Genesis 2:1-3
Genesis 2:1–3 establishes the Sabbath not at Sinai but at creation, where God's completion of the cosmic temple, his rest of holy delight, and his blessing and sanctification of the seventh day together constitute a creational ordinance binding on all mankind. The text moves in three movements: the completion of creation (v. 1), the rest of the Creator (v. 2), and the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day for the creature's benefit (v. 3). Christ's declaration in Mark 2:27 — 'the Sabbath was made for man' — is not a new pronouncement but a commentary on Genesis 2, confirming that the day was given to image-bearers as a gift from the beginning. Any theology of the Sabbath that does not begin here in Genesis 2:1–3 is defective, and believers are called to receive the weekly Sabbath as a good gift from God rather than resist or dispense with it.
The Replacement for Judas
The replacement of Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:12–26 raises questions about the nature of apostolic authority, the sovereignty of God over human treachery, and the continuing rule of the risen Christ over his church. Peter's leadership in securing Matthias as the twelfth apostle demonstrates that the apostolic college was not dissolved by Judas's defection but reconstituted by Christ's own direction — through prayer, Scripture, and the casting of lots. The sharp contrast between Peter, restored by grace after his denial, and Judas, who went to his own place as a reprobate, anchors the sermon's gospel appeal: no sin is too great for the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, and sinners are urged to look to Christ and live.
The Recovery of Wandering Brethren
James 5:19–20 closes the epistle not with a random aside but with a call to mutual accountability rooted in the high stakes of wandering from the truth. The sermon establishes two movements: the problem of professing believers who drift from the truth into the error of their way, and the encouragement given to every member of the local church who pursues their recovery. Drawing on Matthew 18, Galatians 6, Hebrews 2, and Psalm 119, the exposition argues that truth and conduct are inseparably connected, that instrumental means matter in God's sovereign purposes of salvation, and that the antidote to defection from God is a disciplined, resolute, corporate love for the truth.
Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 1:26–31 presents the creation of man as the deliberate, dignified pinnacle of God's creative work. The plural 'let us make' in verse 26 is examined through three interpretive options — heavenly council, plural of majesty, and the Trinity — with the Trinitarian reading affirmed as the only exegetically and theologically coherent position. The sermon exposits the Imago Dei with reference to Ecclesiastes 7:29, Ephesians 4:23–24, Colossians 3:10, and the 1689 LBCF chapter 4, establishing that the image encompasses rationality, knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. Hearers are pressed to live as genuine image-bearers — treating fellow humans with dignity, resisting evolutionary reductionism, and exercising responsible dominion over creation for the glory of the triune God.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 2
James 5:16–18 calls every believer — not a spiritual elite — to confess sins to one another, to intercede for one another, and to pray with the confidence that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The 'righteous man' of verse 16 is not a super-saint but any person justified by faith alone in Christ alone, whose imputed righteousness gives boldness at the throne of grace. Elijah is set before the church not as a larger-than-life wonder-worker but as a man of like passions — weak, despondent, yet prevailing in prayer — precisely so that ordinary believers will not despair of their own access to God. The sermon closes with a searching examination: are God's people truly prayerful as individuals, as families, as elders, and as a congregation?
The Ascension of Christ
The ascension of Christ in Acts 1:9–11 is no mere epilogue to the resurrection but a theologically freighted event with direct consequences for how believers understand Christ's present reign, the Lord's Supper, intercession, and final glorification. Working through the passage, the sermon establishes that the ascension was visible, local, bodily, and glorious — witnessed by the apostles and interpreted by angelic messengers who announce Christ's return in like manner. The ascension completes Christ's earthly mediatorial work, secures the gift of the Spirit, and grounds the believer's assurance in a high priest who always lives to make intercession — the pledge that those whom He justified He will also glorify.
Genesis 1:3-25
Genesis 1:3–25 presents not a bare catalogue of events but a theologically ordered narrative of God's creative work, moving from formlessness to a world formed and filled for man's habitation. The study traces a recurring five-part formula in each day of creation — announcement, command, fulfillment, evaluation, and temporal marker — and then unpacks the structural pattern in which days 1–3 establish realms (light, sky and sea, land) and days 4–6 install their respective rulers (luminaries, fish and birds, land creatures), with man as the image-bearing vice-regent over all. The account is also polemical: Yahweh's creation of sun, moon, stars, and sea creatures directly undercuts the astral worship and mythological cosmologies surrounding Israel. Hearers are called to embrace six-day creationism by faith, to reject the incipient Gnosticism that denigrates the material world, and to read Genesis 1 as Scripture reads it — by faith we understand, not the reverse.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 15, 2018 AM
Acts 1:1-8 introduces Luke's second volume not merely as a history of the early church but as a record of what the risen and enthroned Christ continues to do and teach by his Spirit through the Apostles. The sermon examines the prologue (vv. 1-3), where Luke establishes the resurrection as infallible and certain fact, and the apostolic commission (vv. 4-8), where Christ commands the Eleven to wait for the promised Spirit before going as witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The inseparability of doctrine and deed, the sovereignty of God over the timing of the kingdom, and the necessity of the Holy Spirit for both mission and sanctification are drawn out as the governing themes of the entire book.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 1
James 5:13–15 addresses the full range of Christian experience — suffering, cheerfulness, and sickness — and directs each condition toward God in prayer and praise. This exposition works through three aspects of the passage: the individual at prayer in verse 13, the elders and their ministry in verse 14, and the prayer of faith and its outcome in verse 15. The sermon confronts both the health-and-wealth error that denies sickness a place in the redeemed life and the cessationist question raised by the anointing with oil, arguing for a symbolic interpretation of the oil while insisting that prayer — not any physical element — is the means God honors. The governing application is that every condition of life, whether affliction or ease, calls for the same disciplined, God-directed response: pray, praise, and submit to the sovereign will of God.
The Prologue and Commission
Acts 1:1–8 opens with a prologue establishing that the book of Acts is not merely the acts of the apostles but the continuing acts of the risen, enthroned Christ — carried out by the Spirit, through the Word, and by means of the apostles he himself commissioned. The sermon examines what Luke signals by the phrase 'Jesus began both to do and teach,' arguing that faithful Christianity holds doctrine and good works together as an inseparable knot, neither collapsing into social-gospel activism nor retreating into a purely intellectual faith. The apostolic commission is shown to be authoritative and externally given, grounding the church's mission in Christ's own mandate rather than human initiative.
Genesis 1:1-2
Genesis 1:1–2 demands that the people of God hold tenaciously to the doctrine of creation, because what is affirmed or denied there reverberates through the whole of Scripture and Christian ethics. This study surveys the doctrine of creation through the lens of 1689 LBCF chapter 4, paragraph 1, examining the time, author, purpose, and scope of God's creative act, before turning to the precise structure of Genesis 1:1–2 and the arguments for six-day creation. The session closes with two applications: maintaining the aseity and immutability of God, and preserving the Creator-creature distinction against any notion that God is merely the most excellent member of a chain of being.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 8, 2018 PM
The reception of God's written Word must move the covenant people to thoroughgoing, comprehensive reform—in worship, life, and the observance of the sacraments—regardless of whether such obedience will produce measurable results. Expounding 2 Kings 23, this sermon traces three movements in Josiah's reformation of Judah: a public covenant renewal ceremony, an extensive purge of idolatry from both the southern and northern territories, and the restoration of Passover. The driving lesson is that obedience to God's law is not grounded in pragmatic expectation of blessing but in the simple rightness of what God commands—a faithfulness the speaker calls 'obedience without incentives.'
Of Good Works (2LCF16.13)
Matthew 7:1, 'Judge not that you be not judged,' is one of the most frequently misapplied verses in Scripture, often weaponized to prohibit every form of ecclesiastical discernment and render church discipline illegitimate. This session from a study of the 1689 London Baptist Confession examines 2LCF 26.13 on the conduct of the offended church member, then exegetes Matthew 7:1–6 to show that Christ forbids a nitpicking, censorious, fault-finding spirit toward fellow believers — not the lawful exercise of judgment required by Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and 1 Timothy 5. The positive application calls believers to mortify the censorious plank in their own eye, apply biblical law rather than personal preference to matters of judgment, cultivate humility, and look to Christ and his gospel as the continual remedy for self-righteousness.
Introduction to the Book of Acts
The book of Acts is not merely a record of human achievement but theological history — the continuing acts of the risen and ascended Christ, who builds his church by the Spirit through apostolic agency. This introductory sermon on Acts 1:1–3 examines the authorship, date, purpose, and major themes of Acts, defending the apostolicity of Luke as a non-apostle who nonetheless wrote under apostolic oversight and companionship with Paul. The sermon anchors the entire book in three great themes: the glory of the triune God, the normative practice of the early church, and the unstoppable spread of the gospel — all driven by the necessity of the Christian gospel for sinners under a holy God.
The Reformation Under Josiah
Second Kings 23 records the sweeping reformation under King Josiah of Judah, in which the rediscovered book of the law became the instrument of comprehensive covenant renewal and the purging of idolatry from the land. This sermon traces the three decisive movements of that reformation: the public reading of Scripture, the solemn covenant renewal before the Lord, and the thorough removal of all false worship from Jerusalem, Judah, and even the northern territories. Though Josiah's obedience is unrivaled among Israel's kings, the passage closes with the sobering reality that no human reformation, however thorough, can avert the covenant wrath accumulated by persistent apostasy. The abiding lesson is that the word of God received must become the word of God obeyed — hearers must become doers.
The Doubter Turned Confessor
Thomas's refusal to believe the disciples' eyewitness testimony of the risen Christ is one of the most emphatic denials of the resurrection in the New Testament — not mere doubt, but obstinate, threefold rejection of Scripture, Christ's own words, and apostolic witness. When Jesus appears and meets Thomas's exact conditions, Thomas confesses 'My Lord and my God,' bookending John's Gospel with the same declaration of Christ's deity found in its opening verse. The sermon expounds John 20:24–31 in two movements: the post-resurrection appearance to Thomas and the stated purpose of John's Gospel — that all who read it might believe and have life in Christ's name. Hearers are urged to stop placing conditions on God, to confess with Thomas that Jesus is Lord and God, and to avail themselves of the church's theological resources to grow beyond a superficial grasp of cardinal doctrines such as the Trinity.
The Liberality of God and the Believer's Security
Romans 8:31–39 confronts the believer with a single overwhelming argument: because the Father did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for all the elect, He will most certainly freely give them everything else they need. The sermon works through three movements — the declaration of God's liberality in the gift of His Son, the implication that every lesser need is thereby guaranteed, and the application to the believer's unassailable security against accusation, condemnation, and separation. Drawing on the language of propitiation, penal substitution, and the Ordo Salutis, the exposition insists that the believer's confidence rests not on personal virtue or perseverance but on the justifying grace of God and the interceding, unchanging love of Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 28, 2018 Bible Study
This Bible study works through the fall of Jerusalem as recorded in 2 Kings 25, tracing the Babylonian conquest, the destruction of the temple, the deportation of the people of Judah, and the provisional governorship under Gedaliah. The session draws out the covenantal significance of the temple's destruction — that the visible symbol of God's presence among his people had been removed — while pressing toward the hope embedded even in judgment, that God's promise to his people and to the line of David was not finally extinguished. Listeners are urged to pray for those in positions of governing authority and to trust that God's redemptive purposes persist beyond catastrophe.
2 Kings 25
The fall of Jerusalem in 2 Kings 25 is not merely a record of military conquest — it is a theological verdict on covenant unfaithfulness. The chapter traces the Babylonian siege, the systematic destruction of the temple and city, the appointment and assassination of Gedaliah, and the exile of Judah, reading as a sustained fulfillment of the curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28. Yet the chapter's closing verses, recording the release and elevation of Jehoiachin in Babylon, preserve a glimmer of Davidic hope that Matthew 1 traces forward to Jesus Christ, the son of David whose kingdom has no end.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 25, 2018 PM
Acts 4:23-31 records the early church's corporate prayer in the face of threats from the Jewish authorities, and this sermon expounds four dimensions of that prayer: its occasion, its character, its content, and God's answer to it. The congregation's prayer is marked by a deliberate unity of purpose — a one-accord rooted not in uniformity of voice but in a shared commitment to the faith of the gospel. The content of the prayer moves through invocation and recognition of God as sovereign Creator, rehearsal of his works in creation and revelation, and confidence in his decree and providence — culminating not in a petition for deliverance from danger but for boldness to continue proclaiming Christ in the midst of it. Christians are called to pattern their own prayers on this model: knowing their God, drawing confidence from that knowledge, and asking not for the removal of trials but for the strength and resolution to endure through them.
The Defense of the Faith
Jude 3 issues a universal call—addressed not to clergy alone but to every believer, the 'beloved'—to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The sermon works through three movements: the exhortation itself and its five implications, the reason for that exhortation in the apostates of verse 4, and the practical preparedness of the contender outlined in verses 20 and 21. Doctrinal fidelity is not optional maintenance for specialists; it is the privilege and duty of every member of the covenant community, sustained by Scripture reading, prayer, and a constant looking to Christ. The sermon closes with a direct call to the unconverted to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone forgiveness of sins and the imputation of his righteousness are received by faith alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 18, 2018 PM
James 5:7-12 calls the people of God to cultivate patience — toward one another and under affliction — in light of the imminent return of Christ as judge and deliverer. The sermon traces two obstacles that undermine patience: grumbling against fellow believers, which contradicts the love and long-suffering that Scripture everywhere demands, and careless or rash oath-taking, which reflects a failure to let the tongue conform to truth. The prophets and Job stand as biblical examples of endurance through suffering, with Job's trial yielding not merely restored prosperity but experiential knowledge of God — which James presents as the ultimate end the Lord intends. Believers are exhorted to establish their hearts, pursue direct reconciliation rather than complaint, and find fresh resolve in the gospel of Christ, whose blood cleanses all the impatience, grumbling, and falsehood that the passage exposes.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 18, 2018 AM
Matthew 28:18–20 closes Matthew's Gospel with the Great Commission, grounding the church's entire mission in the absolute authority and perpetual presence of Christ. The sermon draws out three implications from Christ's promise 'I am with you always': his presence should promote appreciation for the church past and present, concern for the church now and in the future, and confidence that Christ actively equips her through a trained gospel ministry. Ephesians 4 is opened at length to show that the gifts Christ gives his church are gifted men — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — whose threefold purpose is to equip the saints, fulfil the work of ministry, and edify the body toward mature knowledge of the Son of God. The sermon closes with a call to unbelievers, directing them to Matthew 1:21, 20:28, and 11:28–30 as the purpose, means, and gracious offer of Christ's saving work.
The Great Commission, Part 5
Christ's closing promise in Matthew 28:20 — 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age' — is the assurance that undergirds the entire Great Commission. This concluding exposition of the gospel of Matthew draws out three summarizing observations: Christ's omnipresence sustains the church in her disciple-making mission, his active headship equips her for ongoing ministry through the gifts described in Ephesians 4, and the Commission's scope demands both a love for the visible church and a concern for her future across all nations. The sermon calls believers to prize the church as Christ's bride, to train and send men for gospel ministry, and to trust that Christ's promised presence is conditioned on obedience to the Commission itself.
2 Kings 23:1-30
Second Kings 23 records the most thoroughgoing religious reformation in Israelite history, as King Josiah responds to the rediscovered book of the law by renewing the covenant, purging both the southern and northern kingdoms of institutionalized idolatry, and reinstating the Passover. The exposition traces Josiah's reforms from their covenantal basis through their comprehensive execution — including the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken 300 years earlier in 1 Kings 13 — before confronting the sobering reality that even this unparalleled reformation could not avert God's covenantal wrath against Judah for the sins of Manasseh. Josiah emerges as a typological figure — a second Moses, a Davidic son — whose faithfulness is held out as the model of obedience that does not depend on incentive or outcome, a pattern the New Covenant people of God are exhorted to follow in their own worship, sacrament, and covenant fidelity.
The Condemnation of Wealthy Oppressors
James 5:1–6 pronounces a severe condemnation upon wealthy oppressors whose possession of riches has, in turn, come to possess them. The sermon identifies four specific offenses — hoarding wealth, defrauding workers, self-indulgent pleasure-seeking, and the oppression and effective murder of the righteous — situating James within the tradition of the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah) who prosecuted the Lord's covenant against such sins within the covenant community. The critical interpretive question — whether the targets are unbelieving oppressors (Calvin) or professing believers within the church (Gill) — is resolved in favour of Gill, with the acknowledgment that professing Christians are not immune to grievous inconsistency. The passage's application presses hearers to examine how their riches are acquired, how they are used, and above all how wealth is affecting the posture of their hearts before God, while firmly rejecting both liberation theology's Marxist distortion and any notion that the mere possession of wealth is condemned by Scripture.
Of The Church (2LFC26.12)
Church discipline is not an optional appendage to church life but one of the three marks of the true church, alongside pure preaching and right administration of the sacraments. This exposition of 2LCF 26.12 and Matthew 18:15 establishes first that formal church membership is a biblical obligation for all believers — evidenced from Acts, Hebrews, and the Thessalonian epistles — and then that membership entails real liability to the church's censures and government. The sermon focuses on the first step of Matthew 18's disciplinary process: private confrontation, its proper aim (winning a brother), its proper disposition (humility, love, and a willingness to be shown a misunderstanding), and the complementary obligations of the one being rebuked.
The Great Commission, Part 4
Matthew 28:20 calls the church to a lifelong, comprehensive teaching ministry — the fourth imperative of the Great Commission. The sermon examines this teaching activity under four headings: its simplicity (Scripture alone, not opinion or entertainment), its scope (all Christ's commands, Old and New Testaments, issuing in obedience), its perpetuity (traceable from Acts through the pastoral epistles to the end of the age), and its comprehensiveness (the whole counsel of God applied to individuals, families, churches, and civil society). The closing appeal summons hearers to the cross — the ransom of Matthew 20:28 and the invitation of Matthew 11:28 — as the indispensable foundation for any biblical obedience.
2 Kings 22:1-20
The discovery of the Book of the Law during Josiah's temple repairs exposes the deep covenantal unfaithfulness of Judah and provokes a model of humble repentance that stands as a rebuke to every generation. Huldah the prophetess confirms that divine judgment on the nation is certain and irreversible, yet God extends personal mercy to Josiah because his heart was tender before the Word. The sermon traces the proper response to Scripture — trembling reception, genuine internal contrition, and active reformation — against the background of Josiah's exemplary reign and the warnings of Deuteronomy 28. The hearer is called to receive the implanted Word with meekness, to confess sin honestly rather than conceal it, and to resist the slow drift toward apostasy by giving earnest heed to all that God has spoken.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 4, 2018 PM
John 1:1–18 and 1:29 are expounded together to set the cross in its full Trinitarian, Christological, and covenantal context. The preacher establishes the eternal deity of the Word, the distinction of persons within the one divine essence, the doctrine of eternal generation, and the incarnation, before arriving at John the Baptist's declaration — 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' The sermon is preached in a Lord's Supper service, and the atonement is shown to be the act of an eternal divine person who stepped into time to accomplish, as the antitype of every Old Testament sacrifice, the definitive removal of the sin of his people from every nation.