Topic
Christology
1,353 sermons · All topics
2LCF Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures, Paragraphs 1-3
Philippians 2:8 presents Christ's humiliation as a twofold act: the declaration that he humbled himself voluntarily, and the demonstration that this humility extended from the womb to the cross through entire, exact, and perpetual obedience. The sermon carefully distinguishes the obedience rendered according to Christ's humanity as covenant mediator from any eternal subordination within the Godhead, rejecting eternal functional subordination as a departure from classical theism. The active obedience of Christ — his positive fulfilment of God's law throughout his life — and his passive obedience in his atoning death together constitute the sole ground of justification, which believers receive by faith alone and commemorate in the Lord's Supper.
The Example of the Savior, Part 3
Philippians 2:8 presents the humility of Christ not as incidental biography but as the doctrinal and ethical foundation for the church's conduct. This sermon examines first the declaration of Christ's humility — that he humbled himself voluntarily, according to his human nature as covenant mediator, in active obedience to every demand of God's law from his mother's womb — and then its demonstration in the extent of that humiliation: even the death of the cross, a death cursed by the law and laden with shame. The active and passive obedience of Christ, taken together, are the sole ground of justification by faith alone, which is why the Lord's Supper is received not as a reward for good conduct but as a proclamation of what the Savior accomplished on behalf of his people.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 8
John 17:21–23 records Christ's high priestly petition for the unity of all believers across every age — a unity patterned on the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. The sermon works through the petition ('that they all may be one'), the divine paradigm (the perichoretic union of the Father and Son as the exemplar for creaturely unity), and the missional purpose (a unified church publishes to the world the reality of the Incarnation and the love of the Father). Believers are called to pursue a common faith, a common orientation, and a common goal — the glory of God — knowing that their corporate life is itself a testimony to the mission of the sent Son.
Ask FGBC #41: Why Does The Devil Hate Women So Much?
The question of why women have historically suffered disproportionate oppression and violence is examined through a biblical theological lens. Two theological threads are drawn out: Satan's covenantal enmity against the woman whose seed would crush him (Genesis 3:15), and the doctrine of total depravity, which explains how sinful men exploit the physically weaker vessel Peter describes in 1 Peter 3. The discussion concludes that the abuse of women is a symptom of human rebellion against God's creational order of male headship and protection.
March 30 PM
Galatians 2:17–21 closes Paul's autobiographical defense of justification by faith alone, and these five verses press three weighty questions: Is Christ a minister of sin when believers forsake the Mosaic ceremonies? Who is the true transgressor? And what does Judaizing heresy actually do to the cross of Christ? The sermon argues that to impose any measure of works upon the economy of salvation — whether old-covenant ceremony or its modern legalistic counterpart — is to render the incarnation, the perfect obedience, and the atoning death of the Son of God as vanity. The single ground of the believer's justification, assurance, and perseverance is the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us, in whom alone everlasting righteousness is found.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 7
John 17:20 records Christ's intercession extending beyond the apostles to all who would believe through their word — a prayer that excludes the world and encompasses the elect of every age. The verse yields five doctrinal implications: justification is by faith alone; the apostolic word is the ordained instrument of that faith; Christ assumes gospel advance and missions; sovereign election and predestination undergird the certainty that there will be believers; and the world possesses a solidarity in enmity against God that mirrors, and indicts, the disunity too common among God's people. Practically, the sermon calls the church to gospel-centred ministry, qualified and instructional preaching, the earnest pursuit of unity, and calls the unconverted to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ without delay.
Introduction to Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy is introduced as the second giving of the law — not a new law, but a restatement of the Sinai covenant addressed to the second generation of Israel standing on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the land of promise. The session surveys Mosaic authorship, the book's place in the Pentateuch, its historical context, its broad outline (God's activity, law, covenant, and servants), and its major theological emphases: reminder, transition, exhortation, and instruction in theology proper, the promise of land, and the worship of God. The study concludes with the typological significance of Deuteronomy for the New Testament, tracing how the book prefigures Christ as prophet, priest, king, and true Israel, and how its promise of new covenant in chapter 30 points forward to what Jeremiah 31 and the gospel make explicit.
Our Robe of Beauty
Galatians 2:16 presents a five-fold declaration that justification is by faith alone and not by the works of the law — a doctrine that stands at the very heart of the Christian gospel. This sermon works through four categories: a definition of justification as a forensic declaration set in opposition to condemnation, its foundation in the obedience and satisfaction of Christ alone (not infused righteousness, works, the act of faith, or evangelical obedience), the transaction of imputation by which sin is credited to Christ and his righteousness credited to the believer, and faith as the empty instrument that receives rather than earns that righteousness. The pastoral application presses the believer's assurance away from inward evidences toward the finished work of Christ, and calls the unconverted to look to Christ in faith as their only standing before a holy God.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 6
John 17:17–19 records Christ's priestly petition that the Father sanctify the apostles by the truth — consecrating them, as the Old Testament priests were consecrated, for the specific mission of preaching and writing to which He was sending them. The instrument of that sanctification is the truth: the incarnate Word who is truth, the Spirit of truth, and the written Word breathed out by that Spirit. Christ's own sanctification in verse 19 is not a prayer for personal holiness but His self-consecration as the high priest who offers Himself as sacrifice, and that priestly self-offering is the very foundation on which the apostles — and all believers — are set apart. The practical summons is plain: growth in grace and conformity to Christ come through the ordinary means of God's truth, not through experience, emotion, or entertainment, and the church's fidelity to that pattern depends on elders who are devoted to teaching it.
Live Stream - March 16, 2025
Philippians 2:7 presents four statements concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God: he made himself of no reputation, took the form of a bond servant, came in the likeness of men, and was found in appearance as a man. The sermon works carefully through each phrase to establish true Humanity against kenotic Christology on one side and Docetism on the other, arguing that Christ never ceased to be God but assumed a full human nature into personal union — the hypostatic union confessed at Chalcedon and codified in the 1689 LBCF chapter 8. Paul's purpose is ultimately ethical: the condescension of the eternal Son from the heights of Divinity to the form of a bond servant is the supreme argument against selfish ambition and conceit among believers.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 5
Christ's high priestly prayer in John 17:11–16 reveals two central petitions: that the Father would preserve the disciples by His name, and that He would protect them from the evil one — not by removing them from the world, but by keeping them within it. The sermon traces three arguments for preservation: Christ's own keeping of the disciples during His earthly ministry, His impending physical departure, and the world's settled hatred of those who belong to Him. Against this backdrop, the interceding Christ prays not merely for survival but for joy — that His people would suffer without losing sight of the strength that joy in God provides. The application is direct: Christians are left in the world for a reason, and the mission of gospel proclamation gives meaning to every trial they endure.
The Example of the Savior, Part 2
Philippians 2:7 sets forth Christ's incarnation as the supreme argument against selfish ambition and conceit. This expository sermon works through four statements in the verse — Christ made himself of no reputation, took the form of a bondservant, came in the likeness of men, and was found in appearance as a man — with careful attention to the kenotic controversy, the hypostatic union, and the patristic formulations at Nicaea and Chalcedon. The heresy of kenotic Christology (that Christ emptied himself of his divine attributes) is refuted from 2 Corinthians 8:9, John 1:14, and Hebrews 2, while docetism is equally rejected in favor of Christ's true and complete humanity. The doctrinal weight is carried in service of Paul's pastoral concern: the one who was in the form of God and equal with God voluntarily humbled himself, and that reality demolishes every claim to selfish priority among his people.
The Regulations for Life in Canaan
Numbers 32–36 closes the book with regulations governing Israel's entry into Canaan: the Transjordanian tribal allotments, the itinerary of the wilderness journey, the boundaries of the land, Levitical cities, cities of refuge, and the inheritance rights of female heirs. The legislation on cities of refuge anchors a sustained exposition of the distinction between murder and manslaughter, grounded in the Noahic covenant of Genesis 9:6, and carries forward the biblical case for capital punishment as a perpetual civil obligation. The study closes by tracing Christ through Numbers — as the guiding presence, the compassionate shepherd, the greater Joshua, the great high priest, and the brazen serpent lifted up for the life of the world — and applies the wilderness pattern to the new covenant people who must persevere through present affliction toward an eternal Canaan.
The Example of the Savior, Part 1
Philippians 2:5–6 presents both a profound Christological confession and a direct ethical demand: the church is to pursue unity and love by imitating the mind of Christ. This sermon expounds the divinity of the Son — his eternal existence in the form of God and his equality with the Father — as the theological foundation for Paul's call to selflessness and others-mindedness in the local church. Christ's equality with God was not seized by usurpation, as Adam and Lucifer attempted, but was his by eternal generation and consubstantiality with the Father. Because the superior condescended to serve the inferior, those who are inferior to one another have every reason to renounce selfish ambition and conceit.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 4
What grounds the prayers Jesus offers for his people, and why does he explicitly exclude the world from his intercession? Working through John 17:9–11a, this sermon examines the focus and rationale of Christ's high priestly intercession: he prays specifically for the elect whom the Father gave him, not for the reprobate world, and he does so as the mediating priest who both sacrifices and intercedes on behalf of his own. The mutual possession declared in verse 10 — 'all mine are yours and yours are mine' — establishes the full equality of the Son with the Father, while 'I am glorified in them' frames the church as a trophy case of divine grace displayed before angels and nations. The sermon closes with an exhortation to treasure the blessedness of election: a Savior who intercedes, a triune God who is known, and a security that nothing can sever.
The Woman Who Was a Sinner
Luke 7:36–50 presents three persons — the woman who was a sinner, the judgmental Pharisee Simon, and the Savior — to demonstrate that Christ freely receives and forgives notorious sinners, and that the devotion the woman shows is not the cause of her forgiveness but the consequence of it. The sermon argues she had already been saved before entering Simon's house, and that her tears, hair, and ointment are the fruit of a faith already given, not works by which she procured salvation. Against the self-righteous contempt of Simon, who mistakes moral superiority for spiritual standing, Christ's declaration 'your faith has saved you' makes plain that free forgiveness is received instrumentally through faith alone and expressed afterward in love. Believers are called to examine whether their own lives reflect the same gratitude this woman showed — not by manufactured effort, but by pondering the greatness of what they have been freely forgiven.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 3
Jesus intercedes for his apostles in John 17:6–11a, and this sermon examines who those men are, what qualifies them as objects of his high priestly prayer, and why he prays for them rather than for the world. The exposition grounds the disciples' identity in the Father's sovereign, electing gift of them to the Son within the eternal covenant of redemption, their reception of the words the Father gave to the Son, and their growing recognition that the Son is one in being with the Father. The preacher draws out the implication that faithful gospel ministry, like the ministry of Christ himself, must declare only what has been received from God, without accommodation to cultural pressure or the demand for entertainment.
Trinitarian Assurance
Ephesians 1:3–14 presents a Trinitarian doxology in which the Father's election and predestination, the Son's redemption through His blood, and the Spirit's sealing together constitute the full ground of the believer's assurance. The passage resists any reduction of the three persons to isolated roles, insisting on inseparable operations even as Paul shines distinct light on each person's work. The sermon argues that the Christian's assurance must be anchored not in self-examination of fruit-bearing but in the objective, Trinitarian work of God accomplished entirely outside of us in Christ.
Livestream - February 16
Galatians 2:11–16 records the Apostle Paul's public confrontation of the Apostle Peter at Antioch, where Peter's hypocritical withdrawal from table fellowship with Gentile believers was silently but powerfully undermining the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Paul's rebuke exposes that any action compromising the gospel — even short of openly denying it — is a serious offense, because justification rests solely upon the imputed righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sins secured by his active and passive obedience, received through faith apart from works of the law. The sermon traces the five-fold reiterative emphasis of verse 16 and grounds the necessity of this doctrine in the immutable character of God himself, who cannot justify the wicked apart from the perfect satisfaction rendered by the Lord Jesus Christ. Saints are exhorted to rest their peace not in any degree of personal obedience but entirely in the finished work of Christ, and sinners outside of Christ are called to believe on him as the only ground of justification.
The Conversion of Matthew
Matthew 9:9-13 presents the sovereign call of Christ to Matthew, a tax collector despised in first-century Jewish society as a collaborator with Gentile oppressors and a companion of sinners. The sermon traces three movements in the passage: the authoritative call that produced immediate discipleship, the feast Matthew threw to honor Christ and evangelize his former associates, and Christ's threefold response to the Pharisees' complaint — identifying himself as a physician to the sick, appealing to Hosea 6:6 against mere external religion, and declaring his mission to call sinners to repentance. The central application is that no sinner is too notorious to be received by Christ, and Matthew's immediate rising and following is held up as the pattern for genuine repentance and faith.
The Apostolic Magnitude of Justification
Paul's confrontation of Peter at Antioch in Galatians 2:11–16 is not merely a biographical episode but a defence of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Peter's hypocritical withdrawal from table fellowship with Gentile believers, driven by fear of the circumcision party, was not an open denial of the gospel but a compromise of it — and Paul's rebuke exposes how even the appearance of impropriety can bring the truth of the gospel into disrepute. The sermon then turns to the apostolic doctrine set forth in verses 15–16, tracing the five-fold reiterative negation and affirmation of justification by faith and not by the works of the law, grounding Christian peace in the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience. Hearers are exhorted to carry the doctrine of justification beyond the service itself, resting their peace not on any measure of personal performance but on the sole and complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 2
John 17:4–5 records Christ's proleptic and covenantal claim to have glorified the Father and finished the work given him — a claim that opens into the full theology of active obedience and its indispensable place in justification by faith alone. The sermon demonstrates that Jesus was not merely an ethical example but the obedient substitute whose 33 years of perfect law-keeping is imputed to the elect alongside the forgiveness secured by his blood. Verse 5 is examined against the kenosis error: Christ does not pray to recover a lost glory but to be manifested as the glorified God-man and mediator who has accomplished the covenant of redemption. Believers are exhorted to pursue the knowledge of God and Christ as the essence of eternal life; unbelievers are called to look to the only Savior in whom alone there is both forgiveness and a righteousness that avails before God.
The 2nd Census, Inheritance Laws, and Succession
Numbers 26–27 records the second census of Israel and two consequential legal rulings issued on the plains of Moab as the nation prepares to enter Canaan. The census serves a dual purpose: numbering able-bodied fighting men for the conquest and apportioning the land by tribal size, fulfilling the judgment pronounced in Numbers 14 that the entire first generation — save Caleb and Joshua — would die in the wilderness. The inheritance case of Zelophehad's daughters establishes precedent-setting case law affirming that land inheritance passes to daughters when no son exists, with typological significance pointing forward to equal inheritance in Christ (Galatians 3:26–29). The appointment and public ordination of Joshua as Moses' successor reveals both Moses' pastoral heart for the flock and the continuity of Spirit-empowered leadership necessary for the conquest.
Live Stream - February 2, 2025
John 17:1–3 records the opening of Christ's High Priestly prayer, in which the incarnate Son petitions the Father to glorify him so that he in turn may glorify the Father. The sermon examines the occasion of that prayer — the imminent passion — and the content of the petition, distinguishing what Christ prays as the God-man mediator of the New Covenant from what is eternally true of him as the second person of the Trinity. Particular attention is given to the predestined mission of Christ: the comprehensive authority granted to him over all flesh, the particular scope of his saving work toward those given him by the Father, and the nature of eternal life as the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The sermon closes with an earnest call to pursue the knowledge of God through Scripture, corporate worship, and the means of grace, because such knowledge is not incidental to the Christian life but constitutive of eternal life itself.
The High Priestly Prayer, Part 1
John 17:1–5 records the opening of Christ's high priestly prayer, in which the Lord Jesus — praying according to His humanity as the Mediator of the New Covenant — petitions the Father for glory, because glory given to the Son redounds to the glory of the Father. The sermon works through the occasion of the prayer, the derived and delegated authority granted to Christ over all flesh, and the particular redemptive purpose for which that authority was given: that He should grant eternal life to all whom the Father has given Him. Particular redemption is grounded in the text itself, and the sermon closes by pressing the definition of eternal life in verse 3 — the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ — as a summons to pursue theology, Scripture reading, and corporate worship with renewed seriousness.
Ask FGBC - Dec 2024 Podcast with Pastors Butler and Porter, Batch 4
A panel of two pastors works through a batch of listener-submitted questions spanning baptism and the Lord's Supper, the eternity of hell, church membership, faith and fear, the unpardonable sin, images of Christ, dry preaching, and extra-biblical theological vocabulary. Across each topic the answers are grounded in Scripture and the 1689 London Baptist Confession, with particular attention to second-commandment concerns, the nature of saving faith, and the perseverance of the saints. Listeners are urged to anchor their assurance not in the strength of their own grip on Christ but in the immutable decree of election and the intercession of the Triune God.
The Harlotry of Israel in Moab
Numbers 25 records the final plague upon the first generation of Israel: sexual harlotry with the women of Moab leading directly to idolatrous worship of Baal of Peor, the very site where God had been blessing Israel through Balaam's compelled oracles. The chapter unfolds in three movements — the sin of the people, the zealous intercession of Phinehas, and the commanded judgment on Midian — each illuminated by the Apostle Paul's use of this passage in 1 Corinthians 10 as a warning to the new covenant church. Phinehas, acting as a priestly guardian of the sanctuary with divinely commended zeal, typifies Christ's priestly office and intercession, pointing forward to the one whose unchangeable priesthood averts the wrath of God from new covenant Israel through his life, death, and resurrection. The passage calls the church to flee idolatry, to marry only in the Lord, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, lest spiritual harlotry — defection from the living God through unholy alliances — repeat in the new covenant community what it wrought in the old.
The Glory of Christ's Departure, Part 2
John 16:29–33 closes the Upper Room Discourse with two movements: the disciples' partial yet progressing confession of Christ's omniscience, authority, and divine origin, and Christ's triumphant declaration that he has overcome the world. The disciples' imperfect understanding — soon to be perfected on the day of Pentecost through the Spirit's coming — is met not with rebuke but with Christ's desire for their peace, even as he foreknows their abandonment of him at the cross. The sermon grounds Christian courage in the face of tribulation not in human resolve but in the objective, accomplished victory of the enthroned Christ, whose current session at the Father's right hand is the only sufficient foundation for the church's advance through suffering.
The Oracles of Balaam, Part 2
Numbers 24 records the third and fourth oracles of Balaam, an unconverted soothsayer compelled by the Spirit of God to bless Israel rather than curse her at Balak's command. The sermon traces the messianic trajectory of these oracles — the star out of Jacob, the scepter rising from Israel, the dominion of one from Judah — arguing that Balaam is ultimately preaching Christ and the triumph of his kingdom, which finds its New Covenant terminus in the church as the Israel of God. The text becomes a call to faithful gospel ministry: if a reprobate soothsayer could handle the Word of God accurately, the church has every right to demand that her ordained ministers do likewise.
The Unity of the Church
Philippians 2:1–4 grounds the church's unity in the Trinitarian realities of consolation in Christ, the comfort of the Father's love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit — not in human sentiment. The passage moves through a commendation of unity (vv. 1–2) and a cultivation of unity (vv. 3–4), showing that selfish ambition and conceit are the precise enemies of the love and one-mindedness the apostle commands. The sermon concludes that humility, self-denial, and others-mindedness are not optional graces but the indispensable conditions for a church that advances the cause of Christ — and that none of these can be pursued apart from the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.