Sermons That Exalt Christ
The preaching of God’s Word is central to the life of the church. Tom's pulpit ministry is dedicated to providing clear, biblical teaching to equip believers, strengthen faith, and exalt Christ.
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The preaching of God's Word is central to worship and of the utmost importance for the sanctification of every believer in Christ.
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The Disasters of God
Prompted by devastating hurricanes and the varied explanations for natural disasters�from random chance to specific moral punishments�Pastor Tom Pennington offers a biblical perspective. He asserts two core truths: First, God is fully responsible for all disasters. He actively directs the laws and processes of His creation, taking responsibility for storms, floods, earthquakes, famines, diseases, and even invading armies (Genesis 6:17, Job 36, Ezekiel 14). God is not a distant deity but intimately involved. Second, God always uses disasters to accomplish spiritual and eternal goals. These events are not random but serve divine purposes: to cause men to fear Him, execute judgment on sin, sanctify believers, drive sinners to repentance (often acting as a wake-up call and grace, as seen in Luke 13), and display His glory (Exodus 9). Christians are urged to respond by exalting God's sovereignty, urging unbelievers to repent, confessing personal sins, allowing circumstances to purify their faith, finding confidence in God�s unfailing love, and trusting Him completely, knowing He has ultimately rescued them from eternal wrath.
The Ordo Salutis
Pastor Tom Pennington's sermon on the "ordo salutis," or the order of salvation, examines the logical and chronological sequence of God's redemptive work. He likens studying this doctrine to appreciating a masterpiece painting, emphasizing that a meticulous understanding brings glory to God. Pennington argues that grasping the ordo salutis is vital because it reveals one's core doctrine of salvation (God-centered vs. man-centered), influences evangelism methods, strengthens assurance, and ultimately maximizes God's glory. He contrasts popular views where human faith might precede divine regeneration. Presenting a biblical framework, Pennington explains that God's work begins with **Election** (foreknowing and predestining in eternity past), followed by **Effectual Calling**. Critically, he asserts that **Regeneration** (God making a dead soul alive) *precedes* **Faith** and **Repentance** (human responses enabled by God's prior work). These, along with **Positional Sanctification, Justification**, and **Adoption**, occur at the moment of salvation. This is succeeded by lifelong **Progressive Sanctification** and **Perseverance**, culminating in future **Glorification**. This understanding profoundly impacts believers by promoting evangelism rooted in prayer and God's power rather than manipulation, strengthening confidence in God's commitment to complete His work, providing comfort through life's difficulties, and fostering deep security in God's unchanging love for His elect.
Pride and Prejudice - Part 1
Pastor Tom Pennington's sermon on James 2:1-13 condemns the sin of prejudice, partiality, and favoritism within the Christian church. He emphasizes that believers must never tolerate such attitudes, which are prone to pride and cause humans to unjustly judge others made in God's image. Pennington illustrates this with the scenario of a wealthy man in fine clothes and a poor man in dirty clothes entering an assembly. While the rich man is given a place of honor, the poor man is told to stand or sit by a footstool. This partiality, James argues, means making distinctions with "evil motives" and acting as biased judges. The sermon highlights that "personal favoritism" or partiality involves showing special favor or contempt based solely on external factors like appearance, wealth, ethnicity, or social status, disregarding a person's intrinsic worth. This behavior is a direct affront to God's character, as scripture repeatedly declares God to be absolutely impartial, uninfluenced by external factors, and commands His people to be the same. Furthermore, partiality is inconsistent with God's sovereign choice.
Common Grace: The Universal Benefits of Christ's Death
This text defines "common grace" as God's undeserved goodness and love extended universally, to both believers and unbelievers, resulting in temporal (this-life) benefits. It differentiates this from saving grace, which offers eternal salvation only to believers. Pastor Tom Pennington details common grace's expressions: God restrains His wrath by sustaining life, limiting the curse, and delaying judgment. He upholds creation's natural laws, like seasons and rain. God also restrains sin through direct intervention, the Holy Spirit, conscience, His Word, and institutions like government and family, preventing humanity's full depravity. Additionally, He provides temporal blessings such as food, prosperity, and daily joys, and directs human advancement in arts, sciences, and technology. Lastly, common grace allows the unsaved to perform civil good, retain basic spiritual truths, and intellectually assent to the gospel without saving faith. The profound source of common grace is Christ's propitiatory death on the cross, which vindicates God's justice, enabling Him to extend these undeserved blessings to a sinful world without compromising His righteous character. Every legitimate earthly joy and sustained moment of life is a gift of common grace, secured by the cross.
Look in the Mirror! - Part 4
Tom Pennington's sermon "James Look in the Mirror! (Part 4)" on James 1:19-27 asserts that true faith and spiritual maturity are revealed by one's response to God's Word. He outlines three essential qualities for believers: a teachable heart, consistent obedience, and a genuine heart change. The sermon primarily focuses on genuine heart change, warning against mere external religious conformity, which God deems "worthless." An unbridled tongue, as taught by Jesus in Matthew 12, indicates an unchanged heart. True, "pure and undefiled religion" is identified by two practical tests: genuine love for those in need, specifically demonstrated by actively caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and a sincere desire and active pursuit of personal holiness, striving to remain unstained by the world's anti-God value system. This love isn't superficial charity but deep, compassionate action reflecting God's character. Ultimately, James insists that genuine spiritual transformation inevitably produces these actions, and their absence suggests self-deception about one's true relationship with God.
Saved From What?
This sermon, "Systematic Theology Saved From What?", introduces a study on salvation, defined as rescue, immediately posing the crucial question: "Saved from what?" An anecdote about Aaron Ralston highlights humanity's inability to spiritually save itself, asserting that only God can rescue us from our sinful condition. The pastor emphasizes the ongoing importance of studying salvation for all believers. The core of the message focuses on the nature of the atonement, "Why did Christ die?". The speaker systematically debunks six false theories, including the "Ransom to Satan" and "Moral Influence" theories (criticized by the Emerging Church as "divine child abuse"), underscoring their biblical inaccuracies. He then presents the biblical doctrine: Christ's death was a *penal* (related to punishment for breaking God's law) and *substitutionary* or *vicarious* (in our place) sacrifice. This death satisfied God's justice, paid the penalty for sin, secured forgiveness, imputed righteousness, and reconciled humanity to God. Christ's death provided common grace, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation (satisfying God's wrath), and justification. The sermon offers defense through the Old Testament sacrificial system, explicit biblical passages on guilt transfer (e.g., Isaiah 53:6), and Greek prepositions (e.g., *anti* in Matthew 20:28) confirming Christ died "in place of" many, which remains humanity's only hope.
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