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The Expectation of the Righteous One
Psalm 17 is approached as primarily the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ according to his human nature — a perfectly righteous man crying to his Father for vindication, protection, and ultimate glorification. The sermon works through three movements: the psalmist's petition grounded in his righteousness, prayerfulness, and defenselessness (vv. 1–9); the character and violence of his enemies (vv. 10–12); and the psalmist's expectation of judgment on the wicked and resurrection presence with God (vv. 13–15). Because Christ's righteousness is imputed to believers by faith alone, the psalm becomes the church's prayer — a call to earnest, importunate intercession, patient endurance in a hostile age, and fixed hope in the resurrection rather than in temporal prosperity.
The Blessing of Communion with God, Part 2
What does Jesus mean when he promises that the Father and the Son will come and make their home with the one who loves him and keeps his word (John 14:23)? This sermon works through seven observations on that promise, showing that the indwelling of Christ necessarily entails the indwelling of the entire triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — because the divine persons are inseparable in their operations. The sermon traces the biblical pattern of God dwelling with his people from Eden through the tabernacle and temple to the new covenant, and concludes that union with Christ is union with the triune God, which is both the chief blessing of salvation and the ground of the believer's worship.
Live Stream - January 08, 2023
Colossians 2:11–15 teaches that believers are spiritually circumcised and made alive in Christ, finding their complete identity in union with him rather than in law-keeping, philosophy, or any other system. The circumcision made without hands — a heart-circumcision accomplished by Christ's death and resurrection — strips away the old man and brings the new man to life through faith in God who raised Christ from the dead. Christ's cross work simultaneously cancels the record of debt owed to God, removes the dominion of sin, and publicly triumphs over principalities and powers. Because the already-not-yet tension of inaugurated eschatology means remaining sin persists, believers are called to live as those who have died, been buried, and been raised with Christ — clinging to their identity in him rather than despairing under the weight of ongoing struggle.
The Future King of Zion
Micah 5:2–5a prophesies a coming king whose identity encompasses both true humanity and eternal divinity — a king born in the obscure village of Bethlehem, yet whose goings forth are 'from of old, from everlasting.' This sermon traces two movements in the passage: first, the identification of the king in verse 2, where the hypostatic union is set forth in prophetic form through the doctrines of incarnation and eternal generation; second, the mission of the king in verses 3–5a, where Christ is shown to be the Shepherd who feeds and protects his remnant people, and himself their peace. The congregation is pressed to nourish perseverance through the ordained means — reading Scripture, prayer, and corporate worship — trusting the covenant faithfulness of the God who announced his Son seven centuries before he arrived.
The New Heaven and New Earth
Revelation 21:1–8 presents the new heaven and new earth not as the annihilation and replacement of creation but as its renovation — the consummation of covenant blessing in which God dwells fully and finally with his redeemed people. Working through four elements of the vision (the new creation, the bride, the announcement of blessing, and the voice from the throne), this exposition situates John's language within the broader biblical storyline of paradise lost in Adam and paradise restored in Christ, and interprets the new Jerusalem as the church — the covenant community that has replaced apostate Israel as the bearer of God's covenant promises. The sermon closes with a meditation on individual eschatology, drawing on Job, the Psalms, and the Apostle Paul to comfort believers with the certainty that those who die in Christ pass immediately into his presence, and that the fullness of covenant blessing awaits them in the age to come.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 29, 2017 PM
John's call to love one another in 1 John 2:7–11 is neither a novel ethical program nor a mark of spiritual achievement — it is an ancient commandment that has taken on new shape in the light of Christ's own love, death, and resurrection. The sermon works through three movements: the nature of the commandment to love, the terrifying spiritual blindness of the one who hates his brother, and the assurance given to the one who loves. God's own electing, sacrificial love — not human moral effort — is the spring and motive of all genuine love for the brethren, and that love in turn becomes an evidence and assurance of saving faith.
The Spirit's Application of Redemption
The Holy Spirit's work in applying redemption to sinners is the focus of this exposition of Ephesians 1:13–14, the concluding verses of Paul's great doxology on the blessings of God the Father and God the Son. The Spirit functions both as a seal — impressing upon the heart of the believer the assurance that he is a child of God — and as a guarantee or down payment of the full inheritance yet to be received in glory. Drawing from the 1689 London Baptist Confession's chapter on assurance and the writings of J.C. Ryle, the sermon calls believers struggling with weak faith to rest in the objective work of the triune God, and exhorts them to pursue holiness through the means of grace as the proper fruit of that assurance.
Thy Kingdom Come
The second petition of the Lord's Prayer — 'Thy kingdom come' — presses the believer to understand what the kingdom of God actually is before praying for it with any intelligence. This sermon traces three biblical dimensions of the kingdom: God's universal providential reign over all things, the already-present kingdom of grace inaugurated at Christ's first coming, and the not-yet consummated kingdom of glory awaiting his return. With that theological foundation laid, the sermon moves through concrete, structured applications for how the individual believer, the local church, and the wider world ought to be brought before God under this single petition.