Theological term
Definite Atonement
530 sermons · All terms
Genesis 12:1-9
Genesis 12:1–9 presents the call of Abram as a programmatic text establishing God's covenantal plan of redemption, standing alongside Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 9:25–27 as a divinely initiated response to the human disaster of the fall and its aftermath. The sermon works through three movements: the grace of God in the call itself, the threefold promise of land, seed, and blessing in verses 2–3, and Abram's faith-driven obedience and worship in verses 4–9. Against dispensationalist readings, the land promise is shown to find its fulfillment not in a reconstituted geopolitical Israel but in Christ as heir of the world, with the seed promise identified in Galatians 3 as Christ himself and all who are united to him by faith. The listener is called to see in Abram's departure from country, family, and father's house a typological pattern for what occurs in every genuine conversion — the forsaking of former allegiances in the embrace of the living God.
The Mission of the Son of Man
Matthew 20:20–28 confronts the persistent problem of pride and the inverted logic of kingdom greatness. Against the backdrop of Christ's third passion prediction, the ambitious request of James and John exposes a desire common to all God's people: the crown without the cross. The sermon works through Christ's twofold instruction — rejecting the Gentile model of top-down authority and embracing servant-greatness — before landing on the theological heart of verse 28: the Son of Man gave his life as a ransom for many, a payment securing the definite salvation of his people and providing the interpretive key to the entire passion narrative of Matthew 21–27.
The Glory of the Father and the Son
John 17:1–5 opens Christ's high priestly prayer with a petition that the Father glorify the Son so that the Son may glorify the Father — a reciprocal glorification whose goal is the glory of God Most High. The sermon works through three grounds for this petition: the salvation of the elect given to the Son in the covenant of redemption, the accomplishment of Christ's active and passive obedience as the basis of justification, and the restoration of the Son's pre-incarnate glory. The full deity of Christ is defended against subordinationist readings by surveying New Testament texts where the title theos is applied directly to Jesus, and the sermon closes with the call to pursue the knowledge of God and Christ as the very essence of eternal life — through Scripture reading, prayer, and faithful attendance upon the means of grace.
The Male Child and the Dragon
Revelation 12 presents Christ as the decisive victor over Satan, tracing the dragon's fourfold defeat from the incarnation through the casting out of heaven to his continuing failed campaigns against the church. The chapter is read through the lens of Genesis 3:15 and its fulfillment in Christ's crosswork: the male child escapes the serpent's grasp, is caught up to God's throne, and the accuser is cast down by virtue of Calvary. Satan's ongoing rage against the church is not a sign of his power but of his desperation — a conquered enemy making war against those he cannot ultimately destroy. The people of God are called to understand that suffering under satanic opposition identifies them with Christ's own suffering and conforms them to his image, not to despair but to faith in the one who has already overcome.
The Decision of the Council
Acts 5:33–42 records the Sanhedrin's decision to beat the apostles and command them to cease preaching in the name of Jesus — and the apostles' rejoicing response. This exposition works through three movements: the council's murderous fury at Peter's gospel proclamation, the qualified wisdom of Gamaliel's historical and theological arguments for restraint, and the apostles' departure rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name. The sermon calls the congregation to a readiness for persecution that mirrors the apostles', grounded not in stoic resolve but in the altogether loveliness of Christ who is chief among ten thousand.
The Thief on the Cross
The salvation of the dying thief in Luke 23 is examined as one of the most concentrated demonstrations of vital theology in all the gospel narratives, showing that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and that the sufficiency of Christ's atoning work requires no supplementary priesthood or sacrifice. The sermon moves through the sobering inscription over Christ's cross, the unrepentant blasphemy of the cursed robber as a window into total depravity, and the remarkable conversion of the penitent thief — a reviler turned praiser — as evidence of sovereign, effectual grace. The thief's confession is shown to be theologically substantive: he acknowledges the fear of God, owns the justice of his condemnation, confesses Christ's innocence, and calls upon Christ as Lord and King. Hearers are called to remember their former state of spiritual bondage, to glory in the amazing grace that has brought them from reviling to worshiping, and to rest in Christ's word to the thief — 'today you will be with me in paradise' — as a word addressed to all who trust in Him.
The Importance of the Knowledge of Christ
The most important question ever asked — 'Who do you say that I am?' — exposes a crisis in the contemporary church: a Ligonier survey found that 78% of polled evangelical Christians answered that Jesus Christ is the highest creature of God, effectively the ancient Arian heresy. This sermon works through Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point, pressing seven reasons why the knowledge of Christ is of supreme importance: He is the scope of Scripture, eternal life hinges on a right knowledge of His person, the gospel is about Him, He is the exclusive way of salvation, all redemptive benefits are found in Him, the church's commission is given by and about Him, and our present and future hope rests in Him alone. The practical import of Christology — rightly defined as the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His office — is shown to bear on worship, humility, beneficence, good works, and steadfast confession.
The Divine Provision of Eternal Life
Isaiah 55 presents God's gracious and urgent invitation to sinners to receive the fullness of salvation — the refreshment, gladness, and nourishment of the gospel — entirely without cost, because the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 has already satisfied the purchase price. The sermon expounds the chapter in two movements: the invitation to come (vv. 1–5), grounded in the new covenant and secured by the Davidic king, and the call to faith and repentance (vv. 6–13), sustained by the sovereign power of God's Word. Believers are urged to treasure the abundance of every spiritual blessing already given in Christ, and unbelievers are warned not to squander their lives on what cannot satisfy while the Lord may yet be found.
Reasons to Thank God
Psalm 103 summons the soul to deliberate, comprehensive praise — not as a once-yearly exercise but as the daily discipline of the redeemed. Working through David's three-part structure (the reminder to bless God, the reasons to bless God, and the exhortation to bless God), this exposition traces the spiritual and temporal gifts catalogued in the psalm, dwelling especially on the infinite, thorough, tender, sympathetic, and enduring character of divine mercy. The sermon warns that forgetfulness of God's benefits — as Deuteronomy repeatedly demonstrates — is the seedbed of apostasy, and it closes with a call to find in the cross of Christ the only sure foundation for a life of grateful blessing.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 2, 2018 PM
The wisdom of God in the gospel is displayed not in the nobility, intelligence, or virtue of those he saves, but in his sovereign, gracious election of the weak, the base, and the despised — so that no flesh might glory in his presence. Expounding 1 Corinthians 1:26–31, this sermon identifies the three spiritual blessings Christ has become for his people — righteousness (justification by imputed obedience), sanctification, and redemption (glorification) — as the full ordo salutis secured in union with Christ. The ground of salvation is traced through Romans 5, Philippians 3, Zechariah 3, and Acts 13 to demonstrate that the entire plan of redemption flows from God's sovereign grace, not human merit. The inevitable and proper response of those who have received these blessings is to glory in the Lord alone, not in themselves.
The Consequences of the Fall
Genesis 3:14–24 records the divine sentences upon the serpent, the woman, and the man after the fall, but within those judgments God announces the first gospel promise. The Proto-Evangelion of verse 15 — that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent — is the programmatic nucleus of all subsequent redemptive history, finding its fulfilment in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Headship and labor, often misread as punishments of the fall, are shown to be pre-fall ordinances whose distortion, not existence, is the consequence of sin. The sermon closes with the coats of skin as an enacted prophecy of blood atonement and the expulsion from Eden as a mercy that preserves fallen man until the Second Adam secures permanent access to the tree of life.
The Sermon in Solomon's Porch, Part 1
Peter's sermon in Solomon's Porch (Acts 3:11–21) opens with a pointed denial: the healing of the congenitally lame man was not accomplished by apostolic power or godliness, but by the name of Jesus Christ, the glorified servant of Yahweh announced throughout the Old Testament prophets. The sermon works through three considerations in verses 11–16 — the God who glorified the servant, the sinners who rejected him, and the servant who healed the lame man — showing that Peter's staccato recitation of Jerusalem's guilt is not cruelty but evangelism: men must know the weight of their sin before the call to repent and be converted carries any urgency. The healing itself illustrates the completeness of Christ's saving work — perfect soundness, public and undeniable — and the authority he exercises from the right hand of the Father is the same authority by which sinners are saved today.
The Sight of Salvation
How do believers apprehend Christ now, before the sight of glory? Expounding 1 Peter 1:8–9, this sermon traces the apostle Peter's contrast between the present age — marked by faith, love, and unspeakable joy in an unseen Christ — and the age to come, when faith reaches its divinely appointed telos in the full, final, and bodily sight of the glorified Mediator. Faith is shown to be the foundation of every other grace: love for Christ and joy in Christ are impossible apart from it, and both are sovereign gifts of divine mercy, not works stirred up from within the believer. The sermon closes by pressing the necessity of saving faith as the only preparation for glory, calling the unconverted to flee to Christ and assuring the tried believer that no promise of God in Christ will fail.
The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ
What is the gospel, and why does its content matter for the Lord's Supper? Expounding 1 Corinthians 15:1–20 with focused attention on verses 3–4, this sermon argues that the gospel is defined by three inseparable historical and theological events: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Each event carries precise atoning weight — the death is substitutionary, propitiatory, and expiatory; the burial confirms the reality of that death and sets the stage for resurrection; the resurrection vindicates Christ's saving work, bears witness to the justification of his people, and establishes him as judge of the living and the dead. Delivered in the context of the Lord's Supper, the sermon calls believers to a wonder-filled, theologically informed observance of the ordinance, and warns unbelievers that the risen Christ who died for sinners will also be their judge.
The Precious Blood of Christ
1 Peter 1:18–20 presents the redemption accomplished by Christ as grounded in the infinite value of his sinless sacrifice, the eternal decree of the triune God, and the certainty of its historical occurrence. This sermon expounds three dimensions of the 'precious blood of Christ': its surpassing worth measured against corruptible earthly things; its origin in the determined counsel of God before the foundation of the world; and its singular reality as a manifest historical event attested by eyewitnesses. The Lord's Supper, observed the same evening, provides the pastoral occasion for calling both believers to joyful reflection on the blood that cleanses from all iniquity and unbelievers to repentance and faith in the one Lamb without blemish and without spot.
Genesis 3:14-24
Genesis 3:14–24 records the consequences of the fall, and the heart of this study is the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 — the first gospel promise in Scripture. God's curse upon the serpent contains within it an announcement of the Messiah: the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, accomplishing total victory through suffering and death. The sermon traces this skull-crushing seed through the biblical narrative — from the typological head-wounds of Judges and David's defeat of Goliath, to New Testament fulfillment in Colossians, Hebrews, 1 John, and Revelation 12 — demonstrating that the cross of Christ is the decisive blow against the devil foreshadowed in Eden. The study closes by examining the consequences for the woman and the man in verses 16–19, situating the tensions of marriage and labor in a post-lapsarian world that Christ's redemptive work is already beginning to address.
The Exaltation of Christ
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:33–36 reaches its climax in the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of the Father. This exposition works through three movements: the supreme dignity conferred on Christ at his ascension, the fulfillment of Psalm 110:1 as ancient prophecy now openly vindicated, and the unavoidable implication for guilty hearers that this Jesus whom they crucified is both Lord and Christ. The current session of Christ — his ongoing reign, intercession, gathering of the church, and conquest of every enemy — is pressed as the ground of the believer's confidence and the urgent call for the unconverted to repent and call upon the name of the Lord.
The Problem of Sin and the Mercy of God
Proverbs 28:13 sets the problem of sin and the mercy of God in sharpest relief: the one who covers his sin will not prosper, while the one who confesses and forsakes it will have mercy. Working through biblical examples — Adam, Achan, Saul, David, Aaron, Ananias and Sapphira — the sermon exposes the instinctive human strategies for concealing sin: outright denial, minimizing its gravity, blame-shifting, religious compensation, and abandonment of moral categories altogether. The solution is not Roman Catholic penance but genuine confession that sides with God's indictment and genuine forsaking that constitutes the inseparable twin of saving faith — what Christian theologians call conversion — received only through Christ, the surety upon whose head the confessing sinner lays his hand by faith.
The Ascension of Christ
The ascension of Christ in Acts 1:9–11 is no mere epilogue to the resurrection but a theologically freighted event with direct consequences for how believers understand Christ's present reign, the Lord's Supper, intercession, and final glorification. Working through the passage, the sermon establishes that the ascension was visible, local, bodily, and glorious — witnessed by the apostles and interpreted by angelic messengers who announce Christ's return in like manner. The ascension completes Christ's earthly mediatorial work, secures the gift of the Spirit, and grounds the believer's assurance in a high priest who always lives to make intercession — the pledge that those whom He justified He will also glorify.
The Liberality of God and the Believer's Security
Romans 8:31–39 confronts the believer with a single overwhelming argument: because the Father did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for all the elect, He will most certainly freely give them everything else they need. The sermon works through three movements — the declaration of God's liberality in the gift of His Son, the implication that every lesser need is thereby guaranteed, and the application to the believer's unassailable security against accusation, condemnation, and separation. Drawing on the language of propitiation, penal substitution, and the Ordo Salutis, the exposition insists that the believer's confidence rests not on personal virtue or perseverance but on the justifying grace of God and the interceding, unchanging love of Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 28, 2018 Bible Study
This Bible study works through the fall of Jerusalem as recorded in 2 Kings 25, tracing the Babylonian conquest, the destruction of the temple, the deportation of the people of Judah, and the provisional governorship under Gedaliah. The session draws out the covenantal significance of the temple's destruction — that the visible symbol of God's presence among his people had been removed — while pressing toward the hope embedded even in judgment, that God's promise to his people and to the line of David was not finally extinguished. Listeners are urged to pray for those in positions of governing authority and to trust that God's redemptive purposes persist beyond catastrophe.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 25, 2018 PM
Acts 4:23-31 records the early church's corporate prayer in the face of threats from the Jewish authorities, and this sermon expounds four dimensions of that prayer: its occasion, its character, its content, and God's answer to it. The congregation's prayer is marked by a deliberate unity of purpose — a one-accord rooted not in uniformity of voice but in a shared commitment to the faith of the gospel. The content of the prayer moves through invocation and recognition of God as sovereign Creator, rehearsal of his works in creation and revelation, and confidence in his decree and providence — culminating not in a petition for deliverance from danger but for boldness to continue proclaiming Christ in the midst of it. Christians are called to pattern their own prayers on this model: knowing their God, drawing confidence from that knowledge, and asking not for the removal of trials but for the strength and resolution to endure through them.
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 Glory of the Lamb of God
John 1:29 — 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — cannot be rightly understood apart from the Prologue that precedes it. The eternal Word who was with God and was God became flesh, was eternally begotten of the Father, and stands as the covenantal head of the new covenant before he is identified as the Lamb whose violent, substitutionary death takes away the sin of the world. The scope of that sin-bearing is not every individual without exception but persons without distinction — Jews and Gentiles alike — as the consistent use of 'world' in John's Gospel and the song of the redeemed in Revelation 5 make clear. The proper response is to place the cross in its full Trinitarian, Christological, and covenantal context and to worship the one who left the eternal life of God to enter our flesh and save us from our sins.
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.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The empty tomb of Matthew 28:1–10 is not merely an absence but a proclamation: Christ was raised bodily from the dead by the Father, vindicating His atoning work and confirming every prophetic word He spoke. The sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb by the women and the appearance of the risen Lord, attending carefully to the apologetic weight of the narrative details — the guards' terror, the invitation to examine the tomb, the folded graveclothes, and the physical feet of Jesus grasped in worship. The message closes with 1 Corinthians 15, pressing the stakes of the resurrection: without it, faith is futile and sin remains unatoned; because Christ is risen, justification, sanctification, and glorification are secured for all His brethren.
The Resurrection and Justification by Faith
Romans 4:25 presents what the commentators Matthew Poole and Charles Hodge each called an abridgment or comprehensive statement of the whole gospel: Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. The sermon works through both halves of this verse to show that the death of Christ was a substitutionary, propitiatory sacrifice satisfying divine justice on behalf of the elect, and that his bodily resurrection is the Father's public declaration that the sacrifice was accepted and justification secured. Four theological connections between resurrection and justification are drawn out: the resurrection declares Christ to be the Son of God with power, testifies that his sacrifice was accepted, confirms that satisfaction was rendered, and demonstrates that redemption was fully accomplished. The sermon closes at Romans 5:1 with the fruit of the whole discussion — peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ — applied to those who once stood condemned as ungodly offenders.
The Preaching of Peter on Pentecost
Acts 2:37–42 records the first gospel sermon of the apostolic church and the conversion of three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost. This exposition works through Peter's proclamation — centering the gospel in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ — and his call to repentance and baptism, showing that sin must be named plainly before the Savior can be received gladly. The sermon draws on John Bunyan's 'The Jerusalem Sinner Saved' to press the point that Christ's mercy is offered most conspicuously to the vilest of sinners, and closes with a direct call to believe, repent, and be baptized.
I Am the Gate of the Sheep
How does a sinner enter into heaven? John 10:7–10 presents Christ's self-declaration 'I am the door of the sheep' as the exclusive answer to that question, set against the backdrop of Israel's false shepherds (Ezekiel 34; Jeremiah 23) and the Pharisees who taught salvation by works. The sermon expounds two contrasting realities: the false entrance into heaven pursued by thieves and imposters who climb in by their own merits, and the right entrance secured by Christ alone — the one gate through whom his elect sheep receive salvation, covenant security, and everlasting pasture. The application presses both the unbeliever to look to Christ as the only narrow way and the believer to rest in the security and nourishment that the Good Shepherd provides for all who enter through him.
OF Christ the Mediator (2LCF 8)
The doctrine of the Incarnation — that the eternal Son of God took to himself a full human nature, body and soul, yet without sin — is one of the two great mysteries of the Christian faith alongside the Trinity. This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 8, Paragraph 2, establishing first what the Incarnation does not mean (mutation of the divine nature, mere appearance, assumption of body only, full humanity without exception, addition to divine being) before drawing out five positive theological entailments: it is the Son alone who became incarnate through the undivided work of the triune God; it is the divine Son who assumed flesh; the assumed humanity is full and complete; Christ is sinless in that humanity; and the two natures are united in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. The whole doctrine is shown to be the necessary foundation of the Christian gospel, since only a mediator who is truly and fully God, truly and fully man, and wholly without sin can accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity.