Topic
Christian Living
1,140 sermons · All topics
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's reign, celebrated across 1 Kings 3–10 for its wisdom, wealth, and temple-building, collapses in 1 Kings 11 under the weight of multiplied foreign wives, hardened idolatry, and a heart turned away from Yahweh. The sermon exposes the problem, precedent, and practice of Solomon's idolatry in verses 1–8, and then traces the divine response — God's righteous anger and covenantal judgment — in verses 9–13. Solomon's sin is shown to be aggravated by his knowledge of the law, his good example in David, and his twice-repeated experience of God's direct appearing. Drawing out seven practical warnings, the sermon calls believers to vigilance in marriage, obedience, and utter dependence on the Holy Spirit, while pointing to Christ — the greater Solomon — as the only secure ground for salvation and perseverance.
1 Kings 11:1-13
Solomon's fall in 1 Kings 11:1–13 confronts the reader with the most disorienting reversal in the narrative of the monarchy: the wisest man who ever lived, a man who built the temple and prayed for God to incline the hearts of his people, ends his reign bowing before Chemosh, Milcom, and Ashtoreth. The study traces how violations of Deuteronomy's prohibitions on foreign marriages and the principles governing kings — compounded by great privilege, faithful example, and divine warning — render Solomon's idolatry inexcusable and God's threatened judgment just. The divine response in verses 9–13 demonstrates both God's righteous anger at covenant-breaking and his covenant faithfulness to David, as the conditional and unconditional elements of the Davidic covenant together shape the coming division of the kingdom. Eight practical warnings are drawn from Solomon's fall, all converging on the believer's utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit as the only safeguard against apostasy.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 14
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30) is Christ's definition of watchfulness: not passive waiting for the Son of Man's return, but diligent, faithful stewardship of whatever the Master has entrusted. The sermon expounds the three servants in turn, establishing that talents are distributed according to God's sovereign wisdom rather than merit, that faithfulness rather than quantity of output determines commendation, and that the one-talent servant's condemnation flows directly from a defective doctrine of God. The central application is that justification by faith alone is never a license for inactivity — those truly justified will evidence it by serving the Master's interests in light of His coming.
1 Kings 10
1 Kings 10 presents the glory of Solomon's reign through the Queen of Sheba's visit and the narrator's account of surpassing wealth and wisdom, yet it casts the shadow of Deuteronomy 17's prohibitions for kings over the entire scene. The chapter functions as a hinge: Solomon's prosperity is a genuine answer to his prayer in 1 Kings 3 and a display of God's faithfulness, but the accumulation of gold, horses, and chariots foreshadows the apostasy detailed in chapter 11. Typologically, the pagan queen's pilgrimage and the conferral of gifts upon Israel's king anticipate the nations streaming to Christ, whom Matthew 12 identifies as greater than Solomon. The sermon calls hearers to receive God's material gifts with gratitude and joy rather than guilt, and to marvel that the one greater than Solomon stands among us without pomp or gold.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 13
Matthew 25:1–13, the Parable of the Ten Virgins, confronts every professing Christian with a single urgent question: are you genuinely prepared to meet the returning bridegroom, or merely carrying a torch with no oil? The sermon works through the parable's three movements — the expectation, the delay, and the arrival of the bridegroom — arguing that wise and foolish in Matthew's Gospel denote real versus nominal faith, not intellectual capacity. Preparedness for Christ's return cannot be borrowed from another person's faith, transferred through family religion, or deferred to a more convenient season; it is a matter of personal possession of Christ by grace through faith. Hearers are called to examine whether their profession is backed by genuine, persevering possession of the Lord Jesus, and to flee to the bridegroom before the door is shut.
The Fear of God
Proverbs 1:7 declares that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, yet this disposition is widely misunderstood and neglected among professing Christians. This topical survey distinguishes slavish fear from filial fear, demonstrates from Romans 3, Jeremiah 32, and the book of Proverbs that true fear of God is a gracious implantation sovereignly worked in the regenerate soul, and traces its necessary effects on the mind, the conduct, and the perseverance of believers. The sermon closes by calling both individual believers and the corporate assembly to cultivate this fear — in personal holiness, in theological engagement, and in God-directed, regulative-principle worship.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 12
Matthew 24:45–51 closes the first section of practical application in the Olivet Discourse with a parable of two servants: one faithful, one wicked. The parable's central question — 'Who then is a faithful and wise servant?' — is designed to arrest the conscience and promote eschatological self-examination. Watchfulness for Christ's return is not idle sky-gazing but active fidelity in one's God-appointed vocation, whether pastoral ministry or ordinary daily labor. The wicked servant's ruin flows directly from his denial of the master's return, a pattern the sermon presses against both unbelievers and professing Christians living as practical atheists.
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 Olivet Discourse, Part 11
Matthew 24:36–44 presents Jesus's declaration that no one — not even the angels, nor the Son according to his human nature — knows the day or hour of the coming judgment, followed by the analogy of Noah's generation and the illustration of the thief in the night. The sermon works through a contested exegetical question: whether 'that day' in verse 36 refers to the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem or to the final second coming, concluding that the hortatory application holds on either reading. Central to the exposition is a careful defense of the hypostatic union — Christ's genuine ignorance according to his humanity is not a denial of his divinity but a necessary consequence of the incarnation. The controlling exhortation is watchfulness: not withdrawal from ordinary life, but faithfulness, preparedness, and diligence under the conscious reality that God is near and will judge the living and the dead.
The One Thing Needful
Luke 10:38–42 presents two sisters whose contrasting responses to Christ's presence expose a perennial danger for every believer: allowing lawful, even godly, activity to crowd out the one thing needful. The sermon works through the difference between Martha's distracted service and Mary's devoted hearing, establishing that Christ's commendation of Mary is not a commendation of monasticism but of right priority — the kingdom of God and communion with Christ must govern the believer's ordering of life. Drawn from the parallel teaching of Matthew 6 and Luke 12, five consequences of carnal anxiety are identified, and the congregation is exhorted to repent of marginalizing Christ from the daily calendar and to attend faithfully to both the corporate preaching and the private reading of God's Word.
1 Kings 7
The construction details of 1 Kings 7 — Solomon's palace complex and the bronze furnishings of the temple — press the reader toward several theological lessons: that the worship of God takes priority over earthly government, that all skilled labour done to God's glory is honoured in Scripture, that the twin pillars Jachin and Boaz are theological sentinels declaring Yahweh's promise and power, and that the preparation and splendour of the temple calls every generation to approach God with reverence rather than casualness. The sermon traces these lessons through the chapter's three main sections — Solomon's palace, the craftsman Hiram, and the temple's furnishings — while drawing on Proverbs, Ephesians, and 1 Thessalonians to ground a doctrine of faithful ordinary vocation. The controlling warning comes from 1 Kings 6:11–13: external religious magnificence means nothing without the obedience of the heart.
The Seventh Commandment
The seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery' (Deuteronomy 5:18), is neither a narrow prohibition of one act nor a relic of Mosaic theocracy — it is the summary of God's creational design for sexual integrity, binding on all people in every age because it reflects the law first written on Adam's heart and confirmed throughout both Testaments. This exposition examines the basis of the commandment (God's law, the purposes of marriage, and the severity of its sanctions), then moves through ten specific sins the commandment forbids, from adultery and fornication to pornography and unlawful divorce. The three uses of the law are applied: the civil use demands that governing authorities punish gross sexual sin; the pedagogical use drives sinners to confess their guilt before a holy God; and the normative use calls believers to active mortification of sexual sin, the faithful practice of biblical marriage, and close communion with God as the surest guard against violating the second table.
The Preeminence of Christ
John 3:22–30 records John the Baptist's final official testimony concerning Christ, and in it the preeminent greatness of a man whose greatness lay entirely in his humility. Confronted by disciples troubled that Jesus was drawing larger crowds, John offers four responses grounded in God's sovereignty: the origin of his ministry was from heaven, its purpose was always to announce the Messiah, his joy was fulfilled precisely when the bridegroom's voice was heard, and Christ must increase while he must decrease. The sermon applies this pattern to every believer, arguing that humility is not directly cultivated but is the byproduct of being increasingly occupied with Christ, and that the cross is the only path to that self-forgetful life.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is examined as a biblical mandate rooted in the sanctity of human life as image-bearers of God, tracing the consistent teaching of Scripture from Genesis 9:6 through Romans 13:1–4. The sermon argues that the Noahic covenant establishes civil government's God-given authority to execute murderers, an authority confirmed rather than overturned in the New Testament. Common objections — from the sixth commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, the woman caught in adultery, and concerns about deterrence and salvation — are answered exegetically. Believers are called to submit to governing authorities as God's ministers of wrath, to pray the imprecatory psalms, and to reject both personal vengeance and the sentimental rejection of God's revealed standard of justice.
The Bible and Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a direct biblical address to the ethics of abortion, situating the text within the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder and the broader biblical witness to the sanctity of human life from conception to death. The sermon argues that the Hebrew vocabulary of the passage — the language of childbirth rather than miscarriage — establishes that God's law affords protection, including capital sanction, to pre-born image-bearers of God. The image of God in man, displayed across every stage of human life from Genesis to James, grounds the absolute moral prohibition of abortion and exposes the moral bankruptcy of societies and churches that disregard it. Hearers are called to informed prayer, faithful proclamation of the law, sexual purity, and confidence in the sufficiency of Christ's blood to forgive even this sin.
Of Creation (2LBCF)
The doctrine of creation as confessed in chapter 4 of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LBCF) establishes that the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — created all things ex nihilo in the space of six literal days, for the primary purpose of manifesting His own glory. Man was made in the image of God, constituted as a dichotomous being (body and soul), endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, and placed under a probationary covenant arrangement that sets the stage for all subsequent redemptive history. This session surveys all three paragraphs of the chapter — the overview of creation, the creation of man, and the probation of man — before drawing out ethical implications concerning vocation, the sanctity of human life, marriage, gender, and the rejection of Gnosticism in all its forms.
The Riches and the Poverty of Christ
Second Corinthians 8:9 presents the incarnation of the eternal Son as the supreme theological ground for Christian generosity: though he was rich in essential deity, Christ became poor by addition — taking on humanity — that his people through his poverty might become rich. The sermon exposits the riches of Christ in his divine nature and the poverty of Christ in his state of humiliation, drawing on the Chalcedonian definition of the hypostatic union as articulated in the 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 8. Doctrinal appropriation of Christology is shown to be the indispensable spring of practical Christian living, including sacrificial giving, mortification of sin, and love within the home.
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.
The Prohibition Against Judgmentalism
Matthew 7:1–5 contains not a universal ban on discernment but a precise prohibition against the censorious, fault-finding spirit that delights in the shortcomings of others. Working through three movements — the prohibition itself, Christ's explanation of its consequence, and the plank-and-speck illustration — the sermon establishes that judgmentalism is a serious sin condemned by Christ on the Mount, one attended by self-righteousness, a lack of charity, and a practical denial of remaining corruption in oneself. The application calls believers to seek the Spirit's influence, apply biblical law evenhandedly, pursue humility, and let the cross be the death knell of self-righteousness.
1 Kings 3
Solomon's opening of his reign in 1 Kings 3 presents two defining realities: the prayer in which a young king, conscious of his own inadequacy, asks God not for riches or long life but for wisdom to govern God's people justly, and the verdict over the two harlots that publicly demonstrates the divine wisdom God poured out upon him. The structure of Solomon's prayer — beginning with praise for God's covenant faithfulness to David and Abraham before petitioning — is held up as a pattern for Christian prayer, in which rehearsing God's past faithfulness becomes the basis of present confidence. Solomon's request is set in deliberate contrast to the self-serving instincts of ordinary rulers, pointing forward typologically to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and who is the greater Solomon the text anticipates.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 13, 2016 AM
Philippians 2:5-11 is examined as an ancient Christian hymn to Christ as God, a text pagan sources confirm the early church sang before dawn in defiance of Roman pressure. The sermon focuses on the opening exordium — 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus' — establishing that Paul sets Christ forth as the supreme example of humility not as a mere moral model but as the redeemer whose condescension from glory to the cross is the only sufficient ground and motivation for the lowliness of mind that produces genuine church unity. Three qualifications govern how Christ is used as example: he is not primarily an example, Christians are to imitate his disposition rather than duplicate his saving work, and this exhortation is addressed to those already saved by grace, not as a path to salvation. The sermon closes with a direct call to unbelievers to confess Christ before that voluntary confession becomes a coerced one at the final judgment.
The Hymn to Christ as to God
Philippians 2:5–11, known in scholarly and devotional tradition as a hymn to Christ as to God, opens a series of expository studies through one of the most concentrated christological passages in the New Testament. This sermon establishes the exhortation's context within the letter to the Philippians — a message of thanksgiving and rejoicing addressed to a church facing external persecution but inward temptation toward pride and disunity — and then examines the exordium of verse 5: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' Three qualifications govern the use of Christ as example: He is not only nor primarily an example, Christians are called to imitate His disposition rather than duplicate His saving work, and this lowliness of mind is not the pathway to salvation but the characteristic mark of those already saved by grace through faith. The sermon closes with a direct call to humility modeled on Christ's condescension and an evangelistic summons to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before that day when every knee shall bow in judgment.
Hebrews 13:3
Hebrews 13:3 commands believers to 'remember the prisoners as if chained with them' — not merely to recall that persecuted saints exist, but to remember them with a view to action, prayer, and tangible aid. This study traces the command through its immediate context of brotherly love (Hebrews 13:1-3), the Old and New Testament witness to the normalcy of suffering for the cause of Christ, and the reasons why remembering persecuted believers is both a duty and an expression of the church's solidarity in one body. The practical application presses the congregation to move beyond apathy toward the persecuted church through prayer, correspondence, giving, visitation, and the conscious redirecting of attention away from self toward those who suffer for the name of Christ.
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.
1 Kings 1:28-53
1 Kings 1:28–53 records Solomon's anointing at Gihon, the collapse of Adonijah's attempted coup, and Solomon's act of clemency toward his defeated rival. The passage is examined under three considerations: the choice of Solomon (David's sworn oath and instructions), the coronation of Solomon (its comprehensive royal, divine, military, and popular approval), and the concern regarding Solomon (the rebels' fear and Adonijah's flight to the altar). Throughout, David is shown as a man animated by zeal for God's kingdom rather than personal ambition, pointing forward to the greater Son of David who rules over the kings of the earth.
The Works of the Flesh
Galatians 5:19–21 presents a vice list Paul calls 'the works of the flesh,' catalogued here under four headings: sins of the flesh (adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness), sins of religious apostasy (idolatry, sorcery, heresy), sins against personal relationships (hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, envy, murder), and sins of intemperance (drunkenness, revelries). The sermon distinguishes between remaining corruption — the ongoing struggle common to every justified believer — and reigning corruption, the habitual, unrepentant practice that characterises the unregenerate and excludes from the kingdom of God. Drawing on the Westminster Larger Catechism, Calvin, and Perkins, the preacher grounds each vice in the moral law and closes with a double summons: believers who have fallen into these sins are to repent and seek forgiveness through the blood of Christ; unbelievers are to see in the law their need for the Saviour.
1 Kings 1:1-27
Adonijah's brazen self-installation as king over Israel — in defiance of David's sworn oath that Solomon would succeed him — exposes the dangers of undisciplined character, unqualified leadership, and a kingdom whose security rests ultimately not on any human actor but on the sovereign hand of God. Expounding 1 Kings 1:1–27 under three headings — David's declining health, Adonijah's ambitious self-exaltation, and Nathan's faithful intervention — the study draws sharp typological lines back through Absalom and Saul to press a recurring biblical principle: God does not select leaders by outward appearance but by the fear of Yahweh and obedience to His word. The closing application calls hearers to trust that King Jesus steadies His church through every threat, to insist on genuinely qualified leadership, and to take seriously the parental duty of discipline as a form of love.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 9, 2016 PM
Psalm 103 calls the people of God to bless the Lord with the totality of their redeemed humanity — not a part, not occasionally, but with all that is within them. The sermon expounds David's three-part structure: the reminder to bless God (vv. 1–2), the reasons to bless God drawn from his benefits both received and given (vv. 3–18), and the recognition of God's sovereign kingdom as the ground of universal praise (vv. 19–22). Throughout, the mercy of God is placed under the microscope — shown to be infinite, thorough, tender, sympathetic, and enduring — so that gratitude, not grumbling, becomes the defining disposition of those who have been forgiven all their iniquities through the blood of Christ.
Thanksgiving for the Mercy of God
Psalm 103 calls the redeemed sinner to bless God with the totality of his being, and to resist the ingrained tendency to forget the Lord's benefits. This expository sermon works through the psalm's three movements: David's self-directed reminder to bless God (vv. 1–2), the reasons that fuel that blessing — the gifts received, their recipients, and above all the character of the Giver whose mercy is infinite, thorough, tender, and enduring (vv. 3–18) — and the recognition of God's sovereign kingdom that widens the summons to bless into a universal chorus (vv. 19–22). The sermon closes with five applications showing that thanksgiving is not an annual posture but the daily disposition of every soul that has tasted the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 18, 2016 PM
Second Samuel 23:1–39 records the last words of David and the roster of his mighty men — warriors whose exploits are attributed not to raw human ability but to Yahweh's gift of victory. The sermon draws four observations from the passage: the divine power behind the three elite warriors (vv. 8–12), the sacrificial devotion of the three unnamed men who fetched water from Bethlehem (vv. 13–17), the notable exploits of Abashai and Benaiah (vv. 18–38), and the sobering reminder of David's sin in the final mention of Uriah the Hittite (v. 39). The Uriah reference serves a double function: it grounds David's success entirely in the grace of God, and it drives the reader forward to the greater Son of David — the Lord Jesus Christ — who alone rules with untainted justice, righteousness, and perfection.