Theological term
Covenant of Grace
848 sermons · All terms
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 5
Acts 17:10–15 records the ministry and departure of Paul and Silas at Berea, where the Jewish hearers were commended as 'more noble-minded' than those in Thessalonica because they received the word with readiness and examined the Scriptures daily to verify Paul's proclamation of Jesus as the Christ. The sermon expounds three movements in the text — the perseverance of the missionaries, the tenacity of unbelieving opposition, and the noble-mindedness of the Bereans — and draws sustained application from Nehemiah 8 and the parable of the sower in Luke 8 on the right reception of God's word. The Berean example is pressed as a standing model for the church: Scripture is sufficient and self-evidencing, and the truth has nothing to hide and everything to gain by investigation. Hearers are exhorted to come to the word with expectancy, attentiveness, reverence, and responsiveness, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 16:35–17:9 records Paul's departure from Philippi and his gospel ministry in Thessalonica on the second missionary journey. The passage presents two interlocking lessons: Paul's principled invocation of his Roman citizenship to protect the integrity of gospel ministry, and his rigorous expository method of reasoning, explaining, and demonstrating from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ who had to suffer and rise. The sermon draws out three grounds on which a Christian may lawfully invoke civil rights — innocence, governmental accountability, and future precedent — while insisting that the efficient power behind every conversion is the sovereign grace of God through the Holy Spirit, not the eloquence of the preacher. Hearers are called to imitate the relentless faithfulness of Paul, Silas, and Jason, and to proclaim the kingship of Jesus regardless of civil hostility.
The Second Missionary Journey, Part 3
Acts 16:16–34 traces two episodes in Philippi: the exorcism of a slave girl's python spirit and the midnight conversion of the Philippian jailer. The passage confronts the reader with the hostility that faithful gospel ministry provokes — illegal imprisonment, beating without due process, and the solidarity of civil and commercial interests against the missionaries — while demonstrating that neither chains nor stocks can suppress the prayer and praise of those conquered by grace. The climax turns on the jailer's question, 'What must I do to be saved?', and the apostolic answer cuts through every form of salvation-by-works or salvation-by-experience: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. The sermon presses hearers to distinguish justification from sanctification, to receive the gospel offer without complicating it, and to rejoice as those delivered from sin, damnation, and the righteous wrath of God.
The Introduction to the Book of Titus
Titus 1:1–4 contains one of Paul's longer epistolary introductions, and the reason is pastoral and strategic: Paul is authenticating the ministry of Titus among a difficult, newly-planted congregation on Crete by anchoring his own apostolic authority in the eternal decree of God. The sermon surveys the historical and biographical background of the pastoral epistles before working through Paul's self-designation as bondservant and apostle, his two-fold apostolic purpose (the salvation and sanctification of God's elect), and the grounding of that purpose in the covenant of redemption purposed before time began. The greeting's triad of grace, mercy, and peace — flowing from both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, each called 'Savior' — opens a rich vein of covenant theology, Christology, and soteriology that will run through the entire book.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 4
Acts 15:22–35 records the Jerusalem Council's formal response to the Judaizing heresy: the drafting of a letter, the commissioning of Judas Barsabbas and Silas, and the delivery of that letter to the churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. The passage is expounded to show that the council's decree condemning the addition of circumcision and Mosaic ceremony to faith in Christ constitutes a decisive affirmation of justification by faith alone — not by infusing righteousness, but by pardoning sin and imputing Christ's active and passive obedience. The sermon draws out the unity achieved through doctrinal deliberation, the guidance of the Holy Spirit through ordinary means, and the courage of those who risk their lives for the name of Christ, closing with a call to look to Christ alone for salvation.
The Governing Principle of Kingdom Life
Anxiety is not a private struggle but a theological failure — a contradiction of the sovereignty of God confessed in the pew but abandoned in the heart. Expounding Matthew 6:25–34, this sermon works through Christ's fourfold structure in the Sermon on the Mount: the command not to worry, the indictment of those who do, the contrast between Gentile anxiety and covenant-child confidence, and the governing principle that kingdom life is regulated by seeking first God's kingdom and righteousness. The sermon closes with eight dangerous fruits of worry and a call to trust that the God who is absolutely sovereign in salvation is equally sovereign over food, clothing, and every daily crisis.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 3
James closes the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:13–21) by grounding the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant people of God not in human experience alone but in the prophetic word of Amos 9:11–12 and in the eternal decree of God. The rebuilding of David's tabernacle is the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which was purposed in eternity, announced through the prophets, and executed in the crosswork and exaltation of the Son. From this doctrinal foundation James renders a definitive verdict against Judaizing — that justification is by faith alone, apart from circumcision or the ceremonies of Moses — and then offers practical accommodations to facilitate communion between Jewish and Gentile believers in the one new humanity Christ has made.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 2
The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 confronts the Judaizing error that Gentile salvation requires circumcision and law-keeping in addition to faith in Christ. Drawing on Peter's testimony in Acts 15:6–12 and its grounding in the Cornelius episode of Acts 10, the sermon argues that God himself made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, purifying hearts by faith alone — making any human addition to the gospel a direct testing of God. Faith is shown to be the empty hand that receives Christ's righteousness, not a virtue that earns it, and the church is called to guard the law-free gospel against every cultural or ecclesiastical supplement that would corrupt it.
The Council at Jerusalem, Part 1
Acts 15:1–5 introduces the Jerusalem Council by presenting the Judaizing heresy in its starkest form: certain men from Judea taught that circumcision must be added to faith in Christ for salvation, striking simultaneously at the law's proper use and at the sufficiency of Christ's finished work. The passage is set in its chronological context, distinguishing the events of Galatians 2 from the council itself, and showing that the problem was not merely one of Jewish-Gentile social relations but a soteriological crisis with eternal consequences. Paul and Barnabas respond with uncompromising confrontation, the church at Antioch sends delegates to Jerusalem, and the passage closes with the same Judaizing demand surfacing within the Jerusalem church — demonstrating the universality and perpetuity of the tendency to add human merit to sovereign grace. The exhortation is to resist every form of works-righteousness and to preach the law and gospel in their proper distinction, so that sinners are directed to Christ alone.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 11
Acts 14:19–28 records the conclusion of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey: Paul is stoned at Lystra, left for dead, rises and continues preaching, and the two apostles retrace their steps to strengthen the newly formed churches, appoint elders, and finally report to the sending church in Antioch of Syria. This exposition draws out three interlocking realities the journey illustrates — the inevitability of tribulation for God's people, the centrality of gospel proclamation and discipleship to the church's mission, and the sovereign power of God who confounds his enemies, sustains his servants, and saves sinners through the foolishness of preaching. The sermon presses listeners to measure their own commitment to Christ and his cause against the tenacity of those who opposed it, and to receive the appointment of faithful teaching elders as God's appointed means for the church's perseverance.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 19, 2020 Bible Study
Genesis 42 records the first meeting between Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, a narrative dense with divine providence, unresolved guilt, and the hidden hand of God directing events toward an end no human agent could have devised. The brothers' anguished confession — 'we are truly guilty concerning our brother' — illustrates that length of time neither diminishes sin nor lightens the conscience, and that only the blood of Christ can do what twenty years of elapsed time cannot. The chapter is traced through three movements: the brothers sent to Egypt, their two audiences with Joseph, and their return to Canaan — each segment demonstrating that God overrules the choices of sinful men to accomplish his redemptive purposes for his covenant people.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 10
Acts 14:8–18 presents Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, where a miraculous healing of a congenitally lame man provokes the crowd to mistake the apostles for Zeus and Hermes. The sermon moves through three movements: the healing and its spiritual significance, the apostles' repudiation of pagan worship, and Paul's proclamation of the living God to a purely pagan audience. Particular attention is given to the doctrine of divine impassibility — the classical confession that God is without passions — as the necessary corollary of divine immutability, with pastoral argument that this doctrine secures rather than undermines the believer's confidence in God's unchanging love and justice. The sermon closes with an appeal to repent of all idolatry and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior for sinners.
The Superiority of the New Covenant
Hebrews 8 presents Christ as the minister of the true heavenly tabernacle and the mediator of a new covenant that is categorically superior to the Mosaic economy. The old covenant was not defective in its essence but in its inability to justify and renew fallen humanity, and its breakability exposed the fatal flaw of any covenant whose continuance depended on human fidelity. The new covenant, announced in Jeremiah 31 and now realized in Christ, is unbreakable, writes God's law on the heart, grants saving knowledge of God to all its members, and secures the full remission of sins — four blessings that belong essentially, not accidentally, to every member of the covenant. Because membership in the new covenant is defined by these regenerate characteristics, believers' baptism by immersion is the only covenant sign consistent with new covenant theology.
The Conversion of Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2 presents the conversion of Rahab the harlot as a sovereign display of divine grace toward an unlikely recipient — a Canaanite prostitute who heard of Yahweh's mighty acts, confessed His majesty, and cast herself upon His mercy. The sermon traces the contact, confession, and contract with Rahab, arguing that her faith — evidenced by works — is a paradigm case of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, consistent with both Paul and James. The closing application calls believers to ground their relationship with God not in their pursuit of holiness but in the righteousness of Christ alone, lest gospel-forgetfulness corrupt their devotion into self-congratulation.
Isaiah 49:1-6
Isaiah 49:1–6 presents the second of Isaiah's four servant songs, in which the servant of the Lord addresses the nations directly, announcing that his mouth — made like a sharp sword and a polished shaft — is the weapon by which God will accomplish worldwide redemption. The servant is identified as the true Israel, fulfilling what national Israel failed to do, and his conquest extends not merely to the restoration of Jacob but to the Gentiles and the ends of the earth. Apparent failure and rejection, seen both in Isaiah's own ministry and in the Lord Jesus Christ's earthly preaching, do not negate the servant's mission, because his reward is with God. The sermon presses the church to faithfulness in preaching and hearing the Word of God as the appointed means by which the servant's conquest advances.
The Covenant with David
The Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:1–17 is a sovereign promise by God to David that a seed from his line will establish an eternal kingdom — a promise that cannot be annulled by death, destroyed by sin, or exhausted by time. The sermon traces the historical background of the covenant (the ark's wandering, God's presence with his pilgrim people, David's own rise from the sheepfold), then unfolds the triple meaning of 'house' — physical dwelling, dynastic succession, and temple — showing that God's answer to David's desire to build for him is instead to build a dynasty for David. Covenant theology frames the whole: the Davidic covenant is not a new or separate covenant of grace but a further discovery of the one covenant purpose moving from Genesis 3:15 through Abraham and David to its full realization in the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David who now reigns over a kingdom without end. The sermon closes with Jeremiah 23:5–6 — the Lord our righteousness — pressing hearers to rest in Christ's imputed righteousness as the ground of their entry into that everlasting kingdom.
The Incarnation of the Word
John 1:14 declares that the eternal Word — the second person of the Trinity, who was in the beginning with God and was God — became flesh and dwelt among men. This sermon expounds the incarnation under two heads: first, the identity and reality of the Word taking on true humanity (the hypostatic union of two complete natures in one person), and second, the glory of that Word as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnation is shown to be the indispensable ground of redemption — whatever is not assumed is not redeemed — and sinners are urged to flee to a mediator who is full, not miserly, in grace and truth.
Genesis 36
Genesis 36 presents the genealogy of Esau (Edom), a passage easily dismissed as a bare list of names. This study examines why Moses inserts this extended genealogy at the precise hinge between the narrative of Isaac and the narrative of Jacob, arguing that it serves as a demonstration of divine faithfulness: God fulfilled every promise made to the non-elect son — nationhood, territorial blessing, and temporal prosperity — which grounds the believer's confidence that His covenant promises to the elect will be no less certainly realized. The contrast between Esau's temporal inheritance and Jacob's spiritual and eternal inheritance sharpens the distinction between common providence and saving grace, and the goodness God shows even to the reprobate is intended to lead sinners to repentance.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 5
Paul's sermon in Pisidian Antioch moves from historical exposition to urgent exhortation: forgiveness of sins comes not through moral effort, law-keeping, or any human merit, but through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and is received by faith alone. Drawing on Psalms 25, 32, 51, 130, Isaiah 43 and 45, Micah 7, and the recurring apostolic pattern in Acts, the sermon traces how the forgiveness of sins is the central remedy for mankind's fundamental problem of transgression against a holy God. Faith itself is a divine gift, grounded in a God who delights in mercy, and the proper response to the gospel is to look to Christ alone — accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
The Fourth Commandment, Part 2
The fourth commandment's perpetual moral obligation is examined through the lens of Christ's ministry, his resurrection, and apostolic teaching, demonstrating that the Saturday Sabbath of the old covenant has been transformed into the Lord's Day — Sunday — under the new covenant. Hebrews 4:9 is treated as the theological linchpin: 'there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God' is not an eschatological footnote but a present weekly obligation, with the change of day grounded in Christ's resurrection as the completion of new-creation work. The sermon distinguishes the positive-law element of the fourth commandment (which day) from its abiding moral-law element (one day in seven devoted to God), before closing with practical qualifications against both legalism and antinomianism in Sabbath observance.
Genesis 35
Genesis 35 traces Jacob's return to Bethel, the deaths of Rachel and Isaac, the treachery of Reuben, and the enumeration of Jacob's twelve sons. The chapter centers on God's sovereign renewal of His covenant with Jacob — reiterating the promises of seed and land given to Abraham and Isaac — at precisely the moment Jacob is most fearful and morally compromised. The sermon argues that God's repetition of covenant promises is not for His own memory but for the stabilization of His people's faith, and that the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, corporate worship, and the Lord's Supper — function as God's appointed conduits for fortifying His people to persevere through affliction, loss, and moral failure.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 13:26–37 records Paul's synagogue sermon in Pisidian Antioch, in which he explains the two pivotal events of Israel's Messiah: the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Jerusalem rulers condemned Jesus without cause, yet in doing so they fulfilled the very prophetic scriptures they heard read every Sabbath, demonstrating the sovereign providence of God working through the wickedness of men. Paul marshals Psalm 2:7 to establish the eternal generation of the Son and his fitness as mediator, then Psalm 16:10 to prove that David's body saw corruption while Christ's did not, and Isaiah 55 to ground the sure mercies of the Davidic covenant in the risen servant of Isaiah 53. The sermon drives toward justification by faith alone in Christ alone, urging hearers not to repeat Jerusalem's fatal error of rejecting the one through whom alone there is forgiveness of sins.
The Only Redeemer of God's Elect
Galatians 3:10–14 sets law and gospel in sharp contrast, demonstrating that justification before God is entirely excluded from the domain of law-keeping. Paul's threefold appeal to Deuteronomy 27, Habakkuk 2:4, and Leviticus 18:5 establishes that the law demands perfect, perpetual, and entire obedience — an impossibility for sinners in Adam. The only hope lies in Christ's substitutionary, curse-bearing work: he bore the imputed sin of his people, exhausted the wrath of God in their place, and secured for them both the blessing of Abraham and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sermon calls hearers to abandon every form of faith-plus-works supplementation and to rest wholly in the particular redemption accomplished by Christ alone.
The Fourth Commandment
The Fourth Commandment's call to observe the Sabbath is not a Mosaic innovation for Israel alone but a creation ordinance rooted in God's own rest and ratified across redemptive history. This sermon surveys Old Testament Sabbath theology — from Genesis 2 through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah — arguing that the Ten Commandments carry trans-covenantal moral force and that the Sabbath commandment retains binding validity for New Covenant Christians. Christ's defense of Sabbath in Mark 2 is shown to confirm rather than abolish the commandment, clearing away Pharisaic distortion while pointing back to the creational gift given for man as man, not Jew as Jew. Hearers are called to call the Sabbath a delight, to work diligently the six days, and to gather with the covenant community on the Lord's Day in holy worship.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13–41) opens with a sweeping sketch of Israel's redemptive history — election, deliverance from Egypt, wilderness forbearance, the land promise, the judges, the monarchy, and the Davidic covenant — all converging on one point: the law and the prophets inevitably lead to Jesus Christ. The sermon examines why Paul structures his argument this way, showing that a correct hermeneutic always produces a Christocentric reading of Scripture and that God's faithfulness in the lesser promises guarantees his faithfulness in the greater seed promise. Along the way, the exposition confronts the temptation to doubt God's sustaining care in hard seasons, insisting that God never abandons his people and that every believer can rest on his unwavering covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct appeal drawn from verse 38: forgiveness of sins — which the law of Moses could never provide — is freely available through this man, Jesus Christ.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 1
Acts 12:25–13:3 marks the launch of the first missionary journey and the pivotal moment when the church at Antioch, directed by the Holy Spirit, formally separates Barnabas and Saul for organised gospel mission to the Gentiles. The sermon traces this appointment back to the divine plan announced in Acts 9:15–16, showing that Paul's calling, suffering, and relentless preaching were purposed by Christ from the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus. A sustained application argues that the local church — not parachurch agencies, mission boards operating independently, or individual self-appointment — is the proper centre for identifying, qualifying, and sending missionaries. The sermon closes with an appeal grounded in covenant theology: God's promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed is the very engine driving the missionary enterprise recorded in Acts.
Genesis 30:25-31:21
Genesis 30:25–31:21 narrates Jacob's negotiation with Laban over wages, his departure from Haran, and his flight toward Canaan after twenty years of servitude. The central question the passage presses is whether Jacob's prosperity arose from his own shrewdness or from the sovereign God of the covenant — and the narrative answers decisively in favor of divine providence, paralleling the earlier mandrakes episode in chapter 30 and anticipating the Exodus. The sermon traces Jacob's spiritual maturity, the covenantal logic that ties the Abrahamic land-and-seed promise to this one family's preservation, and God's faithfulness to His people in both prosperity and affliction.
The First Commandment, Part 2
The First Commandment — 'You shall have no other gods before me' (Deuteronomy 5:7) — carries not only a prohibition but a cluster of positive obligations that define the redeemed creature's relationship to the Creator. This sermon works through five such positive aspects: the love of God, the fear of God, obedience to God, trust in God, and the proper worship of God, showing how each flows necessarily from the sovereign grace by which God conquers the sinner. The sermon concludes with a call to reject idolatry in all its forms — including mental idolatry constructed by false doctrine — and to cultivate a growing, confessional knowledge of the triune God.
The Gracious Invitation of Christ
Matthew 11:25–30 sets before the reader three interlocking realities that ground Christian thanksgiving: the sovereign will of the Father who hides gospel truth from the self-sufficient and reveals it to the humbled, the mediatorial office of the Son who alone has authority and power to reveal the Father to sinners, and the gracious invitation of Christ who calls the weary and sin-laden to come, receive rest, take His yoke, and learn from Him. The sermon works through six observations on verses 28–30 — the exhortation to come, the persons addressed, the promise of rest, the call to submit, the invitation to learn, and the light burden of discipleship — demonstrating that justification precedes sanctification and that the gospel call is issued indiscriminately to all. Hearers are urged to study the law until the weight of sin is felt, to flee to Christ rather than away from Him, and to respond to sovereign grace with daily, unreserved thanksgiving.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 6, 2019 PM
What does it mean that the Father has 'bestowed' his love on sinners so that they should be called children of God? Expounding 1 John 3:1 in the context of a Lord's Supper service, this sermon examines the divine love under four headings: the call to consider it, the object in view, the blessed result of adoption, and the attendant conflict with the world. The love of God is grounded in his impassibility and immutability — he is 'most loving' not as an emotional fluctuation but as an unchanging perfection — and the doctrine of adoption is carefully distinguished from and harmonized with John's language of new birth, following B.B. Warfield's analysis. The sermon closes by directing communicants to fix their minds on Christ rather than on themselves as they receive the bread and cup.