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 67: Are Piper and MacArthur Reformed Baptists?
What separates a confessional Reformed Baptist church from a Calvinistic Baptist church associated with figures like John Piper or John MacArthur? This conversation argues that Calvinism, properly understood, is not reducible to the five points of Dort but entails a whole confessional heritage — covenant theology (including the covenant of works), cessationism, the regulative principle of worship, and adherence to one of the great Protestant confessions. The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 is presented as the most mature expression of that heritage, providing a theological anchor that protects congregations from pastoral personality-driven ministry and binds them to the cumulative wisdom Christ has given his church through the ages.
Ask FGBC #65: Are Reformed Baptists Really Just Anabaptists?
The claim that Reformed Baptists (specifically, Particular Baptists) descended from the Anabaptists is examined historically and found to be without evidential basis. Drawing on primary-source scholarship by historians such as Matthew Bingham and James Renihan, the discussion establishes that the Particular Baptists emerged from English Reformation Congregationalism — not from the continental Anabaptist movement — and that no documentary connection exists between the two bodies in the extant 17th-century literature. The conversation also notes that the Anabaptists themselves were not a monolithic group, making the category 'Anabaptist' less precise than popular usage suggests.
Ask FGBC Batch 7: Anabaptists, Calvinism, Sincere Offer & More | Reformed Baptist Theology
This panel discussion brings together three Reformed Baptist pastors to address questions submitted to Free Grace Baptist Church on confessional identity, soteriology, covenant theology, and Lord's Day worship. The conversation distinguishes Particular Baptists from Anabaptists on historical-documentary grounds, examines the relationship between Calvinism and confessional Reformed Baptist identity, and evaluates the free and sincere offer of the gospel against what the panelists regard as the theological liabilities of well-meant-offer language. The discussion also treats the threefold division of the law, prosopological exegesis, and the scriptural rationale for two Lord's Day services, consistently grounding each answer in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession and the exegetical tradition of the Particular Baptists.
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."
Ask FGBC 68: Are Reformed Baptists More Baptist or More Reformed?
The question 'Are Reformed Baptists more Baptist or more Reformed?' draws out a careful answer: the two labels are not competing loyalties but successive correctives — Reformed Christianity corrects medieval Roman Catholic and Lutheran error, while the Baptist stream carries the Reformation's logic further in ecclesiology, the church-state relation, and liberty of conscience. Which emphasis comes to the foreground depends entirely on the conversation partner: against Christian nationalism the Baptist distinctives press harder; against Arminian dispensationalism the Reformed heritage dominates. The panel settles on a working formulation: Reformed in soteriology and theology proper, Baptistic in ecclesiology, and — with the addition of what the Reformation did not yet reform — small-c Catholic, Reformed, and Baptist.
Baptism in the Old Testament
The washings of the Old Covenant — priestly consecration, the Day of Atonement, and ritual purification — constitute the Old Testament type to which New Testament baptism is the antitype, not circumcision as pedobaptist argument typically asserts. This session of a three-part seminar argues that Jesus' baptism marked his public entry into priestly ministry, and that believers are baptized because they, too, are priests to God who must be consecrated for access into his presence. The session draws on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Hebrews, and 1 Peter to build a biblical theology of water and cleansing, urging a recovery of genuine appreciation for baptism as a meaningful ordinance rather than a mere formality.
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.
The Theater of His Glory
Psalm 19 sets creation and Scripture side by side as God's two books of revelation: the heavens declare His glory in every language to every people, while the Word of God converts the soul and opens eyes to see what unbelief cannot perceive. The sermon works through the psalm to show that general revelation leaves all people without excuse before God, yet only the regenerate, illumined by the Spirit through Scripture, properly receive the theater of God's glory. The three closing applications call Christians to train their children in a Christ-centered view of both books of revelation, to cultivate daily awareness of God's hand in creation, and above all to prize the Word of God as the supreme gift that leads to life and holiness.
Ask FGBC #62: What is Federal Vision?
Federal Vision theology, originating largely within Presbyterian and broader Reformed circles, conflates the covenant of works with the covenant of grace into a mono-covenantalism that mingles works and grace. The result is a doctrine of justification dependent on grace-assisted covenantal faithfulness rather than the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. This Q&A response argues that Federal Vision constitutes not a subtle revision but an outright rejection of the historic doctrine of justification by faith alone, grounded in both Christ's active obedience imputed to the believer and his passive obedience bearing the wrath of God in the sinner's stead.
Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
What is the acceptable way to worship the triune God, and who determines it? Working through paragraphs 1–6 of chapter 22 of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689, this study establishes that while the light of nature discloses that God exists and is owed reverence, only special revelation determines how he is to be worshiped — the regulative principle. Religious worship belongs to the triune God alone, comes through the sole mediation of Christ since the fall, and consists of elements appointed by God himself, not devised by men. The Roman Catholic errors of saint-veneration, Marian intercession, and priestly mediation are examined and refuted at length, with particular application to the first element of worship: prayer offered in a known tongue, in the name of Christ, by the help of the Spirit.
The Challenge and Confidence of the Psalmist - Psalm 10:1-18
Psalm 10 presents a twofold movement: the challenge of the psalmist in verses 1–11, and the confidence of the psalmist in verses 12–18. The sermon argues that this psalm is not primarily about David's historical circumstances but about the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ — his humanity, his experience of apparent divine withdrawal, and his witness to the wickedness of those who conspired against him. The church, as joined to Christ, prays these words as her own, setting the promises of God against the troubled testimony of sense and experience, and resting in the certain reign of the Lord who will one day cause the man of the earth to oppress no more.
The Opened Sanctuary
Mark 15:33–39 presents three interlocking realities at the crucifixion: the forsaken Son bearing divine wrath, the torn veil opening the sanctuary to God's presence, and a Roman centurion's confession inaugurating the gospel's reach to the nations. The noontide darkness fulfills Old Testament types — the Egyptian plague of darkness and Amos 8:9 — while Christ's cry of dereliction, drawn from Psalm 22, expresses not a severing of the Trinity but the full weight of divine justice borne substitutionarily by the Son as mediator. The tearing of the veil declares that the shadowy Old Covenant order is fulfilled, the true high priest has acted, and access to the holy presence of God is secured through the veil of Christ's flesh. Those who gather at the Lord's Supper are exhorted to glory in the Savior who bore the wrath His people deserved so that they need never cry out in God-forsakenness themselves.
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 Justice and Mercy of the Lord, Part 2
Psalm 9:13–20 presents two petitions that mirror the psalm's earlier doctrinal foundation: a cry for mercy grounded in God's proven faithfulness, and a cry for judgment grounded in the certainty of divine justice. The preacher traces both petitions through their Christological fulfillment — the man of sorrows who prays from the gates of death and the appointed judge of the world in righteousness — demonstrating that David's psalm finds its true subject in Christ. God's justice toward the wicked and His mercy toward the oppressed are not in tension but are two sides of the same covenantal reality: the overthrow of God's enemies is itself the preservation of God's people. Hearers are called to pray these psalms with theological weight, to assemble corporately as those delivered from the gates of death into the gates of Zion, and to seek the Lord while He may be found.
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.
Ask FGBC #60: How Necessary is Seminary for Pastors?
What level of theological education does Scripture require of a pastor, and does the answer change depending on whether the role is full-time or supported by another vocation? Drawing on 1 Timothy 3 and 5, John 21, and the example of Ezra, this Q&A response argues that while formal seminary training is not an absolute biblical requirement, the pastoral calling demands rigorous, ongoing preparation in the Word and doctrine — not merely a pleasant personality or a willingness to serve. The discussion distinguishes between men called to primary preaching ministry and those serving in a supportive elder capacity, and closes with a frank exhortation that mediocrity in the pulpit has eternal consequences.
The Justice and Mercy of the Lord
Psalm 9 presents the Lord as both righteous Judge of the wicked and secure refuge for the afflicted — realities that are inseparable and must be held together. Interpreted through a Christocentric lens consistent with Luke 24:44, the psalm is understood as the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry, with David functioning typologically to foreshadow the sufferings and vindication of the Son of Man. The first half of the sermon (vv. 1–12) expounds the psalmist's confidence in God: his declaration of whole-hearted praise, his affirmation that God judges the nations, and his assurance that God is an unfailing refuge for those who seek him — grounded ultimately in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Hearers are called to seek their refuge in God rather than in circumstance, and to rejoice openly in the justice and mercy that belong inseparably to the character of the Most High.
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.
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.
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 Power of Jesus
The exorcism of the Gadarene demoniacs in Matthew 8:28–34 is not merely a historical episode but a public declaration of Christ's power to save. The casting out of a multitude of demons by Christ's voice alone demonstrates his sovereign authority over darkness, and this authority extends to the deliverance of every sinner from the dominion of sin and the devil. The sermon presses the listener to look to Christ and believe, for the same power that expelled the legion delivers souls from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son.
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.
The Glorious Proverb
The Gospel can be stated with stunning brevity: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Expounding the 'faithful saying' of 1 Timothy 1:15, this sermon examines why the apostolic proverb is trustworthy and deserving of universal acceptance — rooting its reliability in the character of the God who speaks it and the Christ who performs it. The condescension of the eternal Son is explored with care, guarding against any notion that the omnipresent God vacated heaven to visit earth, while insisting that he genuinely assumed human nature for the redemption of sinners. The sermon closes with three applications: the sinner may rest on this saying because its foundation is the faithfulness of the triune God, the Incarnation should produce deep humility, and no degree of personal sin places a soul beyond the reach of Christ's saving power.
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.
SLBC: Of The Gospel, and the extent of the grace thereof
The 1689 London Baptist Confession's twentieth chapter, 'Of the Gospel, and the Extent of the Grace Thereof,' argues that two things are absolutely necessary for the salvation of sinners: the special revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the effectual, insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul. This chapter arose in both the Savoy Declaration and the Particular Baptist Confession to counter four specific errors: incipient deism, Quaker inner-light theology, General Baptist salvific subsystems for the unevangelized, and Socinian rationalism. The sermon traces the sole dominion of Christ as the promised seed of the woman across all of redemptive history, demonstrates from Scripture that no saving knowledge of Christ is available through general revelation, natural ability, or any religious sincerity outside the gospel, and closes with the confession's insistence that the Spirit's invisible and invincible work upon the soul is the indispensable accompaniment to gospel proclamation.
The Ascended King
Daniel 7:13–14 presents the Son of Man receiving everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days — a vision that finds its fulfillment not in a yet-future event but in the ascension of Christ following the perfection of His mediatorial work. The passage is read as the restoration of the dominion forfeited by the first Adam, now conferred upon the last Adam who succeeded where the first failed. Four heads structure the exposition: the identity of the one who receives the kingdom, the identity of the one who grants it, the nature and scope of the kingdom conferred, and the unshakable confidence this reality affords kingdom citizens. The sermon closes with a call to praise the ascended King and to pray for the advance of His kingdom with confidence that it shall never pass away.
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.