Topic
Worship
962 sermons · All topics
Nov 21, 2021 - 2LCF 4 - On Creation
The 2nd London Confession of Faith Chapter 4 sets forth the biblical doctrine of creation: that the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — freely called all things into being ex nihilo in the space of six literal days for the manifestation of His glory. The study examines the Trinitarian authorship of creation, the doctrine of appropriations, the nature of man as a dichotomous image-bearer possessing knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and the probationary command given to Adam as positive law. A sustained application presses the church to hold the doctrine of six-day creation and the historical integrity of Genesis 1–3, recognizing that capitulation on creation undermines Christian ethics across every domain — marriage, sexuality, human dignity, and ecclesial order.
The Conduct of a Faithful Minister
What does faithfulness look like in the life and ministry of a gospel minister? Expounding 1 Timothy 4:12–16 as a capstone to a study of elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon examines four dimensions of ministerial conduct: the minister's example before the congregation, his public ministry of reading, exhortation, and doctrine, his personal growth through sustained meditation on the Word, and his perseverance in both personal piety and sound teaching. The closing application extends these same marks to the congregation, calling the saints to receive the Word with joy, reject heresy with discernment, pursue Christian virtue, and prize the public means of grace.
Exodus 19
Exodus 19 records Israel's arrival at Sinai and God's formal entry into covenant with the nation — a covenant that functions as a republication of the covenant of works, in which Israel, like Adam before them, is called to obedience and fails, thereby pointing forward to the last Adam, Jesus Christ. The chapter unfolds in three movements: the exhortation to faithfulness through the covenant terms (vv. 1–8), the consecration of the people for readiness (vv. 9–15), and the theophanic demonstration of divine glory (vv. 16–25). The Sinai theophany, with its thunder, fire, and death-boundary around the mountain, teaches that God's people require a mediator — a lesson that finds its fulfillment in Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. The church, as the true Israel of God, inherits the vocation of Exodus 19:6 — a royal priesthood, a holy nation — and is therefore called to proclaim the praises of God with reverence befitting the consuming fire she approaches in worship.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 4
What does it mean that Jesus cried out 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' and then yielded up his spirit with a loud voice? This sermon on Matthew 27:47–50 reviews the cry of dereliction and then expounds the death of Jesus, arguing that Christ died not as a helpless victim but as the willing surety of the covenant of redemption, fulfilling the prophetic Scriptures to the last breath. The mockery of the bystanders — their misidentification of Elijah, their offer of sour wine — is set against the sovereign control of Christ, who lays down his life of himself. The sermon closes by drawing out three responses fitting the crucifixion: sober acknowledgment of human depravity, gratitude grounded in substitutionary atonement, and gospel proclamation that invites sinners to seek the altogether lovely Christ.
The Testimony Concerning the Bridegroom
John 3:22–30 presents the final recorded testimony of John the Baptist in the Fourth Gospel, in which John responds to his disciples' anxious complaint that all are coming to Jesus rather than to him. John's response is structured around four declarations: the sovereignty of God governs the origin and success of every ministry; his own role was never to be the Christ but the forerunner sent before him; his joy is that of the friend of the bridegroom who delights simply to stand in the presence of the bridegroom and hear his voice; and therefore Christ must increase while he must decrease. The sermon draws out both the Christological weight of the bridegroom image — rooted in the Old Testament covenant between God and Israel and fulfilled in Christ and his church — and its practical implications for how ministers and all God's people resist pride by being increasingly occupied with Christ rather than with themselves.
The Qualifications of Elders, Part 4
The elder's qualification 'able to teach' (1 Timothy 3:2) is not an arbitrary requirement but the inevitable expression of a word-centered religion. This sermon traces the centrality of the proclaimed Word from the Mosaic covenant through the prophetic institution, the earthly ministry of Christ, the apostolic mission, and the pastoral epistles, demonstrating that teaching and governing in the church have always been inseparable. The third main point applies this theology practically: men aspiring to eldership must demonstrate proven faithfulness as churchmen before the church recognizes, tests, and formally approves them by common suffrage according to 2nd London Confession chapter 26, paragraph 9.
Exodus 16 - Bread from heaven
Exodus 16 records Israel's complaint in the wilderness and God's provision of quail and manna, revealing that grumbling against His appointed servants is ultimately grumbling against God Himself. The chapter is expounded under three headings: the promise of bread (vv. 1–12), the presence of bread (vv. 13–31), and the preservation of bread (vv. 32–36). The manna narrative carries a Sabbatarian argument — the double portion on the sixth day presupposes Sabbath observance that predates Sinai, pointing back to Genesis 2 and forward to Exodus 20 and Hebrews 4. The episode also functions typologically, anticipating Christ as the true bread from heaven in John 6, and calls God's people in every covenant administration to daily dependence on their Provider rather than grumbling against His providence.
Exodus 15 - Song of Moses
Exodus 15 records the Song of Moses, a celebration of divine redemption and righteous judgment sung by Israel after the destruction of Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. The sermon expounds the threefold structure of the song — the triumph of the Lord, the defeat of the Egyptians, and the majesty and incomparability of God — before tracing its prophetic reach into the nations' fear of Yahweh and the ultimate goal of covenant dwelling. The bitter waters of Marah complete the chapter, exposing Israel's reflexive grumbling as a failure to trust the God who had already done the greater work of redemption. Hearers are called to praise God for both his saving mercy and his just judgment, and to pass that doxological heritage to the next generation.
Chapter 2, Para. 3 - The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit as the third subsistence of the one divine essence is the subject of this study in Chapter 2, Paragraph 3 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. The session traces the Spirit's presence and deity through both Testaments, works through the meaning of eternal procession from the Father and the Son (the filioque), and engages the historical debates at the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Toledo that shaped confessional Trinitarian language. The practical conclusion drawn from the Confession is that the doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract speculation but the foundation of all communion with God and the believer's comfortable dependence upon Him.
The Crucifixion of Jesus, Part 3
Matthew 27:45–46 records the fourth of Christ's seven words from the cross — the cry of dereliction, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — and its interpretation demands both exegetical precision and doctrinal care. The darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour was not a solar eclipse but a supernatural sign of divine judgment, recapitulating the ninth plague pattern and marking the moment the Passover antitype was slain. The cry itself does not imply any ontological division within the Trinity, any dissolution of the hypostatic union, or the suffering of all three persons; rather, it expresses the withdrawal of divine consolation from the Son according to his true humanity as he bore, in our place as surety, the full weight of penal wrath. Believers are called to ground their assurance not in felt divine presence but in the covenant faithfulness of the God to whom Christ still cried 'my God' even in the depth of his substitutionary suffering.
Exodus 13 - The consecration of the firstborn
Exodus 13 grounds the consecration of Israel's firstborn in the redemptive logic of the tenth plague: because God spared Israel's firstborn while striking Egypt's, Israel's firstborn belong to him — to be set apart, sacrificed if clean, or redeemed if human or unclean. The chapter's twin emphases on perpetual remembrance through the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the catechetical instruction of children press the same truth across generations: God's people are defined by what God has done for them, not by their own merit or strength. The typological weight of substitutionary redemption — one life in the place of another — finds its terminus in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, making these ordinances intelligible only in light of Christ. Practically, the sermon calls the congregation to remember the mighty works of God, to sacrifice freely in gratitude for redemption received, and to pass this theological inheritance faithfully to the next generation.
Sunday School - Chapter 2.3 - the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a mathematical formula but a carefully defined confession of one divine being eternally subsisting as three distinct persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This session works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 2, paragraph 3, examining the unity and equality of the persons, their distinction by eternal relations of origin, and the contemporary crisis caused by the abandonment of eternal generation. The denial of threeness is as heretical as the denial of oneness, and a recovery of Nicene Trinitarianism is essential not only for theological orthodoxy but for the health of the soul and the vitality of corporate worship.
Exodus 12, part 2
Exodus 12:29–51 records the execution of the tenth plague, the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the regulations governing who may participate in the Passover. The death of every firstborn in Egypt—from Pharaoh's throne to the dungeon—is presented not as arbitrary cruelty but as the righteous retribution of a holy God against a nation that had enslaved and slaughtered His people, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15. The Passover ordinance, with its requirements of circumcision for participation and the prohibition against breaking the lamb's bones, functions typologically to point forward to Christ, who is our Passover sacrificed for us, whose bones were not broken at the crucifixion.
The Earthly Temple in Stephen's Defense
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:44–50 is not an attack on the temple but a demonstration that the Sanhedrin itself has misunderstood it. Working through the tabernacle, David's desire, Solomon's building, and Isaiah's oracle, Stephen shows that Israel's entire sacrificial and dwelling-place theology was typological — pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true temple in whom God dwells with his people. The sermon argues that the dispensational expectation of a rebuilt physical temple in Jerusalem represents a retreat from fulfilled typology, and calls hearers to receive Christ as the antitype of all that the earthly sanctuary signified.
Exodus 12 - Part 1
Exodus 12 presents the institution of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a blood ritual pointing forward to Christ, the anti-type of the Passover lamb. The chapter is expounded in three movements: the specific blood-ritual instructions God gives to Moses and Aaron (vv. 1–13), the regulations for the memorial Feast of Unleavened Bread (vv. 14–20), and Moses's transmission of those instructions to the elders of Israel (vv. 21–28). The blood on the doorposts was not a sign for an omniscient God who needed locating data, but an outward expression of the faith of those who believed Yahweh's word — a pattern fulfilled when Christ, the blemish-free Lamb, shed his blood so that the wrath of God passes over all who trust in him. The study closes by drawing out the catechetical purpose embedded in the Passover ordinance: that each generation would rehearse the redemptive acts of God and understand that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.
The Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus' cleansing of the temple in John 2:13–17 is not an aberration from his character but a direct expression of his identity as the Son of God and the antitype of the temple itself. The passage reveals two inseparable realities: the apostasy of first-century Israel's worship and the messianic zeal prophesied in Psalm 69, Malachi 3, and the post-exilic prophets. Christ's authority to purge the temple rests on his sonship by nature, not adoption, and his action announces that the entire Old Covenant sacrificial system finds its fulfillment in him. The sermon calls the church to recover zeal for the purity of God's worship, to identify and resist the defections of contemporary Christendom, and to look in faith to the Lamb who has displaced every animal sacrifice.
LBC - Chapter 2 - Of God and the Trinity
What does Scripture reveal about God's relationship to his creation, and how does that shape the creature's obligation to the Creator? Working through paragraphs two and three of Chapter 2 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this study expounds three perfections of God in his external relations: his aseity (independence and self-sufficiency), his omniscience, and his holiness. From Acts 17, 1 Kings 8, Psalm 113, Psalm 115, Daniel 4, Ephesians 1, and Romans 9, the instructor demonstrates that God is the sole fountain of all being, exercises most sovereign dominion over all creatures, and is morally pure in all his counsels, works, and commands — and that these perfections ground the creature's comprehensive obligation of worship, service, and obedience to the Creator.
The Wedding at Cana of Galilee
John 2:1–12 recounts the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine as the first of his public signs. The sermon traces three movements in the passage — the setting, the sign, and the summary — and argues that the miracle is not merely a display of power over nature but a prophetically charged inauguration of new covenant abundance, anticipated by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, and Zechariah. The water pots of Jewish purification give way to wine that surpasses what came before, signifying that the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ exceeds the law given through Moses. The closing application presses hearers to heed the one command Mary gives in all of Scripture: whatever Jesus says, do it.
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Sunday School Study - August 29, 2021
What does it mean that God is 'without body, parts, or passions'? This study works through Chapter 2, Paragraph 1 of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, examining the perfections of God under three classical categories: divine incorporeality (God has no body), divine simplicity (God is not composed of parts), and divine impassability (God does not undergo emotional change). By grounding each doctrine in Scripture and the church's historic theological grammar — including the distinction between proper and improper predication, accommodation, and anthropomorphism — the exposition argues that God's transcendence over every creaturely category is not a cold abstraction but the very foundation of confident worship and unshakeable assurance for his people.
The Enthronement of the Priest-King
Psalm 110, the most frequently cited Old Testament passage in the New Testament, presents the Messiah as the divinely enthroned Priest-King whose universal dominion is secured by the oath of God. This exposition traces three movements in the psalm: the enthronement and government of Christ the King (vv. 1–3), his eternal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek (v. 4), and the triumphant conquest of his enemies (vv. 5–7). The sermon draws on Peter's argument in Acts 2, Paul's application in 1 Corinthians 15 and Ephesians 1, and the author of Hebrews to show that Christ's present session at the right hand of the Father is not passive but active — he reigns, subdues, and intercedes. Christians living in tumultuous times are urged to resist despair by fixing their confidence in the sovereign rule of the enthroned Priest-King rather than in the shifting circumstances of earthly politics.
The Pharisee and the Publican
This exposition of Luke 18:9–14 examines the parable of the Pharisee and the publican as a penetrating diagnosis of self-righteousness and a declaration of justification by faith alone. The sermon works through the occasion of the parable, the contrasted characters of the two men, and Christ's concluding verdict that the tax collector — not the Pharisee — went home justified. The central contention is that acceptance before God rests entirely on the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith, not on any moral performance or religious accomplishment, and that those who understand this will be marked by humility rather than contempt toward others.
1689 2LBC - Chapter 1 - Hermeneutical Principles
Hermeneutics — the science of biblical interpretation — stands at the center of this study through paragraphs 5 to 10 of Chapter 1 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. The session works through five principles: the scope of Scripture (Christ as its organizing center), the sufficiency of Scripture (including good and necessary consequences), the perspicuity of Scripture, the availability of Scripture through faithful translation, and the two classical interpretive rules — the analogy of Scripture and the analogy of faith. The study closes by defending the proper use of creeds, confessions, and the writings of faithful theologians as gifts Christ has given to his church, while insisting that Holy Scripture alone is the supreme and final judge in all controversies of religion.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 2
John 1:29 records the Baptist's singular declaration — 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — a phrase saturated with the weight of Old Testament redemptive history. This sermon works through the theological freight of that title, tracing the Lamb through Genesis 22, Leviticus 16, and Isaiah 53 to show that Christ's mission is substitutionary blood atonement: he takes up the sin of his people in order to take it away entirely. The 'world' from which sin is removed is not every individual without exception but men and women without ethnic or national distinction, saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
The Neglect of Weighty Matters
Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:23–24 not for tithing mint, anise, and cumin, but for doing so while neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. The Pharisaic imbalance is neither ancient nor extinct — the same tendency to obsess over religious minutiae while bypassing the moral and covenantal substance of God's law persists in the church today. Drawing on Micah 6:8, Hosea 6:6, and the broader prophetic tradition, this exposition argues that genuine obedience to God is universal and balanced, not selective and performative.
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Sunday School Study - July 18, 2021
The self-authenticating authority of Scripture cannot be separated from sound principles for reading it. This 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Sunday school study works through chapter one, paragraphs five through ten, drawing out the hermeneutical principles the divines embedded there: the scope of Scripture (all glory to God through Christ), the sufficiency of Scripture (confined to God's glory, man's salvation, faith, and life), the perspicuity of Scripture (salvation truths are plain even to the unlearned), and the availability of Scripture in translation. The session also addresses textual criticism, the transmission history of the biblical manuscripts, and the distinction between necessary inference and explicit statement as sources of scriptural authority. Hearers are called to come to the biblical text with humility, the illumination of the Spirit, and a due use of ordinary means rather than intellectual pride or lazy avoidance.
Live Stream - July 18, 2021
John 1:19–28 records an official delegation from the Pharisees interrogating John the Baptist about his identity. He denies being the Christ, Elijah in bodily form, or the promised Prophet of Deuteronomy 18, and instead confesses himself to be the voice crying in the wilderness of Isaiah 40 — the forerunner sent to prepare the way of Yahweh, who is Jesus. The sermon draws from Zechariah's Lucan prophecy in Luke 1 to show that John's preparatory ministry announced not merely the arrival of a king but justification by faith alone through the remission of sins. The application presses the church to imitate John's humility, courageous preaching, and singular aim: to make Christ preeminent rather than themselves.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 1
John 1:19–28 records the official interrogation of John the Baptist by a delegation sent from Jerusalem to establish his identity and authority. The Baptist's threefold denial — he is not the Christ, not Elijah bodily returned, not the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 — is matched by his positive confession as the voice of Isaiah 40, the forerunner who prepares the way of Yahweh and thereby implicitly confesses the deity of Jesus. The sermon traces the Baptist's testimony through Luke 1's prophecy of Zacharias, the Transfiguration account in Matthew 17, and the prologue of John 1, showing that the Baptist preached not only repentance but the remission of sins through the coming Messiah — that is, justification by faith alone. The governing application is that Christ's people exist to proclaim His preeminence, following the Baptist's model of humble, courageous, light-and-heat ministry that makes nothing of self and everything of Jesus.
Live Stream - July 11, 2021
John 1:18 presents two inseparable doctrines: the invisibility and incomprehensibility of God, and the revelation of that invisible God through the incarnate Word. The sermon works through the prologue of John's Gospel to show that while no creature has ever perceived the essential glory of God — not Abraham, not Moses, not Isaiah — the only begotten Son, who exists eternally in the bosom of the Father as a distinct yet consubstantial person of the Trinity, has exegeted the Father to us. The practical burden is that saving knowledge of God is not merely knowledge about the economy of redemption but knowledge of the Redeemer himself — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and that the chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy this triune God forever.
The Ministry of the Word
What is the basis and method of God's ordained means for saving sinners? This sermon on 2 Timothy 4:2 argues that the preaching of the Word stands as the primary instrument through which God saves the lost and builds his church, grounding that claim in the logical chain of Romans 10, the divine pleasure announced in 1 Corinthians 1, and the final apostolic charge of Paul to Timothy. The sermon challenges the contemporary drift toward audience-driven church strategies, calling both preachers and hearers to fidelity to the proclaimed Word as the irreplaceable means of grace.
Live Stream - July 04, 2021
Matthew 27:27–31 records the malicious mockery of Roman soldiers against the already-scourged and sleep-deprived Christ — a scene of savage psychological and physical abuse that simultaneously fulfills the prophetic servant songs of Isaiah and reveals the gravity of human sin and the inconceivable mercy of God. The sermon works through the participants in the crime (the governor, the cohort, and the conspiring Jewish leaders) and the specific elements of the mockery (mock homage, violent abuse, and the preparation for crucifixion), before turning to the irony that what soldiers performed in contempt — the royal robe, the crown, the scepter, the homage — is precisely what Revelation declares of Christ in truth. Believers are called to respond to Christ's vicarious sufferings not with detached admiration but with the crown-him-lord gratitude that the soldiers' counterfeit homage unwittingly foreshadowed, and the Lord's Supper is administered as the appointed means by which the congregation proclaims his death until he comes.