Theological term
Covenant of Grace
848 sermons · All terms
Of Christ the Mediator 1 (2LCF 8)
The person and work of Christ as mediator stands at the center of Christian theology, as this study of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 8 makes clear. Working through all ten paragraphs of the chapter in overview, the session traces the pre-temporal appointment of Christ as mediator in the covenant of redemption, the historical stages of his mediatorial work, and the necessity of his threefold office as prophet, priest, and king. Particular attention falls on paragraph 2's account of the incarnation — the eternal Son taking true human nature with all its essential properties yet without sin — and paragraph 7's careful rule for reading Scripture passages that attribute what belongs to one nature to the other, guarding against both a divinized humanity (Lutheran ubiquitarianism) and a humanized deity. Hearers are called to hold fast the church's historic confession of Christ as one person in two natures, whole, perfect, and distinct, without conversion, composition, or confusion.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 15
Matthew 25:31–46, the conclusion of the Olivet Discourse, presents the final judgment of the Son of Man — not as a basis for works-righteousness, but as the definitive revelation of what saving faith produces. The sermon argues that the sheep and goats are already distinguished before the throne, exposing the error of Roman Catholic and moralistic readings that treat the acts of charity as the ground of salvation. Christ's declaration 'come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world' is the language of election and inheritance, not merit. The application is twofold: look to Christ alone in faith for justification, and let that faith show itself — as the confession states — 'no dead faith but worketh by love,' particularly toward the brethren in the local congregation.
Of Covenant (2LCF 7)
2 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 7 traces the whole architecture of Scripture through the lens of covenant theology, demonstrating that God's dealings with humanity are covenantal from creation to consummation. The chapter distinguishes three interlocking covenants — the covenant of works, the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of grace — and shows how each is necessary for a right understanding of the others. Particular attention is given to the progressive revelation of the covenant of grace from Genesis 3:15 through the historical covenants (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic) to its full discovery in the new covenant inaugurated by Christ. The practical stakes are high: a faulty grasp of the covenant of works will inevitably distort one's understanding of Christ's mediatorial obedience, justification by faith alone, and the covenant of grace itself.
The Fear of God
Proverbs 1:7 declares that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, yet this disposition is widely misunderstood and neglected among professing Christians. This topical survey distinguishes slavish fear from filial fear, demonstrates from Romans 3, Jeremiah 32, and the book of Proverbs that true fear of God is a gracious implantation sovereignly worked in the regenerate soul, and traces its necessary effects on the mind, the conduct, and the perseverance of believers. The sermon closes by calling both individual believers and the corporate assembly to cultivate this fear — in personal holiness, in theological engagement, and in God-directed, regulative-principle worship.
1 Kings 8 Part 2
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 exposes several foundational truths for the people of God: the covenantal faithfulness of God across the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants; the nature of God's presence among His people, which produces both reverential awe and deep joy; and the theological precision required for rightly ordered prayer, including the doctrines of divine incomparability, transcendence, immanence, and simplicity. The sermon closes by drawing out practical lessons for new covenant believers: the centrality of Scripture, the necessity of heart obedience, the perpetual need for forgiveness, the remedial purpose of afflictions, and the indispensable role of communion with God in the genuine pursuit of holiness.
The Wisdom from God
Christ is the wisdom of God made concrete for sinners, and 1 Corinthians 1:30–31 inventories what that wisdom consists of: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This exposition argues that these three blessings are not coordinate with wisdom but are its very demonstration — the specific ways God's sovereign, gracious salvation exposes the folly of human wisdom and self-commendation. Justification by faith alone, grounded in the imputed righteousness of Christ, is shown to be the necessary foundation for, not the enemy of, holiness. The design of the whole — election, union with Christ, and the triad of blessings — is that the redeemed glory in the Lord alone, not in themselves.
The Baptisms of Jesus Christ
Christ's two baptisms in Matthew 3 and Matthew 20 illuminate the two pillars of the gospel: His active obedience, by which He fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of His people, and His passive obedience, by which He endured the cross as a substitutionary ransom for many. The water baptism in Matthew 3 marks the public inauguration of Christ's life of perfect law-keeping, while the 'baptism' He anticipates in Matthew 20 refers to His immersion in suffering and divine wrath at Calvary. Together these two baptisms demonstrate that sinners need not only the forgiveness of sins secured by Christ's death, but also an alien righteousness — His own perfect obedience imputed to them by faith alone. The sermon calls both unbelievers and the baptized congregation to rest in the full sufficiency of what Christ accomplished, rejecting any gospel that offers the crown without the cross.
1 Kings 6: Solomon's Temple and the Covenant Faithfulness of God
The construction of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6 is not a collection of architectural trivia but a testimony to the covenant faithfulness of God, who not only delivers his people but settles them. Three movements structure the chapter: the exterior of the temple, a divine interruption demanding covenantal obedience, and the interior with its climactic Holy of Holies. The temple points typologically beyond Solomon to the Son of David who is also Son of God — the Lord Jesus Christ, who builds the true and final temple, his church.
1 Kings 5 - Preparations for the Temple
First Kings 5 records the preparations Solomon made for the temple — securing cedar from Hiram of Tyre, organising a massive labour force, and gathering materials — all in fulfilment of God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7. The chapter unfolds three lessons: the realization of God's covenantal promise, an anticipation of God's kingdom in the Gentile participation of Hiram and his builders, and the manifestation of God's wisdom in Solomon's political and administrative skill. The temple's true foundation is not stone but the promise of God, and the entire narrative moves along a trajectory from Eden through the tabernacle to the temple, pointing forward to Christ as the ultimate temple-builder. Hearers are called to prepare for gathered worship with the same seriousness that Solomon's preparations reveal, and to seek God's wisdom for every domain of life, not only the explicitly spiritual.
The Cross as the Demonstration of God's Love
John 3:16, which Martin Luther called 'the Bible in miniature,' is examined through four observations concerning the cross: the immeasurable love of God toward an unworthy world, the gracious gift of the only begotten Son delivered up as a sacrifice, the object of saving faith as Christ alone, and the promised blessing of not perishing but having everlasting life. The sermon defends particular redemption by noting that 'world' in John 3:16 denotes men without distinction — Jew and Gentile elect — rather than every individual without exception, and grounds this in the parallel logic of Deuteronomy 7 and Romans 5. Believers are exhorted to contemplate the unchanging love of God displayed at the cross as a weapon in their ongoing warfare against remaining corruption, and those without faith are called to look to Christ alone, in whom the principal acts of saving faith find their immediate object.
The New Birth
John 3:1–10 presents Jesus' declaration to Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again — a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, not a human decision or cooperative effort. This sermon traces the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus through three movements: Nicodemus's implicit question, Christ's response, and Christ's indictment of Nicodemus's ignorance of what the Old Testament — particularly Ezekiel 36:25–27 — had already taught about new-covenant regeneration. The doctrine of the new birth is expounded as thoroughly monergistic: God alone acts, man is passive, and faith and repentance are fruits of regeneration rather than its cause. Believers are called to examine the evidences of genuine new birth — faith in Christ, love of the brethren, and overcoming the world — while the unconverted are directed to look to Christ and believe the gospel.
2LCF Chapter 3 - Of God's Decree
The eternal decree of God — whereby He freely and unchangeably foreordains whatsoever comes to pass — is the subject of 2LCF Chapter 3. This study works through all seven paragraphs of the chapter, examining the definition, agency, character, and freedom of God's decree, before turning to the decree's specific application to predestination and reprobation. The doctrine is grounded in the divine perfections established in Chapter 2: God's simplicity, absoluteness, and independence. Hearers are called to hold this high mystery with prudence and care, drawing from it not vain curiosity but praise, humility, and abundant consolation.
The Hymn to Christ as to God, Part 3
What does it mean that Christ 'emptied himself' in Philippians 2:7? This sermon works through the first clause of Christ's condescension, arguing that the self-emptying was not a divestiture of deity but an addition of humanity — Christ took on what he was not without ceasing to be what he eternally was. The incarnation is treated under two headings: his self-emptying by assuming man's nature, and his self-humiliation in engaging that nature as a bondservant. The sermon closes by drawing out the practical weight of Christ's true humanity for worship, perseverance under suffering, and help in temptation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 20, 2016 AM
Philippians 2:6–11 contains one of the richest Christological confessions in all of Scripture, composed within two decades of the resurrection and already rehearsing Christ's pre-incarnate divine majesty, his voluntary humiliation, and his subsequent exaltation. This sermon opens the 'anatomy' of Paul's hymn to Christ as to God, establishing two foundational realities: the structural movement of the text from loftiness to lowliness to supreme exaltation, and the full, unqualified deity and equality of the Son with the Father. The church is called to hide these truths in their hearts against every heresy that diminishes Christ, and to find in his condescension the very ground and pattern of Christian humility and unity.
Isaiah's Child of Promise
Isaiah 9:6 announces a child born and son given as the divine answer to covenant judgment — not a military conqueror, but a gift of sovereign grace. This sermon traces four aspects of the promised Messiah: his humble beginning as a given gift, his royal commission over an eternal kingdom, his divine majesty expressed in four throne-names, and the perfect peace he secures through his atoning blood. The exposition grounds Christological adoration in its Old Testament context, showing how the prophecy builds on Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7 before finding its fulfillment in the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. Hearers are called to count Christ as the chief of all blessings, to rest in his kingship over a disordered world, and to flee immediately to his cross-won peace when guilt assails.
The Hope of OT Believers
What did Old Testament believers actually know about the coming Redeemer? This sermon works through six lines of biblical evidence — from the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 through the prophets and Psalms — to demonstrate that the messianic hope of Israel was not vague or mystical but concrete, objective, and increasingly specific across the covenant history of redemption. Old Testament saints knew that the Deliverer would be a man born of a woman, would accomplish victory through substitutionary death, would be of Davidic lineage, would be both God and man, and that faith in him was the appointed way of salvation. The sermon closes at the Lord's Supper, grounding the ordinance in the fulfillment of all these promises in the person and work of Christ.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 9
Matthew 24:30–31 presents what many regard as the decisive difficulty for a preterist reading of the Olivet Discourse: the Son of Man coming on clouds and the gathering of the elect. This sermon argues that both verses are best understood through the grammar of Old Testament prophetic and apocalyptic language, in which cloud-coming consistently signifies God's judicial intervention against nations rather than a physical, bodily descent. The primary interpretive key is Daniel 7:13–14, read as an ascension text in which the Son of Man comes *to* the Ancient of Days, receives universal dominion, and then sends forth messengers to gather his elect — a movement that corresponds to Christ's post-resurrection enthronement and the subsequent worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Hearers are urged to rest their souls in the present, active reign of Christ at the Father's right hand, and to guard against both false teaching and carnal anxiety by understanding what Scripture actually teaches about the session and kingdom of the ascended Lord.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 7
Matthew 24:22–28 addresses the days of the great tribulation surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and Jesus' warnings against false Christs who would arise during the siege. Taking a preterist hermeneutic, this exposition argues that the shortening of those days (v. 22) reflects God's sovereign limitation of covenant judgment for the elect's sake, and that the lightning metaphor of verse 27 describes not Christ's final physical return but a judgment-coming executed from His enthroned position at the Father's right hand. The carcass-and-eagles image of verse 28 is read against Deuteronomy 28 and Habakkuk 1 as a covenant-curse idiom for the Roman armies as instruments of divine vengeance. Throughout, the passage is applied evangelically: the only refuge from any coming judgment is flight to Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 25, 2016 PM
Second Samuel 22 records David's song of deliverance, but verses 21–25, in which David appeals to his own righteousness before God, present a theological problem: David was an adulterer, a murderer, and a negligent father, yet he claims the Lord rewarded him according to his righteousness. This sermon argues that David's righteousness is not intrinsic or earned by law-keeping but is the alien righteousness of Christ imputed to him by faith — the same doctrine Paul expounds in Romans 4 and Psalm 32, which David himself composed. The resolution lies in David's own theology: he understood his total depravity, the necessity of atonement, the doctrine of imputation, and the appropriation of Christ's righteousness through faith alone, demonstrating that Old Testament saints were saved in precisely the same way as New Testament believers.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 4
Matthew 24:14 declares that 'this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.' Preaching from a preterist perspective, this exposition argues that the gospel proclamation described in verse 14 was fulfilled in the first century prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that 'the end' in view is not the final judgment but the termination of the old covenant dispensation and the Jewish temple. The sermon develops a biblical-theological account of the temple — from Eden through the Mosaic tabernacle, Solomon's temple, and into Christ as the antitype who fulfills and renders obsolete the entire sacrificial system — drawing especially on Hebrews 8. The practical conclusion is an unqualified call for the church to maintain its unchanged mission of gospel proclamation regardless of external persecution, internal apostasy, or cultural pressure.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 18, 2016 PM
Second Samuel 23:1–39 records the last words of David and the roster of his mighty men — warriors whose exploits are attributed not to raw human ability but to Yahweh's gift of victory. The sermon draws four observations from the passage: the divine power behind the three elite warriors (vv. 8–12), the sacrificial devotion of the three unnamed men who fetched water from Bethlehem (vv. 13–17), the notable exploits of Abashai and Benaiah (vv. 18–38), and the sobering reminder of David's sin in the final mention of Uriah the Hittite (v. 39). The Uriah reference serves a double function: it grounds David's success entirely in the grace of God, and it drives the reader forward to the greater Son of David — the Lord Jesus Christ — who alone rules with untainted justice, righteousness, and perfection.
2 Samuel 23:1-7
David's final official words in 2 Samuel 23:1–7 are not a backward glance at his own reign but a forward-looking messianic prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, identified as 'the anointed of the God of Jacob' and 'the favorite of the songs of Israel.' The passage discloses the Trinitarian agency behind the words, the comprehensive and just nature of Messiah's reign, the everlasting Davidic covenant that grounds the hope of a perfect king despite David's own failures, and the exclusion of the unrepentant from that kingdom. Believers are called to take comfort in Christ's just and universal rule, to proclaim the terror of divine judgment honestly, and to worship the one to whom all the Psalms point.
2 Samuel 22
Psalm 18's twin text, 2 Samuel 22 presents David not as a great military king but as a theologian of grace, ascribing every victory to Yahweh alone. The sermon examines the deliverance of God's servant (vv. 1–20), then takes up the harder exegetical question of David's assertion of his own righteousness (vv. 21–31), arguing from Psalms 32, 51, and 65 and from Romans 4 that David's righteousness is the imputed righteousness of Christ, received through faith, not a claim to sinless perfection. The sermon closes by grounding David's confidence in the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 and calling the congregation to the same exuberant, theologically informed praise.
The Atonement at Gibeah
2 Samuel 21 presents a famine in David's Israel caused by Saul's covenant-breaking slaughter of the Gibeonites, resolved only when seven of Saul's sons are executed as a blood-atoning sacrifice before the Lord. The passage illuminates the costliness of covenant-breaking, the terror of divine wrath, and the nature of substitutionary atonement — themes that point unmistakably to Calvary. David's protection of Mephibosheth in the midst of judgment typifies Christ's covenant-keeping faithfulness toward his own people, while the death of the seven sons at Gibeah typifies the penal substitution of the innocent for the guilty. The sermon presses believers to resist domesticating the atonement into a bloodless abstraction, and to confront afresh the drippy, bloody, smelly reality of what the Son of God endured in the place of sinners.
The Warning Against Apostasy
Hebrews 10:26–31 has long troubled sensitive believers who fear they have committed the unpardonable sin described there. This exposition argues that the willful sin in view is not the ongoing struggles and failures of the regenerate, but apostasy — a total, obstinate repudiation of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the renunciation of the gospel itself. Drawing on the parallel warning in Hebrews 6, the covenantal comparison with Deuteronomy 17, and the testimony of Owen, Calvin, and Gill, the sermon demonstrates that those most troubled by this passage are precisely those whom it does not address. The comfort the text affords is real: the priestly intercession of Christ sustains weak and failing saints, and the just shall live by faith — not by the perfection of their obedience.
Free Grace Baptist Church - July 31, 2016 PM
Psalm 67 is a missionary psalm framing the church's reception of divine mercy, blessing, and communion not as ends in themselves but as the grounds and means of global gospel proclamation. Working through the psalm's two movements — the petitions of verses 1–5 and the promises of verses 6–7 — the sermon argues that the church's prayer for herself is inseparable from her obligation to make the way of God known among all nations. The application is pointed: the church's mission is the proclamation of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and she must pray the psalms boldly, believing that God can turn idolaters — whether ancient Canaanites or modern Islam — to the living God through the foolishness of preaching.
Free Grace Baptist Church - July 24, 2016 PM
Matthew 4:1-11 is not primarily a moral example but a substitutionary act: Christ enters the wilderness as the second Adam and the true Israel, undergoing probationary testing in order to render the perfect covenantal obedience that Adam and Israel failed to render. Seven interlocking theological observations — divine sovereignty, the Spirit's ministry in Christ's life, the hypostatic union, the probative nature of the episode, Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament types, the seed-and-serpent motif, and the substitutionary character of his obedience — are drawn from the text to show that this wilderness battle is a prelude to Calvary's victory. The primary application is not moralism but adoration: Christ did all these things for his people, and his imputed obedience is the ground on which sinners may confidently rest.
Free Grace Baptist Church - July 24, 2016 AM
Matthew 4:1-11 presents the wilderness temptation of Christ not merely as a moral battle against sin but as a divinely ordained probationary test in which the Son of God proves himself the obedient Israel where the first Israel perpetually failed. The sermon traces each of Satan's three assaults against the backdrop of Israel's wilderness failures in Exodus and Deuteronomy, showing Christ as the covenant-keeping second Adam whose steadfast obedience secures a righteousness his people could never produce. The post-victory report — angels ministering to Christ — fulfills the very promises Satan had twisted, vindicating God's timing against all satanic shortcuts to glory. Hearers are called to find their exclusive champion in this Christ and to answer every temptation as he did: with the word of the living and true God.
2LCF Chapter 29 - Of Baptism
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 29 on baptism is expounded under two headings: the lawful recipients of the ordinance and its proper mode. The confession's definition of baptism as a sign of union with Christ in his death and resurrection is shown to require that only those who have actually professed repentance and faith are its proper subjects — a conclusion argued from covenant theology, positive law, and the consistent narrative of the New Testament. The proper mode is established as full immersion in water in the name of the triune God, grounded in the example of Christ at the Jordan, the Greek term baptizo, and the burial-and-resurrection imagery of Romans 6.
The Day of Atonement
Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement, stands at the literary and theological center of the Pentateuch, resolving the tension left at the close of Exodus 40 where God dwells among Israel but cannot be approached. The ceremony instructs Israel — and the church — in four realities: the holiness of God, the pervasive power of sin, the necessity of blood for atonement, and the blessing that flows from expiation. Every element of the ritual — the high priest's own sin offering, the two goats, the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, and the scapegoat driven into the wilderness — is a type pointing forward to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, whose atoning work alone renders sinful men fit for communion with a thrice-holy God.