Theological term
Sanctification
470 sermons · All terms
The Believer's Race
Hebrews 12:1 calls the people of God to run the Christian race with endurance, laying aside every weight and entangling sin. This sermon expounds the first of three incentives the author of Hebrews sets before believers: the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11, who function not as spectators watching the runner, but as witnesses testifying to the faithfulness of God through every trial and affliction. Drawing on Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, David, Job, Habakkuk, and the martyrs Polycarp and Thomas Hawkes, the sermon presses believers to receive the unanimous testimony of the saints — that God is faithful, God sustains runners, and God will bring them through to the end — and to run without quitting, because the Christian life is a marathon requiring daily faithfulness, not a glamorous sprint.
The Woman Who Was a Sinner
Luke 7:36–50 presents three parties — a repentant woman, a judgmental Pharisee, and the Lord Jesus Christ — whose interactions disclose the theology of justification by grace alone through faith alone. The woman's extravagant acts of devotion at Christ's feet are not the ground of her forgiveness but its fruit: she loves much because she has been forgiven much. The Pharisee's self-righteousness exposes the danger of confusing surface morality with saving grace, and of imagining any sinner to be beyond the reach of Christ. The sermon calls believers to examine the warmth of their love for Christ as the chief evidence of genuine justifying faith, and invites the unconverted to come to the Savior whose mercy is wider than any sinner's guilt.
The Response to Peter's Sermon, Part 2
Acts 2:43–47 describes the ordinary but Spirit-wrought practice of the early Jerusalem church, and this exposition presses that description as a prescription for church life today. The sermon examines steadfastness in apostolic doctrine, fellowship, the Lord's Supper, and prayer; the fear of God that attends his presence; the voluntary charity of believers toward one another; and the public and private conduct of a congregation living under sovereign grace. Against both charismatic enthusiasm and worldly accommodation, the sermon argues that faithfulness in ordinary, Word-regulated worship and mutual edification — not signs, programs, or radical individualism — is the enduring mark of a church built by Christ.
The Precious Blood of Christ
1 Peter 1:18–20 presents the redemption accomplished by Christ as grounded in the infinite value of his sinless sacrifice, the eternal decree of the triune God, and the certainty of its historical occurrence. This sermon expounds three dimensions of the 'precious blood of Christ': its surpassing worth measured against corruptible earthly things; its origin in the determined counsel of God before the foundation of the world; and its singular reality as a manifest historical event attested by eyewitnesses. The Lord's Supper, observed the same evening, provides the pastoral occasion for calling both believers to joyful reflection on the blood that cleanses from all iniquity and unbelievers to repentance and faith in the one Lamb without blemish and without spot.
The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ
What is the gospel, and why does its content matter for the Lord's Supper? Expounding 1 Corinthians 15:1–20 with focused attention on verses 3–4, this sermon argues that the gospel is defined by three inseparable historical and theological events: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Each event carries precise atoning weight — the death is substitutionary, propitiatory, and expiatory; the burial confirms the reality of that death and sets the stage for resurrection; the resurrection vindicates Christ's saving work, bears witness to the justification of his people, and establishes him as judge of the living and the dead. Delivered in the context of the Lord's Supper, the sermon calls believers to a wonder-filled, theologically informed observance of the ordinance, and warns unbelievers that the risen Christ who died for sinners will also be their judge.
2LCF Chapter 30 - Of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is a divinely instituted ordinance of the new covenant, commanded by Christ and belonging to the gathered church until His return. Walking through 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith chapter 30, this study examines the purpose, nature, celebration, elements, and recipients of the Supper — contrasting the Reformed understanding with the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. The Supper is neither a sacrifice of atonement nor a reward for obedience, but a means of grace through which God confirms and nourishes the faith of believers, binds them to Christ and to one another, and stirs them toward renewed obedience and praise.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 20, 2018 PM
First Kings 3 opens a new series through the book of Proverbs by establishing the credentials of Solomon as its primary teacher. The sermon examines Solomon's prayer for wisdom at Gibeon and its immediate proof in the judgment of the two harlots, showing that true wisdom is God-given, others-oriented, and marked by equity toward all people regardless of station. The generosity of God — who bids his people to ask boldly — is presented as the very foundation of prayer, and the sovereignty of God is answered as the reason to pray, not the reason to abstain from it. Hearers are urged to adopt Solomon's pattern of prayer, to seek wisdom for the benefit of others, and to enter the school of Proverbs expecting God to supply what is lacking in heart and mind.
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 Recovery of Wandering Brethren
James 5:19–20 closes the epistle not with a random aside but with a call to mutual accountability rooted in the high stakes of wandering from the truth. The sermon establishes two movements: the problem of professing believers who drift from the truth into the error of their way, and the encouragement given to every member of the local church who pursues their recovery. Drawing on Matthew 18, Galatians 6, Hebrews 2, and Psalm 119, the exposition argues that truth and conduct are inseparably connected, that instrumental means matter in God's sovereign purposes of salvation, and that the antidote to defection from God is a disciplined, resolute, corporate love for the truth.
Of Good Works (2LCF16.13)
Matthew 7:1, 'Judge not that you be not judged,' is one of the most frequently misapplied verses in Scripture, often weaponized to prohibit every form of ecclesiastical discernment and render church discipline illegitimate. This session from a study of the 1689 London Baptist Confession examines 2LCF 26.13 on the conduct of the offended church member, then exegetes Matthew 7:1–6 to show that Christ forbids a nitpicking, censorious, fault-finding spirit toward fellow believers — not the lawful exercise of judgment required by Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and 1 Timothy 5. The positive application calls believers to mortify the censorious plank in their own eye, apply biblical law rather than personal preference to matters of judgment, cultivate humility, and look to Christ and his gospel as the continual remedy for self-righteousness.
The Great Commission, Part 4
Matthew 28:20 calls the church to a lifelong, comprehensive teaching ministry — the fourth imperative of the Great Commission. The sermon examines this teaching activity under four headings: its simplicity (Scripture alone, not opinion or entertainment), its scope (all Christ's commands, Old and New Testaments, issuing in obedience), its perpetuity (traceable from Acts through the pastoral epistles to the end of the age), and its comprehensiveness (the whole counsel of God applied to individuals, families, churches, and civil society). The closing appeal summons hearers to the cross — the ransom of Matthew 20:28 and the invitation of Matthew 11:28 — as the indispensable foundation for any biblical obedience.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 25, 2018 PM
James 4:13-17 levels a charge of carnal presumption against professing believers who plan, buy, sell, and pursue profit as though God has no jurisdiction over Monday through Saturday. The sermon distinguishes between planning itself — which Scripture assumes and commends — and the godless self-sufficiency that excludes divine sovereignty from commerce, household, and daily routine. Three remedies are drawn from the text: recognize your ignorance of tomorrow, recognize the frailty of a life that is 'a vapor,' and recognize your utter dependence on the will of God. The sermon closes by connecting verse 17's sin of omission to the whole passage: those who know God is sovereign over all things and yet live as practical atheists do not merely stumble — they sin against knowledge.
The Call to Repentance
James 4:7–12 contains ten imperatives calling the people of God to repentance — first toward God and then toward one another. The sermon traces the gracious foundation of this call in verse 6 ('he gives more grace'), showing that compliance with these commands is possible only by divine provision, not by human self-improvement. Repentance toward God encompasses submission, resistance of the devil, drawing near to God, moral purity, mourning over sin, and humility; repentance toward one another requires laying aside evil speech, judgmentalism, and the arrogance of treating personal preferences as law. The conspicuous order — fix the vertical relationship first, then the horizontal — is shown to be the theological logic of both the Decalogue and James' own chiastic structure.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 11, 2018 PM
James 4:1-6 exposes two devastating fruits of what James calls 'demonic wisdom': conflict with one another (vv. 1-2a) and enmity with God (vv. 2b-6). The source of both is unmortified lust — the unrestrained desire for pleasure, riches, and worldly greatness that breeds wars, fights, covetousness, and wicked prayer among professing believers. The sermon presses the congregation to trace every form of church conflict and spiritual adultery back to pride, and closes with the transitional mercy of verse 6: that despite all this, God gives more grace to the humble.
The Resurrection and Justification by Faith
Romans 4:25 presents what the commentators Matthew Poole and Charles Hodge each called an abridgment or comprehensive statement of the whole gospel: Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. The sermon works through both halves of this verse to show that the death of Christ was a substitutionary, propitiatory sacrifice satisfying divine justice on behalf of the elect, and that his bodily resurrection is the Father's public declaration that the sacrifice was accepted and justification secured. Four theological connections between resurrection and justification are drawn out: the resurrection declares Christ to be the Son of God with power, testifies that his sacrifice was accepted, confirms that satisfaction was rendered, and demonstrates that redemption was fully accomplished. The sermon closes at Romans 5:1 with the fruit of the whole discussion — peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ — applied to those who once stood condemned as ungodly offenders.
The Empty Tomb and the Risen Lord
The empty tomb of Matthew 28:1–10 is not merely an absence but a proclamation: Christ was raised bodily from the dead by the Father, vindicating His atoning work and confirming every prophetic word He spoke. The sermon works through the discovery of the empty tomb by the women and the appearance of the risen Lord, attending carefully to the apologetic weight of the narrative details — the guards' terror, the invitation to examine the tomb, the folded graveclothes, and the physical feet of Jesus grasped in worship. The message closes with 1 Corinthians 15, pressing the stakes of the resurrection: without it, faith is futile and sin remains unatoned; because Christ is risen, justification, sanctification, and glorification are secured for all His brethren.
Free Grace Baptist Church - January 21, 2018 PM
James 3:1-12 presents not a program for tongue improvement but a sustained lament over the tongue's untamable, poisonous, and inconsistent nature. The passage warns that no man, however disciplined, can fully bridle his speech — a recognition meant to cast the believer upon sovereign grace rather than upon personal resolve. The sermon moves through three main headings: the warning concerning teachers and universal sinfulness, the power of the tongue illustrated through bits, rudders, and fire, and the impossibility of human self-control over speech. The practical conclusion grounds tongue-discipline in justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, the fear of God, self-examination, and prayer — and closes with the imputed active obedience of Christ as the believer's only ultimate hope before a God who will call every idle word to account.
Do Not Love the World
First John 2:15–17 commands believers to refuse love for the world — meaning not the created order but the entire moral system of sinful desire arrayed against God. The sermon works through three headings: the command (v. 15), the character of the world (v. 16), and the end of the world (v. 17). Because the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are passing away while the one who does the will of God abides forever, believers are called to resist sin not to earn standing before God but as the fruit of a new heart already forgiven and already victorious in Christ.
The Conduct of a Faithful Minister
What does faithful gospel ministry look like in practice? Expounding 1 Timothy 4:12–16 at an ordination service, this sermon works through four apostolic charges Paul lays on Timothy: the minister must be an example to the flock in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity; he must give sustained public attention to Scripture reading, exhortation, and doctrine; he must meditate on these things and give himself entirely to personal growth in godliness; and he must persevere in both personal holiness and sound doctrine, because the stakes of gospel ministry extend to the eternal welfare of those who hear. The sermon closes with a direct charge to the ordinand and to the congregation forming a new church plant, and with an evangelistic appeal grounding the seriousness of the gospel ministry in God's concern to save sinners through it.
Of Religious Worship and the Sabath Day (Part 3) (2LCF 22)
Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2 are frequently cited to argue that the New Testament abolishes the Christian Sabbath, but each passage, read in context, is addressing something else entirely. Romans 14 concerns Christian liberty and mutual forbearance between stronger and weaker brethren over food and culturally retained Jewish observances; Galatians 4 condemns the Judaizers' insistence that legal observances can supplement faith and commend a sinner to God; and Colossians 2 targets the ceremonial, typological Sabbaths of Israel's calendar — festivals, new moons, and occasional sabbaths — not the weekly moral Sabbath rooted in creation and carried forward into the Lord's Day. The fourth commandment's moral obligation to set apart one day in seven for worship is a positive, perpetual, and binding ordinance, and Sabbath-keeping is the fruit of justification by grace through faith in Christ, not a means of obtaining it.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 22, 2017 PM
First John 2:3–6 confronts a perennial problem: people who claim to know Christ while living in blatant disregard of his law. The sermon works through two tests John gives for genuine knowledge of God — keeping Christ's commandments as an evidence of salvation (not its ground), and walking as Christ walked as a fruit of union with him. Obedience is not the condition for knowing God but the necessary mark and assurance of it, grounded not in human effort but in the imputed righteousness of Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 24, 2017 PM
First John 1:5–10 presents three interlocking claims about fellowship with God: the nature of God as absolute moral purity (light), the deceptive professions of those who walk in darkness while claiming communion with God, and the path of true fellowship grounded in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. The sermon engages the Gnostic false teachers who denied sin's reality and the law's relevance, and sets their errors against the revealed gospel — that total depravity rightly understood drives sinners to Christ, the light of the world. True assurance of salvation rests not on sinless perfection but on ongoing confession, the atoning work of Christ, and the Spirit's inward fruit, so those who struggle with assurance are directed to the cross while those who live in blatant antinomian rebellion are warned that false doctrine produces false assurance.
The Righteousness of David
Romans 4:5–8 announces that God justifies the ungodly, and the Apostle Paul calls David as a witness to that doctrine. This sermon works through the theology of David in 2 Samuel 22, Psalms 2, 18, 32, 51, 110, and 130 to show that David's celebrated righteousness is not his own moral achievement but the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith. David's recognition of his own sin, his understanding of atonement, his grasp of the doctrine of imputation, and his personal faith in the coming Messiah together resolve the apparent tension between his notorious moral failures and his claim to cleanness of hands. The sermon calls hearers to approach the Lord's Supper not in mere introspection over sin but in joyful confidence in the righteousness of David's greater Son.
2LCF Chapter 19 - Of the Law of God
God's moral law — first written on Adam's heart in the covenant of works, codified in the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and distinguished from the temporary ceremonial and judicial laws of Moses — remains perpetually binding on all humanity because it perfectly expresses the unchangeable holy character of its divine Author. This study works through chapter 19 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, examining the original revelation of the law, its survival after the fall, the threefold distinction of moral, ceremonial, and judicial law, and the abiding obligation of the Decalogue across all covenants. The threefold use of the moral law is treated in sequence: its civil use in restraining sin, its pedagogical use in exposing sin and driving the conscience to Christ, and its normative use in directing the regenerate life of the believer. Believers are called to embrace the moral law not as a covenant of works but in gratitude, enabled by the Spirit through the ordinary means of grace, standing in Christ's righteousness alone before the holy lawgiver.
2LCF Chapter 18 - Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
The doctrine of assurance of grace and salvation is grounded not in subjective experience or extraordinary revelation, but in the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel, confirmed by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit and the objective evidences of saving grace. Working through chapter 18 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, this study distinguishes genuine assurance from carnal presumption, refutes the Roman Catholic and Arminian denials of assurance, and addresses why true believers may wait long before attaining it. Assurance is not of the essence of faith — a believer may possess saving faith without yet possessing settled assurance — yet the ordinary means of grace are the appointed path by which the Spirit revives it. The study closes with the sobering reality that assurance may be shaken by negligence, special sin, or vehement temptation, while insisting that the seed of God in the elect ensures they are never left in utter despair.
2LCF Chapter 16 - Of Good Works
1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 16, 'Of Good Works,' teaches that good works are defined exclusively by God's revealed word, flow necessarily from justification and sanctification, and are enabled entirely by Christ as the believer's vine. The chapter distinguishes scriptural good works — requiring the right matter, root, manner, and end — from both the meritorious works Rome supposes possible and the common-grace works of the unregenerate, which, lacking a heart purified by faith and the goal of God's glory, cannot please God. Believers are exhorted to pursue good works not as the ground of their acceptance before God, but as the fruit of a living faith, performed in Christ's strength and received by God through Christ despite their imperfection.
1 Kings 22:1-28
Ahab's final years reveal a pattern common to every age: the suppression of God's Word in favour of voices that confirm what one already wishes to hear. Expounding 1 Kings 22:1–28, this study traces the collision between Micaiah — the one true prophet who binds himself to speak whatever Yahweh says — and the 400 court prophets whose ambiguous encouragement serves the king rather than God. Two contrasting throne scenes frame the passage: Ahab and Jehoshaphat enthroned before compliant prophets, and Micaiah's vision of Yahweh enthroned in sovereign council over all that is about to unfold. The study closes with direct application: the rejection of faithful preaching and the integrity required of anyone who stands in the prophetic-pastoral office.
2LCF Chapter 14 - Of Saving Faith
What is saving faith, and where does it come from? Working through 2 LCF (1689 LBCF) Chapter 14, paragraphs 1–3, this study traces the origin, object, and nature of saving faith. Saving faith is not a human contribution to salvation but a sovereign gift of the Holy Spirit, ordinarily wrought through the ministry of the Word and increased through the means of grace. The principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ alone — receiving and resting upon Him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace — and though faith may be weak and assailed, it cannot ultimately be lost, because its author and finisher is Christ himself.
The Faithful Father
Colossians 3:20–21 places two commands at the center of household religion: children are to obey their parents in all things as an act pleasing to the Lord, and fathers are forbidden from provoking their children lest they become discouraged. This exposition traces the negative prohibition of Colossians 3:21 through its Old Testament background in Deuteronomy 21 and its positive counterpart in Ephesians 6:4, examining how unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, and passive abdication each provoke children toward despair and rebellion. The fifth commandment functions here both as a mirror to drive children to Christ and as a continuing standard to which the Spirit then empowers obedience. Fathers are called to fear God first, to exercise discipline within an atmosphere of love, and to provide spiritual instruction — in the home and through the church — as their highest earthly stewardship.
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.