Theological term
Doctrines of Grace
20 sermons · All terms
More than a Greeting
Titus 1:1–4 is far more than a standard epistolary greeting: compressed into four verses is a complete theology of the apostolic commission, the sovereignty of God in salvation, and the unchangeable hope of the elect. The sermon traces seven movements in Paul's salutation — from the commissioned servant and his appointed course, through the changeless confidence grounded in divine immutability, the chosen season of gospel proclamation, the committed charge, the common confession, and the consummate blessing of grace, mercy, and peace. Hearers are pressed to own the gospel publicly, to adorn it by godly conduct, and — if outside of Christ — to cast off misery and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Brotherly Love
What grounds the command to love fellow believers, and what does that love look like in practice? Expounding 1 Peter 1:22–25, this sermon argues that brotherly love among believers is not merely a moral duty but flows necessarily from regeneration — the purification of the soul through faith worked by the Holy Spirit. The sermon carefully distinguishes passive, receiving faith from any works-based or neonomian construal of 'obeying the gospel,' grounding the command to love in the incorruptible seed of the new birth. Application presses toward sincere, unhypocritical, self-sacrificial love that crosses denominational and theological-liberty lines, because the bond of the brethren is founded on the eternal word of God, not on natural or doctrinal affinity.
The Bread of Life Discourse, Part 2
John 6:35–40 presents Christ as the Bread of Life whose identity, sovereignty, and redemptive mission are inseparable. The sermon expounds three movements in the text: Christ's self-identification as the Bread of Life with its attendant promise that those who come to Him will never hunger or thirst; the declaration of divine sovereignty in verse 37, grounding the certainty of salvation in the Father's eternal gift of a people to the Son; and the revelation of the Father's will in verses 38–40, encompassing the Son's mediatorial mission, the preservation of all given to Him, and the call to every sinner to see the Son in the preaching of the Word and believe. The doctrines of grace — total depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance and preservation of the saints — are shown to arise directly from the text, and the sermon closes by pressing the free offer of the gospel against both Arminian uncertainty and hyper-Calvinist paralysis.
The Testimony Concerning the Bridegroom
John 3:22–30 presents the final recorded testimony of John the Baptist in the Fourth Gospel, in which John responds to his disciples' anxious complaint that all are coming to Jesus rather than to him. John's response is structured around four declarations: the sovereignty of God governs the origin and success of every ministry; his own role was never to be the Christ but the forerunner sent before him; his joy is that of the friend of the bridegroom who delights simply to stand in the presence of the bridegroom and hear his voice; and therefore Christ must increase while he must decrease. The sermon draws out both the Christological weight of the bridegroom image — rooted in the Old Testament covenant between God and Israel and fulfilled in Christ and his church — and its practical implications for how ministers and all God's people resist pride by being increasingly occupied with Christ rather than with themselves.
1 Peter 1:3-5
The believer's hope of glory, grounded in 1 Peter 1:3–5, is not a vague aspiration but a certain inheritance secured by God's sovereign mercy and the resurrection of Christ. Peter's doxology unfolds the doctrine of salvation under three headings: God the Father as its author, the nature of that salvation as a living hope pointing to a new creation, and the certainty of preservation by divine power. Because both the inheritance and the heirs are kept — the one reserved in heaven, the other shielded by omnipotence through faith — believers facing trial are called to reorient every earthly sorrow toward the glory that is to come.
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.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 8
Acts 14:1 records that Paul and Barnabas 'so spoke' in Iconium that a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed — a phrase that raises the question of the relationship between divine sovereignty and the ordained means of gospel preaching. This sermon works through a biblical theology of preaching drawn from Romans 10:14–17, 1 Corinthians 1:21–25, and 2 Timothy 4:1–8, arguing that God has foreordained not only the elect unto glory but also the means of their calling, supremely the faithful public proclamation of Christ crucified. Against moralistic preaching, life-as-gospel sentimentality, and entertainment-driven church culture, the sermon insists that only the verbal declaration of Christ's atoning work can save souls. Hearers are exhorted to pray for the raising up of qualified preachers, to support gospel church-planting, and to attend to the preached Word with the seriousness that faith coming by hearing demands.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 13, 2018 PM
Philippians 1:27–30 calls the church to conduct worthy of the gospel and to receive suffering for Christ as a divine gift. Expounding these verses under two headings — worthy conduct and worthwhile suffering — the sermon argues that the local church, as a colony of heaven, is called to stand fast in unity against adversaries, and that both the initial grant of faith and the grant of suffering are gracious tokens of God's saving presence with his people. Persecution, far from being a mark of divine abandonment, is shown historically and biblically to be an assurance of salvation, a sign of perdition to those who oppose the gospel, and a means by which God strengthens his church.
The Healing of Naaman
The healing of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is exposited as a portrait of sovereign, free, and humbling grace that reaches beyond Israel to a Gentile enemy — a Syrian military commander who is not only cleansed of leprosy but converted from idolatry to the living God. The sermon traces God's providential orchestration through a nameless captive servant girl, Elisha's deliberate absence from the healing, and Naaman's progression through fury, submission, confession, gratitude, and resolution — all paralleled with the offense and power of the New Covenant gospel. The contrast between the converted pagan Naaman and the perverted Israelite Gehazi underscores that Yahweh's grace is free and cannot be bought, bartered, or manipulated. Hearers are called to recognize in Naaman's conversion the marks of genuine saving faith: humble confession, gratitude, and a sensitive conscience toward the one true God.
The Truth Concealed and Revealed
Matthew 11:25–30 presents three interlocking realities that together form the foundation of gospel rest: the sovereign will of the Father in concealing and revealing gospel truth, the exclusive mediatorial office of the Son as the only means of access to the Father, and the gracious invitation of Christ to sinners burdened by sin. The sermon argues that a right understanding of divine sovereignty — including both election and reprobation — should produce not polemical pride but the thankfulness and praise modeled by Christ himself in verse 25. Sinners are called to come to Christ by faith alone, receiving rest from the burden of sin, and to take up his yoke in discipleship, which the Savior himself declares easy and light.
The Suffering Servant
Christ's suffering in 1 Peter 2:21–25 is first and foremost substitutionary atonement, not merely moral example — yet because he bore the sins of his people in his own body on the tree, his conduct under unjust suffering becomes a pattern for servants and all who endure hardship for conscience toward God. Drawing extensively on Isaiah 53, the sermon expounds the sinlessness of Christ as the ground of his perfect sacrifice, the imputation of sin to the sin-bearer, and the definitive freedom from sin's penalty and power that his death secures. The recovery of straying sheep by the chief Shepherd and Overseer is traced to sovereign, efficacious grace — not to any act of the will — calling believers to meditate on these realities as they come to the Lord's Supper.
The Usefulness of Scripture
Paul's claim in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable is examined across four categories of usefulness — doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness — before turning to Scripture's specific function in completing and thoroughly equipping the man of God for every good work. The sermon challenges the anti-doctrinal sentiment prevalent in contemporary evangelicalism, arguing that indifference to biblical doctrine is indifference to God himself. Ministers in particular are shown to be completed not by leadership models or charismatic gifts but by deep saturation in the word of God. The hearer is called to approach Scripture not as a duty to discharge but as a daily feast — mining its treasures with diligence and gratitude.
God and Man in the 107th Psalm, Part 1
Psalm 107:1–9 opens with a summons — 'Oh, give thanks to the Lord' — that exposes a perennial failure of fallen humanity: thanklessness toward a God of inexhaustible mercy. This sermon works through two headings from the psalm: the call to thanksgiving and the content of that thanksgiving, showing that gratitude is not an optional sentiment but the defining disposition of the redeemed, rooted in God's character and displayed across all of life — blessing, affliction, law, and gospel. The sermon closes with practical means for cultivating thankfulness: corporate worship, prayer, Scripture, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
The Possession of the Church's Authority
Christ's declaration in Matthew 18:18 — 'whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven' — establishes that the local church possesses a real, though delegated, authority to exercise the keys of the kingdom through gospel preaching and church discipline. Drawing on the parallel passage in Matthew 16:19 and the Heidelberg Catechism's definition of the keys, the sermon argues that binding and loosing refer to the church's authority to exclude the unrepentant and restore the repentant, always in accordance with God's word and never by arbitrary preference. Verses 19 and 20 ground this authority in the corporate prayer and the promised presence of Christ himself among his people when they faithfully implement these keys. The sermon closes with a summons to love the church, exercise its authority prayerfully, and pursue its three primary duties — preaching, discipline, and the administration of the sacraments — without addition or subtraction.
The Indictment of False Teachers
False teachers are identified in 1 Timothy 6:3–5 not only by their departure from apostolic doctrine but by the character it produces: pride, ignorance, an obsessive craving for controversy, and a materialistic motivation that treats religion as a revenue stream. The sermon argues that what a man believes concerning God inevitably shapes how he lives under God, so that heterodoxy and ungodliness are inseparable fruits of the same root. The congregation is called to cultivate discernment through saturation in Scripture and confessional theology, so that the orthodox may recognize and withdraw from ravenous wolves before damage is done to Christ's flock.
The Prohibition Against Judgmentalism
Matthew 7:1–5 contains one of the most abused texts in Scripture — 'judge not' — which is habitually weaponised to silence any Christian voice of discernment, yet just as habitually practiced as censorious fault-finding within the church. This exposition distinguishes the absolute prohibition Jesus does not give from the specific sin he does condemn: the nitpicking, petty, fault-finding spirit toward brothers and sisters in Christ that magnifies their specks while ignoring one's own log. The sermon traces the prohibition, its explanation in terms of divine judgment, and its illustration, showing that censoriousness is simultaneously an arrogant assertion of authority over others, an expression of self-righteousness, and a failure of charity — and that the Sermon on the Mount, rightly interpreted, drives every guilty hearer to the foot of the cross.
To God Be the Glory
Romans 11:33–36 closes Paul's extended treatment of divine sovereignty and the salvation of sinners in chapters 9–11 with a doxology that demands a response of awe and worship. The sermon moves through three movements in the text: an exclamation concerning God's omniscience and unsearchable judgments (v. 33), a confirmation from Isaiah and Job that God is self-sufficient and owes nothing to any creature (vv. 34–35), and an ascription of glory acknowledging God as the source, sustainer, and goal of all things (v. 36). The doctrines of sovereign election and particular redemption are not presented as intellectual trophies but as the only ground on which genuine doxology is possible — a theology that does not culminate in worship has not been properly understood.
The Christian Father
Colossians 3:21 addresses fathers with a single prohibition — do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged — and the sermon expounds that verse alongside its Ephesians 6:4 parallel to give a full account of fatherly duty. The prohibition is explained through its result (discouragement, the breaking of a child's spirit) and its common causes: unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, ungodly inconsistency, and imbalance of law without gospel. The positive exhortation of Ephesians 6:4 is then opened through five practical commitments — presence, provision, protection, prayer, and preaching — each grounded in the father's identity as a new man in Christ whose grace-transformed heart drives active, loving involvement in his children's lives.
Five Observations on Christ's Doctrine of Salvation (Part 1)
The doctrines of grace are not cold dogmatism but the very substance of the gospel, and Christ himself is their foremost teacher. Working from John 6:35–51 and ranging through the Gospel of John, this sermon opens a five-observation series on Christ's own doctrine of salvation, examining first the comprehensiveness of sin — total inability, bondage to the devil, and the love of darkness — and second, the unmitigated and unsolicited divine prerogative in salvation, by which God alone is the alpha and omega of the rescue of sinners. The third observation treats the precision and impeccability of Christ's crosswork: the Father's will that nothing given to the Son be lost, and the Son's answering cry of victory, 'It is finished,' as the ground of particular redemption. The unconverted are urged to see themselves as the Gadarene maniac — untamed, chained, and in need of the Christ who alone can bring a sinner to be clothed and in his right mind.
Observations from Saul's Conversion
Acts 9 records the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, the church's fiercest persecutor, who became its most prolific apostolic voice. This sermon draws four observations from that account: the sovereign and victorious grace that alone explains any sinner's conversion; the inexorable strength of general and special revelation that presses against all who suppress the truth; the identity of the ultimate recipient of persecution as the risen Christ himself; and the proper, grace-saturated response believers owe to sinners who are saved. The controlling application is that no sinner lies beyond the reach of God's conquering grace, and that knowledge should fuel both intercessory prayer for the unconverted and a generous, Ananias-like welcome for those newly brought to faith.