Topic
Christology
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The Refuge for God's People
Psalm 46 sets an axiomatic foundation — God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble — from which the necessary inference follows: therefore we will not fear. This sermon works through the psalm's four movements: the affirmation of God's presence (vv. 1, 7, 11), the demonstration of God's power amid cosmic and political chaos (vv. 2–6), the contemplation of God's proven works in history (vv. 8–9), and the sovereign command of verse 10. The titles 'Lord of hosts' and 'God of Jacob' ground the psalm's confidence in both the divine warrior who fights for his people and the covenant Lord who cannot be separated from them — a comfort the New Covenant believer holds with even greater fullness in Christ.
Live Stream October 19
Philippians 3:10-11 declares that justifying faith is never alone but is always accompanied by all other saving graces — sanctification and glorification being necessary consequences of justification by faith alone. This sermon expounds Paul's threefold description of sanctification in verse 10: the experiential knowledge of Christ generally, the powerful effects of his resurrection on the believer (newness of life, union with Christ, definitive breach with sin), and the fellowship of his sufferings as an inevitable consequence of siding with a crucified Savior. The cross always precedes the crown, and the 'if by any means' of verse 11 does not express uncertainty about Paul's justification but rather underscores the perseverance required through internal corruption, external opposition, and ministerial faithfulness before the resurrection of the righteous.
The Appearance of Christ to Thomas
John 20:24–31 presents Thomas not merely as a doubter but as an obstinate man who refuses to believe the resurrection unless his own conditions are met — rejecting the Old Testament prophets, the repeated predictions of Christ, and the apostolic testimony of ten eyewitnesses. Christ responds not with rebuke but with sovereign grace, appearing again on the Lord's Day and inviting Thomas to examine the wounds that sealed a finished atonement. The confession that follows — 'My Lord and my God' — is the theological and experiential crown of the fourth gospel, answering John's own stated purpose in verses 30–31: that through the written word, those who have not seen may nevertheless believe and have life in Christ's name.
The Conversion of Paul, Part 4
Philippians 3:10–11 presents sanctification and glorification as necessary and inseparable consequences of justification by faith alone (v.9). The knowledge of Christ described in verse 10 is experiential, practical, theologically correct, and constitutes the very essence of eternal life — but it includes not only the power of Christ's resurrection (newness of life, union with Christ, definitive breach with sin) but also the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death, which are not redemptive but inevitable for all who side with a crucified Savior in a hostile world. Verse 11 then sets forth glorification — the resurrection of the righteous — as the confident hope that sustains perseverance through the difficulties of sanctification. The sermon draws on 1689 LBCF 11.2 and Westminster Larger Catechism 77 to show that faith which justifies is alone as an instrument, yet never alone in the person justified, being ever accompanied by all other saving graces.
The Appearance of Christ to the Disciples
John 20:19–23 presents two interlocking realities: the presence of the risen Christ among His fearful disciples on the first day of the week, and the commission He gives them to carry His gospel into the world. The peace Christ pronounces is not a generic greeting but the fruit of His atoning wounds — the satisfaction of divine justice that reconciles guilty sinners to God. From this the sermon argues that the church's entire mission is delimited by Christ's own sending: not entertainment, social uplift, or political activism, but the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins through the crucified and risen Lord, empowered by the promised Holy Spirit.
The Appearance of Christ to Mary
John 20:11–18 records the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb — the first resurrection appearance in John's Gospel. The sermon expounds three movements: Mary's examination of the tomb, the presence of the Lord, and the word of the Lord. The positioning of the two angels at the head and feet of where Christ lay is argued to be a deliberate theological echo of the cherubim over the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, signifying that the tomb itself is the antitype of the place of propitiation — the locus of atonement accomplished by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. The sermon closes with exhortations to believe in Christ as the sole mercy seat for sinners, to seek Him through His Word and ordinances when His presence seems distant, and to rest in Him as the elder brother who intercedes at the right hand of the Father by the Spirit.
The Conversion of Paul, Part 3
Philippians 3:9 presents two and only two kinds of righteousness before God: an inherent righteousness that inheres in the sinner and is condemned, and an imputed righteousness that comes from God through faith in Christ and justifies. This sermon expounds Paul's own conversion as the decisive illustration that no religious resume — however impressive — can satisfy the law's demand for personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience. Justification by faith alone confers twin blessings: the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience; and far from licensing sin, a right understanding of that justification is the very foundation of biblical sanctification.
The Promise of the Covenant of Grace
Galatians 3:15–18 presents Paul's covenantal argument that the Mosaic law, given 430 years after the Abrahamic promise, cannot annul the covenant of grace nor supplement faith with legal works as the ground of justification. The sermon traces four interlocking points: the immutability of God's redemptive promise, the nature of Abraham's faith in Christ as the singular promised seed, the pedagogical and temporary character of the Mosaic covenant as a distinct covenant of works, and the inheritance as freely given by promise rather than earned by law. The pastoral application is a call to rest entirely on Christ, the champion of the covenant of grace, and to resist every system that adds law-keeping or circumcision to faith as the basis of standing before God.
The Resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christian hope, the confirmation of Old Testament prophecy, and the grounds of both justification and coming judgment. Working through John 20:1–10, this sermon examines the discovery and investigation of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the beloved disciple John, noting the eyewitness character of the narrative and the theological significance of the burial cloths. The shift from the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week is grounded in Hebrews 4 and the pattern of new creation. The empty tomb preaches comfort to the believer and the certainty of judgment to the unbeliever, calling all to repent and believe on the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The Burial of Christ
The burial of Jesus Christ in John 19:38–42 and Matthew 27:62–66 is not a peripheral narrative detail but a theological linchpin between the humiliation of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection. Through the actions of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus — two secret disciples emboldened by the death of Christ — the gospel accounts establish the true humanity of the Son of God, confirm the reality of his death against ancient and modern denials, and set the stage for the empty tomb. The security measures taken by the Sanhedrin, far from suppressing the resurrection, served only to make the miracle undeniable and the wrath of men an instrument of God's glory. Sinners are called to receive the gospel as historical fact: that Christ died for sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day.
The Conversion of Paul, Part 2
Philippians 3:8–9 presents the Apostle Paul's radical revaluation of all things in light of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Working through verse 8, this sermon traces three movements: Paul's declaration that he counts all things loss, his motivation in the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, and his conviction that everything else — past religious pedigree, present suffering, future comfort — is rubbish compared to gaining Christ. The sermon argues that justification by faith alone is the sole ground of acceptance with God, the only defense against the devil's accusations, the only source of true peace, and the only sure foundation of assurance — grounding each application in Paul's own apostolic biography and in Romans 8 and Romans 5.
The Conversion of Paul
Paul's pre-conversion résumé in Philippians 3:4–8 reveals that the 'chief of sinners' was not a libertine but a fastidiously religious man — circumcised, a Benjamite, a Pharisee, blameless by the external standard of the Mosaic law, and violently zealous in persecuting the church. This sermon traces that résumé through Acts, Galatians, and 1 Timothy to establish a single point: it is not one's sins but one's trust in one's own righteousness that keeps a sinner from Christ. On the road to Damascus, Paul counted every credential as loss, because acceptance with God is grounded solely in the active and passive obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ received by faith alone.
The Confirmation of His Death
John 19:31–37 records the confirmation of Christ's death by Roman soldiers and the apostle John, providing decisive historical and theological testimony against any swoon theory or denial of His true humanity. The soldiers' breaking of the legs of the other condemned men — but not of Jesus, who was already dead — and the piercing of His side with a spear fulfills two strands of Old Testament prophecy: the unbroken bones of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12) and the piercing of Israel's Messiah (Zechariah 12:10). John's eyewitness testimony is given with a stated evangelistic purpose — 'that you may believe' — grounding the gospel call in verified historical fact. The sermon closes with an exhortation to confident, prayer-filled gospel proclamation on the basis of Christ's finished, sovereign work of redemption.
2LCF Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator, Part 4
Chapter 8 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession sets forth the person and work of Christ the Mediator, and this study works through its latter paragraphs (4–10) covering the historical description of Christ's obedience, the specific operation of His atoning work, the retrospective application of redemptive benefit to Old Covenant saints, the communication of idioms, and the effectual application of redemption to the elect. The confession grounds definite atonement, active and passive obedience, and penal substitutionary atonement in Christ's willing entrance into the state of humiliation and His perfect fulfillment of the law, establishing the foundation for the confession's later treatment of justification by faith alone. The threefold office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king is shown to be not an imposition on Scripture but its exegetical fruit, meeting precisely the threefold need of God's people for revelation, reconciliation, and kingly rule.
The Commendation of His Spirit
Psalm 31 is a prophetic psalm of Christ, providing the scriptural background to the seventh saying of the Savior from the cross: 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit' (Luke 23:46). The psalm moves through five sections — petition for deliverance, description of suffering, condemnation of enemies, admiration of the Father, and exhortation to the people — each finding its fullest meaning in the crucified and triumphant Messiah. The sermon draws out three contextual observations from the cross: the sovereign control exercised by the Son in laying down his life willingly, the contrast between the hand of God receiving Christ's spirit and the hand of men seeking to destroy him, and the restoration of communion between the Son and the Father after the cry of dereliction. God's people are called to the same trust and courage that marked the Savior — committing their times and their souls to a faithful Creator in the midst of trial, persecution, and adversity.
The Signs and Wonders Following Jesus's Death
At the death of Jesus, Matthew records four signs: the tearing of the temple veil, an earthquake, split rocks, and the resurrection of Old Testament saints — phenomena unique or extended beyond what the other Synoptics report. This exposition works through Matthew 27:51–56, arguing that each sign carries distinct theological weight: the torn veil announces the abrogation of the old covenant by fulfillment and the opening of free access to God through Christ's flesh; the earthquake signals divine judgment and vindicates the Son; the resurrection of the saints demonstrates Christ's power over the grave, confirms the bodily resurrection hope, and shows the retrospective efficacy of his atoning work for old covenant believers. The sermon closes at the Lord's Supper table, where the confession of Gentile soldiers and faithful women together display that Christ's blood avails for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
The Glorious Curse Bearer
Galatians 3:10–14 presents the law's curse as a judicial sentence of divine condemnation from which no sinner can escape by obedience, since perfect and perpetual law-keeping is universally failed. Christ, the covenant champion, redeemed his elect by becoming a curse in their place — bearing the wrath due them, answering on a mountain at a tree the curse that entered the world on a mountain at a tree. The blessing of Abraham — the imputation of Christ's righteousness received through faith alone — comes not through circumcision, ceremony, or ethnic connection to the covenant community, but through union with the crucified and risen Christ. Those outside Christ remain justly under divine condemnation; those in him are freed from the curse and heirs of all the promises of God.
The Crucifixion of Christ, Part 4
The sixth saying of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross — 'It is finished' (John 19:30) — is not a cry of defeat but a declaration of completed victory. The single Greek word tetelestai, a perfect tense verb signifying a past completed action with abiding present results, encompasses the fulfillment of all Old Testament Scripture, the completion of Christ's earthly suffering, the full accomplishment of the Father's will, and the definitive salvation of his people. The sermon works through the typological witness of the law (Passover, Day of Atonement, the bronze serpent, the sacrificial system), the prophetic witness of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the Psalms, showing that Christ's cry from the cross brings every shadow and promise to its intended end. The application presses the finished work as the sole ground of justification, assurance, peace with God, and security against every accusation — calling both believer and unbeliever to look to Christ alone and live.
2LCF Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator, Part 3
The sinlessness of Christ, the efficient and instrumental causes of the incarnation, and the hypostatic union are examined through a clause-by-clause exposition of 2LCF Chapter 8, paragraph 2, with supporting analysis of paragraphs 3 and 7. The confession's language — 'yet without sin,' 'conceived by the Holy Spirit,' 'of the seed of Abraham and David,' 'without conversion, composition, or confusion' — is unpacked against the background of patristic Christology, Chalcedonian definition, and Reformed theological precision. The ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the entire mediatorial life of Christ is recovered as an often-neglected dimension of Christology. Incarnational and interpretive rules drawn from paragraph 7 equip hearers to handle Scripture passages that appear to diminish Christ's deity, by distinguishing what is predicated of a nature from what is predicated of the one person according to a nature.
The Crucifixion of Christ, Part 3
John 19:28–29 records the fifth of the seven sayings of Christ from the cross: 'I thirst.' This exposition examines Christ's sovereign knowledge that all things were accomplished, the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture — particularly Psalm 69 — in his cry, and the significance of the sour wine offered on hyssop. The sermon argues that Christ's thirst demonstrates both his true humanity and the completion of his redemptive mission, and calls both believers and unbelievers to come boldly to the throne of the sympathetic Savior who drained the cup of divine wrath on behalf of his people.
The Defeat of the Wicked by the Lord
Psalm 52 confronts the believer who watches the wicked prosper, use their tongue to destroy the innocent, and appear to escape all consequence. Working through the psalm's three movements — the boasting of the evildoer, God's fourfold judgment from heaven, and the believing response — the sermon shows that the Lord's steadfast love is the anchor of hope when earthly circumstances seem out of control. The psalm is then read christologically: Christ is contrasted with the wicked who will be destroyed forever, Christ is the righteous one who laughs at his enemies, and Christ is himself the green olive tree in whom the believer finds safety. The sermon calls both believer and unbeliever to stay with Jesus, trusting his timing rather than demanding God act on a human schedule.
The Command from the Mount
Matthew 28:16–20 presents the risen Christ commissioning his disciples from a mountain in Galilee — a location Matthew treats as theologically laden with the entire biblical theology of mountains, from Eden to Sinai to Zion. The sermon traces that mountain typology across Genesis, Isaiah, Hebrews, and Zechariah to show that the Great Commission is nothing less than the eschatological commencement of the new covenant. Christ's declaration — 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth' — is expounded as the mediatorial kingly inheritance he receives by virtue of the perfection of his redeeming work, not a restoration of suppressed divine glory. The commission therefore binds the church to gospel proclamation, believer's baptism, and the continual instruction of the baptized, all undergirded by the abiding presence of the exalted Christ through his threefold office of prophet, priest, and king.
2LCF Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator, Part 2
The incarnation of the Son of God — his taking to himself a true and complete human nature — is the greatest of all gospel mysteries and the life and soul of the church. Working through paragraphs one, two, three, seven, and nine of the Second London Confession chapter eight, this study examines the timing, manner, and extent of the Son's assumption of humanity, arguing that the incarnation was neither a subtraction from deity nor an addition to it, but a terminative assumption by which the eternal Son united human nature to his own divine person in the hypostatic union. The full extent of that assumption — body, reasonable soul, human will, human affections, and the common sinless infirmities of our nature — is not a speculative nicety but a soteriological necessity: what is not assumed is not healed.
The Cry of Dereliction
What does Christ mean when he cries 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' from the cross? This sermon on Matthew 27:45–46 carefully distinguishes what the cry of dereliction does not mean — no ontological division within the Trinity, no dissolution of the hypostatic union, no suffering of all three persons — before arguing that it expresses Christ's true humanity as our surety bearing the punishment of loss: the withdrawal of the Father's smiling favor and consolatory presence as the Son satisfies divine justice for the sins of his people. The sermon draws extensively on Psalm 22 to show that the forsakenness is covenantal and substitutionary, not metaphysical, and closes with a call to believe on the crucified and risen Christ who cried this cry so that his people never will.
The Power and Wisdom of God
How can God justify the ungodly without compromising his justice, and why does the design of salvation leave no room for human boasting? Expounding 1 Corinthians 1:30–31 against the backdrop of Paul's extended contrast between divine and worldly wisdom, this sermon traces the source, content, and goal of every spiritual blessing the believer possesses. Christ is shown to be the believer's righteousness, sanctification, and redemption not as a description of the Christian's progress but as an objective account of what he accomplished as the covenant head of his people. The sermon concludes that because union with Christ is the sole ground of salvation, all glory belongs to God alone — a truth Paul anchors in Jeremiah's call to glory only in the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
The Crucifixion of Christ, Part 2
The crucifixion scene in John 19:23–27 contains two theologically freighted details: the seamless tunic cast for by lot, and Christ's provision for his mother from the cross. The tunic, described in terms that evoke the high-priestly garments of the Old Covenant, calls the reader to see Christ functioning as the perfect, perpetual high priest whose once-for-all sacrifice accomplishes what Leviticus 16 could only foreshadow. The division of his garments fulfills Psalm 22:18 exactly as God predetermined, underscoring that the cross was never plan B. The sermon concludes by pressing four implications of the gospel: substitutionary atonement, justification by faith alone, the reordering of priorities at the foot of the cross, and the binary demand that every hearer either look to Christ in faith or remain under divine wrath.
2LCF Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator, Part 1
The 2nd London Confession of Faith Chapter 8, 'Of Christ the Mediator,' stands at the structural and theological center of the confession — all that precedes it tends toward it, and all that follows flows from it. This session examines paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9, focusing on the identity, deity, and divine relations of the Son of God as the appointed mediator. Drawing on the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds and the biblical witness, the study argues that the Son is very and eternal God, eternally begotten of the Father, of one substance and equal with him, the creator and sovereign governor of all things — and that this high Christology is the necessary foundation for understanding the incarnation and saving work that follows.
The Crucifixion of Christ
How did it come to pass that the only holy, harmless, and undefiled man who ever lived was led out to be crucified between two criminals? John 19:16–24 answers on two levels: on the surface, the wickedness of men — Pilate's cowardice, the Sanhedrin's envy, the multitudes' manipulation — and beneath it, the sovereign, predetermined purpose of God who sent His Son to be the Lamb of God, the substitute for sinners. The sermon traces the location at Golgotha as the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, the charge written by Pilate as an unwitting confession of Christ's kingship, and the conversion of the dying thief as the paradigm case of saving faith — seeing nothing but a bloodied, dying man on a cross and confessing Him as Lord of a kingdom.
A Vision of the High and Lofty One
Isaiah 6:1–7 presents the prophet's visionary encounter with the enthroned Lord — holy, holy, holy — and his subsequent cleansing by a coal from the altar. This sermon works through five movements in the passage: the introductory contrast between dying earthly kings and the eternal High King of Heaven; the exemplary posture of the seraphim before the divine majesty; the superlative holiness, glorious titles, and unbounded presence of the Lord of hosts; Isaiah's fitting confession of his own uncleanness; and the gracious divine initiative in purification, which anticipates the definite atoning work of Christ. The congregation is called to approach the living God with the humility of Isaiah and the seraphim, confident that the same sovereign who commissioned his prophet will fill the whole earth with his glory through the proclamation of the gospel.
2LCF Chapter 7, Of God's Covenant
God's covenant with humanity is not an afterthought to the fall but the divinely ordained means by which the Creator bridges the infinite distance between himself and the creature. This study of 2LCF Chapter 7 traces three movements: the necessity of covenant rooted in the creator-creature distinction, the necessity of a covenant of grace arising from man's fall and God's sovereign pleasure to save, and the progressive revelation of that covenant from the protevangelium in Genesis 3 through its ratification in the blood of Christ at Calvary. The sermon insists that the covenant of grace is not merely administered across multiple Old Testament epochs but revealed through them and finally ratified — not administered — in the new covenant, a distinctively Reformed Baptist reading of covenant theology. The hearer is called to rest entirely on the covenant obedience of Christ, the only mediator, rather than on any obedience of their own.