providentially prepared for from within the structure of redemptive history itself. The closing application presses the hearer to see that no argument for canonicity finally persuades apart from the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Of the Holy Scriptures (1.1-10)
The doctrine of Scripture (1689 LBCF Chapter 1) is examined through twenty aspects drawn from paragraphs 1–10, arguing that the Holy Scriptures alone are the sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. Beginning with the principium cognoscendi — Scripture as the epistemological foundation of all theology — the study moves through the limits of general revelation, the cessation of special revelation, the canon, the self-attesting authority of Scripture, and the role of the Spirit in producing genuine belief. The session closes with the Reformation axiom that Scripture is its own infallible interpreter and the supreme judge of all religious controversy, against Rome's claim that the magisterium validates the canon.
Judges 18
Judges 18 records the Danite tribe's theft of Micah's idols and Levitical priest, their conquest of Laish, and the establishment of a counterfeit cultic center at Dan — a cultic center that stood in direct defiance of the legitimate house of God at Shiloh. The chapter is the second half of a two-chapter unit (Judges 17–18) exposing the religious apostasy that had spread from a single household through the Levitical priesthood to an entire tribe of Israel, all within a generation of Joshua's death. The recurring refrain — 'there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes' — frames the narrative as an indictment of autonomous, self-directed worship. The sermon presses the application that God's people are bound to worship according to divine prescription rather than personal preference, and that departing from God's commanded means of worship is never a neutral act.
The Duties Toward Elders: Honor
The church's duty to honor elders who rule well, as commanded in 1 Timothy 5:17–18, centers on financial remuneration — not merely esteem or respect. The sermon establishes that 'double honor' carries the same economic weight as 'honor' in 1 Timothy 5:3 (the support of widows), and that the laboring elder who works hard in the Word and doctrine has a legitimate claim on the church's material provision. Paul seals the command with a double appeal to Scripture — Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7 — demonstrating canon-consciousness in the early church and the co-equal authority of Old and New Testament texts. The congregation is called to count itself blessed when God grants it men who preach faithfully, to honor them materially and with esteem, and to see their ministry as a divinely ordained means for the salvation of sinners.
The Confrontation Concerning Authority
Matthew 15:1–9 records a formal confrontation between the Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees and the Lord Jesus Christ over the authority by which men govern their religious lives. The real dispute is not hand-washing but the foundational question of whether the tradition of the elders or the commandment of God holds supreme authority. Christ exposes Pharisaic religion as simultaneously legalistic and antinomian — binding consciences with human inventions while providing loopholes to evade the fifth commandment — and confirms this indictment by citing Isaiah's prophecy against lip-service worship. The sermon calls hearers to examine their own Pharisaic tendencies, to subject every tradition to the Word of God, and to rest in Christ who alone delivers sinners from both legalism and lawlessness.
Acts 4:24-31
Acts 4:24–31 records the corporate prayer of the Jerusalem church after Peter and John were threatened by the Sanhedrin for preaching Christ. The passage is examined in four movements: the congregation's unity in one accord, their confidence in God as sovereign creator, sovereign revelator, and sovereign governor, their specific requests for divine justice and boldness in proclamation, and God's immediate answer in the shaking of the place, the filling of the Spirit, and the resultant boldness. The sermon draws out that a high and uncompromised doctrine of divine sovereignty — God's decree extending even to the crucifixion and to all opposition against his church — is the very ground of Christian courage in the face of persecution, not a source of passivity.
The Excellence, the Wonder, and the Glory
Hebrews 1:1–4 presents the glory of Jesus Christ as the culmination and surpassing excellence of all divine revelation, redemption, and reign. This sermon works through the opening verses of Hebrews under three headings: the excellence of Christ's revelation over the partial and preparatory word of the prophets, the wonder of his redemption accomplished by one who is simultaneously the radiance of the Father's glory and the sovereign upholder of the universe, and the glory of his present reign at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Believers are called to rejoice in the removal of the guilt of sin through Christ's exclusive and perfectly executed atoning work, while those outside Christ are warned that to neglect so great a salvation leaves no escape.
The Rejection at Nazareth
Matthew 13:54–58 records the rejection of Jesus Christ in his hometown of Nazareth, where familiarity with his person produced not neutrality but active offense and opposition. The sermon traces the movement from initial astonishment at Christ's wisdom and mighty works to suspicion, critical questioning, and full-scale rejection — demonstrating that curiosity about Christ, apart from saving faith, inevitably hardens into hostility. The passage is read through the lens of Isaiah 53:3, with Christ's dishonor in Nazareth understood as a fulfillment of the suffering servant's rejection. Hearers are pressed to reckon with whether they are with Christ or against him, warned that unbelief hardens with each exposure to the gospel, and called to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ while it is still the day of grace.
The Gospel's Prophetic Prologue
Mark 1:1–4 introduces the gospel not as a literary convention but as the announcement of a real, historical event: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This passage establishes that the gospel's ministerial beginning is rooted in prophetic fulfillment, as both Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40 foresaw a wilderness messenger who would prepare the way of Yahweh himself. The identity of Jesus as the divine Son of God is not incidental to the gospel but is its very foundation — without his deity, there is no sufficient Redeemer. The sermon closes with a call for believers to know and proclaim the gospel precisely, to walk in a manner worthy of it, and for unbelievers to turn from sin and believe on Christ alone.
Hebrews 1
Hebrews 1:3 declares that Christ 'by himself purged our sins' before sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high — a compressed statement of the entire work of redemption. This Bible study exposition unpacks that purging under four aspects: it was a thorough cleansing of sin, an expiatory sacrifice removing legal guilt, a propitiatory sacrifice satisfying divine wrath, and a substitutionary act in which Christ bore the curse in the place of his people. The finality of the work is sealed by Christ's session at the Father's right hand — a posture no Levitical priest could assume because their work was never complete — and by his own word from the cross, 'It is finished.'
The Parable of the Sower Explained
Matthew 13:18–23 presents Christ's own interpretation of the Parable of the Sower, identifying four types of hearers who encounter the Word of the kingdom. The sermon argues that the parable was given primarily to explain the widespread rejection of Jesus in his own ministry, and secondarily to prepare and embolden the disciples against future discouragement. Working through each soil in turn, the exposition exposes the hardened unbeliever, the shallow apostate scandalized by trial, the fruitful-appearing hypocrite choked by carnal anxiety and prosperity, and the genuine believer who hears, understands, and bears fruit — all as a summons to honest self-examination before the Word.
The Ninth Commandment
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20), governs far more than courtroom testimony — it encompasses every form of lying, slander, backbiting, gossip, hypocrisy, and doctrinal heresy. Three grounds obligate God's people to truth-telling: God himself is truth, man bears God's image and his reputation is inviolable, and the stability of every social order depends on trust. The positive demand of the commandment calls believers to speak truth in all spheres of life, to discourage slander, and to resist the co-opting of humanist language that obscures biblical categories.
The Identity and Confession of the Church
Paul's instructions to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:14–16 ground the order and conduct of the local church in two anchoring realities: the church's identity as the house of the living God, pillar and ground of the truth, and the church's confession of the mystery of godliness centered on the person and work of Christ. The sermon presses the regulative principle of worship against pragmatism and innovation, arguing that how the church prays, orders its gender distinctions, and qualifies its officers is not optional but divinely mandated. Verse 16's early creedal fragment — God manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, received up in glory — is shown to be the doctrinal center of gravity that holds the whole letter together and explains why ordered church life matters.
The Qualification for Elders
What does Scripture require of a man before he can lawfully serve as an elder in Christ's church? Working through 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this exposition first establishes five elements of a genuine call to the ministry — desire born of right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision, providential opportunity, and recognition by the local church — before moving through the text's qualifications under five headings: personal holiness, domestic faithfulness, experience in the faith, testimony toward outsiders, and the one indispensable gift of being able to teach. Throughout, the point is pressed that these virtues are not merely a checklist for candidates but the standard of godliness every Christian man and woman ought to be pursuing.
Matthew 12:1-14
Jesus' conflicts with the Pharisees over Sabbath observance in Matthew 12:1–14 are not evidence that he abolished the fourth commandment, but that he cleared away the Pharisaic misinterpretation encrusting it. This Bible study is the second half of a biblical theology of the Sabbath, tracing the commandment through Christ's own teaching on the law (Matthew 5:17–20), the resurrection, the apostolic practice of first-day worship (Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 16, Revelation 1:10), and the eschatological Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4. The argument throughout is that the Decalogue is trans-covenantal, that Christ fulfilled rather than abrogated the fourth commandment, and that the shift from the seventh day to the first day reflects the same creational-redemptive logic — now centred on the risen Christ as head of the new creation.
Who is Jesus?
Hebrews 1:1–3 presents Jesus Christ as the final and supreme revelation of God — prophet, priest, and king — whose identity is not negotiable. This sermon exposes the bankruptcy of reductive or sentimental views of Christ and argues that the message and the messenger are inseparable: to accept Jesus is to accept his exclusive claims. The exposition works through Christ's appointment as heir of all things, his role as creator and sustainer of the universe, his purging of sin as the perfect high priest, and his present session at the Father's right hand as the ground of the believer's confidence.
The Blessed Yoke of Discipleship
Matthew 11:29–30 presents the 'blessed yoke of discipleship' — the claim that coming to Christ in justification is inseparable from taking up His yoke in sanctification. The sermon moves through three considerations: the command to submit to Christ's rule, the demand to learn from Christ as both teacher and lesson, and the description of discipleship as a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light compared to the bondage of sin and Pharisaic legalism. Antinomianism is directly refuted: the grace that justifies is the grace that sanctifies, and the law of God in the hand of Christ remains the believer's rule of life. The hearer is pressed to either believe on the meek and lowly Christ for rest, or continue in the hard and heavy way of sin.
God's Grace Displayed at Jericho
Joshua 2 presents an interlude before the conquest of Canaan — not a call to arms, but a display of sovereign grace toward the most unlikely recipient imaginable: Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute and traitor to Jericho. Working through her contact with the spies, her remarkable confession of Yahweh as the one true God of heaven and earth, and the covenant agreement that secured her household's deliverance, this exposition shows that genuine saving faith moves beyond bare intellectual assent to cast itself entirely upon the mercy of God. Rahab's inclusion in the Messianic genealogy of Matthew 1 seals the argument: the grace of God in the Old Testament is the same grace that saves sinners through Christ in the New.
Come to the Savior
Isaiah 55 presents one of the Old Testament's most explicit gospel invitations: a universal summons to sinners of every nation to come, without price or merit, to receive the mercy secured by the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The sermon expounds the chapter under two main movements — the invitation to come (vv. 1–5) and the call to believe and repent (vv. 6–13) — demonstrating that what appears to be merely an offer to Israel in Babylonian exile is in fact the covenant of grace proclaimed to all humanity, grounded in Christ's substitutionary work. Particular attention is given to the folly of seeking satisfaction in anything other than God, the abundant pardon He promises to the vilest sinners who seek Him, and the absolute efficacy of His Word to accomplish the purpose for which He sends it. Hearers are urged to call upon God while He is near, to repent of sin, and to trust Christ alone for justification and eternal life.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, Part 2
What does it mean to interpret Scripture rightly, and why does it matter? This Bible study exposition of 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (part 2) builds on the prior week's treatment of the doctrine of Scripture to address the discipline of hermeneutics — the principles, laws, and methods of biblical interpretation. Eight basic principles are set forth: Scripture's interpretation is a spiritual exercise requiring Spirit-dependent prayer; the text's meaning is objective, not reader-relative; the grammatical-historical method governs exegesis; context is paramount; Scripture is its own best interpreter; literary genre must be recognized; the relationship between the Old and New Testaments must be understood; and the interpreter is not alone but stands within the community of the church's gifted teachers across the centuries. The governing application is that every believer, not merely the ordained minister, must handle the Word of God accurately rather than twisting it to suit preferred meanings.
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.