Theological term
Covenant
121 sermons · All terms
The Believer's Gratitude Toward God
Psalm 103 grounds thanksgiving not in vague sentiment but in the specific mercies of a covenant-keeping God toward those He has redeemed. Working through David's threefold structure — the reminder to bless God, the reasons for blessing God, and the reflection on God's kingdom — the sermon traces the chief benefit of divine grace as the forgiveness of sins accomplished in Christ, before moving outward to temporal providences, divine mercy measured against human frailty, and the universal summons of all creation to praise. The sermon draws on Deuteronomy's warnings against forgetting God's benefits and Paul's account of the worthy walk in Colossians 1 to show that detailed, specific thanksgiving is a mark of those who have received grace. The congregation is called to speak to their own souls, directing them away from self-absorption and toward the God whose mercy extends from everlasting to everlasting.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not a cunningly devised fable but a historically attested and theologically necessary event that vindicates Christ's person and work. Expounding Matthew 28:1–10, this sermon examines the discovery of the empty tomb — the descent of the angel, the commission to the women, and the flight of the guards — and then the appearance of the risen Lord to the women, who held him by the feet and worshipped him. The hypostatic union underlies that act of worship: they touch his human feet while adoring the second person of the Trinity. Because Christ is risen, believers need not fear, have an advocate with the Father when they sin, and possess a hope that is grounded in historical reality and not mere sentiment.
The Fifth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment — 'Honor your father and your mother' (Deuteronomy 5:16) — is not merely a domestic rule for ancient Israel but a trans-covenantal moral law binding on all people in every station of life. This exposition works through the Hebrew meaning of 'honor,' traces the commandment across both Testaments, and extends its scope beyond the family to encompass the workplace, the church, and the civil commonwealth, showing that all of life is structured by the superior-inferior relation God has ordained. The law's three uses frame the conclusion: civil restraint, pedagogical exposure of sin and need for Christ the perfect law-keeper, and normative direction for the blood-bought children of God.
Genesis 32:1-33:20
Genesis 32–33 traces Jacob's return to Canaan through two defining encounters: his anxious preparation to meet the murderous Esau, and his night-long wrestling match with the angel of the Lord at Peniel. The passage displays the doctrine of providence at its most intimate — God present with his elect patriarch through angelic visitation, theophany, and sovereign orchestration of Esau's heart, all in service of preserving the Messianic seed. Jacob's prayer in 32:9–12, structured around God's command, his own unworthiness, a specific petition, and the covenant promise, models how the saints argue for deliverance on the basis of God's own glory. The Peniel encounter is the turning point in Jacob's life: renamed Israel, he emerges reborn — courage replacing cowardice, humility replacing arrogance — to meet Esau in reconciliation and settle at last in the land of promise.
Genesis 31:22-55
Genesis 31:22–55 records the pursuit, confrontation, and covenant between Laban and the departing Jacob. The passage exposes Laban's hypocrisy, his powerlessness before the God of Israel, and his resort to a non-aggression covenant once he recognizes that divine providence has secured Jacob against him. Jacob's theology in verse 42 — confessing God's presence, power, and mercy — serves as the interpretive key to the whole chapter, pointing forward to the same God who will later see the affliction of Israel in Egypt and deliver them.
The Preface to the Ten Commandments
Deuteronomy 5:1–6 opens the Ten Commandments with a preface that sets law within the context of grace: God identifies himself as the one who redeemed Israel from Egypt before issuing a single command. This sermon introduces a new series on the Decalogue by situating it within its canonical, covenantal, and historical setting — tracing the narrative from Exodus through Numbers to Deuteronomy's second giving of the law. The preface establishes the lawgiver's identity (Yahweh, the covenant God), his personal involvement with his people, and the redemptive act that grounds all the commandments that follow. The threefold use of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — frames how believers are to receive and apply the Decalogue in the new covenant era.
Genesis 23
Genesis 23 records the death of Sarah and Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah — a passage that reads like a legal contract but carries profound theological weight. Abraham's insistence on paying full price for the burial plot, rather than accepting it as a gift from the Canaanites, reflects the same principle he articulated in Genesis 14: he will not allow any pagan to claim credit for what God has promised. The purchase functions as a sacramental down payment on the covenant promise of the land, anticipating Israel's future inheritance of Canaan in its entirety. The sermon closes by drawing on Hebrews 11 to commend the faith of Sarah, who — through childlessness, displacement, and affliction — judged God faithful who had promised.
The Worship of God in Private Families
Family worship — the regular practice of reading Scripture, praying, and singing with one's household — is grounded in a consistent biblical pattern running from Abraham in Genesis 18 through the Apostle Paul's commands in Ephesians 6. This topical survey traces the biblical warrant for family worship through key Old Testament figures and texts, examines the elements that should mark it, and presses the duty home with both positive examples and negative warnings. Parents and grandparents are called to diligent, consistent instruction of their children in law and gospel, with the sobering reminder that neglect — not busyness — is the real obstacle.
Genesis 20:1-18
Genesis 20 records Abraham's deceptive half-truth to Abimelech, king of Gerar — a relapse into the same sin committed in Egypt — and God's sovereign intervention to protect both Sarah's honor and the line of promised seed. The passage reveals that not every pagan city is a Sodom: God's common grace produces genuine integrity in Abimelech, whom the Lord acknowledges and restrains, while Abraham's fear exposes a distrust of divine providence that God graciously overcomes. The birth of Isaac in chapter 21 is secured not by human faithfulness but by the sovereign God who closes and opens wombs, curses those who threaten His covenant people, and blesses those who bless them. The sermon calls believers to rest in the past faithfulness of God as a present argument against fear and self-protective deception.
Genesis 19:12-29
Genesis 19:12–29 recounts the deliverance of Lot from Sodom and the destruction of the cities of the plain, and this study expounds both events as windows into the character of God and the weakness of the righteous. Lot's spiritual sluggishness — his lingering, his misplaced requests, and his compromised family — traces back to the wrong choice recorded in Genesis 13, illustrating how an unscriptural settlement among the worldly dims spiritual discernment over time. Yet the text twice identifies God's mercy, not Lot's righteousness, as the ground of his deliverance, and verse 29 explicitly connects that deliverance to God's covenant with Abraham. The practical call is to think biblically about residence, vocation, and marriage, and to rest in the imputed righteousness of Christ while pursuing practical godliness.
The Fifth Commandment
The fifth commandment — 'Honor your father and your mother' — reaches far beyond childhood obedience in the home; it establishes the foundational posture of submission to divinely-ordained authority in family, church, civil society, and workplace. This exposition of Deuteronomy 5:16 traces the command through the Mosaic law, the prophets, and into the New Testament, where Paul applies it unchanged to Gentile believers in Ephesus, demonstrating the trans-covenantal abiding force of the Decalogue. The sermon examines the severity of the sanctions attached to its violation — including the theocratic death penalty and Israel's exile — as evidence that God regards the fifth commandment not as a domestic nicety but as load-bearing structure for any ordered society. Parents are called to enforce the command through discipline and instruction, and all hearers are reminded that the only remedy for its violation is the gospel of Christ, who was born under the law to redeem lawbreakers.
Stephen's Defense, Part 4
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:17–29 centers on the birth, education, and first visits of Moses to his enslaved brethren — a narrative Stephen deploys not to instruct the Council in history they already knew, but to indict them for repeating the same rejection of God's appointed deliverer. The sermon traces two structural pillars: God's sovereign faithfulness to Abrahamic covenant promises across four centuries of bondage, and Israel's willful incomprehension of Moses as the pattern for the Sanhedrin's rejection of Jesus. The typological connection is explicit — Moses as redeemer-reconciler rejected by those he came to save is the Old Testament shadow of Christ rejected by the very people who claimed allegiance to Moses. Hearers are called to resist the impulse to drive away the deliverer and instead flee to the Lord Christ, in whom all the promises of God find their yes and amen.
The Dedication of the Temple
Solomon's dedicatory prayer in 1 Kings 8:22–53 is examined as a model of theological depth and dependent petition. The prayer opens by rehearsing God's incomparability, faithfulness, transcendence, and imminence — attributes that ground every request that follows. Six petitions structured around covenant curse and restoration (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) demonstrate that forgiveness is the central burden of the prayer, and that affliction is a designed instrument for drawing God's people back to dependence on Him. Practical applications press the congregation toward reverent worship, heart-obedience rooted in justification by Christ's righteousness alone, daily confession of sin, and confidence in God's unfailing covenant fidelity.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 2
James 5:16–18 calls every believer — not a spiritual elite — to confess sins to one another, to intercede for one another, and to pray with the confidence that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The 'righteous man' of verse 16 is not a super-saint but any person justified by faith alone in Christ alone, whose imputed righteousness gives boldness at the throne of grace. Elijah is set before the church not as a larger-than-life wonder-worker but as a man of like passions — weak, despondent, yet prevailing in prayer — precisely so that ordinary believers will not despair of their own access to God. The sermon closes with a searching examination: are God's people truly prayerful as individuals, as families, as elders, and as a congregation?
2 Kings 22:1-20
The discovery of the Book of the Law during Josiah's temple repairs exposes the deep covenantal unfaithfulness of Judah and provokes a model of humble repentance that stands as a rebuke to every generation. Huldah the prophetess confirms that divine judgment on the nation is certain and irreversible, yet God extends personal mercy to Josiah because his heart was tender before the Word. The sermon traces the proper response to Scripture — trembling reception, genuine internal contrition, and active reformation — against the background of Josiah's exemplary reign and the warnings of Deuteronomy 28. The hearer is called to receive the implanted Word with meekness, to confess sin honestly rather than conceal it, and to resist the slow drift toward apostasy by giving earnest heed to all that God has spoken.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
2 Kings 18:1-37
Second Kings 18 introduces Hezekiah, one of Judah's most faithful kings, whose sweeping religious reforms and wholehearted trust in Yahweh are met not with immediate peace but with Assyrian invasion and psychological warfare. The chapter exposes a persistent error: that obedience to God is a formula for earthly blessing rather than a response to grace, and that faithfulness and suffering are not mutually exclusive. The Rabshakeh's two speeches constitute calculated propaganda designed to sow despair and division in Jerusalem, culminating in a blasphemous equation of Yahweh with the powerless gods of conquered nations. The study draws out three practical lessons: that trial coexists with blessing, that even faithful people waver, and that God's people may face genuine despair while still possessing genuine hope in a God who will act on their behalf.
United in Worship
Joshua 22:10–34 presents a near-civil-war among the tribes of Israel triggered by the erection of a large altar east of the Jordan, and this exposition works through the text under three headings: the western tribes' perception of apostasy, their perception of disunity, and the concluding perception of God's presence among his people. The sermon grounds the western tribes' alarm in Deuteronomy 12 and 13, showing that their concern for a rival place of worship was a sound application of the regulative principle of worship, and traces the typological significance of Phinehas as a figure pointing to Christ's atoning zeal. The eastern tribes' explanation — that the altar was a witness-monument, not a sacrificial site, built so that future generations would not be excluded from the covenant community — is set against the church's call to maintain unity in worship through lowliness, longsuffering, and mutual confrontation after the pattern of Matthew 5 and 18. The sermon concludes that the object uniting the people of God in every age is not themselves but the Lord, to whom worship is due as Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer in Christ.
He Cares for You
The murder of Naboth the Jezreelite in 1 Kings 21 exposes the convergence of covetousness, governmental tyranny, and idolatry — and demonstrates that no crime against God's people escapes divine notice. The chapter divides into two broad movements: the orchestrated injustice Jezebel engineers against Naboth (vv. 1–16) and Elijah's prophetic condemnation of Ahab (vv. 17–29). Four conclusions emerge: God's people will face injustice in this world; governments may administer that injustice; God nevertheless intervenes in the affairs of men; and the abandonment of the first table of the law invariably produces the abandonment of the second. The chapter closes on a surprising note of divine mercy — even Ahab's shallow remorse moves God to suspend judgment, which becomes a ground for confidence that a true penitent who comes to Christ will receive far more.
1 Kings 19:8-21
Elijah's journey to Horeb in 1 Kings 19:8–21 is not a story of prophetic cowardice or self-pity, but of a faithful covenant prosecutor bringing a formal lawsuit against Israel for her apostasy before the God of the covenant. The divine theophany at Horeb — wind, earthquake, and fire yielding to a still small voice — teaches that God's redemptive purposes advance not through spectacular display but through the prophetic word, historical providence, and sovereign grace. God's answer to Elijah's complaint is both judgment (through Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha) and mercy (a reserved remnant of seven thousand), affirming that God will always preserve a people for Himself. The call of Elisha that follows illustrates the decisive break from natural relations, familiarity, financial security, and self-advancement that marks genuine response to God's call.
1 Kings 14:1-20
1 Kings 14:1–20 records the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite delivered to Jeroboam's wife in disguise — a passage that functions as a programmatic text for the entire Northern Kingdom. The sermon traces three movements: the occasion of the prophecy (the sick child prompting a hypocritical resort to God's prophet), the content of the prophecy (divine provision scorned, royal rebellion catalogued, and sweeping judgment announced on Jeroboam's house and the northern tribes), and the fulfillment of the prophecy in 1 Kings 15 and 2 Kings 17. A recurring application runs throughout: like Jeroboam, men seek God's word only in crisis while rejecting its rule over the whole of life, and no disguise — literal or spiritual — can hide a soul from the searching power of God's word.
Thanksgiving for the Mercy of God
Psalm 103 calls the redeemed sinner to bless God with the totality of his being, and to resist the ingrained tendency to forget the Lord's benefits. This expository sermon works through the psalm's three movements: David's self-directed reminder to bless God (vv. 1–2), the reasons that fuel that blessing — the gifts received, their recipients, and above all the character of the Giver whose mercy is infinite, thorough, tender, and enduring (vv. 3–18) — and the recognition of God's sovereign kingdom that widens the summons to bless into a universal chorus (vv. 19–22). The sermon closes with five applications showing that thanksgiving is not an annual posture but the daily disposition of every soul that has tasted the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2 Samuel 24:1-25
Second Samuel 24 closes David's reign with a sobering account of a sinful census, divine judgment, and the necessity of atonement — raising difficult questions about divine sovereignty, second causes, and human culpability. The chapter sets David's genuine repentance in sharp contrast to Saul's hardness, and traces the themes of propitiation and substitution that run through all of redemptive history. The threshing floor of Araunah is identified as Mount Moriah — the future site of Solomon's temple — so that the sacrifice David offers becomes a typological pointer to the atoning work of Christ. The sermon calls hearers to maintain short accounts with God through prompt confession, to receive the Spirit's conviction as a mercy rather than an offense, and to offer worship that costs something.
2 Samuel 19:9-43
Second Samuel 19:9–43 narrates David's return to Jerusalem after Absalom's failed rebellion, exposing both the political complexity of restoring a dethroned king and the deeper spiritual condition of those who surround him. Three figures — Shimei, Mephibosheth, and Barzillai — are studied as contrasting portraits: pragmatic self-interest, costly loyalty, and contented faithfulness. The passage closes with a petty tribal quarrel between Israel and Judah that foreshadows Sheba's rebellion in chapter 20, illustrating that division in the covenant community is driven by the craving for position and prestige rather than submission to God's king. The application is direct: examine whether your allegiance to Christ is a matter of genuine conviction or merely policy, and cultivate the decreasing posture of John the Baptist.
The Condemnation of the Religious Leaders, Part 4
Matthew 23:25–28 presents Jesus' sixth and seventh woes against the scribes and Pharisees, condemning their emphasis on outward religious compliance while their hearts remain filled with extortion, self-indulgence, hypocrisy, and lawlessness. The cup and the whitewashed tomb function as related analogies: both expose the fatal gap between external religiosity and inward moral corruption, with the tomb analogy adding that such teachers actively defile those who come under their influence. The sermon draws the contrast through the Old Testament's consistent demand for heart religion — from the Shema to the prophets — and presses the application that the only cleansing of the inward cup comes through faith in the blood of Christ. Believers are warned equally against the twin errors of antinomianism and mere externalism, since justification produces progressive sanctification that reforms the outside as well as the inside.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 29, 2016 PM
Hebrews 12:1-2 issues a command to run with endurance the race set before believers, and the preacher works through the incentives the apostle supplies for doing so. The sermon focuses on the cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11, arguing that their function is not to cheer runners on as spectators but to testify — as witnesses — to the faithfulness of God Most High. By surveying Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, the judges, David, and others, the sermon presses the congregation to internalize the consistent testimony of God's people through redemptive history and to lay aside every weight and besetting sin in order to persevere to the end.
The Kindness Shown to Mephibosheth
David's covenant with Jonathan, sealed decades before 2 Samuel 9, drives him to seek out Mephibosheth — a lame, fearful descendant of his enemy Saul — and lavish upon him protection, restored inheritance, and a permanent seat at the royal table. The Hebrew word hesed (covenant faithfulness, steadfast love) names a kindness that goes far beyond bare duty, and David's exercise of it toward an unworthy enemy typifies the grace that Christ, David's greater Son, bestows upon helpless, ungodly sinners. The sermon presses two practical conclusions: covenant promises are perpetually binding regardless of changed circumstances or the passage of time, and the grace received from God must become grace poured out toward others.
2 Samuel 10
2 Samuel 10 records David's embassy of covenantal kindness to Hanun of Ammon, its shameful rejection, and the subsequent wars with the Ammonite-Syrian coalition. The chapter functions as the literary backdrop for the David-Bathsheba-Uriah narrative of chapters 11–12, while also foreshadowing David as a type of Christ in his kindness to enemies and in the nations' rebellion against the Lord's anointed. The theological high point comes unexpectedly from Joab, whose battle-cry — 'May the Lord do what is good in His sight' — models sovereign-trust that holds together confident faith in God's promises with humble uncertainty about the specific means of His providence, a pattern the sermon applies to the Christian life through Romans 8:28.
2 Samuel 3:22-39
The assassination of Abner by Joab in 2 Samuel 3:22–39 exposes the destructive power of envy and selfish ambition, contrasted with David's careful maintenance of covenant integrity and political innocence. Joab's murder of Abner — motivated not only by a desire to avenge his brother Asahel but by fear that Abner's rise would diminish his own standing — illustrates Calvin's warning that ambition is the most mortal evil that can befall the church. David's public mourning, fivefold curse upon Joab, and lament over Abner are examined as covenantal and diplomatic acts flowing from genuine righteousness rather than self-interest. The passage calls believers to guard their own hearts against the same envy and selfishness visible in these ancient figures, and to take encouragement that God builds his kingdom through and despite such human wickedness.
2 Samuel 3:1-21
Second Samuel 3:1–21 traces the long civil war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and the defection of Abner that moves history toward David's consolidation over all Israel. The passage is examined in three movements: the reminder of civil war in verse 1, the increase of David's house in verses 2–5 (with attention to David's polygamy as a violation of Deuteronomy 17), and the defection of Abner to David in verses 6–21. A sustained application presses the congregation to guard against Abner-like selfishness and unrighteous ambition, while finding comfort in the sovereign providence of God who builds his kingdom not merely in spite of human sin and political intrigue, but through it.