Topic
Biblical Theology
1,075 sermons · All topics
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 31, 2019 AM
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:44–53 serves as a window into the Old Testament's typological structure, tracing the Davidic covenant from 2 Samuel 7 through the construction of Solomon's temple to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The sermon argues that both tabernacle and temple functioned as types and shadows pointing forward to Christ, and that Israel's idolatrous attachment to the physical temple — trusting the structure rather than the God it signified — mirrors the Sanhedrin's rejection of the very Messiah those institutions were designed to anticipate. Drawing on Isaiah 66, Solomon's dedicatory prayer, and Matthew 16, the preacher shows that Christ is himself the true temple, the Son of David who builds the house of God, and that all the promises of God find their 'yes and amen' in him. The application is direct: neglect of the Old Testament impoverishes Christian experience, and those still outside Christ are called to look to him — as Israel looked to the bronze serpent — for forgiveness and righteousness received by faith alone.
The Capture of the Ark
Israel's decision to fetch the Ark of the Covenant as a battlefield talisman in 1 Samuel 4 exposes a perennial human tendency: taking the good gifts of God and treating them as instruments of manipulation rather than means of worship. The chapter's three movements — Israel's defeat, Eli's death, and the naming of Ichabod — together declare that God will not be controlled by technique, and that He would sooner allow the symbol of His presence to fall into pagan hands than permit His people to profane it through superstition. The sermon presses believers to examine whether their own acts of piety — prayer, fasting, corporate worship — are genuine communion with God or covert attempts to secure desired outcomes from Him.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 24, 2019 AM
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:44–45 opens a window into the Old Testament theology of divine dwelling — tabernacle, temple, and conquest — showing that God's entire redemptive economy pointed forward to Christ as the true temple. Working through Exodus 25, 29, 40, Leviticus 9–10, 16, and Joshua 3–24, the sermon traces how the tabernacle of witness was given by divine command, designed for the purpose of God dwelling among his people, and completed under Moses only to reveal a new tension: even the godliest man could not enter the glory-filled sanctuary without atoning blood. The Book of Leviticus resolves that tension by prescribing the bloody knife and smoking altar that typified Christ's substitutionary sacrifice, and Joshua shows that the conquest of Canaan was accomplished by the strong arm of Yahweh alone — a pattern that mirrors the believer's ongoing mortification of sin by the Spirit. The application is direct: attachment to types and shadows after Christ has come is idolatry, and the only way to dwell in the presence of God — now or in the New Jerusalem — is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stephen's Defense, Part 7
The tabernacle and temple of Israel were not ends in themselves but types pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true dwelling place of God with his people. Expounding Acts 7:44–45, this sermon traces Stephen's defense against the charge of being anti-Temple by surveying the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 25–40), the Levitical sacrificial system as the God-ordained means of approaching a holy God, and the conquest of Canaan under Joshua as the triumph of Yahweh's strength over Israel's enemies. The central application is that sinful men may dwell with God only through the blood of Jesus Christ — the substance to which every tabernacle, temple, sacrifice, and conquest pointed — and that the same sovereign God who drove out the Canaanites is the God who mortifies sin in his people by his Spirit.
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.
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 10, 2019 AM
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:30–36 centers on the call and rejection of Moses as a deliberate typological argument: the same Israel that rejected Moses now rejects Jesus, and in doing so rejects the very law and temple they claim to honor. The sermon works through six attributes of God revealed in the burning-bush theophany — God as revelatory, covenantal, holy, compassionate, delivering, and self-existent (I AM) — showing that this theology proper undergirds Moses's commission and, by extension, Christ's. The typological parallel between Moses (ruler and deliverer) and Jesus (ruler and Savior) anchors Stephen's defense and issues a direct summons: the same Christ who heard Israel's groaning in Egypt hears the groaning of sinners in spiritual bondage today, and he has both the compassion and the power to deliver.
Stephen's Defense, Part 5
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:30–36 draws on the call and rejection of Moses to demonstrate that the very history Israel appeals to condemns their rejection of Jesus. The sermon expounds six attributes of God revealed in the burning bush — God as revelatory, covenantal, holy, compassionate, delivering, and the self-existent I Am — showing that Moses received a theophany of the pre-incarnate Christ in Gentile territory, dismantling the council's temple-centered objections. Moses functions as a deliberate type of Christ: called by God, rejected by the people, and authenticated by signs and wonders. The sermon closes by applying the typology directly: as Moses was sent to deliver Israel from earthly bondage, Christ is sent to deliver sinners from the bondage of sin, and the call to come to him is extended to all who are weary and heavy laden.
Genesis 14:17-24
Genesis 14:17–24 presents two contrasting encounters after Abram's defeat of the eastern coalition: the blessing of Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, and the cold demand of the king of Sodom. The study traces the typological significance of Melchizedek through Psalm 110:4 and Hebrews 6–7, arguing that this enigmatic figure prefigures Christ as the royal priest appointed not by Levitical lineage but by the sworn oath of God. Abram's refusal of Sodom's goods and his tithe to Melchizedek together illustrate faith's dependence on God Most High rather than on human patronage. The sermon closes with an application to persevering faith under trial, drawing on the whole of Genesis 14 as evidence that the life of faith is marked by difficulty, not prosperity.
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 4
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:17–29 centers on the birth, education, and first visits of Moses to his enslaved brethren — a narrative Stephen deploys not to instruct the Council in history they already knew, but to indict them for repeating the same rejection of God's appointed deliverer. The sermon traces two structural pillars: God's sovereign faithfulness to Abrahamic covenant promises across four centuries of bondage, and Israel's willful incomprehension of Moses as the pattern for the Sanhedrin's rejection of Jesus. The typological connection is explicit — Moses as redeemer-reconciler rejected by those he came to save is the Old Testament shadow of Christ rejected by the very people who claimed allegiance to Moses. Hearers are called to resist the impulse to drive away the deliverer and instead flee to the Lord Christ, in whom all the promises of God find their yes and amen.
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.
The Need for Due Process
Proverbs 18:17 establishes that the first to state a case seems right until cross-examination occurs — a principle with profound implications for personal conduct, church life, and civil justice. This sermon expounds that verse alongside Deuteronomy 19:15–21 and Deuteronomy 25:1–3 to demonstrate that due process — including cross-examination, the two-or-three-witness rule, proportionate punishment, and the preservation of human dignity — is grounded in the law of God, not in modern legal convention. The Old Testament judicial laws are shown to protect the accused, deter false witness, and honor image-bearers even in their guilt. The sermon closes with a Christological application: Psalm 15 describes the perfectly law-keeping Mediator, and union with him by grace through faith is the only ground on which any person stands before God.
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.
Stephen's Defense, Part 2
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:2–8 turns on a redemptive-historical reading of Abraham that dismantles the charges of blasphemy against the law and the temple. The sermon traces three movements: the call of Abraham (vv. 1–4), the promise of land and descendants made to a childless man (vv. 5–7), and the covenant of circumcision (v. 8). Central to the exposition is the argument that God appeared to Abraham outside the land and apart from any temple, that both circumcision and temple find their terminus in Christ, and that Abraham's justification was by faith alone — his obedience being the fruit, never the ground, of that faith. Listeners are urged to trust not in any outward religious token but in the God of Abraham who sent his Son to fulfill every covenantal obligation his people could not meet.
Genesis 13:1-18
Genesis 13 presents the separation of Abram and Lot as a sustained contrast between faith-driven generosity and sight-driven selfishness. Abram, though possessing the divine promise of the land, voluntarily surrenders his claim to preference and offers Lot first choice — a posture the New Testament repeatedly commends and commands. Lot's eastward movement toward Sodom illustrates the peril of choosing by the physical eye alone, while God's subsequent renewal of the covenant promise to Abram shows that the Word of God is the appointed remedy for the grief that faithfulness can cost. The sermon traces these Abrahamic land and seed promises through Joshua, the Psalms, Isaiah, and the New Testament epistles to demonstrate that their ultimate fulfillment is not territorial but cosmic — in Christ as heir of the world and in a redeemed multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation.
Stephen's Defense, Part 1
Acts 7:1–2 opens Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin — the longest speech in the book of Acts — and this sermon surveys the whole of that defense before turning to its parts in subsequent weeks. Stephen answers two formal charges: that he has blasphemed Moses and the law, and that he has blasphemed the temple. His argument from Israel's own history demonstrates that the Sanhedrin, not Stephen, has missed the trajectory of redemptive history, because the law points to Christ and the temple was always a signpost, not a final resting place. The sermon closes by calling hearers who are convicted of sin to run to Christ rather than to gnash their teeth at those who declare the truth.
The Dedication of the Temple
Solomon's dedicatory prayer in 1 Kings 8:22–53 is examined as a model of theological depth and dependent petition. The prayer opens by rehearsing God's incomparability, faithfulness, transcendence, and imminence — attributes that ground every request that follows. Six petitions structured around covenant curse and restoration (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) demonstrate that forgiveness is the central burden of the prayer, and that affliction is a designed instrument for drawing God's people back to dependence on Him. Practical applications press the congregation toward reverent worship, heart-obedience rooted in justification by Christ's righteousness alone, daily confession of sin, and confidence in God's unfailing covenant fidelity.
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.
The Death of Ahab
The death of Ahab in 1 Kings 22:29–53 is the culmination of multiple prophetic pronouncements — by Elijah, the unnamed prophet of chapter 20, and Micaiah — all of which converge on a single 'random' arrow on the field of Ramoth Gilead, demonstrating that no disguise, no strategy, and no human ingenuity can deflect the sovereign judgment of God. The narrative also exposes the folly of Jehoshaphat, a genuinely godly king whose piety was unaccompanied by good sense, yet who was graciously preserved by the God he served despite the consequences he deserved. The criterion by which every king in 1 Kings is finally measured is not his administrative accomplishments but his fidelity to the Word of God. The sermon calls believers to combine true piety with godly wisdom, to flee from the wrath of God to the cross of Christ as the only refuge, and to take sober warning as parents against training children in wickedness.
Genesis 12:1-9
Genesis 12:1–9 presents the call of Abram as a programmatic text establishing God's covenantal plan of redemption, standing alongside Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 9:25–27 as a divinely initiated response to the human disaster of the fall and its aftermath. The sermon works through three movements: the grace of God in the call itself, the threefold promise of land, seed, and blessing in verses 2–3, and Abram's faith-driven obedience and worship in verses 4–9. Against dispensationalist readings, the land promise is shown to find its fulfillment not in a reconstituted geopolitical Israel but in Christ as heir of the world, with the seed promise identified in Galatians 3 as Christ himself and all who are united to him by faith. The listener is called to see in Abram's departure from country, family, and father's house a typological pattern for what occurs in every genuine conversion — the forsaking of former allegiances in the embrace of the living God.
Genesis 29:1-30
Genesis 29:1–30 narrates Jacob's arrival in Haran, his meeting with Rachel, and his marriages to both Leah and Rachel through the fraud of Laban. The passage is examined in three movements — arrival, meeting, and marriage — with particular attention to the irony that Jacob the deceiver is himself deceived by his father-in-law. The overarching application is the doctrine of divine providence: God works sovereignly through morally disordered and even perverse circumstances — the switched brides, Leah's unexpected marriage, the messianic line through Judah — to accomplish his redemptive purpose in Christ.
The Murder of Naboth
The murder of Naboth in 1 Kings 21 exposes the converging wickedness of covetousness, false witness, state-sponsored murder, and spineless complicity — and then the righteous judgment of God upon those who perpetrate injustice against the innocent. Ahab's sullen greed and Jezebel's ruthless manipulation demonstrate that when idolatry prevails in a society, the whole second table of the law collapses with the first. God's intervention through Elijah, and his surprising mercy even toward Ahab's outward remorse, grounds both a warning for the wicked and a gospel call to the penitent: if God showed regard to so shallow a humiliation, how much more will he receive in Christ those who come to him with genuine repentance.
The Arrest of Stephen
Acts 6:8–15 narrates the arrest of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose faithful ministry and superior argumentation so threatened the religious establishment of Jerusalem that they were forced to resort to false witnesses, mob agitation, and a rigged Sanhedrin trial to silence him. The sermon traces two movements: the mounting opposition to Stephen's Spirit-empowered preaching and sign-working, and the formal charge of blasphemy against the temple and the law of Moses — a charge virtually identical to what was leveled against Jesus before the same court. Stephen's composure before the Sanhedrin, his face shining like an angel's, and his masterful biblical theology of temple and law anticipate his defense in Acts 7, where he demonstrates that the temple and Mosaic ceremonies were always typological pointers fulfilled in Christ. Believers are called to study, exegete, and contend for the truth with the same reasoned fidelity Stephen displayed, and to expect that faithfulness to Christ will attract the same hostility it has always attracted.
The Male Child and the Dragon
Revelation 12 presents Christ as the decisive victor over Satan, tracing the dragon's fourfold defeat from the incarnation through the casting out of heaven to his continuing failed campaigns against the church. The chapter is read through the lens of Genesis 3:15 and its fulfillment in Christ's crosswork: the male child escapes the serpent's grasp, is caught up to God's throne, and the accuser is cast down by virtue of Calvary. Satan's ongoing rage against the church is not a sign of his power but of his desperation — a conquered enemy making war against those he cannot ultimately destroy. The people of God are called to understand that suffering under satanic opposition identifies them with Christ's own suffering and conforms them to his image, not to despair but to faith in the one who has already overcome.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 16, 2018 PM
John 18:28–40 presents the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate as the occasion for Christ's most direct declaration of his royal identity and the nature of his kingdom. Working through the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, the bewilderment of Pilate, and Christ's own two-fold answer in verses 36–37, this exposition argues that Christ's kingdom does not originate from this world but nevertheless encompasses it, advancing not by military force but by the sword of truth. The sermon draws Isaiah 9:6–7 and Daniel 2 into the Advent season to show that the child born in the manger was born precisely to reign, and calls hearers to receive and treasure the truth by which that kingdom is extended.
Genesis 10:1-32
Genesis 10, the 'table of nations,' traces the seventy nations descending from Shem, Ham, and Japheth after the flood — but Moses is doing far more than recording ethnography. The genealogy is a deliberate theological narrowing: from all nations, to Shem's line, to Eber's son Peleg, and ultimately to Abraham, identifying the family through whom the promised seed of Genesis 3:15 would come. The chapter also grounds the later Gentile inclusion in the covenant promises of God, confirming Noah's prophecy that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem — a reality James cites at the Jerusalem Council from Amos 9.
Remembered in the Land
Genesis 22:20–23:20 records the death of Sarah, Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah, and the first parcel of land the patriarch ever owned in Canaan. The sermon unfolds under three headings — God's people pass, wander, and dwell — showing that even in the silence of ordinary providence, where God's name goes unmentioned, he is keeping covenant by securing a burial place in the promised land. Christians still mourn, still sojourn as exiles in this age, but the purchase of Machpelah points forward to the resurrection hope Abraham already believed, a hope now confirmed on the far side of Christ's coming.
Everlasting Mercy
Psalm 118, the climax of the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113–118), is a song of thanksgiving for God's enduring covenant mercy (hesed), sung at Passover to celebrate divine deliverance. The sermon traces three movements in the psalm — God's enduring mercy, God's enduring faithfulness, and God's enduring praise — reading the whole through the lens of its New Testament fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is the rejected stone become chief cornerstone. The exposition draws out how Christ accomplishes the true Exodus, delivering his people from bondage to sin, and calls hearers to trust in him as the only foundation of salvation, anticipating his second coming with praise rather than judgment.
Bond or Free
Galatians 4:21–31 presents the contrast between Hagar and Sarah as Paul's climactic illustration of the two mutually exclusive ways of standing before God: righteousness by law-keeping and righteousness by faith. Working through the passage under three headings — the illustration described, explained, and applied — the sermon argues that the Judaizers' demand for circumcision and law-observance is a return to the bondage of Mount Sinai, while all who believe in Christ belong to the Jerusalem above, the free woman, born of promise through the Spirit. Listeners are warned against the perpetual temptation to add anything to justification by faith alone, and are called to stand fast in the liberty Christ has secured for his people.