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The Presence of the God of Peace
Philippians 4:8–9 presents two inseparable imperatives — meditate on whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, and then do what has been learned, received, heard, and seen in the Apostle Paul — with the promise that the God of peace will be with those who obey. The sermon argues that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not alternatives but are inextricably bound: the failure to practice truth indicts the practitioner, not the doctrine. The source of right thinking is both the light of nature (general revelation accessible to all men) and the special revelation of Scripture, which governs and clarifies all truth. The hearer is called to fill the mind with God's word, live consistently with it in a pagan society, and trust that the grace which saves also teaches and equips for godly conduct.
The Vindication of the Righteous One
Psalm 7 unfolds as a courtroom drama in which the psalmist — and, typologically, the Lord Jesus Christ — appeals to God for vindication against false accusers, refusing personal retaliation and casting the entire matter upon the justice of God. The sermon moves through three phases: the supplication of the righteous one, the assertion of innocence, and the extended vindication that grounds confidence in God's decreed judgment against the wicked. David functions as a type of Christ, whose spotless innocence alone fully satisfies the conditions of verses 3–4, and whose imputed righteousness is the sole ground on which the church may echo his plea. The practical summons is to resist paralysis or retaliation in the face of false accusation and social hostility, and instead to take refuge in the just God who is angry with the wicked every day and who has appointed a day of final judgment.
Ask FGBC #56: When Should a Believer Be Baptized?
Baptism should follow faith without unnecessary delay — this is the consistent pattern of the book of Acts and a direct command of the exalted Christ. Drawing on texts from Acts 2, 8, 9, 10, and 16, the speaker argues that the New Testament knows no extended waiting period between conversion and baptism, and that believers' baptism by immersion is the only mode consistent with the Acts narratives. Practical obstacles — fear of family disapproval, prior infant baptism, or a desire to feel spiritually ready — are weighed against the clear divine imperative to believe and be baptized, and are found wanting. The closing exhortation is simple: read Acts, see what new believers did, and obey the same command.
The Dangers and Precautions for Israel
Deuteronomy 6:10–25 addresses the second generation of Old Covenant Israel on the plains of Moab with warnings and precautions before they enter the Promised Land. Three dangers threaten covenant loyalty: forgetting God in prosperity, forsaking God through idolatry, and testing God under hardship. The precautions against these dangers are diligent obedience to the commandments and faithful covenant succession — passing the knowledge of God's redemptive acts to the next generation. These dangers are not merely ancient; they press upon the New Covenant church with equal force, and the remedies remain the same: fear God, keep His word, and rehearse His faithfulness to your children.
The Prayer of the Man of Sorrows
Psalm 6 is read christologically as the prayer of the man of sorrows — not merely a record of David's personal penitence, but a prophetic foreshadowing of Christ's redemptive anguish as the representative of his people. The doctrine of imputation grounds this reading: what Christ bears is not his own sin but the sin of those the Father gave him, laid upon him by divine appointment. The sermon works through two major sections of the psalm — the sorrow of the psalmist in verses 1–7 and the confidence of the psalmist in verses 8–10 — calling hearers to see their sin as atoned for by the Son of God and to live in light of that imputed righteousness, pursuing holiness and resting their prayers upon the same mercies Christ secured.
The Power of the Peace of God
Philippians 4:6–7 contains both a prohibition and a promise: Paul commands believers to be anxious for nothing and promises that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard the heart and mind through Christ Jesus. The sermon examines the prohibition against carnal anxiety, the corrective of prayer offered with thanksgiving, and the promise of divine peace — arguing that prayer is not a formula for instant relief but the ordained means by which God's people cast their burdens on God and receive the peace that flows from justification and the indwelling Spirit. The congregation is called to pray with right motivation, godly manner, and kingdom-oriented priorities as modeled in Christ's own teaching on prayer.
The Propagation of Israel's Faith
Deuteronomy 6:6–9 commands Israel not merely to profess allegiance to the one true God but to propagate that truth — first by internalizing it personally, then by transmitting it diligently to children and grandchildren in both formal and informal settings. The passage is read against the wider covenantal structure of Deuteronomy and set in parallel with Ezra 7:10, Psalm 119, and Ephesians 6:4 to show that receiving, doing, and teaching God's word are inseparable obligations running across both covenants. The sermon presses home that teaching children the law and the gospel is not a specialist calling for the especially devout but a natural reflex of redemptive grace, as ordinary and non-negotiable as providing food and shelter. Parents are urged to establish modest, consistent patterns of family worship — Scripture reading, catechism, prayer, and informal covenantal conversation — as the primary means of inoculating children against the idolatry of the surrounding world.
The Ratification of the Old Covenant
Exodus 24:1–8 records the ratification of the Old Covenant at Sinai through blood sacrifice, a mediator, and the sworn fidelity of the people — all of which anticipate and are surpassed by the New Covenant inaugurated in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant is identified not as an administration of the covenant of grace but as a covenant of works, in which Israel's standing depended upon their own obedience: 'all that the Lord has commanded we will do.' The New Covenant contrasts sharply: Christ, the true Israel of God, fulfills every covenantal obligation in the place of his people, so that the ground of the believer's standing before God is not their performance but his finished work. The sermon closes with a practical call to live at the foot of Calvary rather than at the foot of Sinai, resisting the legal temptation to ground either justification or sanctification in personal obedience.
The Morning Prayer of the Messiah
Psalm 5 is the morning prayer of the Messiah — not merely a psalm David wrote, but a prophetic window into the prayer life of the incarnate Son of God as he faced bloodthirsty and deceitful enemies throughout his earthly ministry. The sermon works through four movements: Christ's appeal to the hearing God, his comfort in the divine perfections of holiness, justice, and mercy, his petitions for the guidance of the godly and the condemnation of the godless, and his confidence in the protecting God. Because the righteousness that qualifies the pray-er is Christ's own imputed righteousness received by faith alone, Psalm 5 becomes the possession of every believer in the new covenant, a daily call to pray dependently, joyfully, and with full confidence in the God who hears.
Ask FGBC #55: How Many Valid Interpretations Can A Bible Passage Have?
How many valid meanings does a Bible passage have? Drawing on 1689 LBCF Chapter 1, paragraph 9, this Q&A session argues that Scripture has one intended meaning — the meaning the Holy Spirit inscribed — but that this single meaning carries a full sense that unfolds through continued study and canonical cross-reference. The difference between exegesis and eisegesis is examined, with the warning that preconceptions and pet doctrines distort rather than discover the text's meaning. Christ's gift of teachers to the church means that 'Scripture alone' as the infallible rule of interpretation does not license a 'me and my Bible alone' approach divorced from creeds, confessions, and faithful expositors.
The Central Confession of Israel's Faith
The Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 — 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one' — is examined as the central confession of Old Covenant Israel's faith, carrying both theological and polemical force for a people about to enter a land saturated with polytheism and syncretism. The sermon traces the purpose of God's commandments (obedience secured tenure in the land), the theological content of the Shema (divine unity of singularity and simplicity, and its compatibility with Trinitarian confession), and the fitting response of wholehearted love toward the one living and true God. The application presses New Covenant believers to the same totality of devotion — presenting themselves as living sacrifices — grounded in the redemption God has accomplished in Christ, the true Israel who kept the covenant His people perpetually broke.
The Believer's Joy and Moderation
Philippians 4:4–5 contains two imperatives that together define the outward shape of the Christian life: a command to rejoice in the Lord always, and a command to let moderation — or equity — be known to all men. The sermon argues that joy is not a feeling to be waited upon but a non-negotiable duty grounded in the objective realities of justification, sanctification, and glorification. The Greek word rendered 'gentleness' (epieikēs) is examined through Aristotle, Zanchi, and Gill to establish that it denotes reasonableness in judging and willingness to forgo one's rights in interpersonal matters — not a blanket disposition of quietness that would contradict the examples of Joshua, Elijah, Christ driving out the money-changers, and Paul's anathema on false gospels. Both commands are made possible only through the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith and the indwelling Spirit.
The Mission of the Son of God
John 1:29 presents the whole mission of the incarnate Son of God in a single declaration: 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' This sermon expounds the Baptist's announcement as a statement loaded with Old Covenant freight — the sacrificial system, the Day of Atonement, and the Servant Songs of Isaiah — all converging on the one unblemished Lamb who bears sin to the cross and removes it through substitutionary atonement. The scope of 'the world' is shown to exclude universalism while affirming that Christ's atoning work reaches every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The sermon closes with a theological account of believers' baptism as the external sign of the internal grace received through union with Christ in his death and resurrection.
Ask FGBC #54: If My Sins Are Forgiven, What Will I Be Judged For?
If the sins of the justified are cast into the depths of the sea, what remains to be accounted for on the Day of Judgment? This question is answered by distinguishing the forensic declaration of justification by faith alone — grounded in Christ's imputed righteousness — from the logic of an earthly trial. The Day of Judgment for the righteous is not an investigation to determine status, but a public manifestation of the glory of God's mercy, confirming what Christ has already secured. The 1689 LBCF chapter 32 frames the point: that day is appointed for the manifestation of the glory of God's mercy toward the elect, not for a second or final justification.
The Conclusion of the Decalogue
Deuteronomy 5:22–33 records Moses rehearsing the original giving of the law at Sinai, and this exposition draws out the divine origin, authority, comprehensiveness, finality, and permanence of the Decalogue as the trans-covenantal moral law of God binding on all men in every age. The threefold use of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — is traced through the New Covenant, with the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith as the only ground of justification. The people's terror at the theophany on Sinai is commended as the proper response to God's majesty, and the sermon presses the distinction between slavish fear that flees from God and filial fear that flees to Him, urging the congregation to recover a robust doctrine of divine transcendence in their worship.
The Exhortation to Perseverance and Unity
Philippians 4:1–3 sets before the church two inseparable obligations: standing fast in the Lord and pursuing unity among the saints. Working through the apostle's affection for the Philippians, his call to perseverance, and the concrete dispute between Euodia and Syntyche, this sermon shows that the absence of unity both destroys the church and renders perseverance a near-impossible task. The biblical remedy for conflict — private confrontation, appeal to witnesses, and involvement of the church — is traced from Proverbs 18 and Matthew 18:15–20, with a complementarian reading of 1 Timothy 2 clarifying the nature of Euodia and Syntyche's gospel labor. Hearers are called to fasten their grips on Christ, his doctrines, and one another for the long haul of the Christian life.
The Tenth Commandment
The Tenth Commandment's prohibition against coveting addresses not the external act but the internal disposition of the heart, making it the capstone over all the other commandments. Covetousness — the inordinate desire for anything belonging to one's neighbor — is at root an act of discontentedness with God's sovereign allotment and a form of idolatry, placing the creature above the Creator. The sermon works through the threefold use of the moral law: its civil function, its pedagogical role in driving sinners to the cross, and its normative function in calling the redeemed to diligent watchfulness over heart and soul.
The Believer and Trials
James 1:1–8 confronts believers with a counterintuitive command: count trials as pure joy. This exposition works through the believer's required response to trials (vv. 2–4) and the believer's required request during trials (vv. 5–8), grounding both in the theological truth that the testing of faith produces endurance and conformity to Christ. The sermon argues that ignorance of God's remedial purposes in affliction is the root cause of disordered responses — panic, complaint, and double-mindedness — and calls believers to ask God for wisdom to navigate suffering in faith, confidence resting on the character of a God who gives liberally and without reproach.
The Confidence of the Believer
Micah 7 presents the prophet lamenting the moral and covenantal collapse of Israel — corrupt leaders, treacherous neighbors, fractured households — only to pivot on a single word: 'therefore.' Rather than despair, Micah models the posture of the godly remnant: looking to God, waiting on God, and confessing sin without self-defense. The sermon traces the chapter's three movements — lamentation (vv. 1–6), exhortation (vv. 7–13), and doxological prayer (vv. 14–20) — and presses the question of what genuine faith looks like when the church and civil society have both gone far astray. The closing doxology, 'Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity,' is held up as the ground of the believer's confidence and the fitting frame for the Lord's Supper.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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 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 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.