Topic
Sanctification
1,682 sermons · All topics
2LCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 14 ('Of Saving Faith') teaches that saving faith is entirely a divine gift, wrought by the Spirit of Christ through the ministry of the Word, and not a capacity native to fallen man. The chapter unfolds the origin, content, object, and victory of saving faith: its Trinitarian orientation in paragraph 2 (an expansion unique to the Baptist confession), its exclusive resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace, and its ultimate triumph despite weakness and assault. Believers are exhorted to attend faithfully to the ordained means of grace — Word, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and prayer — as the appointed channels through which faith is not only wrought but continually increased and strengthened.
The Regulative Principle of Worship, Part 3
Deuteronomy 12:32 commands that nothing be added to or taken from what God has appointed for worship — a principle this sermon grounds in covenant theology and traces from the moral demands of natural law through the abrogation of the Old Covenant into the simplicity of New Covenant worship. The shift from Old Covenant to New Covenant is not a loosening of God's requirements but a fulfilment: the ceremonial positive law governing tabernacle, priesthood, sacrifice, and feasts has been abrogated by Christ, leaving the New Covenant church with the elements Christ himself has appointed — prayer, singing, Scripture reading, preaching, and the sacraments. The elements-and-circumstances distinction closes the argument: only what the divine Lawgiver has commanded in the New Covenant may govern the church's worship, and nothing may be added or taken away.
The Ministry in Iconium, Part 1
Acts 14:1–7 records the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in Iconium during the first missionary journey, and this exposition focuses on God's blessing in verse 1 — specifically the sovereignty of God in salvation and the instrumentality of gospel preaching. Drawing on Acts 13:48, Acts 16:14, Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 1, and 2 Timothy 4, the sermon argues that while God alone opens hearts, He ordains the foolishness of preaching as the ordinary means of saving sinners. The sermon closes by examining the relationship between faith and repentance in Acts, contending that the two are inseparable sides of the same coin and that repentance must never be preached as a work the sinner performs before coming to Christ.
The Blessing of Communion with God
John 14:19–24 sets before the disciples the blessing of communion with the triune God as the ground of their mission and perseverance. Jesus distinguishes what the world cannot see — the significance of his life, death, and resurrection — from what believers perceive by faith: imputed righteousness, substitutionary atonement, and life grounded in his own. The sermon traces two movements: the believer's communion with Christ (vv. 19–21), including the blessing of eternal life and the blessing of obedience-born love, and the triune God's communion with the believer (vv. 22–24), where the plural pronoun 'we will come and make our home' discloses Father, Son, and Spirit indwelling the justified. The chief application is that sanctification — love to Christ expressed in keeping his commandments — is the natural reflex of justification, not its condition.
The Regulative Principle of Worship, Part 2
What authorizes the church to add, subtract, or substitute elements in corporate worship? Tracing the divine appointment of worship from Exodus and Leviticus through Deuteronomy 12:32 and into the books of Chronicles, this sermon demonstrates that Old Covenant Israel worshiped according to explicit divine command — not human creativity, cultural accommodation, or felt need. The same God who consumed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire, who filled Solomon's temple with his glory when worship was ordered according to his word, has not relaxed his standard in the New Covenant. The regulative principle is not a straitjacket but a guard against idolatry, and the New Covenant church is called to the same obedience: asking King Jesus what he has commanded, and doing that.
The Regulative Principle of Worship
The regulative principle of worship holds that only what God explicitly commands in Scripture is acceptable in corporate worship — nothing may be added, altered, or subtracted. This sermon works through the Old Testament foundation of that principle, tracing the divine appointment of worship through the moral law of Exodus 20, the ceremonial law governing the tabernacle and priesthood, and the stark warning of Deuteronomy 12:32. The contrast between Nadab and Abihu's condemned "strange fire" and the fire of divine approval in Leviticus 9 illustrates that God judges the manner of worship, not only its object. The congregation is exhorted to approach the living God obediently rather than creatively, recognizing that the same consuming fire who regulated Old Covenant worship governs New Covenant worship unchanged.
2LCF Chapter 13 - Of Sanctification
Second London Confession of Faith Chapter 13 examines sanctification as an inseparable fruit of justification, rooted entirely in the sovereign grace of God rather than human merit or striving. The confession teaches that sanctification is real and personal moral transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit through the Word, yet remains imperfect in this life — a continual war between flesh and Spirit in which remaining corruption may at times prevail. The critical distinction between justification (Christ's forensic work for us) and sanctification (the Spirit's transforming work in us) guards against both Roman Catholic conflation and Protestant antinomianism, keeping Christ's righteousness alone as the ground of acceptance before God.
The Theological Basis for Motherhood
Titus 2:3–5 grounds the calling of older and younger women not in cultural expectation but in the gospel of grace. The passage moves from the virtues older women must embody, to the domestic relationships and personal character younger women are to cultivate, to the theological warrant undergirding all of it: a woman who professes saving faith yet neglects these duties brings reproach upon the very word of God she claims to believe. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and the imperatives of Titus 2 describe the life of sanctification that flows from that redemption, not the means of obtaining it.
2LBC Chapter 17 - of the Perseverance of the Saints (part 2)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession's seventeenth chapter on the perseverance of the saints is honest about the real threats that confront the believer: the devil, the world, and the remaining corruption of the flesh, compounded by neglect of the means of grace. The life of David—adultery, murder, temporal judgments, and the sword that never departed from his house—is held up as a biblical case study for every consequence the confession names. Yet the chapter does not end in the catalogue of ruin: repentance itself is an evangelical grace given by God, and the preservation of God's elect is grounded not in their free will but in the immutability of election, the intercession of Christ, and the nature of the covenant of grace. The practical force of the doctrine is a call to use the ordained means—word, prayer, baptism, the Lord's Supper, corporate worship—as God-given instruments for persevering to the end.
Live Stream - May 05, 2024
Ephesians 1:19–23 grounds the apostle Paul's prayer that believers would know 'the exceeding greatness of God's Almighty power.' This sermon argues that divine omnipotence is not merely an abstract attribute but is concretely demonstrated in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ, who now reigns as head over all things for the benefit of his church. The three movements examine the supremacy of God's power as infinite, self-existent, and uncaused; its historical demonstration in Christ's resurrection and session at the Father's right hand; and the immensity of Christ's exaltation as universal Lord and federal head of his people. The believer's assurance rests not in personal strength but in the same almighty power that raised Christ from the dead, which also preserves, calls, and will finally resurrect all who are united to him.
The Departure of Paul
Paul's final written words in 2 Timothy 4:6–8 disclose the mind of a man at the eleventh hour of his life: conscious of imminent martyrdom, yet unshaken in confidence. The sermon works through three movements — the apostle's present situation as a drink offering poured out (v. 6), his past perseverance in fight, race, and faith (v. 7), and his future hope in the crown of righteousness (v. 8). Central to the exposition is the insistence that the crown of righteousness is not a reward for performance but a confirmation of justification by faith alone, the imputed righteousness of Christ conveyed freely by the righteous judge. The application presses every believer to live now in such a way that the eleventh hour may be faced with the same God-graced confidence Paul displays here.
The Exceeding Greatness of God's Almighty Power
Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:19–23 that believers would know the exceeding greatness of God's almighty power raises the question of what that power actually is and what it has accomplished. This sermon works through three interlocking realities: the supremacy of God's omnipotence as a timeless, self-existent, and inexhaustible divine attribute; its decisive demonstration in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ; and the immensity of that exaltation, whereby Christ reigns as head over all creation and over his church. The practical weight falls on believers — the same power that raised Christ from the dead is the power that calls, regenerates, preserves, and will finally resurrect all who are united to him.
Live Stream - April 28, 2024
John 12:27-28 presents the inner state of Christ's human soul at the approach of his atoning death — 'Now my soul is troubled' — and demands theological reckoning rather than easy comfort. Working through four movements in the text (the troubled soul, the rejected petition, the committed purpose, and the prayer for the Father's glory), the sermon argues that the Son of God, as very man, experienced genuine anguish of soul without sin, bearing our griefs and procuring righteousness precisely by passing through every stage and trial of human experience without transgressing the law of God. The pastoral summons is to rest assurance of salvation not on personal performance but entirely on the blood and righteousness of the incarnate Mediator who, at the very crucible of temptation, obeyed for us and said, 'Father, glorify your name.'
Live Stream - April 28, 2024
Psalm 88 is the most sorrowful of all the Psalms, the honest cry of a believer named Heman the Ezrahite who describes his suffering in terms of an oubliette — a medieval dungeon of utter darkness and forgetfulness — yet never ceases to call upon the LORD. This expository sermon on Psalm 88 argues that profound suffering is a genuine and expected part of the Christian life, not an indication of sin, and that the Psalm itself is divinely provided as a vehicle of prayer for God's people in their darkest moments. The sermon traces the Psalm's place in the third book of the Psalter, examines its theological force for suffering believers, and then reads the Psalm as a window into Christ's own agony in Gethsemane and at Calvary, concluding that believers may come boldly to a sympathetic High Priest who has endured deeper darkness than any of his people will face.
A Cry from God's Oubliette
Psalm 88 is the most sorrowful psalm in the entire Psalter — a cry from one whom God has placed in what the preacher calls an 'oubliette,' the lowest and most forgotten prison in a medieval dungeon. Heman the Ezraite, whose name means 'faithful,' addresses the covenant LORD from the depths of unrelieved affliction, offering no tidy resolution but only the continued cry of faith in darkness. The sermon argues that this psalm validates the reality of deep suffering among God's faithful people, calls the church to companionship with those who suffer, and ultimately points to the Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into a darker oubliette than any of his people will ever know — and who therefore sympathizes with and intercedes for all who cry out to God in their trouble.
Very man: “Now my soul is troubled”
John 12:27–28 records the Son of God incarnate declaring 'Now my soul is troubled' — words that are simultaneously a window into his true humanity and a display of his sinless obedience at the threshold of Calvary. This sermon works through the four clauses of those verses, arguing that Christ's soul-trouble was real and holy, arising not from cowardice before mere bodily suffering but from his contemplation of the divine wrath he would bear as the substitute for sinners. Drawing on Cyril of Alexandria's principle that 'what is not assumed is not healed,' the sermon shows that Christ's sinless experience of grief, agitation, and soul-anguish recapitulates every stage of fallen human experience so that he might procure both the forgiveness of guilt and the positive righteousness his people need in every circumstance of life. The congregation is called to rest its entire confidence — prayer life, grief, daily obedience — in the blood and righteousness of the one who said 'For this purpose I came to this hour.'
The Nature of the Holy Spirit, Part 2
Jesus' promise in John 14:17–18 — that the Spirit of truth cannot be received by the world, yet dwells with and will be in his disciples — grounds the church's dependence on sovereign grace for all gospel ministry. The sermon works through the doctrine of inseparable operations and appropriations to protect both the unity of the Godhead and the distinction of persons, before applying the Spirit's indwelling to the perseverance of the saints and the sufficiency of the gospel. The closing exhortation presses both believers and unbelievers: the Spirit abides forever, justification is by faith alone, and the righteousness of Christ is imputed — not merely forgiveness extended — to all who come to him.
2LCF Chapter 18 - Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
The 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 18 grounds the assurance of salvation not in emotional experience but in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ as the objective foundation, confirmed by the inward evidences of the Spirit's work in regeneration. The chapter distinguishes between the false presumption of unregenerate men and the genuine, infallible assurance available to true believers through faith in Christ. Assurance does not belong to the essence of faith — a true believer may struggle and doubt without thereby forfeiting salvation — yet the confession calls every believer to diligent pursuit of settled assurance as a duty. The subjective evidences of grace (repentance, love for Christ, good works, the Spirit's testimony of adoption) are consequential to the objective ground, never a replacement for it.
Ask FGBC #5 - Are people who “chose” for Jesus actually saved?
A listener asks whether people who speak of 'choosing Jesus' or 'accepting Christ' are necessarily unsaved because of that language, and whether such language betrays a works-based understanding of salvation. The response distinguishes between imprecise theological vocabulary and a genuinely defective view of salvation, arguing that God's grace saves people who may articulate that grace poorly. The answer touches on the relationship between sloppy speech, theological precision, and the question of perseverance implicit in how one frames conversion.
The Regulation of the Church's Worship
What gives the church the right to dictate the forms of its own worship — and what happens when it does? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon grounds the regulative principle of worship in the nature of the church itself: because the church is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, God alone determines what is done within it. The sermon surveys the pastoral epistles to show that Scripture consistently prioritizes sound doctrine over therapeutic or culturally-tailored substitutes. The practical call is to use the means God has ordained — corporate prayer, preaching, psalm-singing — trusting that Christ is genuinely present in the midst of his gathered people.
2LCF Chapter 12 - Of Adoption
The doctrine of adoption, as set forth in chapter 12 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is grounded exclusively in the justified sinner's union with Christ and utterly excludes human merit, free will, or moral achievement as its basis. Drawing on both Pauline and Johannine categories — legal adoption and organic new birth — the sermon demonstrates that these are complementary facets of the single truth that God receives sinners into His family as sons and heirs. The benefits of adoption are fourfold: inclusion in the family of God, reception of the Spirit of adoption with access to the Father, fatherly treatment (pity, protection, provision, and chastening), and the sealed inheritance of everlasting salvation. Adopted sons and daughters are therefore called to walk in love, light, and wisdom — not as a condition of sonship, but as its proper fruit.
The Mission of the Disciples, Part 2
John 14:16–18 presents Christ's promise to send the Holy Spirit as the resource by which the disciples would carry out the greater works of the gospel mission. This sermon works through the foundation of that promise — salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the love that flows from justification as the animating power of obedience and mission — before pausing to mount a sustained defense of Trinitarian theology proper. The preacher argues that biblicism without creedal guardrails, anti-intellectualism, and laziness have left the contemporary church vulnerable to the same Trinitarian errors the Nicene and Chalcedonian fathers labored to foreclose, and calls the congregation to pursue the knowledge of the triune God as the very substance of eternal life.
The Depths of Sin and the Riches of Grace
Psalm 130 moves from the depths of spiritual distress to the heights of pardoning grace, and this exposition traces that movement through three divisions: the psalmist's cry of distress (vv. 1–2), his recognition of divine justice and divine forgiveness (vv. 3–4), and his patient exhortation to all Israel (vv. 5–8). The sermon establishes that the believer's remaining corruption should drive him not to silence but to earnest prayer, since the only remedy for sin is the grace of God. The justice of God is never mitigated in the gospel: at the cross, strict justice was satisfied upon Christ as substitute and curse-bearer, so that God is simultaneously just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The sermon closes with an appeal both to the struggling believer — do not make peace with remaining sin, but cry out to God — and to the unconverted, for whom the same abundant redemption is freely available in Christ.
March 24, 2024
Romans 5:1 declares that justification by faith produces peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ — a peace that assumes a prior condition of enmity, guilt, and divine wrath. This sermon traces that peace through the whole of Scripture, from its Old Testament promise in Isaiah and Micah, through its announcement at the nativity, to its accomplishment in Christ's active and passive obedience. The principal pastoral application is that Christian assurance rests not on the ebb and flow of one's walk but on the immutability of the divine decree, the intercession of the ascended Christ, and the covenant of grace.
Ask FGBC #4: Is accepting salvation a choice? (Hyper-Calvinism)
Is accepting salvation a choice, and does that choice conflict with divine election? This Q&A addresses the relationship between the general call of the gospel and the effectual call of God, arguing that human faith is a real act of the will, but one that presupposes prior regeneration — sinners are dead in trespasses and sins and must be born again before they can believe. The discussion also addresses the pastoral problem of assurance, directing struggling believers away from introspection and personal performance toward the objectivity of Christ's finished work and his ongoing intercession as High Priest and advocate.
The Whole Armor of God, Part 2
The sword of the Spirit and the necessity of prayer form the offensive weapons of the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6:17–24. This exposition argues that the church is constituted as the pillar and ground of the truth and must wield the Word of God against spiritual enemies rather than substituting entertainment, therapeutic programming, or institutional management for gospel proclamation. Prayer is examined through its manner — constant, Spirit-dependent, watchful, and persevering — and its objects: intercession for all the saints and for gospel boldness in the ministry of the Word. The close of the epistle is read as a benediction grounding grace and peace in the Trinitarian life of God.
The Mission of the Disciples, Part 1
John 14:12–15 addresses the mission Christ assigns to His disciples and the obedience He requires of them in light of His imminent ascension. The 'greater works' the disciples will perform are not a competition with Christ's own ministry but are the works of the ascended, reigning Christ accomplished through His disciples by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from the Father. Prayer in Christ's name is examined in its tight missional context — the asking that drives the greater works — and is shown to be governed by the will of God rather than functioning as a blank check. The sermon closes by distinguishing loving obedience as the fruit, not the ground, of justification by faith alone, grounding the entire missionary enterprise in the grace that has already been given.
2LCF Chapter 11 - Of Justification
How is a guilty sinner declared righteous before a holy God? This study of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 11 works through the six paragraphs on justification, giving careful attention to the three pairs of denials and affirmations in paragraph one. The confession is set against the Roman Catholic conflation of justification and sanctification, Socinian and Arminian errors regarding faith and evangelical obedience as the ground of justification, and the doctrine of eternal personal justification. The sole ground of the sinner's acceptance before God is the imputed active and passive obedience of Christ, received through faith alone — itself a gift of God — so that God is glorified as both perfectly just and richly gracious in the justification of sinners.
The Pharisee and the Publican
Luke 18:9–14 sets before the reader two men whose manner of prayer exposes the only two grounds on which a person can seek acceptance with God: self-righteousness or the imputed righteousness of Christ. The Pharisee's boastful rehearsal of his own religious merits and his contempt for the publican show that pride and the despising of others are inextricably joined. The publican, who can do nothing but beat his breast and cry for propitiation, goes home justified — declared righteous not by what he was or did, but by the alien righteousness of another received through faith alone. The sermon calls hearers to examine whether they stand before God as the Pharisee or the publican, and to come to the Lord's Supper not as a reward for good behavior but as those who rest entirely on Christ's doing and dying.
Live Stream - February 25, 2024
Jesus prepares his troubled disciples for his imminent departure by directing their faith toward two great realities: the Father's house with its many mansions, and his own identity as the exclusive and accessible way to the Father. Working through John 14:1–6, this sermon traces the exhortation against soul-trouble to its remedy in believing on God and on Christ as the equal object of saving faith, the preparation of heaven through the cross, resurrection, and ascension, and the surpassing claim that Christ himself — as the way, the truth, and the life — is both the sole path to the Father and the ground of the believer's unshakeable comfort in every trial.