The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 commands every believer — not merely church officers — to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This sermon works through the exhortation (v. 3), the motivation supplied by the reality of internal heresy (v. 4), and the disposition required of faithful contenders (vv. 17, 20–21). The defense of objective Christian truth is grounded not in combative temperament but in the knowledge that God loves his people, and is sustained through the study of Scripture, prayer, and a forward orientation toward the return of Christ.
SLBC Chapter 16: Of Good Works
Good works, as defined in chapter 16 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, are only those things God has commanded in his holy word — not deeds devised by men from blind zeal or good intentions. They are not the ground or cause of justification, which is by faith alone through Christ alone; rather, they are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith, flowing from hearts purified by that faith and enabled wholly by the Spirit of Christ. The confession targets both the Roman Catholic doctrine of supererogation and any merit-based soteriology, insisting that even the believer's best works, mingled with weakness and imperfection, are acceptable before God only through the mediation of Christ. Believers are therefore called to freely and cheerfully perform good works — including proper worship — not to secure salvation but as the grateful and Spirit-enabled response of those already justified by Christ's perfect obedience imputed to them.
Who Are the Heirs of the Promise?
Galatians 3:29 and 4:6–7 together answer the question of who truly inherits the promises made to Abraham: not those physically descended from him, nor those who observe Mosaic ceremonies, but those who are united to Christ by saving faith. The sermon traces the covenant-theological distinction between Abraham's physical seed and his spiritual seed, showing that membership in the covenant of grace is coextensive with those who receive the definite atonement of Christ. The Trinitarian shape of redemption — the Father sending the Spirit of the Son into the hearts of adopted sons — seals the argument, and the sermon draws out implications for believer's baptism and the enlarged liberty of the new covenant age.
Intro/Teaser - CTF 2026 - Understanding God's Decree
This introductory segment promotes the 2026 Confessing the Faith conference hosted by Free Grace Baptist Church in Chilliwack, BC, which will address 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 3 on the decree of God. The conference follows a sequential exposition of the confession, having previously covered the doctrine of Scripture (Chapter 1) and the doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity (Chapter 2). Featured speakers include Dr. Jim Renahan and Dr. Richard Barcelos of the International Reformed Baptist Seminary, alongside Pastor David Charles, who will offer a pastoral reflection on how the doctrine of divine decree is to be taught, embraced, and preached. The segment frames the doctrine of God's decree as foundational to Christian stability, peace, and worship, contending that what believers face in this world is governed by the sovereign God who has ordained whatsoever comes to pass for His glory and the good of His people.
What Is Faith? When Should I Be Baptized? & more| Ask FGBC Batch 6
This Q&A episode from a confessional Reformed Baptist church addresses twelve questions spanning baptism, faith, church membership, Scripture interpretation, seminary training, and the heresies of Federal Vision and Baxterianism. Particular attention is given to the definition of saving faith — distinguishing the objective content of the faith from the act of believing, warning against loading faith with feelings, faithfulness, or love as its ground, and insisting that faith is the empty instrument through which God-given grace lays hold of Christ alone. The episode closes with treatments of conviction of sin, catechetical instruction of children, and the importance of an educated ministry.
What Is Confessing the Faith 2026? | Understanding God's Decree | Reformed Baptist
This episode of Ask Free Grace Baptist Church introduces the 2026 Confessing the Faith conference (April 10–11, Chilliwack, BC), which will focus on 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 3, the doctrine of God's decree. Three speakers — Dr. Jim Renihan and Dr. Richard Barcelos of the International Reformed Baptist Seminary, and Pastor David Charles — will address the biblical, historical, and pastoral dimensions of the decree. The conversation explains why the doctrine matters: God's sovereign ordination of all things is not fate or impersonal force but the purposeful governance of the God revealed in Scripture, producing stability, peace, and worship in his people.
Late in Time Behold Him Come
The incarnation of the Son of God is not one event among many in redemptive history but the appointed climax toward which every Old Covenant type, ceremony, and providence was directing the people of God. Expounding Galatians 4:1–5, this sermon argues that the Old Covenant was temporary, preparatory, and anticipatory — never designed to convey everlasting covenantal blessing — and that Paul deploys the incarnation as a decisive argument against the Judaizing error of faith plus works. The 'but when' of verse 4 marks the arrival of the fullness of the times: the Father's eternally decreed appointment, the fulfillment of prophetic announcement, the termination of types and shadows, and the perfection of all providences. The sermon closes with a call to set the confidence of the soul entirely on the Son of God who descended from glory to redeem lawbreakers and bring many sons and daughters to everlasting glory.
The Triumph of the Son of God
Revelation 12 provides a behind-the-scenes look at the cosmic conflict between the dragon and the seed of the woman, tracing the incarnation, ascension, and enthronement of Christ as the decisive defeat of Satan. The chapter identifies three parties — the woman (the covenant people of God), the dragon (Satan), and the male child (the Lord Jesus Christ) — and traces Satan's repeated, comprehensive failures to destroy Messiah and then to destroy the church. Christ's triumph at his first advent does not remove suffering from the church; rather, the defeated devil turns his fury upon Christ's people, who overcome by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and a courage rooted in justification by faith alone. The sermon calls believers to resist Satan's tactics of deceit, accusation, and heresy by knowing the truth, and calls the unconverted to look in faith to the ascended Christ who promises rest to the weary.
The Darkness of Depression
Proverbs 15:13 identifies the broken spirit as a genuine human affliction, and the broader witness of Scripture — from Elijah under the broom tree to the weeping prophet Jeremiah to the Saviour himself as a man of sorrows — confirms that depression and melancholy are realities in the lives of God's people, not marks of spiritual failure. This sermon works through the reality of depression, its manifold causes (physical, psychological, circumstantial, spiritual, and diabolical), and practical strategies for those who suffer and those who come alongside sufferers. The controlling remedy throughout is the means of grace: rest, diet, exercise, prayer, Scripture, and the gathered worship of God's people — with the warning that singing songs to a heavy heart, after the manner of Job's friends, is a pastoral failure Scripture explicitly condemns.
The Peace and Safety of God
Psalm 4 presents the petition, exhortation, and contemplation of David — and, through him, of Christ as the godly man set apart by the Father. The sermon works through each movement of the psalm in sequence: the psalmist's earnest appeal grounded in God's past faithfulness, the rebuke and call to repentance issued to the sons of men, and the declaration that true good — the light of God's countenance, gladness of heart, and the peace and safety of dwelling under his care — belongs to those who trust in the Lord. The congregation is urged to come to Christ in earnest, arguing-prayer, to meditate on his person and work, and to rest in the imputed righteousness he alone provides.
2LBCF Chapter 15, Of Repentance unto Life and Salvation
Repentance unto life is not a work that precedes salvation but an evangelical grace sovereignly given by God in the covenant of grace, inseparable from faith as two sides of the same coin. Working through 2LCF Chapter 15, this study examines the nature, necessity, and elements of saving repentance, tracing the confession's teaching that remaining corruption and the prevalency of temptation make ongoing repentance a permanent feature of the Christian life, not merely its entry point. The session also challenges the assumption that a crisis conversion is more credible than a non-crisis one, arguing that the same effectual power of God works in the child catechized from infancy as in the most notorious convert. Hearers are urged to hate sin, apprehend the mercy of God in Christ, and avoid both antinomianism and the error of treating repentance as a meritorious condition for acceptance with God.
The Ninth Commandment: Part 2
The Ninth Commandment forbids not only perjury in a criminal court but all forms of lying, backbiting, slander, and gossip — sins Paul identifies as grieving the Holy Spirit within the church. The positive duty of the commandment requires active preservation of a neighbor's good name, charitable restraint of the tongue, and a settled love of truth grounded in the nature of God himself, who is the Lord God of truth, in contrast to the devil, who is a liar from the beginning. The threefold use of the law applies directly: the civil use restrains society from complete moral collapse, the pedagogical use exposes the sinner's need for Christ, and the normative use directs the redeemed — justified freely by grace through faith — in godly conduct toward one another. Every idle word will be accounted for on the day of judgment, making disciplined speech not optional but integral to the Christian life.
The Son of God and His Afflicted People
Matthew 14:22–33 presents Jesus walking on the sea as a revelation of His divine identity — the Son of God who, like Yahweh in Job 9:8 and Psalm 77:19, treads the waves. The disciples' terror, Peter's sinking faith, and the calming of the wind together drive toward the confession of verse 33: 'Truly, You are the Son of God.' The sermon draws out two complementary lessons: the people of God are not immune to prolonged trial and affliction, and the antidote to fear is not stoic resolve but the divinity of Christ — the Great I Am who sees His storm-tossed church and bids it be of good cheer.
The Salvation and Blessing of God
Psalm 3 presents David's threefold movement through affliction, conviction, and petition — not as private biography, but as a typological window onto the Lord Jesus Christ and, in union with him, the whole church. David's flight from Absalom prefigures Christ surrounded by enemies, crucified, raised, and exalted; the same enemies who said 'there is no help for him in God' echo across the centuries to Golgotha. The psalm teaches that affliction does not dissolve confidence in God but sharpens it: the shield, the glory, and the lifter of the head are unchanging realities that produce sleep in the midst of crisis and courage before ten thousands of adversaries. The closing declaration — 'salvation belongs to the LORD, your blessing is upon your people' — is the direct answer to every accusation that God has abandoned his own, and it is the ground on which the church is called to pray, to sing, and to stand without fear.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment — 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20) — addresses first and foremost the crime of perjury in a judicial context, then extends by implication to every form of falsehood: lying, slander, backbiting, gossip, and tailbearing. Working through Deuteronomy 19:15–21, the study examines the biblical lex talionis applied to false witnesses, where the perjurer receives the same penalty he sought to bring upon the accused, and draws out the retributive and deterrent logic of Old Covenant judicial law. The positive requirement of the commandment — the sanctity of truth in all areas of life — is traced through Leviticus 19, Proverbs, Romans 1, and the Westminster Larger Catechism's exhaustive treatment of sins against the ninth commandment. Hearers are called to active and passive faithfulness: neither speaking falsehood nor lending an ear to those who do.
November 30, 2025
Galatians 3:26-28 grounds the sonship of all believers not in ethnic descent, Mosaic observance, or social standing, but exclusively in faith in Christ Jesus. Working through Paul's argument against the Judaizers, this exposition distinguishes redemptive adoption from creative, national, and theocratic sonship, showing that union with Christ — signified in baptism — clothes every believer in Christ's righteousness without distinction of Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. The sermon closes with a call to rejoice in the alien righteousness of Christ and to walk worthy of the grace that transfers sinners from the family of the devil to the family of God.
2LBCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
What is saving faith, where does it come from, and what does it rest upon? Working through Chapter 14 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this study examines saving faith under three headings: its nature (divine source, instrumental means, and fortifying ordinances), its object (the consequent acts of believing the Word and the principal acts of accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone), and the variety and degree of faith across believers. The confession's teaching is grounded throughout in Scripture and the broader confessional architecture, demonstrating that saving faith is a purchased grace of the covenant of grace, given and sustained by the Spirit of Christ through the Word and the appointed means of the church.
Who Are the Sons of God?
Galatians 3:26–29 declares that all who believe in Christ are sons of God through faith — not through ethnic descent from Abraham, physical circumcision, or adherence to the Mosaic law. This sermon works through the status, redemptive ground, sign, and unity of that sonship, demonstrating from Matthew 3, John 8, Romans 2 and 9, and Ephesians 2 that children of God are defined by union with Christ rather than by nationality, social condition, or sex. The threefold negation of Galatians 3:28 directly demolishes the Judaizing confidence in Israelite birth, free status, and maleness, and points instead to the covenant of grace in which all believers are equally heirs of the promise. The sermon closes with a call to rest in the alien righteousness of Christ as the sole ground of adopted sonship.
The Reign of the Son of the Most High
Psalm 2 sets the fallen world's rebellion against God and His Anointed within a framework of divine sovereignty, showing that the rage of nations and rulers against Yahweh and His Christ is both futile and answerable. The psalm unfolds in four movements: the insurrection of mankind against God, the installation of the Son as King on Zion, the revelation of the eternal decree establishing the Son's universal inheritance, and the exhortation to kiss the Son in saving faith. Christ is identified as the eternal, only-begotten Son of the Father whose resurrection vindicates His divine Sonship, and whose worldwide reign is not yet complete but is advancing through the gospel mission entrusted to the church. The psalm closes with both a warning to the impenitent and a promise of blessedness to all who trust in Him.
The Permanence and Primacy of Christ and Christianity
Paul's argument in Galatians 3:19–26 is pressed from every angle: the Mosaic law was given because of transgressions, temporary in design, never a rival to the promise but a servant of it, and fulfilled entirely in the coming of Christ. The law functioned as a pedagogue — restraining sin, exposing guilt, and driving the sinner toward the one it signified — but with Christ's advent that tutelage has ended. True sonship before God belongs not to national Israel nor to any who ground their standing in works of law, but exclusively to those united to Christ by faith, who are thereby Abraham's seed and heirs of the promise. The sermon calls the church to be guarded against any doctrine that introduces human works into the ground of justification, and to be ardently and exclusively attached to Christ as the sole Savior of sinners.
The Holy, Harmless, and Undefiled Man
Psalm 1 describes not merely the character of the generic godly man, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself — the one perfectly holy, harmless, and undefiled man whose obedience alone secures the blessedness the psalm pronounces. The hermeneutic is not moralistic prescription ('do this and live') but christological proclamation: because the blessed man of verse 1 fulfilled what verses 1–2 demand, all who trust in him receive both forgiveness of sins and the imputation of his righteousness. The sermon then moves to application in a gospel-ordered framework, showing that sanctification flows consequent to justification — the redeemed follow the Lamb not in order to obtain blessing, but because they have already received it in Christ.
SLBC Chapter 13: Sanctification
Sanctification is a work of God's free grace — not of human effort — wrought in the elect by the Word and Spirit through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection. The 1689 London Baptist Confession, Chapter 13, sets out the nature and cause of sanctification: its undeserving recipients (the effectually called and regenerated), the initial definitive act of sanctifying grace at conversion, the progressive ongoing work of the Spirit, and the instruments God employs (Word and Spirit). The confession guards this doctrine on two fronts simultaneously: against moral-improvement schemes that reduce sanctification to human effort, and against sinless perfectionism that denies remaining corruption in the believer.
The Citizenship of the Believer
The enemies of the cross of Christ are not merely mistaken but are heading toward eternal destruction — and the Apostle Paul warns of them with tears. Expounding Philippians 3:18–21, this sermon identifies the Judaizers as those enemies: their god is their belly, their glory is in their shame, and their minds are set on earthly things. Against that dark backdrop, the believer's citizenship in heaven is a present legal possession that demands an eager anticipation of Christ's return, a purifying of life in light of that coming, and a deliberate seeking out of godly examples to follow rather than the many who walk the broad road to destruction.
The Mission and Ministry of the Church
What is the mission and ministry of the church, and how does the apostolic pattern in Acts 2 define both? This sermon works through Acts 2:22–42, showing that the church's mission is the proclamation of Christ — his life, atoning death, resurrection, and exaltation — accompanied by the killing work of God's law that convicts sinners of their guilt and drives them to the Savior. The ministry that follows is shaped by the four marks of the early church in verse 42: steadfast continuance in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer — the simple means by which God feeds his blood-bought people.
8th Commandment: Part 2; Deuteronomy 5:19
The eighth commandment — 'You shall not steal' — carries not only a prohibition but a positive demand: diligent labor, charitable love toward others, and biblical contentment. Drawing from Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and the New Testament epistles, this exposition moves from the reasons grounding the command (God's sovereignty, man's image-bearing dignity, and the indirect assault on human life that theft represents) to its constructive obligations. The sermon closes with an application of the law's three uses — civil, pedagogical, and normative — including a pointed treatment of government taxation in light of 1 Samuel 8, where God warned that unchecked rulers will 'take, take, take.'
The Pattern for the Christian Life
Philippians 3:17 calls believers to join in following the Apostle Paul's example and to identify others in the local church who walk the same way. The sermon argues that faithful Christian examples are not found among social-media influencers but among ordinary, persevering saints whose lives are grounded in justification by faith alone, followed by sanctification, perseverance, and glorification. Paul's example is examined across four dimensions — his conversion, his life as a believer, his ministry, and his suffering — with particular attention to the courage and gospel-centrality displayed throughout Acts. The sermon's application presses the responsibility squarely on individual believers: they must actively seek out faithful examples in the congregation rather than waiting for examples to come to them.
The Third Appearance of Christ to the Disciples, Part 3
John 21:20–25 closes the fourth gospel with two interlocking concerns: the sovereign headship of Christ over His church and the divine authority of Holy Scripture. Peter's question about John's fate draws a sharp rebuke — 'What is that to you? You follow me' — which exposes the temptation to play the victim of providence rather than the contented subject of Christ's will. The passage then grounds the church's authority in the eyewitness testimony of the beloved disciple, written by the Spirit for one declared purpose: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and have life in His name. The sermon closes with John's doxological acknowledgment that the infinite Word made flesh exceeds all possible description, and calls every hearer to follow Christ in their appointed station rather than fixate on the lot of others.
The Eighth Commandment (Part 1)
The Eighth Commandment — 'You shall not steal' (Deuteronomy 5:19) — forbids far more than simple theft. This study works through the range of sins prohibited by the command, including burglary, robbery, kidnapping, fraud in its several forms, extortion, destruction of property, and religious theft. The internal dispositions that generate these external acts — covetousness, discontentment, and the idolatry of wealth — are examined through texts in Proverbs, 1 Timothy 6, and Matthew 6. The study closes by grounding the positive duty of honest labor and cheerful giving in the grace of the gospel, through which believers are freed from the dominion of covetousness and equipped to honor God with what He has entrusted to them.
The Third Appearance of Christ to the Disciples, Part 2
Peter's threefold denial of Christ is answered by Christ's threefold question — 'Do you love me?' — and his threefold commission to feed and tend the flock. This exposition of John 21:15–19 argues that the primary qualification and motivation for gospel ministry is love for Christ, expressed not in entertainment or corporate management but in the preaching and teaching of the word. The prophecy of Peter's martyrdom in verses 18–19 further establishes that faithful ministry is patterned on the cross-then-crown trajectory of Christ himself, and that the grace shown in Peter's full restoration is the same grace sufficient for the worst of sinners.
2LCF Chap.12 of Adoption
The twelfth chapter of the 1689 London Baptist Confession treats adoption as a distinct benefit of the gospel, flowing necessarily from justification and grounded solely in God's sovereign grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. This study traces the basis of adoption — its recipients (the justified), its source (God's free vouchsafing), and its ground (the merit of Christ alone) — before working through the four categories of benefit the confession enumerates: inclusion in the family of God, reception of privileges (the divine name, the Spirit of adoption, bold access to the throne of grace), fatherly treatment (pity, protection, provision, and chastening), and the inheritance of everlasting salvation. A sustained contrast between Paul's juridical language of adoption and John's language of new birth demonstrates that both apostles teach the same doctrine from different vantage points, while an extended excursus on Hebrews 9–10 applies the Old Covenant / New Covenant contrast to rebut the paedobaptist argument for an internal-external continuity between the covenants. The children of God are called to live out their adoption by walking in love, light, and wisdom as Ephesians 5 commands.