Topic
Sanctification
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Free Grace Baptist Church - January 26, 2020 AM
Acts 14:1 records that Paul and Barnabas 'so spoke' in Iconium that a great multitude believed — but what accounts for that result? This exposition grounds the success of apostolic preaching in the sovereign election of God (Acts 13:48; 16:14) while insisting that God has ordained preaching as the indispensable means to call his elect to faith. Drawing on Romans 10:14-17, 1 Corinthians 1:21-25, and 2 Timothy 4:1-8, the sermon argues that faithful gospel preaching — Christ crucified, delivered with conviction, rebuke, and exhortation — is not optional for the church but is the very instrument God has appointed for the salvation of sinners from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The application presses the congregation to pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to raise up and send out qualified preachers, and to receive the preached word with the seriousness that faith-producing hearing demands.
The Death Penalty
Genesis 9:6 grounds the biblical mandate for capital punishment in the image of God: to shed human blood unlawfully is to assault God himself, and the prescribed penalty reflects the weight of that offense. This sermon works through the Noahic covenant as a common-grace ordinance never abrogated, traces the continuity of capital punishment into the New Testament through Romans 13, and then systematically answers both biblical and pragmatic objections — including the mistranslation of Exodus 20:13, the pacifist reading of Matthew 5:38–42, and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Believers are called to submit to the whole counsel of God on this issue, even where it cuts against cultural sentiment, because consistency with Scripture requires affirming what God has commanded for the governance of civil society.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not a political issue but a theological and ethical one — a violation of the Sixth Commandment against murder and a direct assault on the image of God borne by every human being from conception. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic case law governing accidental injury to a pregnant woman treats the pre-born child as a full person, applying the lex talionis — life for life — when the child is killed. Supporting passages from Genesis, Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, Luke, and Paul establish the biblical case for the personhood and sanctity of the pre-born. The sermon closes by calling the church to preach the whole counsel of God on this subject, to pursue sexual fidelity, to pray for the end of abortion, and to proclaim the gospel's mercy to all who have sinned in this way.
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.
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 Conversion of Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2 presents the conversion of Rahab the harlot as a sovereign display of divine grace toward an unlikely recipient — a Canaanite prostitute who heard of Yahweh's mighty acts, confessed His majesty, and cast herself upon His mercy. The sermon traces the contact, confession, and contract with Rahab, arguing that her faith — evidenced by works — is a paradigm case of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, consistent with both Paul and James. The closing application calls believers to ground their relationship with God not in their pursuit of holiness but in the righteousness of Christ alone, lest gospel-forgetfulness corrupt their devotion into self-congratulation.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment — 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11) — grounds its prohibition and its positive demands in the theological weight of the divine name itself: God's name is the vehicle by which He reveals His nature, being, and attributes to His creatures, so every misuse is a direct offense against God. The sermon works through five concrete violations (blasphemy, false oaths, magic and sorcery, misapplication of providence, and misinterpretation of Scripture) before turning to the positive duties of reverent use, worshipful fear, and a sincere profession of faith matched by answerable conduct. Throughout, the law-gospel distinction is maintained: no sinner is accepted by God on the basis of keeping this commandment, but on the basis of Christ's perfect obedience rendered in the sinner's place; those united to Christ by grace through faith are then pointed back to the law as a rule of grateful living.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Acts 13:4–12 records the opening episode of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey: their arrival in Cyprus, their preaching in the synagogues of Salamis, and the dramatic confrontation at Paphos with Bar-Jesus, a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet who attempted to prevent the proconsul Sergius Paulus from hearing the gospel. The sermon examines three movements — the journey to Cyprus, the arrival at Salamis, and the confrontation at Paphos — with extended attention to Paul's Spirit-empowered rebuke of Elymas and the resulting judgment miracle. Central to the exposition is the insistence that the Word of God preached is the irreplaceable means of salvation, that Satan's primary strategy is to obstruct its reception, and that divine sovereignty rather than human merit accounts for every conversion, including that of a powerful Roman official.
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.
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.
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 Second Commandment
The second commandment forbids both the manufacture of idols and the worship of the true God by means of visible representations — a distinction the first commandment does not address. Working through Deuteronomy 5:8–10, this sermon grounds the regulative principle of worship in the doctrine of God: because God is incorporeal, incomprehensible, and infinite, any attempt to represent Him in image or statue is a theological assault on His nature, not merely a liturgical irregularity. The sermon applies this principle to Roman Catholic image-veneration, depictions of the Lord Jesus Christ (including the 'Jesus film' and similar media), and the broader failure of evangelical worship to ask what God has actually commanded.
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 Gracious Invitation of Christ
Matthew 11:25–30 sets before the reader three interlocking realities that ground Christian thanksgiving: the sovereign will of the Father who hides gospel truth from the self-sufficient and reveals it to the humbled, the mediatorial office of the Son who alone has authority and power to reveal the Father to sinners, and the gracious invitation of Christ who calls the weary and sin-laden to come, receive rest, take His yoke, and learn from Him. The sermon works through six observations on verses 28–30 — the exhortation to come, the persons addressed, the promise of rest, the call to submit, the invitation to learn, and the light burden of discipleship — demonstrating that justification precedes sanctification and that the gospel call is issued indiscriminately to all. Hearers are urged to study the law until the weight of sin is felt, to flee to Christ rather than away from Him, and to respond to sovereign grace with daily, unreserved thanksgiving.
The Church at Antioch
Acts 11:19–30 presents the founding and early life of the church at Antioch as a model for faithful ecclesiology. The sermon traces three features of that church's first days: the gospel preaching that gathered a diverse congregation, the apostolic oversight exercised through Barnabas, and the year-long teaching ministry of Barnabas and Saul that catechised those converts in Christian doctrine. The passage is read through the lens of divine sovereignty — it was the hand of Yahweh that produced the conversions, working through the ordinary means of preaching — and closes with an application of six characteristics that every church should emulate: evangelism, converted membership, doctrinal instruction, Christ-centredness, charity, and dependence on the grace of God alone.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 13, 2019 AM
Acts 11:19-30 traces the northward expansion of the gospel from Jerusalem to Antioch, showing how scattered believers preached the Lord Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles, and how the church that formed there became a model of what a local congregation ought to be. The sermon examines three movements in the passage: the evangelistic preaching that established the church, Barnabas's investigation and exhortation to continue with the Lord, and the year-long teaching ministry of Barnabas and Saul. From these movements, six characteristics of the Antioch church are drawn out — evangelistic, converted in membership, doctrinal, Christ-centered, charitable, and established by the sovereign hand of God — and applied directly to the life of a confessional Reformed Baptist congregation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 6, 2019 PM
What does it mean that the Father has 'bestowed' his love on sinners so that they should be called children of God? Expounding 1 John 3:1 in the context of a Lord's Supper service, this sermon examines the divine love under four headings: the call to consider it, the object in view, the blessed result of adoption, and the attendant conflict with the world. The love of God is grounded in his impassibility and immutability — he is 'most loving' not as an emotional fluctuation but as an unchanging perfection — and the doctrine of adoption is carefully distinguished from and harmonized with John's language of new birth, following B.B. Warfield's analysis. The sermon closes by directing communicants to fix their minds on Christ rather than on themselves as they receive the bread and cup.