Topic
Sanctification
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From Persecutor to Preacher, Part 2
Paul's early Christian career in Galatians 1:15–24 demonstrates that his apostolic commission and gospel were received directly from God, not derived from or validated by any human authority. His separation from the womb, effectual calling by grace, and the revelation of Christ in him establish divine sovereignty over his entire ministry — from persecutor to preacher. The sermon engages the 'new perspective on Paul,' arguing that the Reformation reading rightly identifies individual sin and grace as the heart of Paul's theology, not merely the corporate sociological question of Jew-Gentile relations. The hearer is pressed to trust in Christ alone, whose blood atones for great and invincible sins, and to see every human supplement to that atonement as an assault upon the cross itself.
The Ninth Commandment
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Exodus 20:16), is examined through its prohibition, its underlying reasons, and its positive demands. The sermon identifies seven specific violations — perjury, lying, backbiting, slander, gossip, hypocrisy, and the willing reception of evil speech — and grounds them in the character of God, who is truth, and the dignity of man made in His image. The three uses of the law frame the exposition: the law convicts the unconverted liar and guides the regenerate believer toward a life of truthfulness. Hearers are called to speak truth in every domain of life, to swear to their own hurt, to exercise charity toward others, and to actively discourage the gossip and slanderer.
The Passion, the Resurrection, and Justification by Faith Alone
Romans 4:25 sets the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the inseparable ground of the believer's justification before God. This sermon expounds that single verse within the broader context of Romans 3:21–4:25, where Paul establishes that justification is by faith alone — not by circumcision, moral refinement, or works — and demonstrates from Abraham and David that God imputes righteousness to the ungodly who believe. The necessity of Christ's atoning death and bodily resurrection are treated as twin non-negotiables: without blood shed there is no remission, and without a risen Savior justification remains unconfirmed and faith is vain. Believers are called to rest in the finished work of Christ alone — delivered up for their offenses, raised for their justification — and to resist the accuser by returning to these objective gospel realities.
From Fasting to Feasting
Zechariah 8 answers the question posed in chapter 7 — whether the returning exiles should continue their fasting commemorating the exile — by redirecting attention from empty ritualism to the sovereign blessing of God under the Messianic reign of Christ. The chapter unfolds in five movements: the restoration of Zion to God's favor, an exhortation to persevere in the work of building, a call to sincere internal religion, the definitive answer that exile-fasts are transformed into feasts, and the promise of Gentile inclusion in covenant blessing. The fulfillment of these promises is grounded not in human faithfulness but in the zeal of Jehovah himself, whose determination to do good to his people drives the advance of the Gospel from Pentecost to the present day. The sermon closes with a call to carry Zechariah's vision of the nations streaming to Christ into the prayer closet and into the practical life of the church.
From Persecutor to Preacher
Paul's autobiography in Galatians 1:11–24 is not self-promotion but a defense of the divine origin of his gospel and apostolic authority. Working through Paul's former conduct as a practitioner, persecutor, and professor of Judaism, the sermon argues that no man so deeply invested in Judaism would have invented or received the gospel of free and sovereign grace from merely human sources — it came by direct revelation of Jesus Christ on the Damascus road. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is thus a monument to sovereign, particular grace: God saved His chief enemy and commissioned him to preach the very gospel he had tried to destroy. The sermon calls the unconverted to see in Paul's transformation the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save the most wretched sinners, and summons believers to tenacious defense of justification by faith alone.
A Question About Fasting
Zechariah 7 records a delegation from Bethel arriving in Jerusalem to ask the priests whether the fasts commemorating the destruction of the temple should continue now that the temple is being rebuilt. Rather than answering the calendar question directly, God through Zechariah exposes the deeper problem: these fasts had been observed as empty external rites, not as genuine heart devotion to God. The sermon works through the text in three movements — the question posed, the divine answer exposing formalism, and the necessity of genuine religion marked by justice, mercy, and compassion — and closes with a call to believe the gospel before the heart becomes too hardened to hear.
The Second Servant Song of Isaiah
Isaiah 49:1–13, the Second Servant Song, presents the Lord's chosen Servant — identified as the incarnate Christ — whose mission extends far beyond the restoration of Israel to encompass the salvation of Gentiles to the ends of the earth. The sermon works through three divisions of the passage: the call of the Servant (vv. 1–3), his mission including its scope, costs, and goals (vv. 4–12), and the resulting doxology (v. 13). The Servant's humiliation, his resolve under rejection, and the global reach of his redemptive work ground a sustained call for the church to pray earnestly and sacrificially for gospel missions worldwide.
Behold the Lamb of God
John 1:29 records John the Baptist's climactic announcement — 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — and this meditation, preached before the Lord's Table, draws out three aspects of that declaration: Christ's arrival as the fulfillment of centuries of typological promise, His identification as the Lamb provided by God Himself, and His mission to remove sin in its totality. The sermon traces the Lamb motif from Genesis 3 through the Passover, Isaiah 53, and into the book of Revelation, demonstrating that definite atonement is God's sovereign provision rather than any human design. Hearers are called to stop and genuinely behold Christ crucified — not merely affirm justification by faith alone as a doctrine, but find in it daily comfort, worship, and the ground of true gospel holiness.
Greetings and Final Instructions
Colossians 4:7–18 closes Paul's letter not with abstraction but with names — real men whose faithfulness, failure, restoration, and apostasy illuminate the pastoral realities of gospel ministry. The passage reveals Paul not as a theology machine but as a suffering apostle sustained by the fellowship of Jewish and Gentile brothers alike, directing the advance of Christ's kingdom from a Roman prison cell. The sermon draws from each figure a single defining lesson — faithfulness, restoration, saving grace, apostasy, and strategic kingdom labor — while closing with an exhortation to guard against heresy by making much of the supremacy of Christ.
A Faithful Saying
The phrase 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners' (1 Timothy 1:15) is not rhetorical decoration but a precise theological claim about the nature and scope of redemption. This exposition works through Paul's self-description as 'chief of sinners' — blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man — to show that the depth of his depravity magnifies rather than diminishes the glory of sovereign, particular grace. The sermon argues that Calvinistic soteriology reduces to one confession: God saves sinners, doing everything from election to glorification, leaving no share of the decisive act to man. Hearers are called to respond to this grace with informed, exhilarated worship and to press the invitation upon every sinner who imagines himself too wretched to be saved.
Slaves and Masters
Colossians 3:22–4:1 addresses the final relationship in the household code — slaves and masters — and Paul's instructions cut against both first-century Aristotelian contempt for slaves and twenty-first-century assumptions about social action. The passage unfolds in three movements: the duty of slaves (obedience in action and sincerity of heart, not eye-service), the incentives for slaves (the promise of an eternal inheritance from the Lord Christ), and the duty of masters (to give what is just and fair, governed by the knowledge that they too answer to a Master in heaven). The governing theological claim is that heavenly-mindedness produces, rather than withdraws from, faithful earthly labor — so every Christian employee and employer is called to work as unto the Lord, fearing God rather than men, whether recognized by their master or not.
The Cleansing of Joshua
Zechariah 3 presents a fourth night vision in which Joshua the high priest stands before God clothed in filth — a vivid picture of human depravity and covenantal guilt — while Satan stands ready to accuse. God rebukes the accuser on the grounds of sovereign election and acts unilaterally to remove the filthy garments and clothe Joshua in festal robes, a scene the Westminster Shorter Catechism's definition of justification precisely captures: God pardons all sin and accepts the sinner as righteous solely for the righteousness of Christ imputed and received by faith alone. The vision then points forward to 'the Branch,' God's servant who would remove the iniquity of the land in a single day — a reference ultimately fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ. The passage calls both the unconverted to look to Christ for the removal of their filth and the believer to rest in the intercession of their advocate before the Father.
A Spiritual Inventory
First Corinthians 1:30–31 presents Christ as the believer's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption — a fourfold treasure that Paul sets against the competing philosophies and worldviews of his day. The source of every gospel blessing is God alone: 'of him you are in Christ Jesus,' which excludes every ground of human boasting and demands a radical humility before the triune God. Justification is not a moral improvement but a legal imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness to the believer's account, and sanctification is equally a work of Christ's power, not the believer's unaided effort. The goal of this entire arrangement is the glory of God, so that all boasting is directed to the Lord alone.
A Little Sinner and a Big Savior
Luke 19:1–10 presents the conversion of Zacchaeus as a concentrated display of sovereign, covenant-keeping grace. The sermon works through Zacchaeus's identity as a chief tax collector, a rich man, and above all a lost sinner, before turning to the mission of Christ: he condescends, calls by name, and saves by grace alone through faith alone, with repentance and good works following as inevitable fruit. The closing application presses both the unconverted to make haste to Christ and the converted to receive him joyfully as they come to the Lord's Supper.
Paul's Departure
What does it look like to face death with settled confidence and undimmed gospel zeal? This exposition of 2 Timothy 4:6–8 examines Paul's final written words — his description of his impending martyrdom as a drink offering poured out, his retrospective claim to have fought, finished, and kept, and his forward-looking anticipation of the crown of righteousness. The sermon presses the point that the composure Paul displays in his prison cell is inseparable from the Christ-centered, gospel-saturated life he lived in every preceding hour, summoning hearers to the same persevering faith and eschatological hope.
The Pharisee and the Publican
Luke 18:9–14 presents two men who go to the temple to pray — one a celebrated Pharisee, the other a despised tax collector — and the parable exposes the fatal error of self-righteousness and the only ground on which a sinner may stand before a holy God. The Pharisee's prayer is a catalogue of self-achieved merit; the publican's cry — 'God, be propitious to me, the sinner' — is the only prayer that avails, because it casts the soul entirely on divine mercy rather than human performance. Justification is declared a forensic act of God alone, grounded in the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith, not in fasting, tithing, or any work of the law. The sermon closes with the charge that the same gospel that humbles the self-righteous must produce in the justified a charity toward others and a watchfulness against out-Phariseeing the Pharisee.
Simeon and God's Salvation
The account of Simeon in Luke 2:25–35 presents a model of genuine biblical piety — a man who was just toward men and devout toward God because he was first rightly related to God by grace through faith in the promised Messiah. The sermon traces three features of Simeon's life: his character (just and devout), his conduct (waiting and worshiping in anticipation of the consolation of Israel), and his fourfold confession when he holds the infant Christ (the truth of God's word, the glory of God's salvation, the comprehensive mission of Christ to Jew and Gentile, and a prophetic word of sorrow to Mary). Listeners are called to examine whether their own character, conduct, and confession mirror Simeon's — living now in watchful, holy expectation of Christ's return, knowing that the only preparation for death is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian Father
Colossians 3:21 addresses fathers with a single prohibition — do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged — and the sermon expounds that verse alongside its Ephesians 6:4 parallel to give a full account of fatherly duty. The prohibition is explained through its result (discouragement, the breaking of a child's spirit) and its common causes: unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, ungodly inconsistency, and imbalance of law without gospel. The positive exhortation of Ephesians 6:4 is then opened through five practical commitments — presence, provision, protection, prayer, and preaching — each grounded in the father's identity as a new man in Christ whose grace-transformed heart drives active, loving involvement in his children's lives.
The Responsibility of Children
Colossians 3:20 addresses children as responsible members of the covenant community with a specific duty: to obey their parents in all things for the glory of God. This sermon expounds that command under two headings — as a religious commitment rooted in what is well-pleasing to the Lord, and as a requirement of God's moral law grounded in the Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5; Ephesians 6:1–3). The law's impossible demand is not softened but turned pedagogically toward the cross: children cannot perfectly obey or honor their parents, and that failure is meant to drive them to Christ, whose active obedience fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of sinners. Parents are therefore urged to present the law honestly, presume nothing about their children's regeneration, and cultivate homes where gospel ethics are visibly practiced.
The New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31–34 announces a new covenant that surpasses every prior administration of the covenant of grace — Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic — by guaranteeing what none of them could: an inviolable covenant secured not by human fidelity but by the covenant head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Four defining features mark the new covenant as genuinely new: the inviolability of its bond, the internalization of God's law upon the heart, the saving knowledge of God granted to every member, and the full and permanent forgiveness of sins. Against Federal Vision teaching, the sermon insists that new covenant membership is coextensive with salvation — those who fall away demonstrate they were never true members. Entry into this covenant is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, who ratifies it in his own blood as the surety of a better covenant.
The Defining Characteristic of a Christian Husband
Colossians 3:19 commands husbands to love their wives and prohibits bitterness toward them — a deceptively simple two-part instruction that cuts against both passive abdication and domineering harshness. This sermon works through what that love requires by examining 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 5, and 1 Peter 3, showing that Christ's sacrificial, monogamous, intimate, and sanctifying love for the church is the standard and pattern for every Christian husband. Three practical obligations emerge: pray for and with her, provide for her materially and spiritually, and protect her from danger, ungodly influences, and false doctrine. The sermon closes with a gospel appeal, reminding hearers that the active and passive obedience of Christ — not marital performance — is the ground of their standing before God, and that the husband-wife relationship exists as an illustration of Christ's love for his church.
A Word to the Wives
Colossians 3:18 commands wives to submit to their own husbands as is fitting in the Lord — a command that cuts against the grain of contemporary culture and even the instincts of redeemed sinners. This sermon establishes that submission is not demeaning but reflects the eternal pattern of the Son's willing submission to the Father within the equal-in-essence Trinity, and that gospel redemption does not abolish role distinctions in the family but enables their proper functioning. The domestic application works through the lawful target, the universal scope, and the Christological motivation of the command, pressing wives to understand that submitting to their own husbands is primarily a religious duty rendered unto the Lord. The sermon closes by grounding the entire exhortation in the gospel: a wife's standing before God rests not on threads of her own submissive obedience but on the imputed righteousness of Christ, whose active and passive obedience constitute the only robe in which sinners stand justified.
The Christ-Centered Orientation of the New Man
Colossians 3:15–17 presents the new man not as a moralist who earns standing before God by putting off vice and putting on virtue, but as one whose entire life is oriented around the person and work of Christ. The sermon argues that three Christ-centered realities define the new man: the peace of Christ, which is grounded in justification by faith alone and flows from the blood of Calvary; the word of Christ, which is to dwell richly in the heart both for personal transformation and mutual edification in the body; and the name of Christ, under which every word and deed is performed. The practical summons is to let the gospel — not personal performance — be the governing principle of the Christian life, so that the new man is known above all for making much of Christ crucified.
Conduct Becoming a New Man
Colossians 3:12–14 calls the new man in Christ not merely to shed sinful habits but to clothe himself with a definite set of Spirit-wrought virtues: tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness, and above all, love. The passage grounds these graces in the threefold identity of the elect — chosen, holy, and beloved — an identity that derives from God's sovereign election and not from any prior human worthiness. These virtues are not a program of moral self-improvement but the fruit of union with Christ, whose own character they mirror, and the sermon applies them concretely to marriage, the local church, and the workplace. The closing appeal presses the unconverted to flee to Christ alone, since niceness apart from grace saves no one, while calling the church to celebrate the gospel of free and sovereign grace as the only foundation on which any of this obedience stands.
Amazing Love
What does it mean that God has 'bestowed' his love on believers, calling them children of God? Expounding 1 John 3:1, this sermon traces the love of God across three horizons — before the foundation of the world in eternal election, in redemptive history at the cross, and throughout eternity to come — while pressing the permanence of that love against any notion that it can be forfeited. The sermon closes by drawing from Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 to show that the believer's calling is not to measure the intensity of his own love for Christ, but to be spiritually strengthened, educated, and saturated in the inexhaustible love Christ has for his people.
Conduct Unbecoming a New Man
Colossians 3:5–11 calls believers to put to death sins of the flesh and put off sins of the tongue as conduct unbecoming of the new man in Christ. The sermon works through two parallel sections: the cluster of sexual sins (fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness) rooted in idolatry, and the sins of speech (anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language, lying) rooted in corrupt internal dispositions. Throughout, the preacher insists that the motive for mortification is not moralism but gospel indicative — the old man is dead, the new man is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator. The closing application presses both the unconverted and the baptized: acting like a Christian does not make one a Christian; salvation rests entirely on the finished work of Christ, and only from that ground does holy conduct flow.
I'm in church because...
What are the right reasons for a Christian to gather with the church? This sermon on 1 Timothy 3:15, ranging across Hebrews 10, Acts 20, Revelation 1, and 1 Corinthians 11, argues that the motives driving church attendance must be theological and divine rather than aesthetic or consumerist. Seven reasons are set forth: the perfect crosswork of Christ, the identity of the church as the house of the living God, the presence of the reigning Christ among his churches, the church as pillar and ground of the truth, the church as God's ordained place for the care of his sheep, the administration of the Lord's Supper, and the mutual building up of the saints. The sermon closes with a call to enter the assembly for high and holy reasons — as both a commanded duty and a joyful privilege before the triune God.
Five Observations on Christ's Doctrine of Salvation (Part 1)
The doctrines of grace are not cold dogmatism but the very substance of the gospel, and Christ himself is their foremost teacher. Working from John 6:35–51 and ranging through the Gospel of John, this sermon opens a five-observation series on Christ's own doctrine of salvation, examining first the comprehensiveness of sin — total inability, bondage to the devil, and the love of darkness — and second, the unmitigated and unsolicited divine prerogative in salvation, by which God alone is the alpha and omega of the rescue of sinners. The third observation treats the precision and impeccability of Christ's crosswork: the Father's will that nothing given to the Son be lost, and the Son's answering cry of victory, 'It is finished,' as the ground of particular redemption. The unconverted are urged to see themselves as the Gadarene maniac — untamed, chained, and in need of the Christ who alone can bring a sinner to be clothed and in his right mind.
Five Observations on Christ's Doctrine of Salvation (Part 2)
John 6:35–51 presents a chain of divine activity in which the Father gives, the Son receives, and none are lost — a chain that rests entirely on sovereign, unconquerable grace. This second installment in a series on Christ's doctrine of salvation expounds two final observations: the unconquerable power of regenerating grace (irresistible grace), illustrated by Ezekiel's valley of dry bones and the raising of Lazarus, and the infallibility of the divine embrace paired with the indefectibility of those embraced (the preservation and perseverance of the saints). The sermon closes with a call to ground assurance not in self-examination or experiential motions but in the decree of election, the merits of Christ, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, and with a direct gospel plea to any who do not yet know Christ.
Questions to Live By
Matthew 22:34–40 records a lawyer's question to Jesus — which commandment is the greatest? — and Jesus answers by binding together love for God and love for neighbour as the sum of all the law and the prophets. The sermon traces the theme of questioning throughout the Gospels to show that Christ himself answers every fundamental question about who he is and what he requires. From that foundation, two implicit questions are drawn from the text and pressed upon hearers: who are you living for (vertical love toward God), and how are you living (horizontal love toward neighbour)? The conclusion calls those outside Christ to submit to him and those within to pursue him with wholehearted passion.