Cited in sermons
Matthew Henry
345 sermons · All people cited
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 Purity of God's Word
Proverbs 30:5–6 presents two inseparable claims: every word of God is pure, and God is a shield to those who trust him. This sermon expounds the purity of Scripture as an attribute derived from the character of God himself, extends it across every genre and testament, and anchors it in the New Testament's own witness to its inspiration and authority. The warning of verse 6 — that adding to God's words brings divine rebuke and the verdict of liar — is applied not only to unbelieving Judaism, Roman Catholic tradition, and Charismatic continuationism, but to the Reformed believer's own temptation to bind consciences where God has not legislated. Hearers are called to read the whole counsel of God daily, to rest in its sufficiency, and to resist every impulse to place human words on a level with or in competition with divine revelation.
The Joy of Keeping God's Law
Proverbs 29:18 sets before us two contrasting conditions: the lawlessness that follows the absence of God's revealed word, and the happiness that accompanies obedience to that word. This sermon works through the classic Reformed threefold use of the law — civil/political, pedagogical, and normative — applying the first two uses to the unbeliever and the third to the justified believer. The practical conclusion is that keeping God's law is simultaneously a consequence of justifying faith, a means of promoting assurance of salvation, and an expression of gratitude to God for sovereign grace.
Saul and the Medium at En Dor
When Saul consults a medium at En Dor on the eve of his final battle with the Philistines, the deepest terror of 1 Samuel 28 is not the Philistine army but the silence of God — the Lord refuses to answer Saul by dreams, Urim, or prophets. The passage exposes the bankruptcy of pragmatic religion: Saul does not want communion with God, only tactical advantage, and so he turns to what God has explicitly forbidden. The sermon examines the three main interpretive positions on the conjured spirit, argues that a demonic entity — not the real Samuel — appeared to the medium, and closes by distinguishing between the hardened reprobate who has been abandoned by God and the struggling believer who is called to renew repentance and press into the ordained means of grace.
The Profession of Simon Magus
Acts 8:9–13 presents a direct clash between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the sorcery of Simon Magus, who had captivated the whole population of Samaria with his claim to divine greatness. The sermon expounds two movements in the text: the comprehensive grip of false doctrine under Simon, and the liberating power of divine grace through Philip's proclamation of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes exclusively through faith in Christ — not through a mixture of truth and magic, not through works — and believers' baptism publicly identifies the convert with the triune God while repudiating every former allegiance. The passage is set forth as a demonstration that Christ, enthroned at the right hand of the Father, must reign until all his enemies are made his footstool, which is ground for courage, prayer, and faithful gospel proclamation in every generation.
Genesis 19:1-11
Genesis 19:1–11 confronts readers with the full depravity of Sodom: every inhabitant, old and young, assembles to commit sexual violence against the angelic visitors. The passage demonstrates that God's judgment upon the cities of the plain was just and righteous, because the wickedness was total and unrepentant. The study moves from the narrative to a systematic survey of the Bible's teaching on homosexuality — from the creation order in Genesis 2, through the Levitical prohibitions and Pauline condemnations in Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6, to the sobering word of Christ in Matthew 11 that rejecting the gospel carries a heavier judgment than Sodom itself bore. The closing application holds out the gospel as the only genuine remedy: homosexuality is a sin like other sins, and where there is sin, there is forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Martyrdom of Stephen
Acts 7:54–60 records the martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose death exhibits divine sustaining grace amid murderous opposition. This exposition traces three movements in the passage: the blessedness of Stephen as the triune God fills, illumines, and comforts him; the murderous rage of the Sanhedrin, whose violent reaction to his vision of the exalted Christ exposes their guilt and apostasy; and the death of Stephen, whose dying prayers — for Christ to receive his spirit and to forgive his murderers — mirror the death of the Lord Jesus and further corroborate his entire defense. The sermon closes with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9 as God's answer to Stephen's intercessory prayer, and with a call to trust Christ as the one who hears prayer, forgives sin, and grants access to God.
The Antithesis between the Upright and the Wicked
Proverbs 29:27 declares a mutual abomination between the upright and the wicked — a reality rooted not in mere personality conflict but in the God-ordained enmity of Genesis 3:15. This sermon traces that antithesis from its origin in the protoevangelium through its characteristics in Proverbs 30:11–14 (rebelliousness, self-righteousness, arrogance, and oppression), and into its New Testament confirmation in John 15 and 1 John 3. Believers are called to respond to a godless generation not with violence or character assassination, but with righteous indignation tempered by tears, faithful parental discipline, proclamation of God's law, and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Capture of the Ark
Israel's decision to fetch the Ark of the Covenant as a battlefield talisman in 1 Samuel 4 exposes a perennial human tendency: taking the good gifts of God and treating them as instruments of manipulation rather than means of worship. The chapter's three movements — Israel's defeat, Eli's death, and the naming of Ichabod — together declare that God will not be controlled by technique, and that He would sooner allow the symbol of His presence to fall into pagan hands than permit His people to profane it through superstition. The sermon presses believers to examine whether their own acts of piety — prayer, fasting, corporate worship — are genuine communion with God or covert attempts to secure desired outcomes from Him.
The Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 sets forth the fear of the Lord as the defining virtue of a godly mother — the root from which her influence, authority, and responsibility toward her children flow. The sermon works through four observations: her condition before God (saved by grace and walking in the fear of Yahweh), her God-given influence over her children, her God-given authority over her children (grounded in the fifth commandment), and her responsibility to instruct, set an example, and discipline them. Fathers are called to honor and encourage their wives, children to express gratitude, and mothers to persevere in a calling that is difficult, often thankless, and of the utmost importance.
The Need for Due Process
Proverbs 18:17 establishes that the first to state a case seems right until cross-examination occurs — a principle with profound implications for personal conduct, church life, and civil justice. This sermon expounds that verse alongside Deuteronomy 19:15–21 and Deuteronomy 25:1–3 to demonstrate that due process — including cross-examination, the two-or-three-witness rule, proportionate punishment, and the preservation of human dignity — is grounded in the law of God, not in modern legal convention. The Old Testament judicial laws are shown to protect the accused, deter false witness, and honor image-bearers even in their guilt. The sermon closes with a Christological application: Psalm 15 describes the perfectly law-keeping Mediator, and union with him by grace through faith is the only ground on which any person stands before God.
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.
The Rejection of the True Prophet of God
When Ahab of Israel gathered four hundred prophets to sanction his campaign at Ramoth-Gilead, he had already resolved what he wanted to hear — and hated the one man who would tell him the truth. This exposition of 1 Kings 22:1–28 traces the confrontation between King Ahab and the prophet Micaiah, examining how the rejection of the true prophet is ultimately the rejection of the Word of God itself. Drawing on the parallel Paul draws in 2 Timothy 4:1–4, the sermon calls hearers to guard their hearts against the perennial temptation to accumulate teachers who scratch itching ears, and to receive the whole counsel of God — rebuke and exhortation included — as the mercy of a wise and sovereign Father.
The Murder of Naboth
The murder of Naboth in 1 Kings 21 exposes the converging wickedness of covetousness, false witness, state-sponsored murder, and spineless complicity — and then the righteous judgment of God upon those who perpetrate injustice against the innocent. Ahab's sullen greed and Jezebel's ruthless manipulation demonstrate that when idolatry prevails in a society, the whole second table of the law collapses with the first. God's intervention through Elijah, and his surprising mercy even toward Ahab's outward remorse, grounds both a warning for the wicked and a gospel call to the penitent: if God showed regard to so shallow a humiliation, how much more will he receive in Christ those who come to him with genuine repentance.
The Condemnation of Heartless Worship
Malachi 1:6–14 exposes a pattern of heartless worship among the priests and people of Israel who offered blind, lame, and stolen animals on God's altar — defective sacrifices that expressed contempt for God's table without a word being spoken. The sermon traces the prophetic structure of divine accusation, petulant human question, and divine refutation, then draws four implications: heartless worship is evil, it is common even among the redeemed, it reduces religion to external formalism, and it provokes the judgment of God. The application turns on the regulative principle of worship — that God alone defines acceptable approach to himself — and calls believers to pursue good theology, responsible leadership, and biblical worship, while calling the unconverted to look by faith to the Lamb of God.
Genesis 9:1-17
The Noahic covenant establishes not only capital punishment but a comprehensive framework for criminal justice that the civil magistrate is bound to apply. Drawing from Genesis 9, Ecclesiastes 8, and the Mosaic civil law, this sermon traces three lesser forms of punishment — restitution, indentured servitude, and corporal punishment — demonstrating that each is governed by due process, proportionality, and a concern for the dignity of the offender as an image-bearer of God. The modern prison system is evaluated against these biblical categories and found to undermine restitution, rehabilitation, and human dignity alike. Hearers are called to think carefully about what Scripture actually teaches concerning crime and punishment rather than dismissing it as barbaric.
Genesis 9:1-7
Genesis 9:1–7 establishes the Noahic Covenant, which mandates capital punishment as a universal and perpetual ordinance rooted in the image of God — not merely an Old Covenant provision for Israel. This study addresses common biblical objections (Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:38–42, John 8) and pragmatic objections (deterrence, innocence, forgiveness), arguing that none successfully overthrow the divine mandate of Genesis 9:6, which is confirmed and not abrogated by the New Testament. The session urges listeners to think carefully from Scripture rather than from cultural sentiment, trusting that God's law concerning criminal justice reflects his character and serves the stability of the created order.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 14, 2018 PM
Depression — what Scripture calls a broken spirit or heavy heart — is a real affliction that has touched the lives of Elijah, Jeremiah, the Apostle Paul, and the Lord Jesus himself. Drawing from repeated passages in the book of Proverbs, alongside First Kings 19, Psalm 88, and Psalm 102, this exposition surveys both the presence of melancholy among the people of God and a range of strategies — physical, psychological, and spiritual — for those who suffer and for those who walk alongside them. The central application is that the sorrowful saint must not abandon the corporate means of grace — the Word, prayer, and the gathered church — which are God's appointed instruments for sustaining the broken spirit.
The Apostolic Address to the Council
Peter's address to the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:5–12 is examined under three headings: the declaration of the name of Jesus Christ as the power behind the healing of the lame man, the prophetic witness drawn from Psalm 118:22, and the exclusive sufficiency of that name for salvation. The sermon argues that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, does not merely defend himself before the council but effectively places his persecutors on trial, indicting them for rejecting the chief cornerstone while simultaneously holding out the gospel to them. The exclusivity of Christ as the only name under heaven given for salvation is pressed against religious pluralism and any notion that sinners must achieve moral readiness before coming to Christ — the call is simply to hear and believe.
The Arrest of Peter and John
The arrest of Peter and John in Acts 4:1–4 is not a setback to the mission of Christ but an instrument of its advance. The religious leaders of Israel — Sadducees especially — are provoked by the apostolic proclamation of resurrection in Jesus, yet even as the preachers are jailed, the Word of God prevails and the number of believers swells to five thousand. The sermon draws out from this episode the sovereignty of Christ over his church, the doctrine of justification by faith alone secured by Christ's active and passive obedience, and the pattern of suffering through which the gospel spreads. The hearer is called to present faithfulness as the only credible preparation for future persecution, and to trust that what is preached in chains cannot itself be chained.
The First Murder
Genesis 4:1–16 records the first fratricide in human history, and this exposition reads that account as a theological document revealing the rapid escalation of sin from the fall in chapter 3. Cain's rejection is traced not to his vocation as a farmer but to his faithlessness — Abel's offering was accepted because it was offered in faith (Hebrews 11:4), while Cain's externalism and lack of genuine faith made his sacrifice an abomination. God's patient, gracious overtures to Cain before the murder underscore divine long-suffering, while Cain's murder of Abel illustrates the antithesis of Genesis 3:15 — the seed of the serpent attacking the seed of the woman — and the sermon closes by setting the blood of Abel, which cries out for condemnation, against the blood of Jesus, which speaks forgiveness.
Matthew 8:23-27
Matthew 8:23–27 presents the stilling of the storm on the Sea of Galilee as a window into both the true humanity and the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage exposes the disciples' little faith — not absent faith — and rebukes the perennial temptation to treat temporal prosperity as the measure of God's favor. Christ's presence in the boat does not exempt believers from storms, but it does guarantee that he will see them through every trial he ordains for their conformity to himself.
A Psalm of the Cross
Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm of David that transcends David's own experience to describe with precision the suffering, death, and exaltation of the Messiah. The sermon examines the cry of dereliction ('My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?') with theological care, rejecting the notion that the Father abandoned the Son in any way that ruptured the Trinity or dissolved the hypostatic union, and instead grounding the forsakenness in the Son's substitutionary bearing of the wrath due his people. Three features of Messianic confidence sustain Christ through his ordeal — the holiness of God, the past faithfulness of God, and the invoked presence of God — and the congregation is called to meet their own trials with the same theological ballast that sustained the Savior on the cross.
Genesis 4:16-26
Genesis 4:16–26 traces two diverging lines from Adam: the ungodly line of Cain, marked by escalating sin, polygamy, and bloodlust, and the godly line of Seth, which ends with men calling on the name of the Lord. The passage raises questions about cultural achievement, common grace, and the preservation of God's people in the midst of rampant wickedness. Eve's naming of Seth reveals genuine covenant faith in the promise of Genesis 3:15, trusting that God would yet raise up the seed of the woman. The sermon calls believers to grow in faith as those who possess not only the promise of the Redeemer but its fulfillment in Christ.
Genesis 4:9-16
Genesis 4:9–16 records the arraignment, indictment, and punishment of Cain following the murder of Abel — the first trial and sentencing in Scripture. The passage exposes the pattern of sin's progression: outright denial before God, arrogant rhetoric, and complaint against righteous punishment rather than repentance. God's response demonstrates that He prizes human life even after death, that undealt-with guilt produces consuming fear, and that sin drives man ever further from the presence of the Lord.