Topic
Christian Living
1,140 sermons · All topics
The Warning Concerning the Religious Leaders
Matthew 23:1–12 presents Jesus' warning to the crowds and disciples concerning the scribes and Pharisees, exposing the pride that drives hypocrisy, legalism, religious show, and self-exaltation. Jesus affirms the scribes' and Pharisees' office insofar as they teach the law of Moses accurately, yet condemns their practice as utterly contrary to that law. He then calls his disciples to a thoroughgoing humility, grounding it in the sole authority and teachership of Christ and the brotherhood of all believers. The sermon applies this to every form of spiritual performance — from social media piety to celebrity pastor culture — and summons the unconverted to the easy yoke of Christ.
Of the Church (2LCF 26.13)
The conduct required of an offended church member, and the proper interpretation of Matthew 7:1–6 in relation to church discipline, stand at the center of this study of 2LCF 26.13. The confession forbids the offended party from absenting themselves from worship or disturbing church order while awaiting the church's further proceeding, and calls them instead to wait upon Christ. Matthew 7:1–6 is not a blanket prohibition against all judgment but a condemnation of the censorious, nitpicking, fault-finding spirit that disregards the law of God and one's own sin. The sermon closes with the exhortation to remove the plank of self-righteous censoriousness before seeking to help a brother with his speck.
2 Samuel 12:1-14
Nathan's confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12:1–14 exposes the anatomy of sin, judgment, and grace in the covenant dealings of God with His king. The parable of the ewe lamb springs the trap of conscience, the indictment rehearses the goodness God had lavished on David before his fall, and the consequences announced — a sword that would not depart from his house — demonstrate that divine forgiveness does not abolish temporal chastisement. The two-word confession 'I have sinned against the Lord' and Nathan's immediate assurance 'the Lord also has put away your sin' together illustrate that atonement is the exclusive work of Christ, not the product of the sinner's anguish or penance.
The Christian Mother
Proverbs 31:28–30 presents the virtuous woman as one whose fear of Yahweh is the foundation and fountainhead of her entire life and household ministry. This sermon examines the Christian mother under four heads — her spiritual condition, her influence, her authority, and her responsibility — grounding each in the covenantal structure of Scripture from Proverbs, the Pentateuch, and the New Testament. The fear of the Lord is not natural to fallen humanity; it is a gracious work of God that produces practical godliness, and the mother who walks in that fear becomes the most powerful human instrument in the formation and potential salvation of her children. Husbands are called to praise such wives, children to rise up and bless such mothers, and every believer to measure the worth of a woman not by charm or beauty but by her reverent trust in God.
2 Samuel 11
2 Samuel 11 records David's descent from idleness into adultery with Bathsheba and premeditated murder of Uriah the Hittite. The narrative's deliberate pacing and ironic contrasts expose David functioning as a lawless pagan king while Uriah — a foreign-born mighty man — embodies covenantal integrity. The study traces three movements: the sin itself, the escalating cover-up, and the divine verdict, warning that sin's hardening deceitfulness compounds rather than resolves itself, and that standing against temptation depends not on willpower but solely on the grace of God.
Of the Church (2LCF 26.12-13)
Church discipline is not the invention of elders or ecclesiastical tradition but the revealed mind of Christ, set forth in Matthew 18:15-17 and grounded in the covenantal logic of church membership. This session of a confession study on 2LCF Chapter 26 walks through the escalating steps of discipline — private confrontation, the introduction of witnesses, and the appeal to the whole church — demonstrating that each step is designed for the recovery of the offender, not his destruction. The session concludes by addressing the implications of the final step of excommunication: what it means to treat a man as a heathen and tax collector, whether he may still attend worship, and how the confession itself provides redress when church authority is abused.
The Whole Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10–18 calls believers to put on the whole armor of God — not for ceremonial display but for genuine hand-to-hand combat against principalities, powers, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness. The armor is not native to the believer but is provided entirely through union with Christ: truth, imputed righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation constitute the defensive elements, while the Word of God is the offensive sword. The sermon argues that the Christian life is a lifelong fight requiring daily, persevering diligence — not passive rest — and closes by urging both believers and unbelievers to recognize that lasting victory over sin is possible only through the blood of atonement and the grace of the triune God.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 24, 2016 AM
Matthew 7:13–27 closes the Sermon on the Mount with four pressing contrasts — two gates, two trees, two professions, and two builders — each calling hearers not merely to receive information but to act upon the words of Christ. The reading and exposition press the distinction between nominal profession and true faith: those who cry 'Lord, Lord' and point to their own works are cast away, while those who do the Father's will are shown by the rest of Scripture to be those who believe the gospel. The application is direct — to build on sand is to hear Christ's words and refuse them, and the only safe foundation is faith in what Christ has accomplished.
The Kindness Shown to Mephibosheth
David's covenant with Jonathan, sealed decades before 2 Samuel 9, drives him to seek out Mephibosheth — a lame, fearful descendant of his enemy Saul — and lavish upon him protection, restored inheritance, and a permanent seat at the royal table. The Hebrew word hesed (covenant faithfulness, steadfast love) names a kindness that goes far beyond bare duty, and David's exercise of it toward an unworthy enemy typifies the grace that Christ, David's greater Son, bestows upon helpless, ungodly sinners. The sermon presses two practical conclusions: covenant promises are perpetually binding regardless of changed circumstances or the passage of time, and the grace received from God must become grace poured out toward others.
2 Samuel 10
2 Samuel 10 records David's embassy of covenantal kindness to Hanun of Ammon, its shameful rejection, and the subsequent wars with the Ammonite-Syrian coalition. The chapter functions as the literary backdrop for the David-Bathsheba-Uriah narrative of chapters 11–12, while also foreshadowing David as a type of Christ in his kindness to enemies and in the nations' rebellion against the Lord's anointed. The theological high point comes unexpectedly from Joab, whose battle-cry — 'May the Lord do what is good in His sight' — models sovereign-trust that holds together confident faith in God's promises with humble uncertainty about the specific means of His providence, a pattern the sermon applies to the Christian life through Romans 8:28.
The Warning and Report
Paul closes his final letter by warning Timothy against Alexander the coppersmith, whose opposition was directed not against Paul personally but against the Word of God, and by giving a theologically ordered account of his own imprisonment. The sermon traces how Paul's confidence in God's retributive justice, his experience of the Lord's present strengthening, and his certainty of future heavenly preservation together produce doxology rather than complaint. Seven marks of Paul's apostolic character — vigilance for God's Word, concern for the church, dependence on the Lord, worship, care for friends, hope for glory, and faithful ministry to the end — are set before the congregation as a pattern for gospel ministers and the church alike. The primary application is that faithful proclamation of God's truth, not celebrity or popularity, is what God requires of his ministers.
The Covering of Sin
Proverbs 28:13 presents both the ruin of the one who covers sin and the mercy awaiting the one who confesses and forsakes it. This exposition works through the problem of sin-covering under four heads — the scriptural assumptions behind it, biblical examples of it, the various means sinners employ to conceal transgression, and the cursed result in this age and the age to come. The solution is penitential faith in Christ alone: genuine confession lays the hand on the great sacrifice, and true forsaking proves the sincerity of that confession. Believers and unbelievers alike are called to stop concealing sin and to cast themselves upon the mercy of God, which is the only covering that satisfies divine justice.
2 Samuel 9
David's covenant faithfulness to Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 illuminates two doctrines: the binding nature of covenant obligation and the typological relationship between David and his greater Son, Jesus Christ. The Hebrew word hesed — covenant love that exceeds the bare requirements of duty — governs David's intention and execution of kindness toward a lame, vulnerable enemy of the throne, and serves as a shadow of the gospel wherein Christ protects, provides for, and grants position to those who are insignificant, unworthy, and hostile. The sermon calls hearers to faithful covenant-keeping in marriage, parenting, and every solemn promise, and to marvel that believers, like Mephibosheth, eat continually at the king's table by grace alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 10, 2016 PM
Paul's final personal requests in 2 Timothy 4:9–13 reveal the apostle's heart in his last imprisonment: his longing for Christian fellowship, his grief over Demas's love of the present world, his gracious restoration of John Mark, and his practical wisdom in calling for a cloak and books. The sermon presses hearers to value the assembling of the saints, to guard against worldliness, to refuse to hold grudges against those who have stumbled, and to follow Paul's example of tireless gospel strategizing even in the eleventh hour.
Of the Church (2LCF 26.12)
Church membership is not an optional preference for believers but a biblical obligation that makes church discipline both possible and meaningful. This exposition of 2LCF 26.12 establishes church membership as the prerequisite to all formal discipline, then works through Matthew 18:15 to show how private confrontation — grounded in Leviticus 19:17 and shaped by love, humility, and a commitment to God's law rather than personal preference — is the first and foundational step in recovering an offending brother. The sermon closes with practical counsel on the disposition required of both the offended and the offender, calling every church member to deal faithfully with sin rather than avoiding, broadcasting, or bitterly nursing it.
The Visit, the Cloak, and the Books
Paul's final personal requests to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:9–13 — the urgent summons to visit, the cloak left at Troas, and the books and parchments — reveal the interior life of an apostle facing death in a Roman prison. Three lessons emerge: the indispensable value of Christian fellowship, the forgiving and forward-looking spirit that reconciled Paul to John Mark, and the bookish, industrious mind that turned a prison cell into a command post for gospel strategy. The passage calls God's people to crave Christian communion, to refuse grudge-bearing, and to read widely for the service of Christ.
The Hope of the Resurrection
Paul's closing words in 2 Timothy 4:6–8 set before the church three interlocking realities: his present situation as a condemned man being poured out as a drink offering, his past perseverance across the full course of Christian warfare, and his future hope — the crown of righteousness awarded by the righteous Judge on the day of resurrection. The sermon argues that the resurrection hope is not a passive consolation but the very engine of faithful Christian living: Paul fought, ran, and kept not as an ascetic but because of the surpassing worth of Christ and the certainty of what awaits. Believers are exhorted to examine whether they are presently fighting, running, and keeping — for what is said in the eleventh hour can only be said because of what was done faithfully in hours one through ten.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 20, 2016 PM
Hebrews 4:16 invites believers to approach God in prayer with boldness — not a boldness rooted in the fervency or volume of one's own devotion, but a confidence grounded entirely in the finished priestly work of Christ. The sermon works through five headings in the verse: the simple exhortation to come, the christological basis for that coming (the exaltation and sympathy of the great High Priest), the nature of the boldness required, the object of approach (the throne of grace), and the timely mercy and grace promised there. The application presses believers to use prayer as a God-ordained means of grace, especially in seasons of peculiar weakness, assured that their warrant before God is Christ's doing and dying — not the temperature of their own hearts.
The Sadducees and the Resurrection
Matthew 22:23–33 records the Sadducees' attempt to discredit the doctrine of the resurrection by posing an elaborate riddle drawn from the Mosaic Levirate law, only to be silenced by Christ's twofold demonstration that they were ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of God. Jesus first exposes the false premise of the riddle by revealing a genuine discontinuity between this age and the age to come — in the resurrection there is no marriage, no procreation, and believers will be like the angels in their service to God. He then validates the resurrection from the Sadducees' own canon, the Torah, showing from Exodus 3:6 that God's present-tense covenant relation with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves they were still living. Hearers are called not merely to marvel at Christ's wisdom but to forsake every rationalised objection to Christianity and believe on the Lord Jesus, in whom the covenant of life stands too strong to be terminated by death.
Colossians 1:10-14
Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:9–14 reveals what the apostle considered most essential for the people of God: not merely physical welfare, but a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. This study works through the four participial phrases of verses 10–14 — fruitfulness in good works, growth in the knowledge of God, God-wrought patience and long-suffering with joy, and thankfulness — showing how each flows from being filled with the knowledge of God's will. The practical challenge is double: to pray for others in the manner Paul prays, and to examine honestly whether one's own life resembles what Paul prays for.
Of the Church (2LCF 26)
The doctrine of the church, ecclesiology, is inseparable from every other locus of Christian theology: the doctrine of God, Scripture, Christ, and salvation all converge in what the church is and how it is ordered. This session walks through all fifteen paragraphs of 2LCF Chapter 26, tracing a threefold outline — the universal (Catholic) church, Christ as sole head, and the local church — while marking the distinctives of Baptist ecclesiology over against Presbyterian and Episcopalian forms. The governing conviction throughout is that the church is constituted by believers alone, is called and preserved by Christ through Word and Spirit, and is ordered by his appointment for mutual edification, the due administration of ordinances, and the proclamation of the gospel to the world.
The Question Concerning Taxes
Matthew 22:15–22 records a trap laid by an unlikely coalition of Pharisees and Herodians who sought to impale Jesus on the horns of a political dilemma: endorse the Roman poll tax and alienate the Jewish populace, or reject it and face a capital charge of sedition. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, turns their own coin against them, and delivers one of the most compressed and consequential ethical statements in all of Scripture: 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' The sermon works through the parties, the plan, and the particulars of the question before drawing out the doctrine of two distinct but overlapping spheres of authority — civil and divine — showing that Caesar's jurisdiction is real but bounded, while God's claim on his image-bearers is total and is met only through faith in Christ.
The Final Charge to Timothy, Part 1
Paul's final formal charge to the church, delivered through Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1–2, consists of a solemn charge and a specific command: preach the Word. The solemnity of the charge is grounded in the presence of the triune God as divine audience and in the coming judgment of Christ over the living and the dead, which simultaneously weighs on the minister who handles the Word and on the people who will one day stand before God. The command itself, rooted in the image of the herald (Greek kēryx), demands faithful proclamation of the Word — not creative substitutes, not life-coaching, not entertainment — through conviction, rebuke, exhortation, longsuffering, and teaching. The sermon closes with a call for biblical preachers, biblical preaching, and biblical hearers, arguing that the church's abandonment of the pulpit is the root of her contemporary crisis.
Of Marriage (2LCF 25.1-4)
What does Scripture teach about the nature, purposes, and lawful boundaries of marriage? Working through 2LCF Chapter 25, paragraphs 1–4, this study defends the confessional definition of marriage as a monogamous, heterosexual, lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, instituted by God at creation before the fall. The three divine purposes of marriage — companionship, procreation, and conjugal relations — are grounded in Genesis 1–2, and the lawful parties are examined with particular attention to the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. The session closes with practical counsel on the dignity of marriage, the responsibility it entails, and the discriminating wisdom required of those who would pursue it.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 14, 2016 AM
The Apostle Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-2 envisions what this sermon calls 'the long crimson line' — a generational chain of gospel ministry stretching from God's eternal purpose, through the apostles, through faithful ministers, and forward to the next generation until Christ returns. The sermon traces a fivefold pattern: from heaven to Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others who will teach, arguing that this chain is entirely the work of God and not of human initiative. Every member of the church is called to participate — through prayer, identification of gifted men, personal encouragement, and financial support — so that faithful men will be raised up to preach the same pattern of sound words to coming generations.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 7, 2016 AM
John 20:30-31 contains the Gospel of John's own purpose statement: these things were written that readers might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in his name. The sermon examines two realities arising from this statement — first, that God's revelation is deliberate and purposive, disclosing not everything but precisely what is needed for salvation; second, that this revelation is radically Christ-centered, presenting Jesus as the fulfillment of every Old Testament office (prophet, priest, and king) and the sole source of both present spiritual life and eternal life in the age to come. Hearers are called to move from mere doctrinal apprehension to adoration — from theological affirmation to Thomas's confession, 'My Lord and my God' — and those outside of Christ are warned that rejecting so glorious a Savior is the height of human folly.
The Usefulness of Scripture
Paul's claim in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable is examined across four categories of usefulness — doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness — before turning to Scripture's specific function in completing and thoroughly equipping the man of God for every good work. The sermon challenges the anti-doctrinal sentiment prevalent in contemporary evangelicalism, arguing that indifference to biblical doctrine is indifference to God himself. Ministers in particular are shown to be completed not by leadership models or charismatic gifts but by deep saturation in the word of God. The hearer is called to approach Scripture not as a duty to discharge but as a daily feast — mining its treasures with diligence and gratitude.
Of the Civil Magistrate (2LCF 24)
Civil government is not a social convention or mere human compact but a divinely instituted ordinance answerable to God Most High — and that divine origin is simultaneously the source of its authority and the boundary of its competence. This study of 2LCF Chapter 24 works through three paragraphs: the nature, purpose, and power of the magistrate (including the sword and capital punishment); the lawfulness of Christian participation in government against Anabaptist objections; and the Christian's duties of submission and intercession toward civil rulers. The abiding application is that Christians must neither deify the state nor abandon it, but submit to it in all lawful things, resist it when it commands sin, and pray for the conversion and restraint of those who govern.
2 Samuel 3:22-39
The assassination of Abner by Joab in 2 Samuel 3:22–39 exposes the destructive power of envy and selfish ambition, contrasted with David's careful maintenance of covenant integrity and political innocence. Joab's murder of Abner — motivated not only by a desire to avenge his brother Asahel but by fear that Abner's rise would diminish his own standing — illustrates Calvin's warning that ambition is the most mortal evil that can befall the church. David's public mourning, fivefold curse upon Joab, and lament over Abner are examined as covenantal and diplomatic acts flowing from genuine righteousness rather than self-interest. The passage calls believers to guard their own hearts against the same envy and selfishness visible in these ancient figures, and to take encouragement that God builds his kingdom through and despite such human wickedness.
Free Grace Baptist Church - January 10, 2016 PM
Philippians 3:1–11 presents a threefold encouragement: a charge to rejoice in Christ, a reminder of the spiritual bankruptcy of all fleshly credentials, and a declaration of the surpassing spiritual wealth found in Christ's righteousness alone. The sermon exposes the Judaizing error of mingling works with justification, showing that Paul's own exemplary religious pedigree counted as rubbish when set against the righteousness received through faith in Christ. Justification gives the believer a title to heaven; sanctification, powered by the resurrection, conforms the believer progressively to Christ's image until glorification completes it. The hearer is called to rejoice as a Kingdom citizen, walking in the righteousness not their own that Christ has secured.