The Glory of the Lamb of God
John 1:29 — 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — cannot be rightly understood apart from the Prologue that precedes it. The eternal Word who was with God and was God became flesh, was eternally begotten of the Father, and stands as the covenantal head of the new covenant before he is identified as the Lamb whose violent, substitutionary death takes away the sin of the world. The scope of that sin-bearing is not every individual without exception but persons without distinction — Jews and Gentiles alike — as the consistent use of 'world' in John's Gospel and the song of the redeemed in Revelation 5 make clear. The proper response is to place the cross in its full Trinitarian, Christological, and covenantal context and to worship the one who left the eternal life of God to enter our flesh and save us from our sins.
Of The Church (2LFC26)
The universal church — its invisibility, its visible expression in the lives of professing saints, its perpetuity, and the exclusive headship of Christ — is the doctrinal territory of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 26, paragraphs 1 to 4. The confession grounds the church's existence not in voluntary human association but in the electing grace of God and the internal work of the Spirit, defining the church's members as those who profess the gospel and live in conformity with that profession. The distinction between the invisible universal church and visible saints is shown to carry a distinctively Baptist ecclesiological weight: church membership flows from credible profession, not covenant birth. Christ's absolute headship over the church — established by the Father as mediator — provides the foundation for the regulative principle of worship and stands in irreconcilable opposition to any papal claim to vicarship.
The Great Commission, Part 3
Matthew 28:19 commands that disciples be baptized into the singular name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a text that stands as one of Scripture's clearest witnesses to the doctrine of the Trinity. This sermon works through the baptismal formula to establish what the one name and three persons require the Christian to confess: one divine essence, three distinct subsistences, free from the errors of tritheism, modalism, and subordinationism. The active obedience of Christ is exposited as the ground of the righteousness imputed to sinners in justification, showing that the gospel itself is inseparable from a right doctrine of God. The congregation is urged to study the confession's chapters on theology proper and Christology, and to hold the doctrine of the Trinity as a white-knuckle conviction worth dying for.
2 Kings 21:1-26
Manasseh's 55-year reign over Judah represents the nadir of covenant unfaithfulness in the southern kingdom, exceeding even the wickedness of the Canaanites whom God had expelled from the land. This expository study of 2 Kings 21 traces Manasseh's systematic religious innovations — reinstituting the high places, introducing Baal and Asherah worship into the temple, practicing child sacrifice and witchcraft, and shedding innocent blood — alongside the divine prophecy of inevitable, terrifying, and just judgment against Jerusalem. The chapter also demonstrates that Judah was not merely victimized by a wicked king but was itself seducible, having provoked God continuously since the exodus. The passage calls covenant people to resist practical atheism, to cherish God's promised blessings rather than forfeit them for the passing pleasures of sin, and to reckon seriously with the connection between idolatry and the collapse of ethical life.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 25, 2018 PM
James 4:13-17 levels a charge of carnal presumption against professing believers who plan, buy, sell, and pursue profit as though God has no jurisdiction over Monday through Saturday. The sermon distinguishes between planning itself — which Scripture assumes and commends — and the godless self-sufficiency that excludes divine sovereignty from commerce, household, and daily routine. Three remedies are drawn from the text: recognize your ignorance of tomorrow, recognize the frailty of a life that is 'a vapor,' and recognize your utter dependence on the will of God. The sermon closes by connecting verse 17's sin of omission to the whole passage: those who know God is sovereign over all things and yet live as practical atheists do not merely stumble — they sin against knowledge.
The Great Commission, Part 2
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) commands the church to make disciples of all nations — a task grounded not in human ingenuity but in the absolute authority of the risen Christ. This sermon distinguishes the institutional church's primary calling (gospel proclamation, baptism, and teaching) from the broader activities of individual believers, arguing that the church compromises her distinctive mission when she substitutes social amelioration for disciple-making. The command to baptize is examined in its proper order: conversion through gospel preaching precedes baptism, which is itself a sign of union with Christ, remission of sins, and newness of life — not a means of conferring salvation. Drawing on the Abrahamic covenant, the Isaianic servant songs, and the Messianic Psalms, the sermon traces the 'all nations' scope of the commission as the fulfillment of promises running from Genesis 12 through to the risen Lord's own declaration.
2 Kings 20:1-21
Second Kings 20 closes the account of Hezekiah's reign by exposing both the nobility and the inconsistency of one of Judah's best kings. The chapter is examined under three headings: the extension of Hezekiah's life through answered prayer, the folly of his alliance-seeking with Babylon, and the summary of his reign. The central lesson is that even a covenant-faithful king who trusts God in sickness can lapse into walking by sight in prosperity, and this inconsistency of consistency is the common condition of every believer who depends on the grace of Christ rather than on personal perfection.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
Of Marriage (2LCF25)
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 25 sets forth a comprehensive theology of marriage as a monogamous, creational institution between one man and one woman, ordained for companionship, procreation, and the prevention of sexual immorality. This study walks through each paragraph of the chapter, examining the biblical case against polygamy, homosexuality, bestiality, and unequal yoking, while grounding each prohibition in specific Old and New Testament texts. The two paragraphs on divorce and remarriage that the Westminster Confession adds but the 1689 omits receive extended treatment, with the conclusion that Scripture's exception clauses permit dissolution of the marriage bond in cases of adultery and desertion, without penalising the innocent party. Hearers are exhorted to treasure their spouses, pursue marriage only in the Lord, and rear their children in the fear of God.
The Call to Repentance
James 4:7–12 contains ten imperatives calling the people of God to repentance — first toward God and then toward one another. The sermon traces the gracious foundation of this call in verse 6 ('he gives more grace'), showing that compliance with these commands is possible only by divine provision, not by human self-improvement. Repentance toward God encompasses submission, resistance of the devil, drawing near to God, moral purity, mourning over sin, and humility; repentance toward one another requires laying aside evil speech, judgmentalism, and the arrogance of treating personal preferences as law. The conspicuous order — fix the vertical relationship first, then the horizontal — is shown to be the theological logic of both the Decalogue and James' own chiastic structure.
2 Kings 19:1-37
Second Kings 19 narrates the Assyrian crisis under Sennacherib and Hezekiah's response — a pattern of seeking God through the prophet Isaiah, spreading the enemy's letter before the Lord, and praying with conspicuously theological concern for God's honor rather than merely for personal safety. The sermon moves through three sections: the prophet's word of encouragement, Hezekiah's model prayer, and the divine defeat of 185,000 Assyrian troops by the angel of the Lord. Hezekiah's David-like rationale — that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that the Lord alone is God — illustrates why theology matters in trial, and why the best pleas in prayer are those taken from God's honor.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 11, 2018 PM
James 4:1-6 exposes two devastating fruits of what James calls 'demonic wisdom': conflict with one another (vv. 1-2a) and enmity with God (vv. 2b-6). The source of both is unmortified lust — the unrestrained desire for pleasure, riches, and worldly greatness that breeds wars, fights, covetousness, and wicked prayer among professing believers. The sermon presses the congregation to trace every form of church conflict and spiritual adultery back to pride, and closes with the transitional mercy of verse 6: that despite all this, God gives more grace to the humble.
The Denial of the Resurrection
Matthew 28:11–15 records not only the resurrection of Christ but the immediate counter-offensive mounted by the chief priests and elders to suppress the fact of the empty tomb. Against the backdrop of the Great Commission in verses 16–20, these verses expose a counter-mission: a bribed, fabricated narrative designed to replace the truth of the resurrection with the stolen-body theory. The sermon examines the soldiers' report to the chief priests, the wickedness and implausibility of the lie they were paid to spread, and the theological reasons — including divine judicial hardening — that such a falsehood gained traction in first-century Judea. The application presses every believer to be armed to defend the resurrection and to rest the whole of their justification on faith in the risen Christ alone.
2 Kings 18:1-37
Second Kings 18 introduces Hezekiah, one of Judah's most faithful kings, whose sweeping religious reforms and wholehearted trust in Yahweh are met not with immediate peace but with Assyrian invasion and psychological warfare. The chapter exposes a persistent error: that obedience to God is a formula for earthly blessing rather than a response to grace, and that faithfulness and suffering are not mutually exclusive. The Rabshakeh's two speeches constitute calculated propaganda designed to sow despair and division in Jerusalem, culminating in a blasphemous equation of Yahweh with the powerless gods of conquered nations. The study draws out three practical lessons: that trial coexists with blessing, that even faithful people waver, and that God's people may face genuine despair while still possessing genuine hope in a God who will act on their behalf.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 4, 2018 PM
Romans 4:25 encapsulates the whole gospel in a single verse: Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. Working through the context of Paul's argument from Romans 1:18 through chapter 4, this exposition traces the redemptive purpose of both the death and the resurrection of Christ, showing that the cross satisfies divine justice through propitiation and substitution while the empty tomb testifies that the sacrifice was accepted, satisfaction was rendered, and redemption was accomplished. The sermon concludes with the Lord's Supper, where the congregation rehearses these same truths through the ordained signs of bread and wine.
Of the Civil Magistrate (2LCF24)
The civil magistrate exists by divine appointment, not by social contract or popular consent, and this confession-study exposition of 2LCF Chapter 24 establishes the theological ground for that claim from Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, Proverbs 8, and Genesis 9. Three questions are addressed in sequence: the divine origin of civil government, the lawfulness of Christian participation in public office, and the Christian's duty of submission to governing authorities. The power of the sword — including capital punishment and just war — is shown to belong to the magistrate's God-given office, rooted in the Noahic covenant and confirmed in the New Testament. Christians are called to submit to all lawful civil commands, to refuse only what requires disobedience to God, and to pray persistently for those in authority.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The empty tomb of Matthew 28:1–10 is not merely an absence but a proclamation: Christ was raised bodily from the dead by the Father, vindicating His atoning work and confirming every prophetic word He spoke. The sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb by the women and the appearance of the risen Lord, attending carefully to the apologetic weight of the narrative details — the guards' terror, the invitation to examine the tomb, the folded graveclothes, and the physical feet of Jesus grasped in worship. The message closes with 1 Corinthians 15, pressing the stakes of the resurrection: without it, faith is futile and sin remains unatoned; because Christ is risen, justification, sanctification, and glorification are secured for all His brethren.
The Resurrection and Justification by Faith
Romans 4:25 presents what the commentators Matthew Poole and Charles Hodge each called an abridgment or comprehensive statement of the whole gospel: Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. The sermon works through both halves of this verse to show that the death of Christ was a substitutionary, propitiatory sacrifice satisfying divine justice on behalf of the elect, and that his bodily resurrection is the Father's public declaration that the sacrifice was accepted and justification secured. Four theological connections between resurrection and justification are drawn out: the resurrection declares Christ to be the Son of God with power, testifies that his sacrifice was accepted, confirms that satisfaction was rendered, and demonstrates that redemption was fully accomplished. The sermon closes at Romans 5:1 with the fruit of the whole discussion — peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ — applied to those who once stood condemned as ungodly offenders.
2 Kings 17:27-41
The closing verses of 2 Kings 17 expose three interrelated failures in Israel's religion: a purely pragmatic desire to use God for personal relief, a syncretic manufacture of worship that blends Yahweh with self-made idols, and a defiant rejection of the exclusive covenant demands God laid upon Israel at Sinai. The passage's ironic declaration that the resettled nations 'feared the Lord' is not a commendation but a literary device the author immediately demolishes — true fear of God is incompatible with idolatry. These ancient patterns are alive in contemporary church culture wherever God is treated as a problem-solver, wherever worship is shaped by consumer preference, and wherever the regulative principle of worship is abandoned for pragmatic or syncretic innovation.
The Two Kinds of Wisdom
James 3:13–18 sets before the reader two mutually exclusive wisdoms — one descending from above, the other rooted in what is earthly, natural, and demonic. The sermon works through the origin, characteristics, and results of each wisdom, showing that demonic wisdom is marked by bitter envy and selfish ambition, producing confusion and every evil thing in the church, while heavenly wisdom is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, impartial, and sincere, producing a harvest of righteousness among peacemakers. The connection between James's account of wisdom and Christ's Beatitudes in Matthew 5 is drawn out at length, grounding the call to meekness and purity in the character of Christ himself. Hearers are exhorted to examine their own hearts, confess the vices James condemns, and ask God — who gives wisdom liberally to all who ask — for the heavenly wisdom that alone produces peace and righteousness in the church.
The Burial of Jesus
Matthew 27:57–66 records the burial of Jesus Christ — a passage easily overlooked between the crucifixion and resurrection accounts, yet one that carries significant theological, apologetic, and pastoral weight. The burial confirms that Jesus truly died, marks the completion of his humiliation as the second Adam, and establishes the historical ground on which the resurrection stands as an undeniable public event. The section also presents a stark contrast between the courageous devotion of Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and the faithful women, and the cynical scheming of the chief priests and Pharisees — whose very precautions to prevent a 'fake' resurrection unwittingly served to make the genuine resurrection that much more incontrovertible. The tomb of Christ removes the fear of the grave for his people and grounds their certain hope in the resurrection of the dead.
2 Kings 17:1-23
The fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 722 BC is not mere political history but theological history: the exile of the ten tribes was the direct judgment of God upon a nation that had spent over two centuries filling up the measure of its guilt through idolatry, covenant-breaking, and the rejection of every prophet sent to call them back. Working through 2 Kings 17:1–23, this study traces the instrument of God's judgment (Shalmaneser and Sargon of Assyria), the reasons for it (Israel's fear of false gods, imitation of the nations, rejection of the prophets, and repudiation of the Mosaic covenant), and its result (removal from God's sight — a loss not merely of land but of divine fellowship). The passage warns that those who follow worthlessness become worthless, while those who worship the living God are conformed to His image — and it calls every hearer to heed the warnings God has given before the same measure of guilt is filled.
Free Grace Baptist Church - January 21, 2018 PM
James 3:1-12 presents not a program for tongue improvement but a sustained lament over the tongue's untamable, poisonous, and inconsistent nature. The passage warns that no man, however disciplined, can fully bridle his speech — a recognition meant to cast the believer upon sovereign grace rather than upon personal resolve. The sermon moves through three main headings: the warning concerning teachers and universal sinfulness, the power of the tongue illustrated through bits, rudders, and fire, and the impossibility of human self-control over speech. The practical conclusion grounds tongue-discipline in justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, the fear of God, self-examination, and prayer — and closes with the imputed active obedience of Christ as the believer's only ultimate hope before a God who will call every idle word to account.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), rests upon the foundation of the imago Dei — the conviction that every human being, from the pre-born to the elderly, bears the image of the Creator, and that to assault an image-bearer is to assault God himself. The sermon distinguishes murder from lawful killing, arguing from Genesis 9, Exodus 22, and Romans 13 that capital punishment, self-defense, and just war are not violations of the commandment but are grounded in the same principle that makes murder heinous: the sanctity of human life. Modern applications — abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment — are examined in light of both Old and New Testament texts, and the sermon closes by directing those who have participated in these sins to the pardoning grace of Christ.
Of Lawful Oaths and Vows (2LFC 23)
Lawful oaths and vows, treated in 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 23, are grounded in the third and ninth commandments and constitute genuine acts of religious worship — invoking God's omniscience, omnipresence, and vindictive justice as witness and judge. The confession distinguishes oaths (promises made to men before God) from vows (promises directed to God himself), insisting both require solemn care and plain sincerity without equivocation or mental reservation. Against Anabaptist denial and Roman Catholic abuse, the sermon defends the legitimacy of lawful oaths in matters of weight and moment, refutes the reading of Matthew 5 as a suspension of oath-taking, and condemns popish monastical vows — perpetual celibacy, professed poverty, and regular obedience — as superstitious snares without scriptural warrant. Hearers are called to prize truth-telling as a reflection of the character of God and to take every solemn oath with a full awareness of its theological gravity.
The Builder of the Church
Matthew 16:13–18 raises the question Jesus himself poses: 'Who do you say that I am?' This sermon works through three movements in the passage — the question of Christ's identity, Peter's confession and the divine grace that produced it, and the establishment and indestructibility of the church Christ is building. The sermon engages the Roman Catholic and Protestant dispute over the rock on which the church is founded, arguing from John Owen and J.C. Ryle that the rock is the person of Christ whom Peter confessed, not Peter himself. The chief application is that Christ — not human ingenuity, celebrity, or programme — owns, builds, protects, and defines the conduct of his church, and that faithfulness, not fantastical success, is what he requires of his people.
2 Kings 16
Second Kings 16 records the reign of Ahaz, one of the most wicked kings in Judah's history — a man whose idolatry, political pragmatism, and innovations in worship reveal a heart comprehensively far from God. The sermon works through three movements: Ahaz's child sacrifice and high-place worship (vv. 1–4), his submission to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria rather than trusting Yahweh's covenant promises (vv. 5–9), and his importation of a Syrian altar and remodeling of the temple (vv. 10–20). The passage serves as a sustained warning against pragmatism over promise, worship innovation over the regulative principle, and the spineless complicity — exemplified by the priest Urijah — that advances evil as surely as outright wickedness does.
Warning of Antichrist
What does the term 'antichrist' in 1 John 2:18–23 actually mean, and why is the popular question 'Who is the Antichrist?' the wrong question to ask? This exposition argues that John is not pointing to a single future eschatological figure but to a multitude of false teachers who deny that Jesus is the Christ and that He came in the flesh — teachers who have already appeared in every generation of the last hour, the entire era between Christ's two Advents. The remedy against antichrist is not prophetic speculation but deep, Spirit-illumined knowledge of the true Christ: His identity as the eternal Son, His unity with the Father, and the Trinitarian relations that ground saving faith. The sermon closes with a direct call to confess Christ, study His person rigorously, and stand ready for His return.
Genesis 11:27 - 12:20
Genesis 11:27–12:20 introduces the call of Abram from pagan Ur of the Chaldeans, setting in motion the Abrahamic covenant through which God promises to bless all the families of the earth. The passage is structured around two covenant themes — seed and land — with every circumstance (a barren wife, nomadic displacement, Canaanites in the promised land, famine, and Abram's own faithlessness in Egypt) designed to magnify divine initiative over human possibility. God's sovereign grace overcomes Abram's unbelief, protecting the holy seed even when Abram endangers Sarai through deception, demonstrating that the covenant rests entirely on God's faithfulness rather than the believer's. The sermon calls God's people to a lifelong posture of trust in Christ, Abram's promised seed, through whom all spiritual descendants of Abraham receive the blessings of the covenant of grace.
I am the Gate of the Sheep
How does a sinner enter into heaven? John 10:7–10 presents Christ's self-declaration 'I am the door of the sheep' as the exclusive answer to that question, set against the backdrop of Israel's false shepherds (Ezekiel 34; Jeremiah 23) and the Pharisees who taught salvation by works. The sermon expounds two contrasting realities: the false entrance into heaven pursued by thieves and imposters who climb in by their own merits, and the right entrance secured by Christ alone — the one gate through whom his elect sheep receive salvation, covenant security, and everlasting pasture. The application presses both the unbeliever to look to Christ as the only narrow way and the believer to rest in the security and nourishment that the Good Shepherd provides for all who enter through him.