Topic
Covenant Theology
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The Lawful Use of Vows in Israel
Leviticus 27 addresses the Israelite practice of making vows to God — acts of religious zeal, often rash or imprudent, by which persons consecrated people, animals, houses, or land to the Lord. The chapter does not license vow-breaking but rather underscores the gravity of vowing by legislating a costly redemption mechanism, warning the would-be vower to count the cost before speaking. The sermon situates the passage within the 1689 LBCF chapter 23 framework distinguishing oaths from vows, then draws three applications against popish monastical vows, Protestant legalistic vows, and pietistic circumventions of God's law — all forms of man-made religion condemned repeatedly in Scripture.
The Child and Parent Relationship, Part 2
Ephesians 6:4 commands fathers not to provoke their children to wrath, but to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord — a positive obligation grounded in the fifth commandment and the sanctifying work of the Spirit in the believer's life. This sermon expounds that single verse within the broader household code of Ephesians 5:22–6:9, situating Christian parenting as a fruit of sovereign grace rather than a means of earning it. The prohibition against provoking children is unpacked through five practical failures — unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, inconsistency, partiality, and imbalance of law and gospel — before the exhortation to train and admonish is developed from the book of Proverbs under four marks of a faithful parent. The sermon closes with concrete applications: pray for children, provide for them, protect them, preach law and gospel to them, and be present with them.
The Announcement of the Betrayal
John 13:18–30 records Jesus announcing the betrayal of Judas Iscariot in the upper room, and this exposition works through the passage in two movements: the announcement of the betrayal (vv. 18–20) and the identification of the betrayer (vv. 21–30). Three features of the announcement receive careful attention — the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 in Christ's passion, the absolute divinity of Christ declared in the repeated 'I am' of verse 19 (grounded in Exodus 3:14), and the nature of apostolic discipleship as delegated ambassadorship. The removal of Judas from the disciple group exposes the distinction between holding church office and possessing saving grace, a distinction pressed as a question of self-examination for every hearer.
The Promise of Blessings and Cursing, Part 2
Leviticus 26:14–46 sets forth the covenant curses God threatened against Israel for breaking the Mosaic Covenant — a covenant of works — escalating through drought, wild animals, war, cannibalism, wholesale destruction, and exile. These curses came to historical fulfillment in the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 722 BC, the fall of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon in 586 BC, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in AD 70 — events prophesied in the Olivet Discourse and confirmed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2. The chapter closes with a promise of restoration conditioned on Israel's humble repentance and God's fidelity to the Abrahamic covenant. Believers under the New Covenant are freed from these covenant curses because Christ bore them fully, fulfilling the demands of the law and standing as the surety of a better covenant.
The Ministry in Pisidia Antioch
Paul's evangelistic address in the synagogue at Pisidia Antioch reaches its climax in Acts 13:38–43 with two inseparable gospel blessings: the forgiveness of sins and justification by faith alone apart from the works of the law. The sermon traces the inability of the Mosaic law to justify — not because the law is defective, but because sinners cannot render the perfect, entire, and perpetual obedience it demands — and shows how Christ's active and passive obedience supply precisely what the law exposes as lacking. The response of the Gentiles, who begged to hear the gospel again, is held up as a rebuke to any preaching that substitutes self-help or moralism for the proclamation of free acceptance with God through Christ alone.
The Promise of Blessings and Curses (Part 1)
Leviticus 26:1–13 opens with a promise of blessing conditioned on Israel's obedience — a structure that raises the question of how the Old Covenant relates to the New. This study expounds the covenantal framework underlying Leviticus 26, arguing that the Old Covenant operated as a covenant of works at the national level, distinct from the covenant of grace realized in Christ. The blessings of rain, peace, and God's presence promised to Israel find their fulfillment in the New Covenant, where the obedience that secures blessing is Christ's own, imputed to his people by faith alone.
Live Stream - January 28, 2024
John 13:1-3 introduces the entire Upper Room discourse by establishing three governing realities: the arrival of Christ's hour, the opposition of the devil through Judas, and the resolute authority and mission of the Son of God. The passage centers on the declaration that Christ, knowing his hour had come, loved his own to the end — an unchanging, constant, and infinite love grounded not in the moral superiority of its objects but in the electing purpose of the Father. The sermon argues that trinitarian theology, not self-help or emotional manipulation, is the doctrinal fuel that empowers the church for gospel ministry, corporate worship, and faithful endurance under persecution.
The Year of Jubilee, Leviticus 25
John 13:1–3 introduces the Upper Room discourse by establishing three realities that govern everything Christ says to his disciples in chapters 13–16: the arrival of his appointed hour, the opposition of the devil through Judas, and the sovereign authority and mission of the Son. The passage centres on the love of Christ for his own — a love that is unchanging, constant, and infinite — as the motivating force behind every word he speaks in the upper room. The sermon presses toward a single application: it is robust trinitarian and Christological doctrine, not self-help or guilt, that moves the church to worship, evangelism, and endurance under opposition.
The Child and Parent Relationship, Part 1
Ephesians 6:1–3 addresses children directly within the gathered congregation, a detail that itself carries ecclesiological weight: Paul assumes children are present under the preaching of the Word, not segregated from it. The sermon works through two movements — the rightness of obedience grounded in the light of nature and created order, and the requirement of God's law grounded in the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16), which Paul universalizes from Old Covenant Israel to Gentile children in Ephesus and, by extension, to every generation. The three uses of the law are carefully distinguished: the law cannot justify, but it restrains, reveals sin and the need for Christ, and then normatively patterns the sanctified life of the believer. Children are urged to search their hearts, see their failure to honor and obey, and flee to Christ for the righteousness they lack.
The Introduction to the Upper Room Discourse
John 13:1–3 functions as the theological introduction to the entire Upper Room Discourse (John 13–16), establishing three controlling realities: the arrival of Christ's appointed hour, the opposition of the devil through Judas, and the resolute authority and mission of the Son of God. The love of Christ for his own — unchanging, constant, and infinite — is the motivating force behind everything he teaches his disciples in those chapters. Those whom the Father gave to the Son are not a morally superior class but guilty sinners chosen in sovereign grace, loved to the uttermost through the cross, resurrection, intercession, and into eternity. Sound Trinitarian doctrine, far from being merely academic, is the very fuel that moves the church to worship, witness, and perseverance.
The Year of Jubilee
Leviticus 25 sets forth the sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee as divine legislation governing the rhythms of rest, property redemption, and the release of indentured servants within Old Covenant Israel. The laws are grounded in the theological principle that the land belongs to God, who allotted it as gift to his people and therefore retains final authority over how it is held and transferred. The chapter points typologically beyond itself: the Jubilee's proclamation of liberty, initiated on the Day of Atonement, finds its antitype in Christ, who fulfills Isaiah 61 by proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord through his atoning work. The practical summons of the passage is to express the fear of God in concrete generosity toward covenant members who fall into poverty, resisting every form of oppression.
The Warning Against Adultery
Proverbs 6:20–35 presents a father's urgent warning against adultery, grounding it in the necessity and blessing of God's law as a constant guide and protector. The passage moves from the internal heart lust prohibited by the Tenth Commandment, through vivid analogies of fire and hot coals, to the devastating consequences adultery brings upon the adulterer, the violated party, and society. Solomon's contrast between the pitied thief who steals from hunger and the despised adulterer who steals from pure wickedness sharpens the moral weight of the Seventh Commandment. The sermon closes with three practical means of protection — remove, rejoice, remember — and with the gospel assurance that the blood of Christ cleanses even these sins upon repentance and faith.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ, the Mediator (Part 5)
The work of Christ as Mediator — his active and passive obedience, definite atonement, and threefold office as prophet, priest, and king — is the subject of this exposition of 2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 8, paragraphs 4 through 10. The confession traces Christ's voluntary humiliation, his satisfaction of divine justice as a propitiation, and the retroactive efficacy of that work for Old Covenant saints who looked forward to him through promises, types, and sacrifices. Paragraph 8's teaching that Christ certainly and effectually applies redemption to all for whom he obtained it grounds the assurance of salvation entirely in the sovereign purpose of God rather than foreseen conditions in the sinner. The threefold office — prophet to instruct the ignorant, priest to reconcile the alienated, king to subdue and preserve the unwilling — frames the believer's comprehensive dependence on Christ alone.
Live Stream - January 14, 2024
Exodus 12 sets forth the institution of the Passover as a type pointing forward to the atoning work of Christ, the true Lamb of God. The sermon works through the preparation for the Passover (vv. 1–11) and its twofold significance in judgment and mercy (vv. 12–13), before drawing out the antitypical fulfillment: the identification, nature, appropriation, and particular benefits of Christ's sacrifice. A closing illustration from D. A. Carson presses the pastoral application that the ground of the believer's assurance before God is not the strength or quality of faith but the blood of the Lamb alone.
The Appearance of the Love of God
Though mankind stands condemned under the description of Titus 3:3 — foolish, disobedient, enslaved to lusts and malice — the kindness and love of God the Father appeared supremely in the incarnation of the Son to rescue dead sinners by sovereign mercy alone. This sermon expounds Titus 3:4–8 under three headings: the appearance of the love of God, the application of the grace of God in regeneration and justification, and the affirmation of the gospel as the faithful saying ministers must constantly proclaim. The ordered sequence of the text is decisive: justification by grace through faith is the condition; good works are the consequent fruit, never the ground.
Baptisms
Two believers are baptized by immersion, following the confessional Baptist conviction that baptism is the outward sign of an inward work of grace belonging to professing believers alone. The service includes brief exposition of the mode and subjects of baptism drawn from the 1689 London Baptist Confession, with reference to Romans 6 as the apostolic grounding for immersion as a depiction of death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. A testimony from one of the candidates reflects on the call to follow Christ in believer's baptism as the completion of a public profession of faith.
The Penalty for Blasphemy
Leviticus 24 addresses both the daily obligations of tabernacle worship and the capital penalty for blasphemy, grounding each in the direct speech of God to Moses. The chapter's narrative pivot — an incident in which a man of mixed Israelite and Egyptian descent blasphemes the name of Yahweh — becomes the occasion for case-law application of the third commandment, surrounded by reminders of the lex talionis and the equal accountability of stranger and native-born alike. The typological furniture of the holy place (lampstand and showbread) points forward to Christ as the true light and bread of life, while the blasphemy legislation, with its witness requirements and retributive principle, reveals a God who guards his own honour and structures justice with both severity and safeguard. The sermon exhorts hearers to put away every profane use of the divine name and to cultivate a reverent, wholehearted employment of it in thought, word, and worship.
Live Stream - January 07, 2024
Hosea 7:8 declares that Ephraim is 'a cake unturned' — an image of something prepared but ruined through neglect and wrong ingredients. This sermon expounds that analogy to show that Israel's mixing with surrounding nations, their violation of God's moral, civil, and ceremonial law, made them as displeasing to God as a half-baked, burnt pancake. The sermon then turns the mirror on every human being: God created us as image bearers, demands perfect conformity to his law, and every sin — however small — renders us unacceptable before him. The remedy is not moral improvement but faith in Christ alone, whose perfect life of obedience and atoning death constitute the only offering God accepts, so that all who trust him are received as 'accepted in the Beloved.'
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ, the Mediator (Part 4)
The person of the Lord Jesus Christ — his true humanity, sinlessness, and mediatorial office — is examined through paragraphs 2, 3, and 7 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 8. The session works through the Virgin birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, the essential properties and common infirmities of Christ's assumed human nature, his sinlessness according to that nature, and the role of the Holy Spirit in equipping him for his mediatorial task. Paragraph 7's doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum is then treated, establishing what may and may not properly be said of Christ given the hypostatic union of two natures in one person.
Israel, the Unturned Pancake
Hosea 7:8 delivers a striking verdict against Israel: 'Ephraim is a cake unturned' — a half-baked pancake, burnt on one side and raw on the other, displeasing and fit to be pushed away. The sermon expounds this image as God's indictment against a people who had mixed the practices of surrounding nations into their moral, civil, and ceremonial life, violating the law that was meant to reflect the character of Yahweh. The analogy is then pressed upon every hearer: all humanity, created as image-bearers, has similarly mixed sin into the batter of life and stands displeasing before a holy God who demands perfect obedience. The remedy is not self-reformation but Christ alone — the one who lived in perfect obedience, presented himself as a sweet-smelling offering, and paid for every failure of his people, so that all who believe are accepted in him and then called to pursue intentional conformity to his image.
Live Stream - December 31, 2023
Jesus commands his disciples not to be governed by worry over life, body, or tomorrow — not because hardship is absent, but because carnal anxiety reveals a divided allegiance incompatible with Kingdom citizenship. Working through Matthew 6:25–34, this sermon distinguishes legitimate provision from obsessive anxiety, grounds the prohibition in the doctrine of divine omniscience and providence, and presses toward the positive principle: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The sermon closes with a direct appeal to unbelievers, pointing them not to moral reformation but to the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith alone.
Live Stream - December 24, 2023
Revelation 12 presents a vision of the cosmic conflict between the dragon and the seed of the woman, tracing the Incarnation, Ascension, and ongoing persecution of the church by the defeated devil. The chapter functions as a behind-the-scenes disclosure of what Christ's death and resurrection accomplished in the heavenly places: Satan is cast out, defanged by the blood of the Lamb, and reduced to waging a frustrated war against those he cannot ultimately destroy. The devil's repeated failures — against the child, in heaven, and against the woman — confirm that Genesis 3:15 has been fulfilled and that the Triumph of the Lamb is the central message of the Apocalypse. Christians are called not to expect immunity from suffering in this present evil age but to be encouraged that persecution identifies them with Christ's cross and argues for God's presence, not his absence.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ, the Mediator (Part 3)
The incarnation of the Son of God — that the eternal, divine Son took to himself a true and complete human nature without ceasing to be God — stands at the centre of the Christian religion and is inseparable from the doctrine of salvation. This confession study works through 2LCF Chapter 8, paragraphs 2 and 7, first clearing away eight historical errors about what the incarnation is not (mutation, docetism, a heavenly body, a bodyless appearance, an animal soul without a human soul, a mixing of natures, a divestiture of divine attributes, and a Nestorian conjunction of persons), then positively establishing the language of assumption, union, and incarnation as the church's consistent witness from the apostolic era forward. The Son did not subtract from nor add to himself; he took to himself that which he was not while remaining fully what he eternally is, and the Trinity — Father, Son, and Spirit — acts undividedly in this work, though it terminates on the Son alone.
Live Stream - December 17, 2023
Genesis 3:14–24 contains the first announcement of the gospel — what theologians call the Protoevangelium — in which God pronounces judgment on the serpent and promises that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head, suffering a wound in the process. The sermon traces four observations from verse 15: the Redeemer would be a man born of a woman, he would accomplish victory through suffering, through death, and ultimately through total triumph over the devil — a victory confirmed by the cross, resurrection, and Christus Victor texts of the New Testament. The remaining verses (16–24) unfold the consequences of the fall for the serpent, the woman, and the man, while the animal-skin coverings of verse 21 typologically anticipate the necessity of blood atonement for fellowship between God and man. Sinners are urged to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the skull-crushing seed of the woman, who alone can do what Adam and Eve — and we — could not do for ourselves.
The Promise of the Messiah
Genesis 3:14–24 contains the first announcement of the gospel — the proto-evangel — in which God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, though at the cost of his own suffering and death. The sermon traces four observations from verse 15: the Redeemer would be a man born of a woman, would accomplish victory through suffering, through death, and in total victory over the devil. The latter half of the passage is then examined for the hope that extends beyond the fall: Adam's naming of Eve as 'mother of all living' as an act of faith in God's promise, and God's provision of tunics of skin as a typological foreshadowing of blood atonement. The hearer is urged to cast faith upon the seed of the woman — the Lord Jesus Christ — who has done what Adam and Eve, and what every sinner, could not do for themselves.
The Husband and Wife Relationship
Ephesians 5:28–33 presents what Paul calls the 'one-flesh argument' — the creation-rooted logic that a husband who fails to love his wife acts against both Scripture and nature, since the wife is, in the deepest sense, his own flesh. The sermon works through four movements: the explanation, implication, affirmation, and application of that argument, grounding each in the harmony between general and special revelation. The affirmation from Genesis 2 is shown to be authoritative, accurate, and paradigmatic — the same text to which Christ and His apostles return whenever they address role distinction in marriage. Husbands are called to lead with love, nourish and cherish their wives as Christ does the church, and to repent of every form of negligence, coldness, or abuse that contradicts both the natural order and the gospel.
The Feasts of the Lord
Leviticus 23 sets before Israel a calendar of holy convocations — the weekly Sabbath, the spring feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Weeks, and the fall feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles — all commanded by God as the covenant head of his people. These feasts served to remind Israel of their redemptive history, promote joy and community, encourage charity, deter idolatry, and provide rest. As ceremonial law, they were typological ordinances pointing forward to Christ, and their perpetuity was covenantally conditioned: with the inauguration of the New Covenant, Christ abrogated them. The weekly Sabbath, however, rests on moral law grounded in creation and redemption and remains binding on the New Covenant people of God, who are called to observe the Lord's Day — not the Old Covenant feasts — as the appointed time for corporate worship.
The Husband and Wife Relationship, Part 2
What does it mean for a husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church? Expounding Ephesians 5:25–27, this sermon argues that the husband's headship is never a license for domestic tyranny but is always to be exercised as a reign of love, patterned after Christ's self-sacrificing, sanctifying love for his bride. The sermon works through the nature and explanation of the command to love, the characteristics of that love (faithful monogamy, consistent self-sacrifice, joyful commitment to the wife's well-being), and its threefold expression: praying for her, providing for her, and protecting her. The passage then opens into the broader Christological vision of Ephesians 5:26–27 — Christ's definite atonement, his sanctifying and cleansing of the church, and his purpose to present her to himself without spot, wrinkle, or blemish — held up as both the ground and the standard of the husband's love.
Restrictions on Levitical Priesthood
Leviticus 21–22 sets out restrictions governing the Levitical priesthood: whom priests may mourn, whom they may marry, what physical conditions disqualify them from service, who may eat from their food, and what animals are acceptable for sacrifice. The underlying logic in every category is the same — the holy God who dwells among his people demands a priesthood, a sacrifice, and a manner of worship that reflect his holiness and are not corrupted by defilement or defect. These chapters point typologically beyond themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone fulfils what the Levitical order only approximated: the perfect high priest who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, and the perfect sacrifice offered once for all. The superiority of the new covenant is seen precisely here — the exclusions of the old order (eunuchs, the maimed, the lame) give way to the great invitation of Christ to the broken and outcast to come to the wedding feast.
The Unsurpassed Value of the Gospel
The gospel of Jesus Christ is worth suffering and dying for — not because of its abstract beauty, but because of its origin, its author, and its achievement. Expounding 2 Timothy 1:8–10, this sermon traces Paul's exhortation to Timothy through three movements: the pattern for gospel ministry (refusing shame and embracing suffering in God's power), the origin of God's plan of salvation (purposed before time began, not according to works but according to divine grace), and the execution of that plan in the appearing of Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light. The Lord's Supper frames the entire meditation, giving the congregation cause to rejoice that the one who purposed their salvation in eternity has accomplished it decisively in history.