Theological term
Faith
16 sermons · All terms
Ask FGBC #17: What does it mean to repent and believe?
Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin in the gospel call, yet they are not equals: the principal act of conversion is faith, and justification is by faith alone apart from works. Repentance, properly understood, is a change of mind concerning sin — not a moral clean-up prerequisite — and is itself a gracious gift granted by God (Acts 11:18). The elements of the ordo salutis (regeneration, repentance, faith, justification, adoption, the beginning of sanctification) occur simultaneously, not sequentially, and neonomianism is identified as a live danger whenever repentance is turned into a condition the sinner must satisfy before coming to Christ.
The Context of John 3:16, Part 1
John 3:16 opens with the word 'for,' marking it as a continuation of a preceding argument — yet the verse is almost universally quoted without its Old Testament context. This sermon expounds Numbers 21:4–9, the account of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which Jesus himself cites in John 3:14 as the direct backdrop for his declaration of the gospel to Nicodemus. The sin of Israel — grumbling against a gracious God despite his continual provision — brought deadly judgment in the form of fiery serpents, and the God-ordained remedy was not the removal of the snakes but a look of faith toward a bronze serpent lifted on a pole. Hearers are called to repent of complaining against God and the authorities he has appointed, and to return for the evening service where the typological fulfillment in the lifting up of the Son of Man will be applied to the gospel.
The Victory of David Over Goliath, Part 1
1 Samuel 17:1–37 is not a psychological self-help story about facing personal obstacles; it is a narrative of the glory of God. Goliath defies the armies of the living God, and David — a type of Christ — meets that defiance not with natural courage but with faith grounded in the proven faithfulness of Yahweh. The sermon traces the contrast between Israel's faithless paralysis and David's God-centred confidence, showing that apostasy produces cowardice while faith in the living God produces boldness. The practical summons is to walk by faith rather than by sight, to serve faithfully in ordinary providential callings, and to draw confidence for present trials from remembered past mercies.
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.
Genesis 14:1-16
Genesis 14:1–16 presents Abram's military deliverance of his nephew Lot as a showcase of divine providence operating through human means. Though God is not named until Melchizedek's blessing, his sovereign hand is visible in every detail: the abduction that draws Abram onto the world stage, the survival of the messenger, and the victory of 318 servants over a coalition that had crushed five kings. The sermon traces four qualities of Abram's response — immediacy, armament, strategy, and victory — and draws from them the lesson that the sovereignty of God is not a warrant for passivity but the very foundation for the faithful use of means. Lot's progressive entanglement with Sodom warns against decisions that privilege outward advantage over the soul's good, while Abram's refusal of the king of Sodom's goods illustrates dependence on God Most High rather than human patronage.
The First Murder
Genesis 4:1–16 records the first fratricide in human history, and this exposition reads that account as a theological document revealing the rapid escalation of sin from the fall in chapter 3. Cain's rejection is traced not to his vocation as a farmer but to his faithlessness — Abel's offering was accepted because it was offered in faith (Hebrews 11:4), while Cain's externalism and lack of genuine faith made his sacrifice an abomination. God's patient, gracious overtures to Cain before the murder underscore divine long-suffering, while Cain's murder of Abel illustrates the antithesis of Genesis 3:15 — the seed of the serpent attacking the seed of the woman — and the sermon closes by setting the blood of Abel, which cries out for condemnation, against the blood of Jesus, which speaks forgiveness.
The Call to Repentance
Acts 2:37–40 records the crowd's response to Peter's Pentecost sermon and his command to repent and be baptized. This exposition examines the nature of genuine conviction of sin, the inseparable relationship between repentance and faith, the proper place of baptism as an outward sign of inward grace rather than a means of salvation, and the comprehensive scope of God's electing call that reaches Jerusalem sinners, their children, and Gentiles afar off. The sermon presses the hearer to embrace conviction of sin as a mercy, to understand that repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin, and to respond by believing the gospel and submitting to baptism without delay.
Genesis 14
Genesis 14 presents what appears to be an obscure ancient war narrative, but the chapter is deliberately structured around one controlling question: who is the true King and possessor of heaven and earth? Working through the three movements of battle, bravery, and blessing, this exposition shows how Kedorlaomer's military supremacy, Abram's faith-driven rescue of Lot, and Melchizedek's priestly blessing of Abram together build to a single climax — God Most High, El Elyon, reigns sovereign over every kingdom. Melchizedek emerges as a typological figure whose lack of genealogy and perpetual priesthood, interpreted by Hebrews 7 and Psalm 110, points forward to Christ's eternal high-priestly office after the order of Melchizedek. The proper response to God's sovereign kingship is Abram's own: refusing worldly plunder and glorifying God alone.
The Need for Wisdom
James 1:5–8 calls the believer in the midst of trial not to seek deliverance but to seek wisdom — the divinely granted skill to bear affliction rightly. God is the inexhaustible and non-reproaching source of that wisdom, and He gives it liberally to all who ask in faith. The sermon works through four aspects of the pursuit of wisdom in verse 5, then three features of the necessity of faith in verses 6–8, showing that doubt produces instability, unanswered prayer, and a double-minded life. The governing application is that the afflicted saint must ask God for wisdom and do so in genuine faith, trusting the Scripture's testimony that trials work patience and conform us to Christ.
The Healing of the Blind Men
Matthew 20:29–34 records the last detailed miracle of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel: the healing of two blind men outside Jericho. This expository sermon traces three movements in the passage — the setting, the earnest petition of the blind men, and the gracious response of the Son of David — arguing that the blind men's importunate faith, their address of Jesus as Lord and Son of David in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant and Isaianic prophecy, and Christ's immediate compassion together present the gospel in miniature. The sermon presses unbelievers to cry out to Christ with the persistence of these men and assures them that the same Jesus who stood still for two wretched beggars extends pity joined with power to all who come to Him in faith.
1 Samuel 17, Part 1
1 Samuel 17 is not a self-help narrative about overcoming personal giants; it is a theological vindication of the glory, sovereignty, and honor of the living God of Israel. Goliath's meticulously described size, armor, and defiance serve to magnify the God who defeats him through an unlikely shepherd boy operating in faith rather than military strength. The chapter sets fear and faith in sharp contrast: Saul and the armies of Israel are dismayed and flee, while David — anointed by the Spirit and proven in the wilderness — brings a theocentric worldview that transforms the entire situation. The central lesson is that God is glorified through the faithfulness of ordinary men and women in ordinary callings, and that faith in the present is nurtured by remembering God's deliverances in the past.
The Healing of a Demon Possessed Boy
Matthew 17:14–23 sets a desperate father's plea for his demon-possessed son against the disciples' failure to cast out the demon, and Christ's authoritative word that immediately effects the cure. The sermon works through four movements: the request for mercy, the Lord's rebuke of faithless Israel and the demon, instruction on the nature and exercise of faith, and the second formal passion announcement of Matthew's Gospel. Throughout, the contrast between Christ's kingdom of mercy and the devil's kingdom of self-destruction frames both the evangelistic and pastoral applications: sinners are called to come to the sovereign Christ who alone delivers, and parents are urged never to despair of the conversion of any soul, pressing the atoning work of the cross upon their children.
Judges 16
Judges 16 presents the concluding episode of Samson's judgeship, closing the largest section of the book (chapters 3–16). Working through three movements — the removal of Gaza's gates, the departure of the Lord, and the destruction of the Philistines — the study argues that Samson is consistently misread as a brute driven by lust, when the narrative instead presents him as a purposeful, faith-walking servant of God raised up to crush Philistine oppression. The typological resonance of Samson's death — killing more enemies in death than in life — points forward to the greater Deliverer whose death and resurrection accomplish what no judge could complete.
True and False Religion: Prayer
True prayer, according to Jesus in Matthew 6:5–8, is defined not by its outward form but by its inward orientation — a point the Lord makes by exposing two distortions: the hypocrite who prays to be seen by men, and the heathen who babbles to manipulate God. The sermon establishes that Jesus assumes Christians will pray, treating prayerlessness as a mark of unregenerate life. Biblical prayer is neither a performance for human approval nor a technique for divine manipulation, but an exercise of faith directed to the Father alone — communing with the unseen God, conforming to His will, and unburdening oneself to the One who cares supremely.
The Object of Our Gaze
Hebrews 12:2 commands believers to run the race of faith by 'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.' This sermon works through three aspects of that gaze: the means (faith, not physical sight), the direction (Christ alone, away from temple religion, self, and human performance), and the object (Jesus Christ as the one in whom faith, hope, and love have their only proper anchor). The practical burden is that every displacement of the gaze — onto one's own faithfulness, the visible condition of a congregation, the conduct of fellow believers, or the splendors of religious ceremony — is a form of the same error the first-century Jewish recipients of Hebrews were tempted toward, and must be corrected by a constant return to Christ as both the beginner and the completer of salvation.
The Believer's Inheritance
What does the believer's inheritance consist of, and how is it secured against every threat? Expounding 1 Peter 1:4–5, this sermon examines the three negative descriptions of the believer's heavenly inheritance — incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading — before turning to the divine preservation that guarantees the heir will actually receive it. The inheritance is secured not by the believer's own resolve but by the power of God working through the gift of faith, so that even amid persecution, trial, and the triple enmity of the devil, the world, and the flesh, the Christian presses on in confident, heavenward hope.