Theological term
Means of Grace
434 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 27 - Of the Communion of Saints
What does it mean for believers to share communion with one another, and on what foundation does that communion rest? Working through 2LCF Chapter 27, paragraphs 1 and 2, this study establishes that the communion of the saints flows necessarily from the believer's union with Christ: because every saint is vitally joined to the same head, they are thereby joined to one another. The chapter's two qualifications — that union with Christ does not divinize the believer, and that spiritual communion does not abolish private property — guard the doctrine against historic errors ranging from pantheism to Anabaptist collectivism. The practical weight falls on concrete duties: faithful attendance at corporate worship, private mutual edification, material relief of the needy, and a willingness to extend fellowship beyond one's own congregation to all who call on the name of Christ.
An Encouragement to Look unto Jesus
Hebrews 12:2 calls the struggling Christian to run with endurance by looking unto Jesus — not merely as a moral example, but as the author and finisher of faith, the one who both originates and secures the believer's perseverance to the end. The sermon works through five aspects of Christ presented in the verse: his person, his work as author and finisher of faith, his resolve in enduring the cross for the joy set before him, his shame and suffering in the crucifixion, and his present exaltation at the right hand of God. The cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 testifies unanimously that God is faithful, but the believer's gaze must ultimately rest on Christ himself, in whom all hope, trust, and confidence are grounded. The practical summons is to use the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, the Lord's Supper, and the gathered assembly — to keep the eyes of faith fixed on Jesus and to press on without coasting.
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 Practice of Family Worship
God commands parents to instruct their children in His Word — not occasionally, but diligently, formally and informally, in every setting of daily life. This sermon surveys the biblical warrant for family worship across both Testaments, from God's covenantal purpose for Abraham in Genesis 18 through Paul's charge to fathers in Ephesians 6, establishing that the propagation of biblical religion through the home is not optional but normative for the covenant community. The elements of family worship are then treated in order: commitment to public worship as the irreducible foundation, the sanctification of the Lord's Day, the use of the family altar (including psalm-singing, prayer, Scripture reading, and catechism), and the usefulness of historic creeds and confessions. The sermon closes with a direct charge to recognize the importance of family worship, implement it without delay, and persevere in it as a primary means of evangelism toward one's own children.
2 Samuel 12:1-14
Nathan's confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12:1–14 exposes the anatomy of sin, judgment, and grace in the covenant dealings of God with His king. The parable of the ewe lamb springs the trap of conscience, the indictment rehearses the goodness God had lavished on David before his fall, and the consequences announced — a sword that would not depart from his house — demonstrate that divine forgiveness does not abolish temporal chastisement. The two-word confession 'I have sinned against the Lord' and Nathan's immediate assurance 'the Lord also has put away your sin' together illustrate that atonement is the exclusive work of Christ, not the product of the sinner's anguish or penance.
The Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 presents the virtuous woman as one whose fear of Yahweh is the foundation and fountainhead of her entire life and household ministry. This sermon examines the Christian mother under four heads — her spiritual condition, her influence, her authority, and her responsibility — grounding each in the covenantal structure of Scripture from Proverbs, the Pentateuch, and the New Testament. The fear of the Lord is not natural to fallen humanity; it is a gracious work of God that produces practical godliness, and the mother who walks in that fear becomes the most powerful human instrument in the formation and potential salvation of her children. Husbands are called to praise such wives, children to rise up and bless such mothers, and every believer to measure the worth of a woman not by charm or beauty but by her reverent trust in God.
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–18 calls believers to put on the whole armor of God — not for ceremonial display but for genuine hand-to-hand combat against principalities, powers, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness. The armor is not native to the believer but is provided entirely through union with Christ: truth, imputed righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation constitute the defensive elements, while the Word of God is the offensive sword. The sermon argues that the Christian life is a lifelong fight requiring daily, persevering diligence — not passive rest — and closes by urging both believers and unbelievers to recognize that lasting victory over sin is possible only through the blood of atonement and the grace of the triune God.
The Covering of Sin
Proverbs 28:13 presents both the ruin of the one who covers sin and the mercy awaiting the one who confesses and forsakes it. This exposition works through the problem of sin-covering under four heads — the scriptural assumptions behind it, biblical examples of it, the various means sinners employ to conceal transgression, and the cursed result in this age and the age to come. The solution is penitential faith in Christ alone: genuine confession lays the hand on the great sacrifice, and true forsaking proves the sincerity of that confession. Believers and unbelievers alike are called to stop concealing sin and to cast themselves upon the mercy of God, which is the only covering that satisfies divine justice.
The Visit, the Cloak, and the Books
Paul's final personal requests to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:9–13 — the urgent summons to visit, the cloak left at Troas, and the books and parchments — reveal the interior life of an apostle facing death in a Roman prison. Three lessons emerge: the indispensable value of Christian fellowship, the forgiving and forward-looking spirit that reconciled Paul to John Mark, and the bookish, industrious mind that turned a prison cell into a command post for gospel strategy. The passage calls God's people to crave Christian communion, to refuse grudge-bearing, and to read widely for the service of Christ.
2 Samuel 8:1-18
2 Samuel 8 records David's military conquests as the God-ordained stabilization of Israel's land in preparation for Solomon's temple-building, rooted in the promises of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7. The chapter is expounded under three headings: the advancement of the kingdom through David's campaigns from north to south, the stability of the kingdom seen in the dedication of spoils to Yahweh and the administration of judgment and justice, and the power behind the kingdom — not David's military skill, but Yahweh's faithful preservation of His servant wherever he went. David's reign is treated as typologically anticipatory of Christ's kingdom: conflict precedes conquest, the wealth of the nations is consecrated to Israel's God, and the Son of David exercises universal dominion in judgment and justice as promised in Psalm 2 and Isaiah 9 and 11. The study closes with a call to recover the church-militant posture, trusting the same God who gave David victory to bring victory to the new covenant church through the weapons of prayer, preaching, and faithful witness.
2 Samuel 7:18-29
David's prayer in 2 Samuel 7:18–29, offered in response to the Davidic covenant, models the proper shape of Christian prayer: confession of unworthiness before God, ascription of greatness to God alone, and petition grounded in God's own promises rather than personal merit. The sermon traces how David's prayer moves from humble acknowledgment of grace, through a declaration that God's incomparable greatness is displayed in Israel's redemption and preservation, to specific petitions that mirror the structure of the Lord's Prayer. Particular attention is given to the scope of the Davidic covenant as a charter for all humanity — elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation — fulfilled ultimately in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon calls hearers to bring God's promises back to Him in prayer, to prioritize praise before petition, and to understand redemption as liberation unto possession, not liberation unto autonomy.
The Hope of the Resurrection
Paul's closing words in 2 Timothy 4:6–8 set before the church three interlocking realities: his present situation as a condemned man being poured out as a drink offering, his past perseverance across the full course of Christian warfare, and his future hope — the crown of righteousness awarded by the righteous Judge on the day of resurrection. The sermon argues that the resurrection hope is not a passive consolation but the very engine of faithful Christian living: Paul fought, ran, and kept not as an ascetic but because of the surpassing worth of Christ and the certainty of what awaits. Believers are exhorted to examine whether they are presently fighting, running, and keeping — for what is said in the eleventh hour can only be said because of what was done faithfully in hours one through ten.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 20, 2016 PM
Hebrews 4:16 invites believers to approach God in prayer with boldness — not a boldness rooted in the fervency or volume of one's own devotion, but a confidence grounded entirely in the finished priestly work of Christ. The sermon works through five headings in the verse: the simple exhortation to come, the christological basis for that coming (the exaltation and sympathy of the great High Priest), the nature of the boldness required, the object of approach (the throne of grace), and the timely mercy and grace promised there. The application presses believers to use prayer as a God-ordained means of grace, especially in seasons of peculiar weakness, assured that their warrant before God is Christ's doing and dying — not the temperature of their own hearts.
2LCF Chapter 26 - Of the Church
The doctrine of the church, ecclesiology, is inseparable from every other locus of Christian theology: the doctrine of God, Scripture, Christ, and salvation all converge in what the church is and how it is ordered. This session walks through all fifteen paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 26, tracing a threefold outline — the universal (Catholic) church, Christ as sole head, and the local church — while marking the distinctives of Baptist ecclesiology over against Presbyterian and Episcopalian forms. The governing conviction throughout is that the church is constituted by believers alone, is called and preserved by Christ through Word and Spirit, and is ordered by his appointment for mutual edification, the due administration of ordinances, and the proclamation of the gospel to the world.
The Final Charge to Timothy, Part 1
Paul's final formal charge to the church, delivered through Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1–2, consists of a solemn charge and a specific command: preach the Word. The solemnity of the charge is grounded in the presence of the triune God as divine audience and in the coming judgment of Christ over the living and the dead, which simultaneously weighs on the minister who handles the Word and on the people who will one day stand before God. The command itself, rooted in the image of the herald (Greek kēryx), demands faithful proclamation of the Word — not creative substitutes, not life-coaching, not entertainment — through conviction, rebuke, exhortation, longsuffering, and teaching. The sermon closes with a call for biblical preachers, biblical preaching, and biblical hearers, arguing that the church's abandonment of the pulpit is the root of her contemporary crisis.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 14, 2016 AM
The Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-2 envisions what this sermon calls 'the long crimson line' — a generational chain of gospel ministry stretching from God's eternal purpose, through the apostles, through faithful ministers, and forward to the next generation until Christ returns. The sermon traces a fivefold pattern: from heaven to Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others who will teach, arguing that this chain is entirely the work of God and not of human initiative. Every member of the church is called to participate — through prayer, identification of gifted men, personal encouragement, and financial support — so that faithful men will be raised up to preach the same pattern of sound words to coming generations.
The Darkness and the Derelict
Mark 15:33–34 presents two interlocked realities at Calvary: the supernatural darkness over the land and the cry of dereliction from the lips of the Son of God. The darkness is both a portent of coming judgment upon the generation that rejected the Lord of glory and a sign of the terrible deprivation the suffering servant endured as God withdrew from Him. The cry — 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' — is examined under four questions: who is crying, why He cries, what He has done, and for whom, establishing that Christ was made the derelict so that all who believe in Him might never themselves be forsaken by God. The sermon closes with exhortations to fear the judgment if you reject Christ, to rest in the assurance that God will never forsake His people, and to never neglect the ordinances — especially the Lord's Supper — through which that assurance is sealed.
The Vision of the Unrivaled Majesty, Part 2
Isaiah 6:1–7 confronts the reader with the unrivaled majesty of the triune God and the radical grace that answers the creature's ruin. This exposition completes an earlier morning sermon by examining the third point of the passage: the blessed atonement from the altar of the Lord, in which a seraph carries a live coal from the altar to purge Isaiah's unclean lips. Atonement comes from the Lord alone, through sacrifice alone, and it comforts, confirms, and fits the pardoned sinner for renewed service — a pattern illustrated by David in Psalm 51, Peter in John 21, and codified in the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 18. Hearers are called to reflect often on the greatness of God, to refuse self-atonement, to use the means of grace faithfully, and to flee to Christ whenever despair lays them low.
Rejoicing in Christ's Righteousness
Philippians 3:1–11 presents Paul's charge to rejoice in Christ's righteousness rather than in any credential of the flesh. The sermon exposes the Judaizing error of mixing works with justification, demonstrates that every fleshly advantage Paul possessed was counted as rubbish compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ, and traces the spiritual wealth found in Christ through justification, sanctification, and the hope of glorification. Hearers are called to rejoice in an alien righteousness received by faith alone, to beware of any teaching that smuggles works into salvation, and to walk as kingdom citizens whose passport is Christ's righteousness imputed to them.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 29, 2015 PM
Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, yet the people of God are called not to despair but to persevere in the things they have learned — above all, the Holy Scriptures. Expounding 2 Timothy 3:13–15, this sermon contrasts the downward trajectory of false teachers with the upward call to Timothy: continued faithfulness grounded in the Word of God, which is able to make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament is shown to be thoroughly Christ-centred, pointing to one way of salvation in both testaments — by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Parents are charged to bring their children under the Scripture from childhood, and all believers are urged to persevere through faithful use of the means God has ordained.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 3
What does God require of his people in corporate worship, and by what means does he strengthen them in faith? Working through 2LCF Chapter 22, Paragraph 5, this session examines five constituent elements of religious worship: the Word of God (read, preached, and heard), songs to God, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the worshipper's disposition, and occasional worship. The regulative principle governs the whole: only what God has prescribed in Scripture may be brought into worship, and every element is to be engaged with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear. The practical burden is that corporate Lord's Day worship is not liturgical formality but God's ordained means of grace by which the Spirit strengthens and grows the faith of his people.
The Proven Faithfulness of Timothy
Paul's appeal to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10–12 rests not on flattery but on a proven record of faithfulness — in doctrine, conduct, purpose, and endurance through persecution — that now grounds the exhortation to press on. The apostle holds out his own life, particularly the stonings and expulsions at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, as concrete evidence that godly perseverance is possible precisely because the Lord delivers his servants through tribulation. The sermon closes with the general maxim of verse 12: suffering persecution is not the experience of a spiritual elite but the inevitable mark of all who genuinely desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. Christians are called to seek out exemplary models of faithful ministry, to pursue a comprehensive rather than selective obedience, and to be assured that the gospel of Christ is worth every cost.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 2
Prayer as a constituent element of Christian worship is examined through paragraphs three and four of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LCF 22.3–4). The confession distinguishes natural worship — known by the light of general revelation — from instituted or religious worship regulated by Scripture alone, and locates prayer within both: obligatory for all men by nature, yet acceptable to God only when offered in the name of the Son, by the aid of the Spirit, and according to His revealed will. Seven features of prayer in worship are traced: its constitutional place as a means of grace, its universal obligation, its general tenor of thanksgiving, its Trinitarian form, its attendant posture (understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance), its linguistic restriction to a known tongue against the Romanist Latin mass, and the lawful scope of its content — including the rejection of prayers for the dead and for those who have sinned the sin unto death.
Dr. Steven Lawson - "How Blessed is the Man" - November 8, 2015 PM
Psalm 1 sets two paths before every person who enters the house of God: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. This exposition moves through the psalm's four movements — the pronouncement of blessing, the prerequisites for blessing, the picture of blessing, and the prohibition of blessing — arguing that the blessedness declared in verse 1 belongs exclusively to those who have been sovereignly transplanted by the new birth and who are sustained by the inexhaustible streams of divine grace. All the blessings of Psalm 1 are mediated through Christ alone: his active obedience supplies the righteousness imputed to the believer, and his atoning death reconciles the sinner to God. Hearers are called to examine whether they are on the narrow way of the righteous or the broad way of the wicked, and to sink their roots deeper into the Word of God as the primary means of sanctifying grace.
An Enemy Worse than the Philistines
The silence of God toward King Saul in 1 Samuel 28 is a more terrifying reality than any Philistine army, and this sermon exposes why. Working through verses 3–25, the exposition traces Saul's apostasy from covenant member to enemy of Yahweh — a man who seeks a word from God through forbidden necromancy because God will no longer answer him through lawful means. The sermon draws a sharp contrast between Saul's utilitarian, self-serving religion and David's practice of strengthening himself in the Lord through the knowledge of God, the rehearsal of His promises, and the use of the means of grace. The congregation is exhorted to reckon honestly with remaining sin, to refuse the deceitfulness that masks spiritual defection, and to find in Christ's darkness on the cross the guarantee that no elect soul will ever be abandoned by God.
The Stephen of Christ
Acts 7:44–60 records the martyrdom of Stephen, the church's first martyr, whose death rather than ending Christianity only advanced it — fulfilling Christ's promise in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of Hades would not prevail against his church. The sermon examines Stephen under three headings: his constitution as a Christian (full of faith and power, possessing spirit-wrought wisdom, and confirmed by divine favor), his characteristics as a preacher (zeal tempered by patient control, thorough knowledge of Scripture, and Christocentric proclamation), and his Christ-likeness as a martyr (exercising wholesome severity, refusing to revile in return, and committing himself to him who judges righteously). The congregation is called to imitate Stephen's faith, scriptural depth, and Christ-like endurance in the face of opposition, and unbelievers are summoned to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
1 Samuel 30:9-31
God's providence, power, and provision converge in 1 Samuel 30:9–31 as David pursues the Amalekites who have raided Ziklag, burned it, and carried off the families of his men. An abandoned Egyptian servant, left to die by his Amalekite master, becomes the instrument of divine providence by leading David to the enemy camp — illustrating that God governs all things, including the cruelties of the wicked, for the good of his people. The sermon draws out David's messianic character in his care for the weak and his theology of grace as the ground for generosity, calling God's people to strengthen themselves in God through his promises and appointed means when trial strikes, trusting that the God who brought David from tragedy to triumph will bring all his people to final glory.
1 Samuel 29
God's providential deliverance of David from an impossible dilemma — being compelled to march against Israel with the Philistines — and the immediate plunge into the disaster at Ziklag raise a single pressing question: how does a believer endure when the last straw is not the last straw? Working through 1 Samuel 29–30:8, this study traces two movements: the Lord using the objections of the Philistine lords to extract David from his dilemma without David having to act, and the devastation at Ziklag that arrives the moment he returns home. The sermon draws out three means by which David strengthened himself in the Lord his God — the experiential knowledge of God, the promises of God rehearsed through fellowship, and the use of the means of grace — setting these against the contrasting figure of Saul, who in the same crisis had no priest, no ephod, and no word from the Lord.
1 Samuel 28
First Samuel 28 records one of the most devastating episodes in Saul's life: having been abandoned by God and cut off from every legitimate means of divine communication, the king of Israel disguises himself and consults a medium at Endor on the eve of his final battle with the Philistines. This Bible study traces Saul's trajectory from incremental disobedience in 1 Samuel 13 through to full-blown necromancy in chapter 28, demonstrating that his ruin was not sudden but the cumulative fruit of small acts of defection from the living God. The appearance of 'Samuel' is examined with appropriate tentativeness, with the case for a demonic impersonation receiving the most sustained treatment. The study closes with a contrast between Saul's desperation and David's persistent pleading in Psalm 13, calling hearers to cling to the means of grace rather than abandon them when God seems silent.
The Inclusion of the Gentiles in God's Covenant
Ephesians 2:11–22 addresses the radical transformation of Gentile believers, who were once 'aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,' into full participants in the covenant of grace. The sermon traces three movements in the text: the former plight of Gentile unbelievers (vv. 11–12), their present reception through the blood of Christ (vv. 13–17), and the purchased benefits now belonging to them as fellow citizens, members of God's household, and living stones in his temple (vv. 18–22). Christ is shown to be the one who is peace, who makes peace through the cross by abolishing the ceremonial law's enmity, and who preaches peace through the apostolic gospel. The exposition concludes with a call to prize corporate worship as the special dwelling place of God Most High, in which Jewish and Gentile believers together form one temple indwelt by the Spirit.