Topic
Apologetics
374 sermons · All topics
The Baptism of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:17–25 records the baptism and initial preaching of Saul of Tarsus following his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road. Ananias addresses the former persecutor as 'brother Saul,' and Saul is immediately baptized — a pattern the sermon presses as normative: conversion precedes and grounds baptism, which is the public confession of a forgiven sinner, not a converting ordinance. The sermon then traces the character of Saul's early preaching: immediate, Christocentric, apologetic, and persuasive — proving from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God — while showing that the same mission statement of Acts 9:15–16 (preach and suffer) begins its fulfilment within hours of his conversion. Hearers are urged to confess Christ openly, to submit to baptism without delay, and to recover a persuasive, Scripture-grounded proclamation of the gospel rather than the entertainment-driven substitute that fills contemporary pulpits.
The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:1–9 confronts the reader with one of the most dramatic conversions in redemptive history: the sovereign arrest of Saul of Tarsus, the church's most ruthless persecutor, by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon traces Saul's murderous hostility toward the disciples before examining the divine initiative, interrogation, identification, and instruction Christ brings to bear on the road to Damascus. That Christ identifies himself with his suffering members ('I am Jesus whom you are persecuting') and overcomes Saul's resistance through effectual grace establishes that no sinner stands beyond the reach of sovereign mercy. The sermon closes with a call to repentance grounded in the certainty that the God who conquered the chief of sinners is able and willing to save all who come to Christ.
The Call to Faithfulness in Perilous Times
Paul's warning to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:1–9 identifies the gravest threat facing the church as not external persecution but internal corruption — men with a form of godliness who deny its power. The passage is expounded under four headings: the recognition of danger in the last days, the description of godless men marked by secular humanism, materialistic idolatry, and hedonism, the exhortation to avoid such men entirely, and the encouragement that their folly will be exposed as surely as that of Jannes and Jambres before Moses. The sermon calls believers to know the foundational doctrines of Christianity, to conduct themselves worthy of the gospel, and to discriminate carefully about who is permitted to teach — while resting in the confidence that Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The Purity of God's Word
Proverbs 30:5–6 presents two inseparable claims: every word of God is pure, and God is a shield to those who trust him. This sermon expounds the purity of Scripture as an attribute derived from the character of God himself, extends it across every genre and testament, and anchors it in the New Testament's own witness to its inspiration and authority. The warning of verse 6 — that adding to God's words brings divine rebuke and the verdict of liar — is applied not only to unbelieving Judaism, Roman Catholic tradition, and Charismatic continuationism, but to the Reformed believer's own temptation to bind consciences where God has not legislated. Hearers are called to read the whole counsel of God daily, to rest in its sufficiency, and to resist every impulse to place human words on a level with or in competition with divine revelation.
Genesis 21:1-34
Genesis 21 records three interlocking events — the birth of Isaac, the expulsion of Ishmael, and Abraham's covenant with Abimelech — all of which demonstrate the faithfulness of God to his dual promise of seed and land made to Abraham at the call from Ur. The birth of Isaac after 25 years vindicates the persevering faith of Abraham and the sovereign elective purpose of God, who chose Isaac over Ishmael not on grounds of merit but according to his own prerogative. The expulsion of Ishmael, though painful to Abraham, is endorsed by God as consistent with his covenant plan, a pattern the Apostle Paul reads allegorically in Galatians 4 to expose the error of the Judaizers. The covenant at Beersheba, often read as a mere appendix, is in fact a down payment on the land promise, so that by the chapter's end Abraham holds both seed and a legally acknowledged foothold in Canaan, prompting his worship of El Olam — the everlasting God.
The Apostle Peter and Simon Magus
Acts 8:18–25 presents one of Scripture's most debated conversion accounts: Simon Magus, a former sorcerer who professed faith and was baptized, then attempted to purchase apostolic power with money. This exposition traces Peter's sharp rebuke — 'your money perish with you' — through its Old Testament resonances in Deuteronomy 29 and Proverbs 5, while weighing the evidence on both sides of the question of Simon's genuine conversion. The sermon concludes that the deeper question Acts 8 presses is not Simon's eternal state but the hearer's own: whether they have come to know the Christ who forgives wickedness, grants repentance, and receives every sinner who comes to him.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 5, 2019 AM
Christ declared 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me' — a claim as offensive to the ancient world as to the modern, yet the only word that addresses the guilt, ignorance, and rebellion of sinners. Working through Acts 8:1–17, this exposition traces the Spirit-confirmed extension of the gospel from Jerusalem into despised Samaria, showing how Philip's preaching of Christ — not social commentary, not racial reconciliation programmes, but Christ as prophet, priest, and king — produced joy in a city that had been alien to the covenants of promise. The sermon argues that the cross, and only the cross, is the answer to ethnic hostility, civic disorder, and personal despair, and calls hearers to attend to the preached Word with the same urgency the Samaritans showed when Philip came among them.
Stephen's Defense, Part 9
Acts 7:51–53 records the climactic conclusion of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, in which he reverses the charge of blasphemy against Moses and the temple by indicting the council itself for idolatry. Each epithet Stephen employs — 'stiff-necked,' 'uncircumcised in heart and ears,' and 'always resisting the Holy Spirit' — is drawn from the Old Testament vocabulary of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the Psalms, showing that the council stands in unbroken solidarity with the idolatrous generations before them. The pinnacle of their guilt is the betrayal and murder of the Just One, the Messiah foretold by the prophets, whose coming was the very purpose of the law and the temple they claimed to defend. The sermon calls hearers to recognize that the law of Moses and the temple of God both point inexorably to Christ, and that to reject him is to break the law one professes to uphold.
The Ark of God in Philistia
When the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant and placed it beside Dagon in his temple, they intended to display Yahweh's subservience to their god — but twice Dagon fell prostrate before the Ark, and on the second occasion his head and hands broke off. This sermon expounds 1 Samuel 5 in two movements: the humiliation of Dagon in his own house (vv. 1–5), and the heavy hand of Yahweh striking Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron with devastating judgment (vv. 6–12). The text teaches both the self-sufficiency and supremacy of God, who needs no one to prop him up, and the inexcusable folly of every form of idolatry — including the subtler, coercive idolatry of seeking to manipulate God for personal comfort that threatens the professing church today.
Stephen's Defense, Part 6
Acts 7:37–43 records Stephen's appeal to the wilderness generation as the climax of his defense before the Sanhedrin, demonstrating that Israel's persistent idolatry — not Stephen's teaching — represents the true rejection of Moses and of God. Stephen cites Deuteronomy 18:15 to show that Moses himself predicted the coming of Christ, the prophet like Moses, so that the council's rejection of Jesus is simultaneously a rejection of Moses and of the living God who sent him. The sermon traces Israel's descent from refusing Moses' word, to fashioning the golden calf, to God judicially giving them over to worship the host of heaven, drawing a direct line from Exodus 32 through Amos 5 to the very council Stephen addresses. The practical summons is double: flee idolatry in all its forms, whether tangible or inward, and flee to the God who, even in righteous judgment, remains ready to pardon.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 13, 2019 Bible Study
Genesis 15 presents the Abrahamic covenant in two movements: the reiteration of God's promise of seed and land to a childless and landless Abram (vv. 1–6), and the solemn ratification of that covenant through a self-maledictory oath ceremony (vv. 7–17). Verse 6 — 'he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness' — is expounded as the locus classicus of justification by faith alone, with faith understood as the empty instrument that receives an alien righteousness imputed from Christ, not a meritorious work brought to God. The unilateral passing of the divine presence between the animal pieces is shown to anticipate Calvary, where Christ became the curse for covenant-breakers, sealing in blood what God swore to Abraham.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 3, 2019 AM
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:17–29 turns on a single argument: Israel's own history condemns the council, not Stephen. Working through the birth, protection, and first visitation of Moses, the sermon traces how God's sovereign Providence preserved his appointed deliverer at the precise moment when every circumstance appeared most hostile to that possibility. The parallel is explicit — just as Israel rejected Moses the deliverer, the Sanhedrin is rejecting Jesus, the one Moses wrote about. The congregation is called to patience in God's timetable, trust in his Providence, and above all to receive rather than reject the salvation offered in Christ.
Stephen's Defense, Part 3
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, as recorded in Acts 7:9–16, turns on the narrative of Joseph: a man chosen by God, sent to his people, and rejected by his own brothers. The sermon traces two movements in Stephen's argument — the patriarchs' envious rejection of Joseph, and God's sovereign providence overruling that evil for the preservation of Israel — and shows how each element constitutes a deliberate typological indictment of the council that condemned Jesus. The controlling hermeneutical claim is that Christ is the proper key to the Old Testament, and that the ceremonial law and the temple were always types pointing forward to him, not ends in themselves.
Genesis 14:1-16
Genesis 14:1–16 presents Abram's military deliverance of his nephew Lot as a showcase of divine providence operating through human means. Though God is not named until Melchizedek's blessing, his sovereign hand is visible in every detail: the abduction that draws Abram onto the world stage, the survival of the messenger, and the victory of 318 servants over a coalition that had crushed five kings. The sermon traces four qualities of Abram's response — immediacy, armament, strategy, and victory — and draws from them the lesson that the sovereignty of God is not a warrant for passivity but the very foundation for the faithful use of means. Lot's progressive entanglement with Sodom warns against decisions that privilege outward advantage over the soul's good, while Abram's refusal of the king of Sodom's goods illustrates dependence on God Most High rather than human patronage.
Genesis 12:10-20
Genesis 12:10–20 records the first major moral failure of Abram after receiving the Abrahamic covenant promises: fearing Pharaoh more than God, he deceives the Egyptians by presenting Sarai as his sister, thereby jeopardizing both the seed promise and his wife's honor. The passage exposes the weakness of the patriarch — the father of the faithful walking by pragmatism rather than faith — while demonstrating that the fulfillment of God's covenant promises rests on divine faithfulness, not human faithfulness. The account also foreshadows the later Exodus narrative, as famine, Egyptian affliction, divine plagues, and departure with wealth prefigure Israel's bondage and deliverance. The take-home message is neither license nor despair, but confidence: God's promises are yea and amen in Christ, irrespective of the feebleness of those to whom they are given.
Free Grace Baptist Church - January 27, 2019 AM
Capital punishment is not a contradiction of the sanctity of life but a divine mandate grounded in the image of God. Working through Genesis 9:6, the Mosaic economy, and Romans 13, this sermon argues that God instituted the sword of civil government precisely because the murder of an image-bearer is an assault on the divine majesty — and that the penalty of death reflects the justice and holy character of God. Common objections, both biblical and pragmatic, are examined and answered, and unbelievers are confronted with what the gravity of God's justice against sin reveals about their need for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is not a relic of Old Testament severity but a universal, creation-order ordinance grounded in the image of God and confirmed in the New Testament — and therefore not in tension with a pro-life ethic but demanded by it. Expositing Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:1-4, this sermon argues that God commissioned the civil magistrate to wield the sword as His appointed agent of retributive justice precisely because human life bears divine dignity. Common objections — from the Sixth Commandment's 'thou shalt not kill,' to Christ's handling of the woman caught in adultery, to the fear that execution forecloses repentance — are examined and answered on biblical grounds. Hearers are called to embrace the full counsel of God's Word on civil ethics, to resist the moralizing of secular humanism, and to see in God's hatred of bloodshed the very reason every sinner needs the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
The Apostles' Defense before the Council
Acts 5:27–32 records the apostles' second arraignment before the Sanhedrin and their bold proclamation of the gospel under direct threat of punishment. Peter's reply — 'we ought to obey God rather than men' — establishes a permanent principle for the church: when civil or religious authority commands disobedience to God, the Christian is bound to God alone. The sermon expounds Peter's gospel proclamation in verses 30–32, treating the incarnation, crucifixion, exaltation, and gift of repentance as a coherent apostolic witness, and closes with exhortations to prepare for persecution, persevere in bold proclamation, and believe the message of forgiveness through Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 11, 2018 PM
What is the most important question ever asked, and what hangs on the answer? This sermon expounds Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point for a seven-point study in the importance of the knowledge of Christ — Christology as the highest of all sciences. Christ is shown to be the scope of all Scripture, the one on whom eternal life hinges, the substance of the gospel, the only way of salvation, the location of every redemptive benefit, the ground of the church's commission, and the present and future hope of every believer. The practical import moves hearers toward Christ-informed worship, humility, beneficence, and steadfast confession.
The Importance of the Knowledge of Christ
The most important question ever asked — 'Who do you say that I am?' — exposes a crisis in the contemporary church: a Ligonier survey found that 78% of polled evangelical Christians answered that Jesus Christ is the highest creature of God, effectively the ancient Arian heresy. This sermon works through Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point, pressing seven reasons why the knowledge of Christ is of supreme importance: He is the scope of Scripture, eternal life hinges on a right knowledge of His person, the gospel is about Him, He is the exclusive way of salvation, all redemptive benefits are found in Him, the church's commission is given by and about Him, and our present and future hope rests in Him alone. The practical import of Christology — rightly defined as the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His office — is shown to bear on worship, humility, beneficence, good works, and steadfast confession.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 4, 2018 AM
Acts 5:17–26 records the arrest, miraculous release, and re-arrest of the apostles by the Sanhedrin — a body conspicuously heavy with Sadducees who denied the existence of angels, yet found their prisoners freed by an angel of the Lord. The sermon argues that the opposition of governing powers, religious authorities, and persecutors throughout history has never been able to suppress the advance of the gospel, because Christ himself is building his church. Hearers are called to remember the globally persecuted church, to preach the 'words of this life' with apostolic boldness, and to trust that the same gospel that turned the ancient world upside down is still the power of God unto salvation.
The Imprisonment and Release of the Apostles
Acts 5:17–26 records the arrest, miraculous release, and re-arrest of the apostles at the hands of a Sanhedrin dominated by Sadducees — the very men who denied the existence of angels. The angel who opens the prison doors and the apostles who immediately return to temple preaching together demonstrate that no earthly authority can silence the gospel of Jesus Christ. This passage is treated as a paradigm for the church's experience throughout history: faithful proclamation will always draw persecution, yet Christ is building His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The sermon calls hearers to remember the globally persecuted church, to pursue the boldness of the apostles, and to believe the words of this life — the gospel of forgiveness and imputed righteousness in Christ.
Genesis 9:1-17
Genesis 9:1–17 records the establishment of the Noahic covenant, a common grace covenant God makes with all flesh — universal in scope and perpetual in duration — to preserve the created order as the stage for the proclamation of the gospel. The passage divides into the covenant's stipulations (vv. 1–7) and its sign (vv. 8–17), with the stipulations covering the propagation of life, provision through diet, and the protection of life via capital punishment. The theological ground of the death penalty is the image of God: to murder a man is to assault the divine image, and the only commensurate response is execution by the civil magistrate. Romans 13:1–4 confirms that this mandate is not confined to the Mosaic economy but continues wherever civil government wields the sword as God's appointed avenger.
The Deliberation of the Council
Acts 4:13–22 records the Sanhedrin's deliberation over Peter and John following the healing of a lame man and the apostolic proclamation of Christ's resurrection. The council faces an insoluble dilemma: the miracle is undeniable and publicly known, yet to leave the apostles unchallenged is to permit the gospel to spread unchecked. This sermon traces two broad movements — the deliberation of the council (vv. 13–17) and the attempt to silence the apostles (vv. 18–22) — and draws out the benefits of being with Jesus as seen in the apostles' boldness and wisdom, alongside the liabilities that attend any attempt to suppress the word of God. The application presses believers to pray for men of gospel courage and to resist every pressure, civil or ecclesiastical, to silence the name of Christ.
Genesis 7:1-24
Genesis 7 records the command to enter the ark and the arrival of the floodwaters — a worldwide, catastrophic judgment of God upon all flesh outside the ark, and a sovereign act of divine preservation for Noah and his household. The flood is not myth or moral fable but datable history, rooted in the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15: God preserves the seed of the woman so that Messiah may come. Noah's righteousness did not merit God's grace; rather, grace preceded and produced the faith that issued in obedience, with justification preceding sanctification — a pattern consistent throughout both Testaments. The ark stands as a type of Christ, the refuge for all of God's Noahs, and the passage calls believers to the same costly, faithful obedience Noah displayed in a faithless world.
The Apostolic Address to the Council
Peter's address to the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:5–12 is examined under three headings: the declaration of the name of Jesus Christ as the power behind the healing of the lame man, the prophetic witness drawn from Psalm 118:22, and the exclusive sufficiency of that name for salvation. The sermon argues that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, does not merely defend himself before the council but effectively places his persecutors on trial, indicting them for rejecting the chief cornerstone while simultaneously holding out the gospel to them. The exclusivity of Christ as the only name under heaven given for salvation is pressed against religious pluralism and any notion that sinners must achieve moral readiness before coming to Christ — the call is simply to hear and believe.
The Arrest of Peter and John
The arrest of Peter and John in Acts 4:1–4 is not a setback to the mission of Christ but an instrument of its advance. The religious leaders of Israel — Sadducees especially — are provoked by the apostolic proclamation of resurrection in Jesus, yet even as the preachers are jailed, the Word of God prevails and the number of believers swells to five thousand. The sermon draws out from this episode the sovereignty of Christ over his church, the doctrine of justification by faith alone secured by Christ's active and passive obedience, and the pattern of suffering through which the gospel spreads. The hearer is called to present faithfulness as the only credible preparation for future persecution, and to trust that what is preached in chains cannot itself be chained.
The Healing of the Lame Man
Acts 3:1–10 records the healing of a man lame from birth at the gate called Beautiful, and this exposition argues that the miracle is not an isolated wonder but a typological and redemptive event that displays the name and power of Jesus Christ while setting the stage for apostolic gospel proclamation. The man's condition — congenital, public, and long-standing — ensures that the miracle is conspicuous and undeniable, functioning to authenticate the apostles as God's spokesmen and to magnify the glory of the enthroned Christ. The church's calling, illustrated by Peter's declaration that he possesses no silver or gold but only the name of Christ, is the proclamation of the gospel and the forgiveness of sins, not the amelioration of every temporal need society presents. Those genuinely conquered by sovereign grace, like the healed man, are marked by worship, praise, and desire for the public means of grace.
Genesis 1:3-25
Genesis 1:3–25 presents not a bare catalogue of events but a theologically ordered narrative of God's creative work, moving from formlessness to a world formed and filled for man's habitation. The study traces a recurring five-part formula in each day of creation — announcement, command, fulfillment, evaluation, and temporal marker — and then unpacks the structural pattern in which days 1–3 establish realms (light, sky and sea, land) and days 4–6 install their respective rulers (luminaries, fish and birds, land creatures), with man as the image-bearing vice-regent over all. The account is also polemical: Yahweh's creation of sun, moon, stars, and sea creatures directly undercuts the astral worship and mythological cosmologies surrounding Israel. Hearers are called to embrace six-day creationism by faith, to reject the incipient Gnosticism that denigrates the material world, and to read Genesis 1 as Scripture reads it — by faith we understand, not the reverse.