Topic
Covenant Theology
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Livestream - Baptism: Pete Visscher
What distinguishes the New Covenant from the Old, and why does that distinction determine who should be baptized? Preaching through Hebrews 8, this sermon argues that the New Covenant is categorically superior to the Old: it is unbreakable, it internalizes the law of God in the heart, it secures the saving knowledge of God for all its members, and it guarantees the forgiveness of sins as an essential rather than incidental feature. Because every member of the New Covenant possesses these realities by grace, baptism belongs exclusively to those who give credible evidence of faith and repentance — not to those who are merely externally connected to a covenant community, as was possible under the Old Covenant administration.
The Superiority of the New Covenant
Hebrews 8 presents Christ as the minister of the true heavenly tabernacle and the mediator of a new covenant that is categorically superior to the Mosaic economy. The old covenant was not defective in its essence but in its inability to justify and renew fallen humanity, and its breakability exposed the fatal flaw of any covenant whose continuance depended on human fidelity. The new covenant, announced in Jeremiah 31 and now realized in Christ, is unbreakable, writes God's law on the heart, grants saving knowledge of God to all its members, and secures the full remission of sins — four blessings that belong essentially, not accidentally, to every member of the covenant. Because membership in the new covenant is defined by these regenerate characteristics, believers' baptism by immersion is the only covenant sign consistent with new covenant theology.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 29, 2019 PM
Hosea 11:1–11 sets before us the indictment of Israel as a wicked, ungrateful son who responded to the Father's covenant love with relentless idolatry, earning the just sentence of Assyrian exile. Yet the passage turns on the sovereign mercy of God, whose holy love — not Israel's repentance — is the sole ground of restoration. The sermon traces the typological arc from the Exodus through the exile to Matthew 2:15, arguing that Jesus Christ is the true Israel, the obedient Son called out of Egypt, who absorbs the exile his people deserve and so secures their passage through the final judgment. The application is that false worship earns the displeasure of a holy God, while those who cling to Christ alone — justified by his merits, not their own — shall never be handed over.
The Covenant with David
The Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:1–17 is a sovereign promise by God to David that a seed from his line will establish an eternal kingdom — a promise that cannot be annulled by death, destroyed by sin, or exhausted by time. The sermon traces the historical background of the covenant (the ark's wandering, God's presence with his pilgrim people, David's own rise from the sheepfold), then unfolds the triple meaning of 'house' — physical dwelling, dynastic succession, and temple — showing that God's answer to David's desire to build for him is instead to build a dynasty for David. Covenant theology frames the whole: the Davidic covenant is not a new or separate covenant of grace but a further discovery of the one covenant purpose moving from Genesis 3:15 through Abraham and David to its full realization in the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David who now reigns over a kingdom without end. The sermon closes with Jeremiah 23:5–6 — the Lord our righteousness — pressing hearers to rest in Christ's imputed righteousness as the ground of their entry into that everlasting kingdom.
The Incarnation of the Word
John 1:14 declares that the eternal Word — the second person of the Trinity, who was in the beginning with God and was God — became flesh and dwelt among men. This sermon expounds the incarnation under two heads: first, the identity and reality of the Word taking on true humanity (the hypostatic union of two complete natures in one person), and second, the glory of that Word as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnation is shown to be the indispensable ground of redemption — whatever is not assumed is not redeemed — and sinners are urged to flee to a mediator who is full, not miserly, in grace and truth.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 6
Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch reaches its practical climax in Acts 13:38–43, where he preaches forgiveness of sins and justification by faith alone — two distinct yet inseparable blessings secured by Christ's active and passive obedience. The law of Moses cannot justify; it can only expose the sinner's inability and drive him to Christ, in whom every believer is declared righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness received through faith alone. Paul's warning from Habakkuk 1:5 presses the point home: to despise this gospel is to invite a judgment more severe than the Babylonian captivity. The sermon closes by tracing the same doctrine of justification through the vision of Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3, and exhorts believers to continue in the grace of God as the only ground of perseverance.
The Fourth Commandment, Part 3
Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2 are frequently cited as evidence that no special day of worship remains for the people of God, but a careful exegesis of each passage shows they address Jewish ceremonial observances and food laws — not the moral, Decalogical Sabbath. The argument of Romans 14 concerns Christian liberty in matters of diet and ethnic calendar practices, not the abrogation of the Lord's Day; Galatians 4 condemns the Judaizing of salvation by attaching religious merit to ceremonial observances; and Colossians 2:16-17 targets the 'sabbaths' that functioned as shadows alongside new moons and festivals — a grouping the Old Testament itself consistently distinguishes from the weekly Sabbath. The Christian Sabbath, grounded in creation, codified at Sinai, prophesied for the new covenant era, and transposed by Christ's resurrection to the first day of the week, remains binding on the people of God — kept not as a means of justification but as a fruit of it.
Genesis 36
Genesis 36 presents the genealogy of Esau (Edom), a passage easily dismissed as a bare list of names. This study examines why Moses inserts this extended genealogy at the precise hinge between the narrative of Isaac and the narrative of Jacob, arguing that it serves as a demonstration of divine faithfulness: God fulfilled every promise made to the non-elect son — nationhood, territorial blessing, and temporal prosperity — which grounds the believer's confidence that His covenant promises to the elect will be no less certainly realized. The contrast between Esau's temporal inheritance and Jacob's spiritual and eternal inheritance sharpens the distinction between common providence and saving grace, and the goodness God shows even to the reprobate is intended to lead sinners to repentance.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 8, 2019 PM
The fourth commandment's Sabbath obligation does not terminate at the cross but continues in the New Covenant, transferred from Saturday to Sunday on the basis of Christ's resurrection and the theology of Hebrews 4. Working through the ministry of Christ, the resurrection, and apostolic practice, the sermon argues that one day in seven devoted to God's worship is a perpetual moral principle, that the positive element (the specific day) shifts from the seventh to the first day, and that the weekly Lord's Day functions as a typological down-payment pointing God's people toward the eternal Sabbath rest yet to come. Believers are exhorted to receive the Sabbath as a gift from God, to avoid both legalism and antinomianism in its observance, and to rest their Sabbath-keeping upon the active obedience of Christ imputed to them by faith alone.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 5
Paul's sermon in Pisidian Antioch moves from historical exposition to urgent exhortation: forgiveness of sins comes not through moral effort, law-keeping, or any human merit, but through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and is received by faith alone. Drawing on Psalms 25, 32, 51, 130, Isaiah 43 and 45, Micah 7, and the recurring apostolic pattern in Acts, the sermon traces how the forgiveness of sins is the central remedy for mankind's fundamental problem of transgression against a holy God. Faith itself is a divine gift, grounded in a God who delights in mercy, and the proper response to the gospel is to look to Christ alone — accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
The Fourth Commandment, Part 2
The fourth commandment's perpetual moral obligation is examined through the lens of Christ's ministry, his resurrection, and apostolic teaching, demonstrating that the Saturday Sabbath of the old covenant has been transformed into the Lord's Day — Sunday — under the new covenant. Hebrews 4:9 is treated as the theological linchpin: 'there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God' is not an eschatological footnote but a present weekly obligation, with the change of day grounded in Christ's resurrection as the completion of new-creation work. The sermon distinguishes the positive-law element of the fourth commandment (which day) from its abiding moral-law element (one day in seven devoted to God), before closing with practical qualifications against both legalism and antinomianism in Sabbath observance.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 8, 2019 AM
Paul's sermon in Acts 13:38–43 culminates in a call to believe on Israel's Messiah for the forgiveness of sins and justification by faith alone — two benefits that flow not from human merit or moral reform but through the blood of Christ. The sermon traces the biblical theology of forgiveness from the Psalms and prophets through the apostolic preaching in Acts, demonstrating that the deepest need of every sinner is not social or economic remedy but reconciliation with a holy God. Faith itself — the empty hand that receives these blessings — is a gift granted by the God who delights in mercy. Hearers are exhorted to look to Christ alone, to receive the forgiveness that God does not merely tolerate but delights to give, and to rest upon him for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace.
Genesis 35
Genesis 35 traces Jacob's return to Bethel, the deaths of Rachel and Isaac, the treachery of Reuben, and the enumeration of Jacob's twelve sons. The chapter centers on God's sovereign renewal of His covenant with Jacob — reiterating the promises of seed and land given to Abraham and Isaac — at precisely the moment Jacob is most fearful and morally compromised. The sermon argues that God's repetition of covenant promises is not for His own memory but for the stabilization of His people's faith, and that the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, corporate worship, and the Lord's Supper — function as God's appointed conduits for fortifying His people to persevere through affliction, loss, and moral failure.
The Only Redeemer of God's Elect
Galatians 3:10–14 sets law and gospel in sharp contrast, demonstrating that justification before God is entirely excluded from the domain of law-keeping. Paul's threefold appeal to Deuteronomy 27, Habakkuk 2:4, and Leviticus 18:5 establishes that the law demands perfect, perpetual, and entire obedience — an impossibility for sinners in Adam. The only hope lies in Christ's substitutionary, curse-bearing work: he bore the imputed sin of his people, exhausted the wrath of God in their place, and secured for them both the blessing of Abraham and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sermon calls hearers to abandon every form of faith-plus-works supplementation and to rest wholly in the particular redemption accomplished by Christ alone.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 13:26–37 records Paul's synagogue sermon in Pisidian Antioch, in which he explains the two pivotal events of Israel's Messiah: the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Jerusalem rulers condemned Jesus without cause, yet in doing so they fulfilled the very prophetic scriptures they heard read every Sabbath, demonstrating the sovereign providence of God working through the wickedness of men. Paul marshals Psalm 2:7 to establish the eternal generation of the Son and his fitness as mediator, then Psalm 16:10 to prove that David's body saw corruption while Christ's did not, and Isaiah 55 to ground the sure mercies of the Davidic covenant in the risen servant of Isaiah 53. The sermon drives toward justification by faith alone in Christ alone, urging hearers not to repeat Jerusalem's fatal error of rejecting the one through whom alone there is forgiveness of sins.
Genesis 34:1-31
Genesis 34 presents one of the more disturbing episodes in the patriarchal narrative: the rape of Dinah, the calculated retaliation by Simeon and Levi, and Jacob's conspicuous failure of leadership. The exposition argues that the sons of Jacob were not acting out of unbridled blood vengeance but engaged in a deliberate, tactical mission to liberate their sister from what amounted to a hostage situation — an argument that reframes the deceit and slaughter as purposive rather than criminal. Jacob's response stands in sharp contrast to his spiritual high points in chapters 32–33, exposing the ebbs and flows of genuine faith and the truth that God's preservation of his people rests entirely on sovereign grace, not the consistency of the saints.
The Fourth Commandment
The Fourth Commandment's call to observe the Sabbath is not a Mosaic innovation for Israel alone but a creation ordinance rooted in God's own rest and ratified across redemptive history. This sermon surveys Old Testament Sabbath theology — from Genesis 2 through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah — arguing that the Ten Commandments carry trans-covenantal moral force and that the Sabbath commandment retains binding validity for New Covenant Christians. Christ's defense of Sabbath in Mark 2 is shown to confirm rather than abolish the commandment, clearing away Pharisaic distortion while pointing back to the creational gift given for man as man, not Jew as Jew. Hearers are called to call the Sabbath a delight, to work diligently the six days, and to gather with the covenant community on the Lord's Day in holy worship.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13–41) opens with a sweeping sketch of Israel's redemptive history — election, deliverance from Egypt, wilderness forbearance, the land promise, the judges, the monarchy, and the Davidic covenant — all converging on one point: the law and the prophets inevitably lead to Jesus Christ. The sermon examines why Paul structures his argument this way, showing that a correct hermeneutic always produces a Christocentric reading of Scripture and that God's faithfulness in the lesser promises guarantees his faithfulness in the greater seed promise. Along the way, the exposition confronts the temptation to doubt God's sustaining care in hard seasons, insisting that God never abandons his people and that every believer can rest on his unwavering covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct appeal drawn from verse 38: forgiveness of sins — which the law of Moses could never provide — is freely available through this man, Jesus Christ.
Genesis 32:1-33:20
Genesis 32–33 traces Jacob's return to Canaan through two defining encounters: his anxious preparation to meet the murderous Esau, and his night-long wrestling match with the angel of the Lord at Peniel. The passage displays the doctrine of providence at its most intimate — God present with his elect patriarch through angelic visitation, theophany, and sovereign orchestration of Esau's heart, all in service of preserving the Messianic seed. Jacob's prayer in 32:9–12, structured around God's command, his own unworthiness, a specific petition, and the covenant promise, models how the saints argue for deliverance on the basis of God's own glory. The Peniel encounter is the turning point in Jacob's life: renamed Israel, he emerges reborn — courage replacing cowardice, humility replacing arrogance — to meet Esau in reconciliation and settle at last in the land of promise.
Genesis 31:22-55
Genesis 31:22–55 records the pursuit, confrontation, and covenant between Laban and the departing Jacob. The passage exposes Laban's hypocrisy, his powerlessness before the God of Israel, and his resort to a non-aggression covenant once he recognizes that divine providence has secured Jacob against him. Jacob's theology in verse 42 — confessing God's presence, power, and mercy — serves as the interpretive key to the whole chapter, pointing forward to the same God who will later see the affliction of Israel in Egypt and deliver them.
The Second Commandment, Part 2
The second commandment not only prohibits making and worshiping idols but supplies three reasons for that prohibition: the character of God as covenant Lord, the threat of transgenerational punishment for persistent idolatry, and the promise of mercy to thousands. This sermon works through Deuteronomy 5:8–10 to argue that God's 'jealousy' is an improper predication — an accommodation to human language that conveys his righteousness and justice without implying divine passibility — and that false worship, far from being a neutral innovation, constitutes an act of hatred toward God. The exposition draws on Deuteronomy 24, Ezekiel 18, Leviticus 10, and 1 Samuel 13 to demonstrate that the punishment threatened in the commandment is not a transgenerational curse but the judicial consequence of children imitating their parents' idolatry. Hearers are called to regulate corporate worship strictly by divine prescription, to teach their children true religion, and to approach God solely through faith in Jesus Christ.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 10, 2019 AM
Acts 12:25–13:3 grounds a careful examination of the first Christian missionary journey, asking how missionaries are to be called, qualified, and sent. The sermon argues that the Holy Spirit works through the local church — not apart from it — to identify, cultivate, and commission gospel ministers, as demonstrated by the church at Antioch separating Barnabas and Saul. Paul's earlier calling in Acts 9:15–16 frames the entire first missionary journey as the deliberate outworking of Christ's sovereign purpose to bear his name before Gentiles, kings, and Israel. Hearers are pressed to take the centrality of the local church in missions with full seriousness, to pray for qualified men to be raised up, and to trust that Christ is triumphantly advancing his kingdom through these means.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 1
Acts 12:25–13:3 marks the launch of the first missionary journey and the pivotal moment when the church at Antioch, directed by the Holy Spirit, formally separates Barnabas and Saul for organised gospel mission to the Gentiles. The sermon traces this appointment back to the divine plan announced in Acts 9:15–16, showing that Paul's calling, suffering, and relentless preaching were purposed by Christ from the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus. A sustained application argues that the local church — not parachurch agencies, mission boards operating independently, or individual self-appointment — is the proper centre for identifying, qualifying, and sending missionaries. The sermon closes with an appeal grounded in covenant theology: God's promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed is the very engine driving the missionary enterprise recorded in Acts.
Genesis 30:25-31:21
Genesis 30:25–31:21 narrates Jacob's negotiation with Laban over wages, his departure from Haran, and his flight toward Canaan after twenty years of servitude. The central question the passage presses is whether Jacob's prosperity arose from his own shrewdness or from the sovereign God of the covenant — and the narrative answers decisively in favor of divine providence, paralleling the earlier mandrakes episode in chapter 30 and anticipating the Exodus. The sermon traces Jacob's spiritual maturity, the covenantal logic that ties the Abrahamic land-and-seed promise to this one family's preservation, and God's faithfulness to His people in both prosperity and affliction.
The Enthronement of the Messiah
Psalm 110 presents the enthroned Messiah as divine King, eternal Priest, and triumphant Conqueror — a vision the early church clung to precisely because they suffered under Rome and unbelieving Israel. This exposition traces the three offices of the Mediator through seven verses, showing that Christ's present session at the right hand of the Father is not a passive waiting but an active subjugation of all enemies. The sermon rebukes a domesticated, sentimental Christology and calls believers to confident, volunteer service under the sovereign who must reign until every enemy is made his footstool.
Genesis 29:31 - 30:24
Genesis 29:31–30:24 records the birth of the twelve tribal patriarchs of Israel through a household marked by rivalry, deception, polygamy, and heartbreak — a far cry from the paradise setting one might expect for redemptive history's foundations. The sermon traces four movements: the opening of Leah's womb, Rachel's envious frustration and her recourse to surrogacy, Leah's counter-response through her own maid and the mandrake episode, and finally the long-awaited opening of Rachel's womb. The governing theological lesson is that the purely gracious character of Israel's election is on full display: the twelve tribes emerged not from human merit, virtue, or domestic harmony, but from God's sovereign purpose working through and despite profound human dysfunction. The passage calls believers to contentment in their circumstances, trust in divine providence, and wonder at a grace that accomplishes its ends in spite of fallen instruments.
The Builder of the Church
Peter's confession in Matthew 16:13–18 — 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' — is the theological axis around which the identity, foundation, builder, and triumph of the church all turn. The sermon expounds Christ as the rock on which the church is built, arguing against the Roman Catholic identification of Peter as that foundation and for the Protestant position that the church rests on Christ himself, the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant promise in 2 Samuel 7. The gates of Hades function as a defensive posture, not an offensive one, meaning the church is on mission against a kingdom that cannot finally hold, because its builder is King Jesus. The call to hearers is to make Peter's confession their own — that Christ is the Son of the living God — since no defective ecclesiology is fatal, but a wrong Christ is.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 20, 2019 PM
The positive duties of the first commandment — to know, love, fear, obey, trust, and worship God alone — are expounded from Deuteronomy 5:6-21 as the necessary implication of the prohibition 'You shall have no other gods before me.' The sermon argues that these responses flow naturally from the heart conquered by sovereign grace, and that idolatry, whether material or mental, is the root sin underlying all other violations of God's law. Hearers are called to reject false conceptions of God, cultivate the knowledge of the triune God as revealed in Scripture, and render the whole-hearted allegiance the Creator demands and deserves.
The First Commandment, Part 2
The First Commandment — 'You shall have no other gods before me' (Deuteronomy 5:7) — carries not only a prohibition but a cluster of positive obligations that define the redeemed creature's relationship to the Creator. This sermon works through five such positive aspects: the love of God, the fear of God, obedience to God, trust in God, and the proper worship of God, showing how each flows necessarily from the sovereign grace by which God conquers the sinner. The sermon concludes with a call to reject idolatry in all its forms — including mental idolatry constructed by false doctrine — and to cultivate a growing, confessional knowledge of the triune God.
The Baptisms of Jesus Christ
What is the theological basis for believers' baptism? This sermon argues that Christians are baptized because of the two baptisms of Jesus Christ: his water baptism in Matthew 3, which inaugurated his life of active obedience by fulfilling all righteousness on behalf of his people, and his metaphorical baptism of suffering in Matthew 20, which points to his passive obedience in drinking the cup of divine wrath on the cross. Sinners possess no righteousness of their own sufficient to stand before a holy God; they are clothed entirely in Christ's alien righteousness, imputed to them through faith. The practical exhortation to those who have believed is to follow Christ in believer's baptism as an act of public obedience, not as a means of salvation but as its public confession.