Cited in sermons
Asaph
5 sermons · All people cited
Ask FGBC #31: What is the difference between saving and common grace?
Common grace and saving grace are distinct but related aspects of God's goodness. Common grace is God's non-redemptive kindness extended to all mankind and creation — including the restraint of sin, fruitful seasons, and the capacity for civic good among unbelievers — while saving grace is God's particular redemptive work in the hearts of sinners through the preaching of the gospel. Understanding this distinction shapes how Christians relate to the world, how they pray for unbelievers, and how they understand the church's mission without compromising it.
The Refuge for God's People
Psalm 46 sets the people of God in the midst of cosmic and political chaos and calls them to find their sole refuge in the Lord of hosts. This exposition works through four movements in the psalm — the assurance of God's presence, the demonstration of his power over creation and the nations, the invitation to rehearse his past works in redemptive history, and the command to be still and know that he is God. The sermon argues that Reformed Christians who rightly confess God's sovereignty in salvation must equally rest in that sovereignty under tyranny, pandemic, and war. The chief application is that the church must know God — his perfections, his names, his covenant fidelity — because it is the knowledge of God, not practical principles, that steadies the soul and fuels missionary confidence in the darkest of times.
Exodus 17
Exodus 17 presents Israel's double failure at Rephidim: a murmuring complaint against Moses for lack of water, and then the subsequent victory over the Amalekites through Moses's upraised rod and Joshua's sword. The murmuring is exposed not merely as weakness but as theological insult — the question 'Is the Lord among us or not?' impugns the faithfulness of a God who has already split the sea, rained bread from heaven, and sworn to bring His people to the land of promise. The sermon draws out two counterbalancing lessons: the unrelenting faithfulness of God despite His people's unbelief, and the Reformed doctrine that divine sovereignty does not eliminate the use of means — Israel must both hold up the rod in dependence on God and swing the sword in disciplined obedience.
The Death of Ahab
The death of Ahab in 1 Kings 22:29–53 is the culmination of multiple prophetic pronouncements — by Elijah, the unnamed prophet of chapter 20, and Micaiah — all of which converge on a single 'random' arrow on the field of Ramoth Gilead, demonstrating that no disguise, no strategy, and no human ingenuity can deflect the sovereign judgment of God. The narrative also exposes the folly of Jehoshaphat, a genuinely godly king whose piety was unaccompanied by good sense, yet who was graciously preserved by the God he served despite the consequences he deserved. The criterion by which every king in 1 Kings is finally measured is not his administrative accomplishments but his fidelity to the Word of God. The sermon calls believers to combine true piety with godly wisdom, to flee from the wrath of God to the cross of Christ as the only refuge, and to take sober warning as parents against training children in wickedness.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 13, 2017 Bible Study
Second Kings 6 presents God's sovereign care over both the minute and the massive: a borrowed iron axe head recovered from the Jordan, and an entire Syrian army blinded and marched into captivity at Samaria. The sermon works through three distinct episodes — the floating axe head (vv. 1–7), God's protection of Elisha from Syrian intelligence (vv. 8–17), and the miraculous capture of the Syrian force (vv. 18–23) — to establish that the Lord's providential rule extends without diminution from the trivial losses of a poor prophet to the geopolitical crises of a nation. The controlling application is that verse 16 ('those who are with us are more than those who are with them') is the permanent, unwavering ground of the believer's confidence, whether or not God grants the extraordinary vision of verse 17, and that knowing Scripture deeply is the instrument of the spiritual discernment required to rest in that reality.