Theological term
Regeneration
224 sermons · All terms
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 8, 2017 AM
The mock enthronement of Jesus recorded in Matthew 27:27–31 simultaneously exposes the comprehensive guilt of every human participant — Pilate, the soldiers, the Jewish leaders, and the elect whose sins were heaped upon the Savior — and reveals the ironic glory of the King who would actually bear every emblem the soldiers placed on him in jest. The sermon argues that what the soldiers devised as dishonor — the robe, the crown of thorns, the reed — were unwitting foreshadowings of Christ's true royal majesty as depicted in the book of Revelation, where he reigns with golden crown, glorious robe, and iron scepter. The exposition closes with three applications under the gravity, the glory, and the gratitude of the scene, pressing both unbelievers to flee to the Savior from the coming wrath and believers to exceed the soldiers' inventiveness in devising honor for their King.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The gospel is necessary, revealed only through special revelation, and made effectual solely by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit — natural law and general revelation are wholly insufficient for salvation. This session expounds 2LCF Chapter 20, tracing why John Owen and the Congregationalists added this chapter to address both the rise of salvation-through-natural-law teaching and the false charge that Reformed and Baptist churches were anti-missional. The sermon argues that the gospel advances to the ends of the earth through preaching, according to God's sovereign will, as the Spirit regenerates the elect who are dead in trespasses and sins. The practical burden is confidence and perseverance in gospel proclamation, grounded not in human ability or ecclesial authority but in the sovereignty of God.
Of Sanctification (2LCF 13)
What does it mean to be sanctified, and how does that work itself out in the Christian life? Working from 2LCF Chapter 13 and Ephesians 4:17–24 as a core text, this teaching distinguishes definitive sanctification — the once-for-all, irreversible breach with the dominion of sin that occurs at union with Christ — from the progressive sanctification that follows as the Spirit applies Christ's death and resurrection to the believer's daily conflict with the flesh, the world, and the devil. The confession's three paragraphs frame the exposition: the inception and source of sanctification in Christ's virtue, the imperfect yet real struggle with indwelling sin, and the certain progress of grace toward evangelical obedience. Believers are called to reckon themselves dead to sin, take up the means of grace daily, and press on toward holiness as those who are already God's special possession.
The Prince of Life and the Penitent Thief
The conversion of the penitent thief on the cross presents what one 19th-century commentator called the finest demonstration of vital theology in all the gospel narratives. Working through Luke 23:38–43, this sermon examines four elements of that occasion: the ironic truth embedded in the inscription 'This is the King of the Jews,' the unrepentant blasphemy of the cursed robber as a mirror of unregenerate depravity, the dying thief's Spirit-wrought confession of God's holiness, Christ's innocence, and Christ's lordship, and the sovereign comfort of Christ's assurance that salvation rests on divine promise rather than human merit. The sermon is delivered in the context of a Lord's Supper service, and each point is drawn toward the ordinance as a call to remember the King, to recall one's former state of enmity, and to rest on the blood and righteousness of Christ alone.
2LCF Chapter 12 - Of Adoption
Adoption is a gracious act of God whereby those whom He has justified are brought from the household of Adam — where they were sons of disobedience and children of wrath — into the household of God, with all the rights and privileges of divine sonship. This study of 1689 LBCF Chapter 12 traces five dimensions of the doctrine: the recipients of adoption (all the justified), the author of adoption (God alone, not human will), the pre-temporal provenance (the immutable decree of election flowing from divine love), the objective historical ground (the redemptive work of Christ), and the temporal application (the effectual work of the Spirit). The hearer is called to take great comfort in the benefits the confession enumerates — access to the throne of grace, the Spirit of adoption crying Abba Father, divine pity, protection, provision, and chastening — and to live as imitators of God, conducting themselves as members of His household.
Of Effectual Calling (2LCF 10)
Effectual calling — the internal, sovereign act by which God draws his elect from death to life by his Word and Spirit — is the focus of 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 10. This study works through all four paragraphs of the chapter, tracing the monergistic character of the call: it originates in God's eternal predestination, operates independently of anything foreseen in the creature, and is accomplished by a power no less than that which raised Christ from the dead. The chapter's handling of elect infants, the mentally incapable, the non-elect, and the heathen is examined in turn, with sustained application to evangelical method, the centrality of the cross in preaching, and the believer's dependence upon God in prayer and witness.
The Prohibition Against Partiality
James 2:1–4 issues a direct prohibition against partiality — the sin of showing favoritism based on economic status, ethnicity, or social rank within the gathered assembly of Christ's body. The sermon works through the command of verse 1 and its illustrative example in verses 2–4, while devoting substantial attention to demonstrating that James's soteriology is fully consistent with Paul's: salvation is by sovereign grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, with works serving as the necessary evidence of genuine saving faith rather than its ground. The persistent tendency to judge by externals and to divide the body of Christ into cliques and factions is exposed as a form of sinful judgmentalism that usurps God's own prerogative as judge.
The Betrayal of Christ by Judas
Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ for thirty pieces of silver exposes the deadly convergence of unrepented sin, satanic opportunism, and the utter insufficiency of religious privilege as a ground of salvation. Working through Matthew 26:14–16 in its narrative context, this sermon examines both the identity of the betrayer — his position, character, and the devil's capitalizing on his covetousness — and the mechanics of his conspiracy with the chief priests. The central application is that unconverted hearts, however outwardly privileged, will be seized upon by Satan through their ruling sin; the only remedy is sovereign grace received through faith in Christ alone.
Of Free Will (2LCF9)
The doctrine of free will, rightly understood, is not denied by Reformed theology but carefully defined according to the fourfold state of man as Scripture and the 1689 London Baptist Confession (chapter 9) set forth. This confession-study exposition works through the four paragraphs of chapter 9 — man's will in innocency (able to sin and not to sin), in sin (unable not to sin), in grace (freed from bondage yet still corrupted), and in glory (perfectly and immutably free to good alone) — showing that each state demands a distinct account of human liberty. The doctrines of total depravity, effectual calling, and remaining corruption are not isolated abstractions but are woven into the covenantal structure of the confession, where chapter 9 stands between the covenant mediator (chapter 8) and the application of redemptive benefits (chapters 10 and following). Believers are urged to pray for dead sinners with urgency, to pursue Spirit-enabled obedience with vigor, and to take honest comfort in the confession's frank acknowledgment of remaining corruption rather than retreating into either perfectionism or despair.
The Governing Principle of Kingdom Life
Matthew 6:31–34 contains Christ's governing principle for kingdom life: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and the necessities of life will be added. The sermon works through the contrast Christ draws between the Gentiles, whose obsessive anxiety over food, drink, and clothing flows from their exclusion of God, and the children of God, whose heavenly Father already knows their needs. Worry is exposed as a sin that betrays the sovereignty of God, divides the believer's attention, and paralyzes kingdom advance. The remedy is not passivity but a reordered priority — the Lord's Prayer models the same sequence — combined with a cultivated contentment grounded in the goodness and providence of God.
The New Birth
John 3:1–10 presents Jesus' declaration to Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again — a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, not a human decision or cooperative effort. This sermon traces the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus through three movements: Nicodemus's implicit question, Christ's response, and Christ's indictment of Nicodemus's ignorance of what the Old Testament — particularly Ezekiel 36:25–27 — had already taught about new-covenant regeneration. The doctrine of the new birth is expounded as thoroughly monergistic: God alone acts, man is passive, and faith and repentance are fruits of regeneration rather than its cause. Believers are called to examine the evidences of genuine new birth — faith in Christ, love of the brethren, and overcoming the world — while the unconverted are directed to look to Christ and believe the gospel.
The Cross as the Demonstration of God's Love
John 3:16, which Martin Luther called 'the Bible in miniature,' is examined through four observations concerning the cross: the immeasurable love of God toward an unworthy world, the gracious gift of the only begotten Son delivered up as a sacrifice, the object of saving faith as Christ alone, and the promised blessing of not perishing but having everlasting life. The sermon defends particular redemption by noting that 'world' in John 3:16 denotes men without distinction — Jew and Gentile elect — rather than every individual without exception, and grounds this in the parallel logic of Deuteronomy 7 and Romans 5. Believers are exhorted to contemplate the unchanging love of God displayed at the cross as a weapon in their ongoing warfare against remaining corruption, and those without faith are called to look to Christ alone, in whom the principal acts of saving faith find their immediate object.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 4, 2016 PM
The Trinity is fully active in the death of Christ — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each play distinct and glorious roles in the one work of redemption. Drawing from 1 Peter 1:1–2 and 1:10–21, this Lord's Supper meditation traces how the Father purposes and orders Christ's death, bruises the Son to secure salvation, and receives his human soul; how the Son bears the punishment due to sinners, actually and fully saves his people, and continues to intercede for them; and how the Spirit testifies beforehand to Christ's sufferings, supports Christ's human nature under those sufferings, and applies redemption's benefits to the elect. The threefold application calls believers to rejoice in Christ, gird up the loins of their minds as obedient children, and rest their faith and hope entirely in the triune God who saves to perfection.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 23, 2016 PM
What does it look like for a justified sinner to walk in the Spirit? Working through Galatians 5:22-26, this exposition of the fruit of the Spirit demonstrates that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not optional extras but the necessary outflow of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The sermon argues that because those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires at regeneration, the absence of these fruits is not an excuse but a call to repentance, and the presence of the Spirit provides the very power by which they are cultivated.
The Most Important Question for Young People
Psalm 119:9 poses what the sermon calls the most important question for young people: 'How can a young man cleanse his way?' Before answering, the text forces an honest reckoning with the doctrine of total depravity and total inability — the way stands in need of cleansing precisely because every faculty of human nature is corrupted by the fall in Adam, and no sinner can commend himself to God apart from sovereign grace. The answer the psalmist gives, 'by taking heed according to Your Word,' encompasses both initial justification by grace through faith in Christ and ongoing sanctification by the same Word and Spirit. Parents and young people alike are exhorted to engage Scripture with the whole heart — obeying, memorizing, meditating, declaring, and delighting in it — as the only path to a cleansed way.
The Lawyer and the Great Commandment
Matthew 22:34–40 records a Pharisaic lawyer testing Jesus with the question of which commandment is greatest — a live dispute in rabbinic Judaism with deadly intent behind it. Jesus answers by citing the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) as the first and great commandment and Leviticus 19:18 as its inseparable companion, demonstrating that the whole Decalogue hangs on love to God and love to neighbor. The sermon argues that these two commandments expose every person's total failure to render the perfect, personal obedience God demands, driving the hearer to the only One whose obedience is reckoned to all who trust Him. Believers are exhorted to examine whether their love to God is genuine and whole-hearted, expressed in Sabbath observance, rejection of idolatry, and tangible love for the brethren.
The Sadducees and the Resurrection
Matthew 22:23–33 records the Sadducees' attempt to discredit the doctrine of the resurrection by posing an elaborate riddle drawn from the Mosaic Levirate law, only to be silenced by Christ's twofold demonstration that they were ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. Jesus first exposes the false premise of the riddle by revealing a genuine discontinuity between this age and the age to come — in the resurrection there is no marriage, no procreation, and believers will be like the angels in their service to God. He then validates the resurrection from the Sadducees' own canon, the Torah, showing from Exodus 3:6 that God's present-tense covenant relation with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves they were still living. Hearers are called not merely to marvel at Christ's wisdom but to forsake every rationalised objection to Christianity and believe on the Lord Jesus, in whom the covenant of life stands too strong to be terminated by death.
The Christocentric Gospel
John 20:30–31 gives the purpose statement for the entire Gospel of John: that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they would have life in His name. This sermon examines, first, the deliberate divine design behind gospel revelation — that God superintended the inscripturation of Scripture not to disclose all things, but to set forth with clarity the saving knowledge of Christ — and, second, the Christocentric character of that revelation, tracing how the whole of Scripture, from Moses through John, has Christ as its intended terminus. The sermon closes with a direct call to believe on Christ, warning that rejection of such a glorious Savior issues in eternal condemnation, while faith issues in spiritual life now and eternal life in the age to come.
2LCF Chapter 20 - Of the Gospel and of the Extent of the Grace Thereof
The necessity and exclusivity of special gospel revelation for salvation — not natural revelation — is the central concern of 2LCF Chapter 20. Against the errors of incipient deism (which denied the need for special revelation) and General Baptist soteriology (which allowed for salvation via the light of nature), the confession affirms that the gospel promise of Christ, inaugurated at Genesis 3:15, is the sole appointed means of calling the elect in every age. Divine sovereignty governs the dispensation of that gospel to nations and persons, and the effectual, insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul is necessary alongside the outward proclamation for any sinner to be converted.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 13, 2015 PM
Psalm 107:1–9 calls the redeemed to give thanks to God for His goodness and mercy — two terms the psalmist binds together to signal covenantal faithfulness. This exposition traces God's goodness through creation, Providence, and redemption, showing that divine beneficence reaches its pinnacle in the saving work of Christ. God's mercy, distinguished from its human counterpart as originating entirely within God's own nature rather than being moved by anything external, is shown to be operative in temporal blessings, in the judgment of the wicked, and supremely in the salvation of sinners. The sermon closes with a direct call to those outside of Christ to flee to Him, that they too might give thanks to the Lord whose mercy endures forever.
The Call to Marvel, Part 2
What does it mean that God has 'bestowed' on sinners the right to be called children of God? Expounding the first half of 1 John 3:1, this sermon works through the content and intent of the apostle John's call to marvel — tracing divine love, divine grace, and divine fatherhood as the three constituent elements of the Christian's astonishment. The sermon presses the doctrines of adoption and sovereign grace against any scheme of salvation that credits the creature, and closes by showing that the same behold which exhilarates also obligates: children of God are to pursue practical godliness, avail themselves of the ordained means of grace, and walk in cheerful conformity to the law of their Father.
The Call to Marvel, Part 1
The imperative 'Behold' in 1 John 3:1 is not a casual glance but a commanded, faith-filled, astonished gaze upon the love of God the Father displayed in adopting guilty sinners as His children. This sermon opens the first of three headings in the verse — the call to marvel, the content of marveling, and the intent behind it — treating in full the call itself and beginning the content (divine love, divine grace, divine fatherhood). The love that is to be beheld is uninfluenced, eternal, sovereign, infinite, immutable, and gracious — attributes rooted not merely in what God does but in what God is, since God does not merely have love but is love. Believers are pressed to behold this love daily, grounding their ongoing pursuit of holiness in the astonishing truth that those who were children of wrath and children of the devil have been sovereignly adopted into the household of God through the perfect work of Christ.
2LCF Chapter 6 - Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof
What is sin, where did it come from, and what has it done to us? This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 6, paragraphs 1–5, examining the origin of sin in the covenantal breach of Adam, the universal solidarity of mankind in that guilt and corruption, and the abiding effects of sin in both the unregenerate and the regenerate. The remedy is shown to be twofold: justification to deal with the guilt of sin and sanctification to deal with its remaining corruption, both secured by Christ as the second Adam who fulfilled what the first Adam failed to keep.
"The Instruction on Riches and Rewards" - July 12, 2015 AM
Matthew 19:23–30 presents Christ's instruction on the spiritual dangers of wealth, the impossibility of self-salvation, and the gracious recompense awaiting those who follow him. Working through three movements — the commentary on riches, the question of salvation, and the instruction concerning rewards — the sermon argues that riches (and by extension every besetting sin) render men spiritually helpless apart from sovereign, effectual grace. The sermon closes with both a gospel call to the unconverted and a sober exhortation to believers: no one who follows Christ will ever be a loser for it, because eternal life and the hundredfold recompense of the messianic community are the portion of all who believe.
2LCF Chapter 16 - Of Good Works, Part 2
The second half of a two-part study on 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 16 (Of Good Works) examines paragraphs four through seven, working through the doctrines of supererogation, the nature of merit, the acceptance of believers' works before God, and the status of works performed by the unregenerate. Supererogation — the Roman Catholic teaching that the saints perform meritorious works beyond what God requires, which the church then dispenses as indulgences — is refuted from Romans 3 as incompatible with the universal sinfulness of mankind and the nature of divine law. The study then distinguishes between condign merit (which belongs to Christ alone) and any informal divine reward, while grounding the acceptance of believers' imperfect works solely in their union with Christ and God's free grace. The works of unregenerate men, however outwardly decent, are shown to be spiritually dead, incapable of pleasing God, though greater external wickedness remains more displeasing to him than lesser.
The Conduct of God's Servant
Second Timothy 2:20–26 confronts the reality that the visible church always contains both honorable and dishonorable vessels, and calls God's servant to respond not with contentious disputation but with flight from youthful lusts, pursuit of righteousness, and gentle correction of those in error. Paul's metaphor of vessels in a great house is applied to Timothy's pastoral conduct: cleansing oneself from the influence of false teachers issues in sanctification and fitness for the Master's use. The closing verses ground the servant's patient, humble engagement in the doctrine of repentance as a sovereign gift of God — not merely a failure of argument or evidence, but a work of divine grace that alone restores men from the devil's snare to rational, truth-knowing life.
2LCF Chapter 12 - Of Adoption
The doctrine of adoption — that God, by free grace, receives the justified into the number and privileges of His sons — is the subject of 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 12, paragraph 1. The teaching works through five aspects of adoption: its origin in God's eternal loving-kindness and decree, its procurement by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit's role as guarantor and testifier, the recipients (the elect alone), and its nature as an objective legal determination made by God as Father. The doctrine is grounded in the ordo salutis, follows logically from justification, and calls believers to be grounded in the joy of adoption, to walk as children of God, to welcome fatherly chastisement, and to love their brothers and sisters in the household of God.
False Repentance and the Immutable God
The final section of 1 Samuel 15 (verses 24–35) exposes the anatomy of false repentance through the self-serving confession of King Saul, who admits sin while still deflecting blame and soliciting public honour. The study contrasts Saul's hollow words with David's unqualified confession in 2 Samuel 12, showing that genuine repentance owns sin without excuse, is directed Godward rather than reputation-ward, and issues in changed conduct rather than mercenary requests. Samuel's unyielding fidelity to the divine word sets the standard for prophetic and pastoral ministry. The chapter closes with the comfort of divine immutability: the God who tears the kingdom from Saul is the God who cannot lie or relent, and that unchangeableness is the believer's firm foundation.
He Saved Us
Salvation by works, whether in whole or in part, is a criminal doctrine — so the Apostle Paul insists in Titus 3:5–7, and this sermon works through that text under four headings: the one at work in salvation (God alone, not man), the nature of salvation (regeneration, renewal, and justification), the foundation of salvation (Jesus Christ exclusively), and the certainty of salvation (grounded in the immutable decree of election and the perfecting work of the triune God). The washing of regeneration is not water baptism but the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit making dead sinners alive, paralleling the new-covenant promise of Ezekiel 36. Justification is a legal declaration in which Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer and received by faith alone — not supplemented by any work of the believer's own. Both the regenerate and the unbeliever are called to rest solely upon Christ, the one foundation of all salvation.