Topic
Theology Proper
369 sermons · All topics
The Doctrine of the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity — one God eternally existing in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in substance and equal in power and glory — is not a peripheral curiosity but the beating heart of Christian confession. This sermon defines the doctrine precisely, distinguishes it from the ancient heresies of Arianism, polytheism, and modalism, and then marshals Old and New Testament evidence to demonstrate that the entire canon is Trinitarian to its core. The deity of the Son and the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit receive particular attention, since these are the contested points, and the sermon closes by showing that a right understanding of the Trinity grounds our communion with God, shapes our worship, and patterns our treatment of one another.
Five Truths that Demonstrate God's Glory, Part 1
Ephesians 1:3–14 presents salvation as the coordinated work of the triune God — Father electing, Son redeeming, Spirit sealing — all directed to one end: the praise of God's glory. This sermon expounds the first three of five truths grounded in that passage: total depravity, unconditional election, and definite atonement. The preacher argues that only when sinners reckon with the depth of human corruption can they rightly appreciate the sovereign grace that saves, and that the proper response to these doctrines is not polemics but doxology.
The Throne Room
Revelation 4–5 answers the suffering and persecution catalogued in the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2–3) by drawing back the curtain of heaven to reveal the throne room of God. Chapter 4 grounds worship in the doctrine of creation, while chapter 5 grounds it in definite atonement — the Lamb who was slain has redeemed a people to God by His blood out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The vision presses the church to respond to earthly trial not with despair but with humility, worship, and mission, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah has already prevailed.
The Prophet of God's Wrath
Zephaniah 1:14–2:15 portrays the Day of the Lord as an inexorable visitation of divine wrath from which no earthly resource — strength, silver, or gold — can purchase escape. The sermon expounds two realities from verses 14–18 (the wrath of God and the sinfulness of man) before turning to the threefold exhortation of chapter 2 (seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek humility), showing that the only refuge from the wrath of God is flight to God Himself through faith in Christ. A sustained closing application urges preachers and hearers alike not to strip the Gospel of its necessary foundation in divine wrath, since good news presupposes bad news, and the beauty of justification by grace through faith is inseparable from the terror of the judgment it averts.
God's Hand Stretched Out Against Judah
Zephaniah 1:1–13 announces the coming day of the Lord against the southern kingdom of Judah, cataloguing the sins that provoke divine judgment: idolatry (including Baal worship and astral cults), syncretism, practical atheism, and religious complacency. The text reveals that God's privileged covenant people are held to a stricter standard precisely because they have received more — a pattern the apostle Peter confirms when he writes that judgment begins at the house of God. The sermon presses these ancient indictments as a mirror for the contemporary church, calling believers to repent of the same patterns, to be zealous rather than complacent, and to respond to the prospect of divine wrath not by fleeing God but by seeking Him, seeking righteousness, and seeking humility.
The Basis of Christian Joy
Jesus' command in Luke 10:20 — 'rejoice because your names are written in heaven' — reveals that the proper basis of Christian joy is not ministerial performance but sovereign grace in salvation. The sermon works through four reasons why performance-based joy is defective (it breeds pride, is no certain indicator of grace, does not abide, and fails in the valleys) and five reasons why salvation-based joy is superior (it belongs equally to all the saints, centers on Christ rather than self, flows from God's sovereign election, can be cultivated through the Word, and abides in all circumstances). The practical summons is to ground joy not in what one has done for God, but in what the triune God has done in electing, redeeming, and keeping His people.
The Incarnation and Our Salvation
Galatians 4:4–7 sets before the reader three privileges secured for sinners through the incarnation of the Son of God: redemption from the curse of the law, adoption into the family of God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who enables the cry 'Abba, Father.' The sermon argues that the incarnation was no divine afterthought but the execution of an eternal covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son, initiated entirely by divine grace and not by any human merit or seeking. The triune God acts in perfect unity — the Father sending the Son to secure the rights of sonship, and the Father sending the Spirit to give the power of using them. Hearers are called to meditate on these three blessings, to grow in knowledge of the triune God, and to resist discouragement by taking an active hold of these gospel truths.
The Fall of Nineveh
Nahum 2–3 presents one of Scripture's most vivid and theologically precise announcements of divine judgment: the total destruction of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. The sermon works through chapter 2 as a prophetic description of the city's fall — its siege, compromise, plunder, and humiliation — and chapter 3 as a theological explanation, identifying the specific sins (murder, deceit, false religion) that called down God's wrath. The sovereignty of God over history is the governing doctrine: it is Yahweh, not merely the Babylonian-Median-Scythian coalition, who scatters Nineveh and fulfils every detail Nahum foretold a generation before 612 BC. The sermon closes with a call to consider the final judgment, to reject the comfortable lie that God's patience signals indifference, and to flee to the mercy of Christ before that mercy gives way irrevocably to justice.
The Comforting Truth of God's Judgment
Nahum 1 opens with a stark declaration: the God who is slow to anger will not acquit the wicked, and no power on earth — not even the Assyrian Empire at the height of its brutality — can withstand His coming in judgment. This expository survey of Nahum 1 grounds the doctrine of divine wrath in the character of God Himself: His jealousy, His patience, and His sovereign control over history. The sermon argues that far from being an embarrassment, the judgment of God is the very foundation of Christian comfort, because the same God who destroys His enemies is a stronghold for those who trust in Him. The pressing application is direct: every hearer must answer whether they can stand before His indignation, and if not, must flee to Christ before that day arrives.