Theological term
Justification by Faith
117 sermons · All terms
The Forgiveness of Great Sin
Nathan's confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12:1–15 exposes a man who spent at least nine months settled in unrepentant adultery and murder, yet who receives immediate pardon upon a two-word confession. The sermon works through three movements: God's sovereign initiative in sending Nathan, the detailed indictment that measures David's sin against the backdrop of lavished divine grace, and the demonstration that forgiveness is grounded not in the intensity of repentance but in the atoning work of Christ. The passage presses believers to appreciate that God will not leave his people comfortable in sin, and that when they do sin, the advocate with the Father — not their groveling — is the sole basis of their acceptance.
The Judgment of God upon Idolaters
Romans 1:18–32 expounds Paul's indictment of Gentile idolatry as the root of all human unrighteousness, demonstrating that ungodliness — the rejection of the true and living God — inevitably produces the full range of moral disorder catalogued in verses 29–31. General revelation renders every person without excuse before God, yet it is insufficient to save; only the special revelation of the gospel, culminating in the propitiation of Romans 3:21–26, provides the antidote to mankind's idolatrous condition. The sermon traces the descent from suppressed knowledge of God through exchanged glory, divine abandonment, and catalogued vice, and closes by calling hearers to identify their own idols — theological, material, and self-oriented — and to look to Christ alone for justification.
The Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 sets forth the fear of the Lord as the defining virtue of a godly mother — the root from which her influence, authority, and responsibility toward her children flow. The sermon works through four observations: her condition before God (saved by grace and walking in the fear of Yahweh), her God-given influence over her children, her God-given authority over her children (grounded in the fifth commandment), and her responsibility to instruct, set an example, and discipline them. Fathers are called to honor and encourage their wives, children to express gratitude, and mothers to persevere in a calling that is difficult, often thankless, and of the utmost importance.
Stephen's Defense, Part 2
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:2–8 turns on a redemptive-historical reading of Abraham that dismantles the charges of blasphemy against the law and the temple. The sermon traces three movements: the call of Abraham (vv. 1–4), the promise of land and descendants made to a childless man (vv. 5–7), and the covenant of circumcision (v. 8). Central to the exposition is the argument that God appeared to Abraham outside the land and apart from any temple, that both circumcision and temple find their terminus in Christ, and that Abraham's justification was by faith alone — his obedience being the fruit, never the ground, of that faith. Listeners are urged to trust not in any outward religious token but in the God of Abraham who sent his Son to fulfill every covenantal obligation his people could not meet.
Liberty and Law
Galatians 5:1–15 presents the Pauline application of justification by faith alone: those whom Christ has liberated from the law's curse must stand fast in that freedom rather than entangle themselves again in the yoke of legal works-righteousness. The sermon works through two headings — the liberty of Christ (vv. 1–6) and the law of love (vv. 7–15) — showing that true Christian liberty is neither license for sin nor grounds for adding human merit to Christ's finished work. Justified believers are called to a gospel holiness expressed through love of God and neighbor, lived out by the Spirit in dependence on Christ's imputed righteousness alone.
Bond or Free
Galatians 4:21–31 presents the contrast between Hagar and Sarah as Paul's climactic illustration of the two mutually exclusive ways of standing before God: righteousness by law-keeping and righteousness by faith. Working through the passage under three headings — the illustration described, explained, and applied — the sermon argues that the Judaizers' demand for circumcision and law-observance is a return to the bondage of Mount Sinai, while all who believe in Christ belong to the Jerusalem above, the free woman, born of promise through the Spirit. Listeners are warned against the perpetual temptation to add anything to justification by faith alone, and are called to stand fast in the liberty Christ has secured for his people.
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.
The Continuing Growth of the Church
Acts 5:12–16 presents the continuing growth of the early church through signs and wonders performed by the apostles, the addition of believers to the Lord, and the healing of multitudes from Jerusalem and surrounding cities. The passage raises a sharp question about the nature and purpose of miraculous signs: were they a permanent feature of church life, or did they serve the specific redemptive-historical function of authenticating the apostolic word? This sermon argues that signs and wonders accompanied Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles precisely to confirm that God was speaking through them, and that the completed canon renders such confirming signs unnecessary — while the power of God continues in the gospel through the Spirit-wrought conversion of sinners. Believers are called to trust the sufficiency of Scripture, gather in unified worship, fear God genuinely, and rest their hope for salvation in faith in Christ alone.
The Judgment of God in the Early Church
Acts 5:1–11 records the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, struck down by God for lying to the Holy Spirit. This sermon works through the passage under two headings: the deceitfulness of the couple (vv. 1–4) and the death they suffered by God's direct judgment (vv. 5–11). The preacher grounds the episode in a high doctrine of God — holy, just, and a consuming fire — and insists that the primary practical lesson is the fear of God, not merely ethical instruction about honesty. The sermon closes with the gospel: no one can stand before this holy Lord God except Christ alone, and all who are savingly united to Him by faith stand in Him.
Genesis 6:1-8
Genesis 6:1–8 presents some of the most contested verses in the Pentateuch alongside some of the clearest. The identity of the 'sons of God' in verses 1–4 has generated three major interpretive traditions — angelic beings, tyrannical rulers, and the godly line of Seth intermarrying with the ungodly line of Cain — and the sermon surveys each view while favouring the Sethite interpretation without demanding confessional certainty on it. Verses 5–8 then deliver an unambiguous portrait of universal human depravity and the righteous judgment of God, interpreted through the theological categories of anthropomorphism and anthropopathism to guard the immutability and impassibility of God against misreading. The sermon closes by showing that grace precedes conduct in Noah's case, establishing the pattern that runs through all of Scripture: God's sovereign grace produces the righteousness it requires.
Genesis 4:1-8
Genesis 4:1–8 records the first brothers, the first offerings, and the first murder — and the passage exposes the difference between formal religious observance and genuine faith. The divine acceptance of Abel and rejection of Cain is explained not by vocation, bloodshed, or agricultural produce, but by Hebrews 11:4: by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice, bearing witness that he was righteous before God. Cain's anger, falling countenance, and ultimate fratricide demonstrate that heartless, faithless worship produces not repentance but escalating sin. The study closes with the warning that sin is never dormant or manageable — its desire is always to rule over those who refuse to come to God in faith through Christ.
The Fulfilment of Joel's Prophecy
Acts 2:14–21 records Peter's explanation that the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the fulfilment, not a mere pre-fulfilment, of Joel 2:28–32. The sermon addresses three interlocking questions: what 'the last days' means (the entire Messianic age from Christ's first coming to his return, with a specific reference to the covenantal termination of Old Covenant Israel in AD 70), what the abundance of the Spirit's outpouring means for the New Covenant community (every believer, without distinction of gender, age, or class, receives the Spirit as seal and guarantee), and why the sign gifts of tongues and prophecy are no longer in force (the completed canon fulfils Daniel 9:24's sealing of vision and prophecy). The sermon closes with a direct call to sinners to do the one thing Joel and Peter both demand: call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
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?
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.
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 Privilege of Adoption
Galatians 3:26–29 brings the history of redemption into focus on the individual believer's standing before God: all who are in Christ by faith are sons of God, adopted into the divine family through the finished work of the one who became a curse for them. The sermon expounds three features of the believer's new identity — filial adoption by faith, redemptive unity across every human distinction, and covenantal solidarity as the seed of Abraham — while insisting that redemptive unity does not collapse the role distinctions God ordained in creation and confirmed in the apostolic letters. Theological, ethical, doxological, and eschatological implications of adoption are drawn out in the conclusion, calling believers to gratitude, godly conduct, and eschatological hope as blood-bought children of God Most High.
The Necessity of Pure and Undefiled Religion
James 1:27 presents a 'succinct threefold characterization of authentic religion': measured speech, care for the needy, and separation from the world. This sermon expounds the final two marks — visiting orphans and widows in their distress, and keeping oneself unspotted from the world — grounding both in the Old Testament witness to God as defender of the fatherless and in the New Testament pattern of the apostolic church. True religion is neither merely external social action nor merely internal piety, but both together, flowing as the necessary consequence of justifying faith rather than as a condition of it. Those who have believed the gospel are called to a Godward orientation in every good work, resisting the temptation to perform religion before men rather than before God and the Father.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 16
Matthew 25:41–46 presents the judgment of the unrighteous as the precise structural mirror of the judgment of the righteous: those who depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels are distinguished from those who inherit the kingdom not by degree of works but by the presence or absence of saving faith. The sermon defends, through nine arguments drawn from the text and from Galatians 2:21, that this passage does not teach justification by works — the sheep and goats are already determined, the kingdom is inherited not merited, and the good works function as evidence of faith rather than its ground. The 'least of these my brethren' is shown, through Matthew 10 and 12, to refer specifically to Christ's disciples, so that reception or rejection of them constitutes reception or rejection of Christ himself. The passage concludes by calling all hearers to be found in Christ — clothed not in their own righteousness but in the righteousness of God through faith — as the only preparation for the certain judgment to come.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 18, 2016 AM
Luke 7:36–50 presents three parties whose interaction discloses the nature of saving grace: the notorious sinner whose transformed devotion exposes the bankruptcy of self-righteousness, the Pharisee whose surface-level hospitality masks a judgmental contempt for God's mercy, and the Savior who receives worship, pronounces forgiveness, and vindicates faith as the sole instrument of justification. The parable of the two debtors (vv. 41–43) governs the entire passage: the woman's extravagant love is the effect of prior forgiveness freely granted, not its cause or condition — a point the sermon drives against both Roman Catholic and Protestant moralistic misreadings. Believers are called to examine whether the depth of their love for Christ reflects a genuine reckoning with the magnitude of what has been forgiven.
Hebrews 13:3
Hebrews 13:3 commands believers to 'remember the prisoners as if chained with them' — not merely to recall that persecuted saints exist, but to remember them with a view to action, prayer, and tangible aid. This study traces the command through its immediate context of brotherly love (Hebrews 13:1-3), the Old and New Testament witness to the normalcy of suffering for the cause of Christ, and the reasons why remembering persecuted believers is both a duty and an expression of the church's solidarity in one body. The practical application presses the congregation to move beyond apathy toward the persecuted church through prayer, correspondence, giving, visitation, and the conscious redirecting of attention away from self toward those who suffer for the name of Christ.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 8
Matthew 24:29 presents one of the most contested verses in the Olivet Discourse: does its cosmic imagery — a darkened sun, a moonless sky, falling stars, and shaken heavens — describe a literal end-of-the-world event, or does it employ a well-established grammar of Old Testament prophetic language? This sermon argues the preterist case that verse 29 deploys figurative apocalyptic language drawn from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, and others to announce the covenantal destruction of Old Covenant Israel in AD 70, immediately after the tribulation of those days. Five considerations are developed: the two time-markers tethering verse 29 to its context, the figurative meaning of cosmic collapse language, the extensive Old Testament background, the role-reversal of Israel becoming Babylon, and the implications for continuity in the new heavens and new earth. The sermon closes with a direct summons from Amos 5 — that there will be no escape on the final day of judgment, and that faith in Jesus Christ alone is the only refuge.
2LCF Chapter 32 - Of the Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, as confessed in chapter 32 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF), is certain, comprehensive, and purposeful: God the Father has appointed a day on which God the Son will execute righteous judgment over fallen angels and every human being, accounting for thoughts, words, and deeds. The goal of that day is the manifestation of divine mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect and divine justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate — a theocentric purpose rooted in Romans 9. The secrecy of that day is itself a means of grace, designed to deter sin, sustain the godly through adversity, and cultivate watchful readiness to say, 'Come, Lord Jesus.'
2 Samuel 22:32-51
Second Samuel 22:32–51 closes David's great psalm of praise — a passage paralleled in Psalm 18 — by celebrating what the speaker calls the invincibility of God's kingdom. The study traces four movements: the incomparable power of Yahweh as the sole ground of David's military victories, the people encompassed by David's expanding dominion (both internal opponents and foreign nations), the praise David ascribes to the living God, and the Davidic covenant promise (2 Samuel 7) that secures the kingdom's advance through David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. David's assertion of his own righteousness in verse 21 is read through a redemptive-historical lens — the imputed righteousness of Christ — grounding Old Testament soteriology in the same doctrine of justification by faith that Paul expounds in Romans 4 from Psalm 32. The congregation is exhorted to learn from David's example: to praise the living God publicly and to trust Him through every internal and external trial.
The Rejection of Saul
Saul's disobedience in 1 Samuel 15 — sparing Agag and the best livestock against the explicit herem command — is not an isolated failure but the culminating point of a progressive apostasy rooted in disregard for the Word of God. The sermon traces the anatomy of that apostasy through Saul's blame-shifting, false piety, self-deception, and counterfeit repentance, setting him in deliberate contrast with David, whose genuine faith expressed itself in confession and flight to the mercy of God. The critical lesson is that great privilege within the covenant community — anointing, early victories, religious activity — does not confirm saving grace, and that obedience to the revealed Word of God, not religiosity, is the mark of the true people of God.
A Psalm of Habakkuk
Habakkuk 3 is a psalm composed by the prophet on the brink of the Babylonian devastation of Judah, and it shows what it looks like when a man lives out the principle of Habakkuk 2:4 — 'the just shall live by his faith.' Working through the psalm's three movements — petition, remembrance, and refuge — the sermon traces four gifts that faith provides in tumultuous times: rest in the day of trouble, joy in God amid devastation, stability grounded in God's strength, and material for the corporate worship of the church. The evangel is pressed home at the close: no human righteousness commends a sinner to God, and the sole instrument by which a sinful soul enters saving union with Christ is faith receiving and resting on Christ and His imputed righteousness.
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.
The Condemnation of the Religious Leaders, Part 3
Matthew 23:23–24 records the fifth of Christ's eight woes against the scribes and Pharisees: they meticulously tithe the smallest garden herbs while neglecting the weightier matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. Tracing this indictment through Micah 6:8, Genesis 18, Deuteronomy 10, Hosea 12, and Zechariah 7, the sermon demonstrates that Jesus is functioning as a covenant-lawsuit prophet in a line stretching back to Israel's earliest history, condemning the nation for collapsing piety into external ritual while abandoning love toward God and neighbour. The qualification Christ appends — 'these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone' — forbids both the majoring on minors that marks religious hypocrisy and the neglect of minors by those who camp exclusively on justice and mercy. The sermon closes with a direct gospel summons: neither tithing nor social virtue saves; salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, after which the redeemed are called to obey all of God's law in its proper proportion.
The Question Concerning Taxes
Matthew 22:15–22 records a trap laid by an unlikely coalition of Pharisees and Herodians who sought to impale Jesus on the horns of a political dilemma: endorse the Roman poll tax and alienate the Jewish populace, or reject it and face a capital charge of sedition. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, turns their own coin against them, and delivers one of the most compressed and consequential ethical statements in all of Scripture: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' The sermon works through the parties, the plan, and the particulars of the question before drawing out the doctrine of two distinct but overlapping spheres of authority — civil and divine — showing that Caesar's jurisdiction is real but bounded, while God's claim on his image-bearers is total and is met only through faith in Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 1, 2015 PM
Acts 7:44–8:4 presents the Christ of Stephen — the Christ that the proto-martyr sees, preaches, and dies gazing upon. Working through five headings drawn from Stephen's speech and vision, the sermon establishes that Christ is the scope of all Scripture, was foretold by the prophets, is perfect in his righteousness (in nature, conduct, and obedience), was betrayed and murdered by determined divine purpose, and is now risen and exalted as both helper and judge. The sermon is delivered as a Lord's Supper meditation, calling believers to a burning remembrance of Christ's substitutionary death and exaltation, and warning unbelievers that the same exalted Son of Man who is joy to his people is dread to all who reject him.