The Warning Against Apostasy
Hebrews 10:26–31 is one of the most pastorally misread warning passages in the New Testament, and this expository sermon works carefully to distinguish the sin of apostasy from the ordinary, ongoing sin of weak believers. The apostate is not a struggling saint who confesses and seeks mercy; he is one who, having made an outward profession of faith, openly and obstinately repudiates Christ — trampling the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace. The sermon draws on Owen, Calvin, Gill, and Ursinus to establish that apostasy is a total, willful renunciation of the gospel, not any species of sin for which Christ has made atonement. Believers burdened by remaining corruption are urged to distinguish themselves from apostates by the very instinct that drives them to the throne of grace — and to make full use of the means of grace God has appointed to preserve them from the apostasy the passage warns against.
The Nature of the Gospel
Galatians 1:1–5 is not merely a conventional greeting but a compressed summary of the gospel itself. Working through each clause of verses 4–5, this exposition identifies five defining features of Christ's death: it was voluntary, it consisted in penal substitution, it secured deliverance from this present evil age, it was determined by the Father according to His eternal will, and it promotes the glory of God alone. The sermon presses toward the Lord's Supper, calling each hearer to examine whether they can say with Paul in Galatians 2:20, 'He loved me and gave Himself for me,' and to receive the bread and cup only on that ground.
The LORD is my Shepherd
Psalm 23 is examined as a hymn of trust composed amid difficulty rather than prosperity, arguing that David's confident confession — 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want' — is made precisely in the shadow of danger, not in spite of it. The sermon expounds the psalm under two headings: the covenant Lord as the shepherd who provides daily physical and spiritual provision, and as the gracious host who prepares a table in the presence of enemies. Christians are exhorted to make diligent use of the means of grace — private prayer and Scripture, corporate worship, the preached word, and the Lord's Supper — as the God-ordained way to walk with Christ through the valley of the shadow of death toward their eternal dwelling in the house of the Lord.
Judah and Tamar
Genesis 38 interrupts the Joseph narrative to focus on Judah, the man through whom the Messianic line would descend — and the portrait is not flattering. Judah marries a Canaanite, fathers wicked sons, withholds Shelah from Tamar in violation of levirate obligation, and solicits what he believes to be a roadside harlot. Yet God, faithful to His covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, protects the seed through Tamar's act of faith and brings forth Perez, the ancestor of David and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon calls hearers to marvel at a grace that saves wretched sinners — not because of their worthiness, but because God always does what He has promised to do.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 18, 2019 AM
Psalm 5 is a prayer tutorial in which David models how to approach God in desperate and messy circumstances, not by appealing to personal righteousness but by preparing ordered petitions, meditating on the character of Yahweh, and resting in confident trust that God will surround the righteous with his favor. The sermon works through four movements in the psalm: prepare your prayer, know your God, make your request, and declare your confidence. A sustained emphasis falls on the character of God — his holiness, his hatred of evildoers, and his intimate, covenant nearness as Yahweh — as the necessary foundation for all genuine prayer. The congregation is urged to pray not chiefly for deliverance from difficult circumstances but for righteousness within them, echoing David's petition in verse 8: 'Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness.'
Psalm 6
Psalm 6 is a psalm of desperate supplication — David bypasses every recommended pattern of ordered prayer and plunges directly into petition, driven by some combination of divine displeasure, physical affliction, and the threat of enemies. The sermon works through three movements: David's agony in verses 1–3, the arguments he marshals before God in verses 4–7 (resting on God's covenant love, the purpose of praise, and a frank recounting of his misery), and the assurance he reaches in verses 8–10 that Yahweh has heard and will answer. The governing application is that God's chesed — his covenant love that pledges never to let go — is both the ground of bold prayer and the foundation of confident assurance when answers are delayed.
Psalm 5
Psalm 5 is David's prayer tutorial, teaching the believer how to approach God in dangerous and difficult circumstances. The sermon works through four movements in the psalm: preparing prayer with ordered intentionality, grounding prayer in a precise knowledge of God's character, making requests on the basis of divine grace rather than personal merit, and declaring a confident assurance in Yahweh's protection of the righteous. Because God abhors not merely evil deeds but evildoers themselves outside of Christ, the believer can pray against oppression with holy boldness, resting in the promise that Yahweh's favor surrounds the righteous as an encompassing shield.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 11, 2019 PM
Matthew 7:24–29, the parable of the two builders, presses the closing application of the Sermon on the Mount onto every hearer within reach of Christ's words. The sermon examines the wise builder who hears and does, the foolish builder who hears but does not do, and the astonishing authority with which Christ delivers both. The central diagnostic question is not whether one occupies space in the company of hearers, but whether one has built upon the only foundation that survives the storm of divine wrath — the righteousness of Christ received by faith alone.
The Two Builders
Matthew 7:24–29 closes the Sermon on the Mount with a parable that presses every hearer to examine the foundation of their life before God. Both builders hear the words of Christ, but only the wise builder obeys them — and that obedience, rooted not in moral effort but in faith in Christ alone, is the mark that distinguishes genuine discipleship from hollow profession. The foolish builder is not a pagan but a hearer who pays lip service to the Word without submitting to it, a condition Ezekiel 33 and James 1 both diagnose with sobering precision. The sermon calls every listener to repent, believe the gospel, and rest on Christ as the only foundation that will withstand the final storm of God's holy wrath.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 11, 2019 AM
Acts 9:26-31 records Paul's first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem, where his attempt to join the disciples was met with fear and suspicion before Barnabas vouched for him to the apostles. The sermon traces three interlocking themes: the indispensable ministry of supporting figures like Ananias and Barnabas, the biblical pattern of bold gospel proclamation modeled by Paul and attested throughout Acts, and the threefold blessing — peace, edification, and multiplication — described in the summary statement of verse 31. The application presses the congregation to pursue these blessings not through programmatic gimmicks but through walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and to pray earnestly for those who preach the Word.
The First Post-Conversion Visit to Jerusalem by Paul
Paul's first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26–31) exposes three realities: the suspicious reception Saul faced from the Jerusalem disciples, the bold gospel ministry he conducted among the Hellenists despite two attempts on his life, and Luke's summary statement on the condition and growth of the churches in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. The sermon argues that faithful churches grow not through gimmick or manipulation but through walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit — conditions that produce peace, edification, and genuine multiplication. Along the way, the preacher presses the congregation to pray for bold preaching, to value the supporting roles of 'Ananias and Barnabas figures' in the church, and to pursue the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace as an active, worked-for reality.
The Baptism of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:17–25 records the baptism and initial preaching of Saul of Tarsus following his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road. Ananias addresses the former persecutor as 'brother Saul,' and Saul is immediately baptized — a pattern the sermon presses as normative: conversion precedes and grounds baptism, which is the public confession of a forgiven sinner, not a converting ordinance. The sermon then traces the character of Saul's early preaching: immediate, Christocentric, apologetic, and persuasive — proving from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God — while showing that the same mission statement of Acts 9:15–16 (preach and suffer) begins its fulfilment within hours of his conversion. Hearers are urged to confess Christ openly, to submit to baptism without delay, and to recover a persuasive, Scripture-grounded proclamation of the gospel rather than the entertainment-driven substitute that fills contemporary pulpits.
The Suffering Servant
1 Peter 2:21–25 sets forth Christ's suffering as redemptive before it is exemplary: Peter's primary purpose is not to give believers a moral template but to ground their conduct in the substitutionary, sin-bearing work of the Servant prophesied in Isaiah 53. The sermon traces the description of Christ's redemptive suffering — his sinlessness, his silence under reviling, and his substitutionary death on the tree — before turning to its results: the freedom of God's people from sin's penalty and power, and the recovery of straying sheep by the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls. Believers are therefore called not to whine or revile under unjust treatment, but to commit themselves to him who judges righteously, following the pattern of the one whose stripes have healed them.
The Mission for Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:10–16 records Christ's commission to Ananias concerning the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, and in it Jesus reveals a twofold purpose for his chosen vessel: to bear the name of Christ before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, and to suffer greatly for that name. This sermon traces how that double calling — to preach and to suffer — was fulfilled across Paul's entire apostolic ministry, drawing on 2 Corinthians 11, Colossians 1, and 2 Timothy to show that affliction is not a contradiction of divine favor but an instrument of it. The sovereignty of Christ over conversion and calling stands as the controlling theme, pressing hearers to abandon every excuse for unbelief and to come to Israel's Messiah in faith.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
Matthew 7:21–23 is often misread as a warning to believers to produce more good works, but the passage concerns entrance into the kingdom of heaven and exposes the damning error of self-righteousness. The false professors are condemned not because they lacked works but because they rested their hope for acceptance with God on those works rather than on Christ's blood and righteousness — a form of lawlessness that is an assault on the cross. The will of the Father in Matthew 7:21, rightly understood through John 6:28–40, is to believe on the Son whom He sent; justification is by faith alone, received once, and the Sermon on the Mount functions as law to drive sinners to the foot of the cross rather than to self-congratulation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - July 21, 2019 AM
Acts 9:1–9 records the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, the arch-enemy of the early church, and the sermon works through this passage in two movements: the hostility of Saul and the sovereign confrontation by Christ on the Damascus road. The preacher argues that the violence and ruthlessness of Saul's pre-conversion mission magnifies the richness of divine grace, because Christ's effectual call reaches even the chief of sinners without any prior disposition toward God on Saul's part. Drawing on parallel accounts in Acts 22 and 26, Galatians 1, and 1 Timothy 1, the sermon applies this reality as an encouragement to those who fear themselves beyond the reach of redeeming grace, and as a rebuke to any confidence in moral or religious achievement as a ground of acceptance before God.
The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:1–9 confronts the reader with one of the most dramatic conversions in redemptive history: the sovereign arrest of Saul of Tarsus, the church's most ruthless persecutor, by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon traces Saul's murderous hostility toward the disciples before examining the divine initiative, interrogation, identification, and instruction Christ brings to bear on the road to Damascus. That Christ identifies himself with his suffering members ('I am Jesus whom you are persecuting') and overcomes Saul's resistance through effectual grace establishes that no sinner stands beyond the reach of sovereign mercy. The sermon closes with a call to repentance grounded in the certainty that the God who conquered the chief of sinners is able and willing to save all who come to Christ.
The Justice of God and the Gospel
Proverbs 17:15 declares that justifying the wicked and condemning the just are alike an abomination to God — yet the gospel does precisely both: God condemned the sinless Christ and justifies ungodly sinners. This sermon works through the theological architecture that vindicates God from any charge of self-contradiction in the gospel, tracing the doctrines of covenant representation and imputation from Genesis through the Prophets and into Paul's argument in Romans 3–5. The three acts of imputation — Adam's sin to all mankind, the elect's sin to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to the elect — are shown to be the biblical answer to the problem Proverbs 17:15 raises, grounding assurance in an alien righteousness received by faith alone.
The Priority of the Moral Law
Proverbs 21:3 states that to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice — a declaration that exposes the perennial human tendency to substitute external religious performance for genuine moral obedience. This sermon traces that priority through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms before examining Christ's fifth woe against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, where he condemns the same imbalance of tithing mint, anise, and cumin while neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. The threefold division of the law underlies the exposition: the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ and abolished as a covenant obligation, but the moral law — comprehending both tables, duty to God and duty to man — retains its binding claim on the people of God. The sermon closes with the gospel ground of that obedience: because our righteousness before God falls short on the best of days, the imputed active obedience of Christ, received by faith alone, is the only hope — and the motivation for the wholehearted, balanced compliance Solomon demands.
The Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch
Acts 8:26–40 records the Spirit-directed encounter between the evangelist Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch, a man doubly excluded from Israel's assembly by Deuteronomy 23:1 yet drawn by God's sovereign grace into the new-covenant community. The sermon traces three movements in the narrative — the providential meeting, the expository dialogue from Isaiah 53, and the eunuch's confession and baptism — arguing that the passage is not merely a quotation but a fulfillment of Isaiah 56, in which eunuchs and foreigners are brought near through the blood of Christ. Against any notion of baptism as a converting ordinance, the preacher grounds believers' baptism in the pattern of faith preceding baptism throughout Acts, Calvin's own concession that immersion was the ancient mode, and the 1689 LBCF's definition of baptism as an ordinance primarily for the party baptized. The sermon closes with an indiscriminate call to all sinners to relinquish their own righteousness and rest in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 33
Psalm 33 calls the people of God to praise the Lord for His sovereignty in creation and in history, grounding that praise in the character of a covenant-keeping God whose word is unfailingly right and whose purposes stand forever. The sermon moves through the psalm's three movements: the call to skillful, joyful worship; the manifold reasons for praise drawn from God's power over creation, His overruling of human counsel, and His providential care over His elect; and the psalmist's concluding resolution to wait on God alone as help and shield. Listeners are pressed to ask whether their worship reflects genuine delight in the sovereign God of Psalm 33 and whether their trust rests in Him rather than in any human means or strength.
From Alienation to Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21–23 sets the condition of fallen humanity — alienated from God, hostile in mind, and characterised by wicked works — against the sovereign act of divine reconciliation accomplished through the incarnation and substitutionary death of Christ. This sermon works through Paul's three-part description of man's former state before turning to the means and goal of reconciliation: the bodily death of Christ to present his people holy, blameless, and above reproach. The exposition closes with a call to perseverance grounded not in the believer's resolve but in the completed work of the one who reconciles, redeems, and saves to the uttermost.
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 traces the soul's movement from the depths of distress to triumphant hope, and this exposition works through the psalm's four movements: an intense cry to God from affliction, a humble confession resting on God's forgiving character, a trusting watchfulness grounded in God's Word, and a joyful expectation rooted in divine mercy and abundant redemption. The sermon grounds assurance not in personal performance but in the believer's covenant union with Christ, whose blood has sealed the pardon that God delights to bestow. Hearers are called to be people of the Word and of prayer, waiting expectantly upon a covenant-keeping God whose faithfulness is more certain than the rising of the morning.
The Chastening of the Lord
Proverbs 3:11–12 commands God's people not to despise or detest divine chastening, grounding that prohibition in the father-son love that moves God to correct those He has received into His family. Working through the Proverbs passages on correction and then taking up the New Covenant application in Hebrews 12:5–11, this sermon demonstrates that chastisement is not evidence of divine hostility but of divine fatherhood — a necessary instrument of sanctification flowing from sovereign, covenant love. The presence of chastening confirms a believer's legitimacy as an adopted child of God, while its fruit — conformity to Christ and the peaceable fruit of righteousness — far outweighs its momentary pain. Believers are therefore called to receive God's correcting hand with submissive trust, remembering that all things, including affliction, work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose.
James 1:2-8
James 1:2–8 addresses the believer's response to trials and the request that should accompany them. The passage distinguishes trials as God-ordained testings of faith from temptations to sin, and calls believers to count such afflictions as joy because God uses them to produce endurance, maturity, and conformity to Christ. When wisdom is lacking in the midst of trial — as it invariably is — the believer is commanded to ask God, who gives liberally and without reproach to all who ask. That asking must be in faith, for the double-minded man who doubts will be unsettled, unanswered, and unstable in all his ways.
The Sovereignty of God
Proverbs 3:19–20 grounds God's sovereignty not merely in creation but in every sphere of existence — the world was founded by divine wisdom, and that same sovereign wisdom governs all of history and secures the redemption of His people. Drawing widely from Proverbs alongside Genesis, the Psalms, Daniel, and Romans, this sermon traces three distinct expressions of God's sovereignty: His free, unconstrained creation of all things; His comprehensive providence over human affairs including civil government; and His eternal purpose in redemption, centred in the pre-existent Christ of Proverbs 8. The practical force of the message is that divine sovereignty — rightly understood — produces neither fatalism nor hyper-Calvinist passivity, but rather deep comfort, stable faith, and the use of appointed means, all to the glory of God.
The Conversion of Matthew
Jesus calls Matthew — a despised tax collector and notorious sinner — to discipleship with two words: 'Follow me.' This sermon on Matthew 9:9–13 traces three movements: the sovereign, immediate call to Matthew at his tax office; the feast Matthew throws in honor of Christ, filling his table with fellow sinners; and Christ's threefold response to the Pharisees' complaint, in which he identifies himself as physician for the sin-sick, appeals to Hosea's rebuke of mere external religion, and declares his mission to call sinners to repentance. The passage insists that the power demonstrated in forgiving the paralytic avails equally for the greatest of sinners, and calls every hearer to respond as Matthew did — immediately, wholly, and with joy.
Genesis 23
Genesis 23 records the death of Sarah and Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah — a passage that reads like a legal contract but carries profound theological weight. Abraham's insistence on paying full price for the burial plot, rather than accepting it as a gift from the Canaanites, reflects the same principle he articulated in Genesis 14: he will not allow any pagan to claim credit for what God has promised. The purchase functions as a sacramental down payment on the covenant promise of the land, anticipating Israel's future inheritance of Canaan in its entirety. The sermon closes by drawing on Hebrews 11 to commend the faith of Sarah, who — through childlessness, displacement, and affliction — judged God faithful who had promised.
The Worship of God in Private Families
Family worship — the regular practice of reading Scripture, praying, and singing with one's household — is grounded in a consistent biblical pattern running from Abraham in Genesis 18 through the Apostle Paul's commands in Ephesians 6. This topical survey traces the biblical warrant for family worship through key Old Testament figures and texts, examines the elements that should mark it, and presses the duty home with both positive examples and negative warnings. Parents and grandparents are called to diligent, consistent instruction of their children in law and gospel, with the sobering reminder that neglect — not busyness — is the real obstacle.
The Call to Faithfulness in Perilous Times
Paul's warning to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1–9 identifies the gravest threat facing the church as not external persecution but internal corruption — men with a form of godliness who deny its power. The passage is expounded under four headings: the recognition of danger in the last days, the description of godless men marked by secular humanism, materialistic idolatry, and hedonism, the exhortation to avoid such men entirely, and the encouragement that their folly will be exposed as surely as that of Jannes and Jambres before Moses. The sermon calls believers to know the foundational doctrines of Christianity, to conduct themselves worthy of the gospel, and to discriminate carefully about who is permitted to teach — while resting in the confidence that Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.