Topic
Sanctification
1,682 sermons · All topics
Ask FGBC #63: What is Baxterianism?
Baxterianism, drawn from the teaching of 17th-century minister Richard Baxter, replaces the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone with a scheme in which God justifies the believer on the ground of evangelical obedience to a relaxed 'law of the gospel.' This Q&A exposition identifies Baxterianism as a conflation of justification and sanctification, a departure from the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience, and an implicit relaxation of the moral law — errors addressed directly by 1689 LBCF chapters 11, 13, and 19. The discussion grounds its critique in Galatians 2:16 and the consistent witness of Paul that sinners are justified by faith alone, not by any human obedience, through the sole and finished work of Christ.
Review Of Israel's Rebellion
Deuteronomy 9 confronts Israel's temptation to attribute their inheritance of the promised land to their own righteousness, and Moses systematically dismantles that presumption. The chapter divides into the anticipation of the conquest (vv. 1–6) and a recapitulation of Israel's wilderness rebellions (vv. 7–29), each episode confirming that Israel stood not by merit but by the sovereign mercy of God and the faithfulness of his covenantal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses's intercessory prayer at the chapter's close models covenant pleading that appeals not to Israel's worthiness but to God's glory, his sworn word, and the redemption he himself accomplished. The passage calls God's people in every era to forsake self-righteousness and rest entirely on divine grace.
Being Strengthened
Colossians 1:11 describes one of four characteristics of a life that pleases God: being strengthened — a passive reception of divine power, not a self-generated act of will. The sermon expounds the action, the gift, the measure of the gift, and the goal of the gift, arguing that God infuses his people with all needed power according to the inexhaustible measure of his own glorious might. This strengthening is the mechanism by which believers endure patience and longsuffering under any and all circumstances of life. Sinners who have not yet come to Christ are invited to the only Savior who both grants entrance into the Christian life and sustains his people all the way to glory.
The Danger of Neglecting the Means of Grace
Hebrews 2:1–4 issues the first formal exhortation of the letter: pay much closer attention to what you have heard, lest you drift away from so great a salvation. The sermon traces the logic from Hebrews 1 — the Son of God is the final and supreme Word of God, surpassing angels, prophets, and every prior mediator — to the terribleness of neglecting that Word. Three causes of drift are identified: over-familiarity with the gospel, allowing lesser things to displace the greater, and the hardening of the heart through closed ears. The remedy is the faithful use of the means of grace — the gathered assembly, preaching, baptism, and the Lord's Supper — through which Christ continues to speak to his people.
CTF 2026 - Session 4: Pastoral Sermon
Hebrews 2:10 declares that it was fitting for God — the source and goal of all things — to bring many sons to glory through the sufferings of Christ. This sermon traces the eternal decree of election to glory, showing that the predestined are appointed not only to grace but to the full unveiled sight of God in Christ. Drawing on Hebrews 1–2, 2 Corinthians 4, and Psalm 36, the preacher argues that regenerate eyes now see the glory of God refracted through creation, Scripture, and the means of grace, as a foretaste of the unmediated vision that awaits the saints. The exhortation is to resist stopping at the creature, tracing every creaturely beauty upward to God himself, and to hunger for the glory that outweighs all present suffering.
Ask FGBC 70: Is Progressive Covenantalism Compatible with the 1689?
Progressive Covenantalism and New Covenant theology are examined against the standard of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, with particular attention to whether either system can consistently affirm the covenant of works, the covenant of redemption, and the law/Sabbath chapters of the Confession. The discussion traces the hermeneutical root of these systems — a tendency toward biblicism that resists theological vocabulary not found verbatim in Scripture — and argues that their own best instincts, illustrated by Gary Long's late work on the Adamic covenant and the creation rest, point toward the fuller confessional expression of covenant theology. The conversation closes by considering the covenant of redemption and whether collapsing it into the eternal decree is adequate, finding devotional and doxological value in the anthropomorphic language of the pactum salutis even where precise metaphysics must be qualified.
Ask FGBC 69: Is the Threefold Division of the Law Biblical?
The threefold division of the law — moral, ceremonial, and judicial — is examined as a biblically grounded framework rooted not in Westminster Assembly invention but in the canonical structure of Scripture itself, traceable through the patristics and medieval scholastics. The discussion distinguishes natural or moral law (written on the heart by virtue of creation) from positive laws that are covenantally bounded and therefore terminable, using circumcision, dietary laws, and the Sabbath as test cases. The conversation addresses how the apostolic hermeneutic applies the moral principle behind positive laws (such as the ox-muzzling text) without collapsing into theonomy. Listeners are pressed to engage the exegetical evidence rather than dismissing the framework as "too tidy."
A Trinitarian Blessing
What does it mean for a church letter full of conflict, rebuke, and difficult confrontation to close with a sweeping word of blessing? Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14 — the most elevated Trinitarian affirmation in the New Testament — does exactly that, pronouncing grace, love, and communion upon a fractious and sinning congregation without exception. The sermon distinguishes the benediction (a word of blessing descending from heaven to God's people) from the doxology (praise ascending from earth to God), tracing how each element of the Trinitarian blessing — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit — flows downward from the triune God as spiritual reality, not mere concept. The application is pointed: whatever the believer's besetting sin, weakness of assurance, or relational difficulty, the remedy begins not with human effort but with receiving the grace, love, and fellowship that the triune God lavishes upon his people.
Ask FGBC #61: Conviction of Sin Before or After Regeneration?
The question of whether conviction of sin precedes or follows faith is examined through the lens of the ordo salutis. Conviction of sin necessarily precedes faith because without it the sinner would see no need for Christ, yet Scripture nowhere prescribes a fixed period of misery as a prerequisite for receiving the gift of faith. Conversion is the divine bestowal of the graces of faith and repentance together, not a staged sequence in which the sinner must accumulate sufficient guilt before God acts. The call of the gospel is not prolonged self-examination but immediate flight to Christ, and the doctrine of presumption that keeps sinners in unnecessary bondage is a Catholic, not Protestant, imposition on the gospel promise.
Life in the Wilderness and Canaan
Deuteronomy 8 sets the wilderness generation of Israel before the land of Canaan with a threefold movement: a reminder of God's providential humbling in the wilderness (vv. 1–5), a promise of abundant blessing in the land (vv. 6–10), and a solemn warning against the pride and forgetfulness that prosperity tends to generate (vv. 11–20). The wilderness was not divine cruelty but divine chastening — designed to produce dependence on God rather than self-sufficiency — a pattern the New Testament applies both to the believer's ongoing trials and to the person of Christ, who as the true Israel recapitulates the exodus, wilderness, and restoration that old covenant Israel failed to embody faithfully. The sermon closes by calling hearers to combat forgetfulness of God through regular remembrance of his word, his covenant, and his redemptive acts, recognising that the danger is never prosperity itself but the pride that severs gratitude from grace.
The Commendation of the Philippian Church
Philippians 4:14–23 closes Paul's letter with a commendation of the Philippian church for their constant and consistent financial partnership in his apostolic ministry. The sermon works through four observations: the apostle's commendation of the church's sacrificial generosity, his contentment that transcends material circumstances, his confidence that God will supply the church's needs according to his infinite riches, and the concluding greetings — including the remarkable note that believers within Caesar's own household send greetings to Philippi. The central application is that everything praiseworthy in the Philippians — their fellowship, their sacrifice, their fruitfulness — is itself the fruit of divine grace, so that God alone receives the glory.
2LCF Chap. 21 of Christian Liberty and Liberty of conscience
Christian liberty, as defined in chapter 21 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689), consists in deliverance from the guilt, power, and punishment of sin — purchased by Christ and applied by the Spirit to every believer in every age. The chapter further distinguishes Old Covenant from New Covenant worship, affirming that while salvation blessings were shared across both covenants, New Testament believers enjoy freedom from the ceremonial law, greater boldness of access to God, and fuller communication of the Holy Spirit. Liberty of conscience means God alone is Lord of the conscience, freeing believers from ecclesiastical tyranny, civil totalitarianism, and the moral impositions of men — whether popes, parliaments, or fellow professors. Christian liberty is not license to sin but the freedom to serve God in holiness and righteousness, delivered unto righteous obedience rather than from obligation to it.
The Believer's Contentment
Philippians 4:10–13 presents the contentment of the Apostle Paul not as an innate virtue but as a learned conviction forged through diverse and often severe circumstances. Working through Paul's expression of gratitude to the Philippians, his present situation, his learned conviction, his diverse circumstances, and his source of strength, this sermon argues that Christian contentment is utterly independent of circumstances because it is grounded in union with Christ — in justification, sanctification, and promised glorification. The practical exhortation confronts the common error of tying contentment to circumstances ('when I get married, then I will be content') and calls believers instead to submit sweetly to divine providence, rejoice in God's sovereign ownership of all things, and find their settled rest in Christ alone.
Ask FGBC #59: What is Faith?
Faith is defined in two senses in Scripture: as the objective content of the Christian religion (the propositions of the gospel to be believed) and as the subjective act of believing. In its saving sense, faith is the Spirit-given, empty-handed instrument by which a sinner rests upon and receives the Lord Jesus Christ and all the redemptive benefits secured by His obedient life, atoning death, and resurrection. Because regeneration precedes faith and faith itself is a divine gift, the strength of one's faith — or the feelings accompanying it — is never the ground of salvation; Christ alone is that ground. The discussion warns against distortions that load faith with feelings, smuggle faithfulness or love into its definition, or ground justification in evangelical obedience rather than in Christ received through faith alone.
The Blessings of Obedience
Deuteronomy 7:12–26 sets before the second generation of Israel the blessings that follow covenant obedience — material prosperity, physical health, and military victory over Canaan — and the antidote to the fear that would tempt them to doubt God's promises. The passage is read within a covenant-theological framework in which the Mosaic covenant functions as a covenant of works for the nation, distinct from the covenant of grace that runs through the promise of Genesis 3:15 to its fulfillment in Christ, the true Israel of God. The sermon draws the New Covenant application that the God who did not spare His own Son will certainly sustain His people in every present trial, and calls hearers to destroy idolatry publicly, conquer it in the heart, and keep it out of the home.
The Authority of Christ Over the Demons
Matthew 8:28–34 records Christ's encounter with two demon-possessed men whose condition — violence, self-destruction, nakedness, and ceaseless torment among the tombs — exposes the wretchedness of Satan's kingdom and the glamorization of the occult as godless deception. The passage stands within Matthew's sustained demonstration in chapters 8–9 that the same authority with which Christ taught is confirmed in His works: one word, 'Go,' expels a legion. The city's request that Jesus depart reveals that the fear of God drives men either toward Him or away from Him, never to indifference. The sermon closes with the application of 1 Timothy 1:15 — that these two men are exhibit A that Christ Jesus came into the world to save even the chiefest of sinners — and an exhortation to parents to raise children who flee to the cross rather than to self-righteousness or the occult.
Ask FGBC #58: How to Start Reading the Bible?
How should a person begin reading the Bible — and how should they read it once they have opened it? This Q&A exchange addresses both the unbeliever encountering Scripture for the first time and the new believer seeking a starting point, recommending the law of God as a mirror of sin and the Gospels as the answer to that conviction. The discussion extends to the manner of reading: attending to the sense intended by the divine author rather than the nakedness of individual words, reading within the interpretive community of the church, and approaching the text through prayerful dependence that guards against the pride produced by knowledge acquired without humility. Practical counsel on guarding reading habits against the fragmenting effects of social media closes the exchange.
The Gospel in the Furnace
Daniel 3 presents a true history of three faithful Jews who refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's idolatrous decree, and in doing so become the occasion for a theophanic appearance of the pre-incarnate Son of God in the furnace. The chapter is set against the backdrop of the Mosaic covenant's curse sanctions: Israel's exile to Babylon is the direct consequence of their persistent covenant-breaking, and Babylon's rival liturgy — complete with herald, music, and threatened judgment — is a counterfeit of Israel's own God-ordained worship. The fire that Nebuchadnezzar intends as an instrument of destruction becomes instead an instrument of liberation, as the wicked are consumed, the bonds of the faithful are loosed, and the Son of God is revealed walking unhindered in the midst of the flames. The episode is a gospel pattern: Christ bears the fire of divine judgment so that those given to Him by the Father are not burned, and God's name is publicly vindicated before the nations.
The Command for the Conquest
Deuteronomy 7:1–11 sets out the divine policy for Israel's conquest of Canaan, commanding total destruction of the seven Canaanite nations and prohibiting political, social, and religious alliances with them. The passage answers the modern objection that God commanded genocide of innocent peoples by demonstrating from Leviticus 18 that the Canaanites were under divine judgment for extreme wickedness, and that God applied the same standard of judgment to Israel when Israel imitated their conduct. The distinction between Israel and Canaan rests entirely on sovereign, unconditional election — not Israel's numbers or righteousness — and finds its New Covenant fulfillment in the church as the true people of God united to Christ. The passage's prohibitions carry direct application to contemporary alliances: believers are to marry only in the Lord, avoid religious compromise on cardinal doctrines, and understand civil government's proper and limited role.
The Vindication of the Righteous One
Psalm 7 unfolds as a courtroom drama in which the psalmist — and, typologically, the Lord Jesus Christ — appeals to God for vindication against false accusers, refusing personal retaliation and casting the entire matter upon the justice of God. The sermon moves through three phases: the supplication of the righteous one, the assertion of innocence, and the extended vindication that grounds confidence in God's decreed judgment against the wicked. David functions as a type of Christ, whose spotless innocence alone fully satisfies the conditions of verses 3–4, and whose imputed righteousness is the sole ground on which the church may echo his plea. The practical summons is to resist paralysis or retaliation in the face of false accusation and social hostility, and instead to take refuge in the just God who is angry with the wicked every day and who has appointed a day of final judgment.
2LCF Chap.19 Of the Law of God
What role does the law of God play for the Christian now that Christ has come and the old covenant has been superseded? This confession-study exposition of 2LCF Chapter 19 works through seven paragraphs on the law of God, distinguishing moral universals from positive precepts, tracing the threefold division of the law (moral, ceremonial, judicial), establishing the creational and trans-covenantal abiding validity of the moral law, and demonstrating its divinely designed obsolescence in its ceremonial and judicial aspects. The three uses of the moral law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — are then applied to the Christian life, with Christ's active and passive obedience shown to be the only ground of righteousness before God.
The Presence of the God of Peace
Philippians 4:8–9 presents two inseparable imperatives — meditate on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, and then do what has been learned, received, heard, and seen in the Apostle Paul — with the promise that the God of peace will be with those who obey. The sermon argues that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not alternatives but are inextricably bound: the failure to practice truth indicts the practitioner, not the doctrine. The source of right thinking is both the light of nature (general revelation accessible to all men) and the special revelation of Scripture, which governs and clarifies all truth. The hearer is called to fill the mind with God's word, live consistently with it in a pagan society, and trust that the grace which saves also teaches and equips for godly conduct.
Getting the Garden Right — Dr. Richard Barcellos | Why Genesis 1–3 Matters for Everything
Genesis 1–3 is not merely the Bible's opening chapter but the theological foundation upon which the covenant of works, the divine rest, and the entire eschatological structure of Scripture are built. Richard Barcellos surveys the argument of his book 'Getting the Garden Right,' contending that New Covenant theology and progressive covenantalism go wrong precisely where they fail to reckon with Adam's probationary status under the covenant of works and the eschatological significance of God's Sabbath rest as a state into which the obedient image-bearer was to enter. The discussion ranges from hermeneutical method — the necessity of allowing the New Testament to illuminate the Genesis narrative — to the typological continuity of the Sabbath from creation ordinance through the resurrection of Christ to the weekly Lord's Day. Listeners are pressed to take the primary sources of the Reformed tradition seriously and to see that whatever Adam failed to attain, Christ secured, bringing many sons to the glory that is better than the beginning.
The Dangers and Precautions for Israel
Deuteronomy 6:10–25 addresses the second generation of Old Covenant Israel on the plains of Moab with warnings and precautions before they enter the Promised Land. Three dangers threaten covenant loyalty: forgetting God in prosperity, forsaking God through idolatry, and testing God under hardship. The precautions against these dangers are diligent obedience to the commandments and faithful covenant succession — passing the knowledge of God's redemptive acts to the next generation. These dangers are not merely ancient; they press upon the New Covenant church with equal force, and the remedies remain the same: fear God, keep His word, and rehearse His faithfulness to your children.
The Power of the Peace of God
Philippians 4:6–7 contains both a prohibition and a promise: Paul commands believers to be anxious for nothing and promises that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard the heart and mind through Christ Jesus. The sermon examines the prohibition against carnal anxiety, the corrective of prayer offered with thanksgiving, and the promise of divine peace — arguing that prayer is not a formula for instant relief but the ordained means by which God's people cast their burdens on God and receive the peace that flows from justification and the indwelling Spirit. The congregation is called to pray with right motivation, godly manner, and kingdom-oriented priorities as modeled in Christ's own teaching on prayer.
The Prayer of the Man of Sorrows
Psalm 6 is read christologically as the prayer of the man of sorrows — not merely a record of David's personal penitence, but a prophetic foreshadowing of Christ's redemptive anguish as the representative of his people. The doctrine of imputation grounds this reading: what Christ bears is not his own sin but the sin of those the Father gave him, laid upon him by divine appointment. The sermon works through two major sections of the psalm — the sorrow of the psalmist in verses 1–7 and the confidence of the psalmist in verses 8–10 — calling hearers to see their sin as atoned for by the Son of God and to live in light of that imputed righteousness, pursuing holiness and resting their prayers upon the same mercies Christ secured.
The Propagation of Israel's Faith
Deuteronomy 6:6–9 commands Israel not merely to profess allegiance to the one true God but to propagate that truth — first by internalizing it personally, then by transmitting it diligently to children and grandchildren in both formal and informal settings. The passage is read against the wider covenantal structure of Deuteronomy and set in parallel with Ezra 7:10, Psalm 119, and Ephesians 6:4 to show that receiving, doing, and teaching God's word are inseparable obligations running across both covenants. The sermon presses home that teaching children the law and the gospel is not a specialist calling for the especially devout but a natural reflex of redemptive grace, as ordinary and non-negotiable as providing food and shelter. Parents are urged to establish modest, consistent patterns of family worship — Scripture reading, catechism, prayer, and informal covenantal conversation — as the primary means of inoculating children against the idolatry of the surrounding world.
2LCF Chap.18 Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
What does it mean to be assured of salvation, and is such assurance available to ordinary believers or only to a spiritual elite? Working through 2LCF Chapter 18, this lesson distinguishes true Christian assurance — an infallible certainty grounded in the blood and righteousness of Christ and the testimony of the Holy Spirit — from the carnal presumption of the unregenerate who rest on false hopes. The four paragraphs of the chapter are treated in turn: the doctrine stated, its pillars declared, the means by which it is attained, and the trials that may shake but never ultimately destroy it. Believers are urged to seek assurance through the ordinary means of grace, resting not on inward experience or extraordinary revelation but on the unchanging gospel of Christ crucified and risen.
The Morning Prayer of the Messiah
Psalm 5 is the morning prayer of the Messiah — not merely a psalm David wrote, but a prophetic window into the prayer life of the incarnate Son of God as he faced bloodthirsty and deceitful enemies throughout his earthly ministry. The sermon works through four movements: Christ's appeal to the hearing God, his comfort in the divine perfections of holiness, justice, and mercy, his petitions for the guidance of the godly and the condemnation of the godless, and his confidence in the protecting God. Because the righteousness that qualifies the pray-er is Christ's own imputed righteousness received by faith alone, Psalm 5 becomes the possession of every believer in the new covenant, a daily call to pray dependently, joyfully, and with full confidence in the God who hears.
The Ratification of the Old Covenant
Exodus 24:1–8 records the ratification of the Old Covenant at Sinai through blood sacrifice, a mediator, and the sworn fidelity of the people — all of which anticipate and are surpassed by the New Covenant inaugurated in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant is identified not as an administration of the covenant of grace but as a covenant of works, in which Israel's standing depended upon their own obedience: 'all that the Lord has commanded we will do.' The New Covenant contrasts sharply: Christ, the true Israel of God, fulfills every covenantal obligation in the place of his people, so that the ground of the believer's standing before God is not their performance but his finished work. The sermon closes with a practical call to live at the foot of Calvary rather than at the foot of Sinai, resisting the legal temptation to ground either justification or sanctification in personal obedience.