Theological term
Complementarianism
49 sermons · All terms
The Duties of Christian Women
Titus 2:3–5 sets forth concrete duties for older and younger women within the covenant community, grounded not in cultural expectation but in the doctrine of grace. This exposition works through the instructions Paul gives to older women — reverence in conduct, guarded speech, sobriety, and the charge to teach younger women — before examining the cluster of virtues prescribed for younger women: love for husband and children, discretion, chastity, homemaking, goodness, and submission to their own husbands. The complementarian order is defended exegetically from 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11 and 14, and 1 Peter 3, with creation and fall established as the theological foundation rather than cultural accommodation. The gospel itself is the undergirding motive: women are not saved by fulfilling these duties, but those redeemed by the grace that appeared in Christ are equipped by that same grace to adorn the doctrine of God their Savior in every sphere of life.
The Appointment of the Seven
Acts 6:1–7 presents the early Jerusalem church navigating a threat not of persecution or corruption but of distraction — the risk of the apostles being pulled from prayer and the ministry of the Word to adjudicate a dispute over the daily distribution to widows. The passage reveals two offices in the church, each with distinct responsibilities: those called to preach and pray, and those appointed to serve. The sermon traces the problem, the apostles' proposal of qualified men to oversee the practical need, and the resulting provision — a gospel that spreads and even inveterate priestly enemies who are overcome by efficacious grace.
Genesis 2:18-25
Genesis 2:18–25 narrates the provision of a wife for Adam as the divinely ordained solution to man's aloneness — the one instance in the creation account where God declares something 'not good.' The text establishes marriage as a pre-civil, pre-fall institution: one man and one woman, joined in an indissoluble one-flesh union, with the woman made neither to dominate nor to be dominated, but to be a comparable helper. The exposition draws out four implications for marriage today: its inherent goodness, its precise biblical definition against contemporary redefinition, its three purposes (companionship, procreation, and the prevention of uncleanness), and the creational distinction between male and female that undergirds both the home and the church. Hearers are called to prize their marriages as a reflection of Christ and the church, to approach marriage with sobriety and biblical discernment, and to stand firm against every cultural assault on God's design.
The Replacement for Judas
The replacement of Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:12–26 raises questions about the nature of apostolic authority, the sovereignty of God over human treachery, and the continuing rule of the risen Christ over his church. Peter's leadership in securing Matthias as the twelfth apostle demonstrates that the apostolic college was not dissolved by Judas's defection but reconstituted by Christ's own direction — through prayer, Scripture, and the casting of lots. The sharp contrast between Peter, restored by grace after his denial, and Judas, who went to his own place as a reprobate, anchors the sermon's gospel appeal: no sin is too great for the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, and sinners are urged to look to Christ and live.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 18, 2018 AM
Matthew 28:18–20 closes Matthew's Gospel with the Great Commission, grounding the church's entire mission in the absolute authority and perpetual presence of Christ. The sermon draws out three implications from Christ's promise 'I am with you always': his presence should promote appreciation for the church past and present, concern for the church now and in the future, and confidence that Christ actively equips her through a trained gospel ministry. Ephesians 4 is opened at length to show that the gifts Christ gives his church are gifted men — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — whose threefold purpose is to equip the saints, fulfil the work of ministry, and edify the body toward mature knowledge of the Son of God. The sermon closes with a call to unbelievers, directing them to Matthew 1:21, 20:28, and 11:28–30 as the purpose, means, and gracious offer of Christ's saving work.
The Privilege of Adoption
Galatians 3:26–29 brings the history of redemption into focus on the individual believer's standing before God: all who are in Christ by faith are sons of God, adopted into the divine family through the finished work of the one who became a curse for them. The sermon expounds three features of the believer's new identity — filial adoption by faith, redemptive unity across every human distinction, and covenantal solidarity as the seed of Abraham — while insisting that redemptive unity does not collapse the role distinctions God ordained in creation and confirmed in the apostolic letters. Theological, ethical, doxological, and eschatological implications of adoption are drawn out in the conclusion, calling believers to gratitude, godly conduct, and eschatological hope as blood-bought children of God Most High.
The Qualifications for Deacons
What qualifies a man to serve as a deacon in the church of Christ? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:8–13 in the context of Acts 6 and Philippians 1:1, this sermon argues that the diaconate is a divinely instituted office of service whose holders must meet specific biblical qualifications — not merely be willing volunteers or practically skilled men. Five categories of qualification are examined in sequence: personal character, doctrinal conviction, proven faithfulness, domestic situation, and the promised standing and boldness that belong to those who serve well. The sermon closes with a call for every Christian, not only aspiring deacons, to pursue the virtues Paul sets forth here.
The Qualification for Elders
What does Scripture require of a man before he can lawfully serve as an elder in Christ's church? Working through 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this exposition first establishes five elements of a genuine call to the ministry — desire born of right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision, providential opportunity, and recognition by the local church — before moving through the text's qualifications under five headings: personal holiness, domestic faithfulness, experience in the faith, testimony toward outsiders, and the one indispensable gift of being able to teach. Throughout, the point is pressed that these virtues are not merely a checklist for candidates but the standard of godliness every Christian man and woman ought to be pursuing.
Women, the Word, and the Ministry
First Timothy 2:11–15 sets out Paul's prohibition against women teaching or exercising authority over men in the gathered church, grounding the rule not in first-century Ephesian culture but in the creation order of Genesis 2 and the fall of Genesis 3. The sermon works through three movements: Paul's exhortation that women receive the Word in submission, his double prohibition against women teaching men or holding authority over them, and his appeal to Adam's prior formation and Eve's deception as the theological rationale. Complementarian church governance is shown to be neither novel nor culturally conditioned but the normative, historically consistent pattern binding on every local church in every age. The closing treatment of verse 15 presents both the 'preservation in domestic faithfulness' reading and the 'messianic childbearing' interpretation, with the preacher siding with the latter.
Specific Directions for Corporate Prayer
What does it mean for men to lead in corporate prayer, and what moral conditions must accompany that leadership? Expounding 1 Timothy 2:8, this sermon establishes that Paul's expressed 'desire' carries apostolic authority binding upon all churches, that the word for 'men' (Greek andros) specifies males as those who are to lead in public worship, and that this complementarian order is grounded not in Ephesian circumstance but in the creation order of Genesis. The manner of that prayer — lifting holy hands, free from wrath and disputing — demands horizontal reconciliation before vertical supplication, so that unresolved sin and unreconciled relationships do not hinder the church's prayer to God.
A Call to the Ministry
What qualifies a man for gospel ministry, and how does the local church bear responsibility for ensuring its pulpits are filled with such men? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon argues that a biblical call to the ministry involves five distinguishable elements: desire born of right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision, opportunity indicating providential opening, and recognition by the local church. The qualifications Paul sets forth — personal holiness, domestic faithfulness, maturity in the faith, and a good testimony among outsiders — are not optional preferences but the objective standard by which the church must evaluate candidates, so that the subjective sense of inward call is always tested and regulated by the community of God's people.
The Marriage Relationship
Colossians 3:18–19 calls wives to submit to their own husbands and husbands to love their wives without bitterness — two commands that cut precisely against the natural grain of each. This sermon argues that both duties are grounded not in social utility or natural sentiment but in the gospel itself: the wife's submission images Christ's submission to the Father, and the husband's love images Christ's self-sacrificial love for the church. The sermon draws on Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, and 1 Corinthians 11 to show that ontological equality between husband and wife is fully compatible with functional differentiation of role, and closes by pressing both commands back onto the cross as the only sufficient motive and resource for obedience.
The 3rd Petition: God's Will, Part 2
The third petition of the Lord's Prayer — 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' — carries implications far beyond personal piety, extending to the doctrine, worship, and practice of the visible church and to the ordering of society itself. This sermon works through what it means to pray this petition with reference to the church: that pure doctrine would be prized, that worship would be regulated by God's own revealed standard rather than human preference, and that the Spirit-filled life described in Ephesians 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5 would characterise the gathered people of God. The sermon closes by pressing the individual Christian to acknowledge the perversity of the fallen will and the utter necessity of divine enablement — for neither church nor society nor the believer himself can comply with this petition's demands apart from God's grace.
Biblical Womanhood in the Book of Proverbs
Proverbs 31:10–31 presents the portrait of a virtuous wife, and this sermon works through that portrait to define biblical womanhood against the competing claims of secular feminism and mere cultural Christianity. The preacher identifies five characteristics of the godly wife — that she behaves like a gift, is trustworthy, does her husband good, is submissive, and is respectful — grounding each in the broader witness of Proverbs and the New Testament household codes. Submission and respect are shown to be neither degrading nor negotiable, but ordered on the pattern of Christ's own submission to the Father. The sermon closes by anchoring the entire ethical call in justification by imputed righteousness: the believer will stand before God on the basis of what Christ did, not what she performed as a wife.
The Biblical Husband and Father
What does a man justified by grace alone through faith alone actually look like in the home? This sermon from Proverbs addresses the Christian man as husband and father, drawing on the wisdom literature to define love, provision, protection, leadership, and sexual fidelity in marriage, and instruction, provision, and discipline in fathering. The exposition is set within the framework of the covenant of grace: the law reveals what godly manhood requires, but the ground of the believer's standing before God remains the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. Men are exhorted not toward moralistic self-improvement but toward Spirit-wrought conformity to Scripture, resting on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Defining Characteristic of a Christian Husband
Colossians 3:19 commands husbands to love their wives and prohibits bitterness toward them — a deceptively simple two-part instruction that cuts against both passive abdication and domineering harshness. This sermon works through what that love requires by examining 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 5, and 1 Peter 3, showing that Christ's sacrificial, monogamous, intimate, and sanctifying love for the church is the standard and pattern for every Christian husband. Three practical obligations emerge: pray for and with her, provide for her materially and spiritually, and protect her from danger, ungodly influences, and false doctrine. The sermon closes with a gospel appeal, reminding hearers that the active and passive obedience of Christ — not marital performance — is the ground of their standing before God, and that the husband-wife relationship exists as an illustration of Christ's love for his church.
A Word to the Wives
Colossians 3:18 commands wives to submit to their own husbands as is fitting in the Lord — a command that cuts against the grain of contemporary culture and even the instincts of redeemed sinners. This sermon establishes that submission is not demeaning but reflects the eternal pattern of the Son's willing submission to the Father within the equal-in-essence Trinity, and that gospel redemption does not abolish role distinctions in the family but enables their proper functioning. The domestic application works through the lawful target, the universal scope, and the Christological motivation of the command, pressing wives to understand that submitting to their own husbands is primarily a religious duty rendered unto the Lord. The sermon closes by grounding the entire exhortation in the gospel: a wife's standing before God rests not on threads of her own submissive obedience but on the imputed righteousness of Christ, whose active and passive obedience constitute the only robe in which sinners stand justified.
I'm in Church Because...
What are the right reasons for a Christian to gather with the church? This sermon on 1 Timothy 3:15, ranging across Hebrews 10, Acts 20, Revelation 1, and 1 Corinthians 11, argues that the motives driving church attendance must be theological and divine rather than aesthetic or consumerist. Seven reasons are set forth: the perfect crosswork of Christ, the identity of the church as the house of the living God, the presence of the reigning Christ among his churches, the church as pillar and ground of the truth, the church as God's ordained place for the care of his sheep, the administration of the Lord's Supper, and the mutual building up of the saints. The sermon closes with a call to enter the assembly for high and holy reasons — as both a commanded duty and a joyful privilege before the triune God.
A Word for Fathers
Ephesians 6:1–4 addresses fathers and the entire domestic order within which fatherhood functions — husbands as servant-leaders of their wives, wives submitting and rendering respect, and children obeying and honoring their parents. The sermon argues that God invests fathers with real, God-given authority, and that this authority carries commensurate responsibility: to lead sacrificially, to disciple, to nourish, and to discipline without provoking to wrath. Throughout, the gospel grounds the whole: no husband, wife, or child meets these standards perfectly, and the righteousness required is found only in Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by faith.