Topic
Soteriology
2,239 sermons · All topics
Free Grace Baptist Church - June 5, 2016 AM
Matthew 23:23-24 records Christ's fifth woe against the scribes and Pharisees: meticulous in tithing garden herbs, yet negligent of justice, mercy, and faith — the weightier matters of the law. The sermon situates this condemnation within the biblical pattern of covenantal lawsuit, tracing the same triadic demand through Genesis 18, Deuteronomy 10, Hosea 12, Micah 6, and Zechariah 7, showing that Christ speaks precisely as the prophets before him. The qualification is as important as the condemnation: Jesus does not abolish the minor obligations but subordinates them to the greater, insisting both must be kept. The application presses the congregation to examine whether any diligent religious practice — tithing, doctrinal precision, liturgical scruple — is being used consciously or unconsciously to mask the neglect of love to neighbour and faith toward God, and closes with the reminder that neither the majors nor the minors constitute the ground of salvation, which is grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The Condemnation of the Religious Leaders, Part 3
Matthew 23:23–24 records the fifth of Christ's eight woes against the scribes and Pharisees: they meticulously tithe the smallest garden herbs while neglecting the weightier matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. Tracing this indictment through Micah 6:8, Genesis 18, Deuteronomy 10, Hosea 12, and Zechariah 7, the sermon demonstrates that Jesus is functioning as a covenant-lawsuit prophet in a line stretching back to Israel's earliest history, condemning the nation for collapsing piety into external ritual while abandoning love toward God and neighbour. The qualification Christ appends — 'these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone' — forbids both the majoring on minors that marks religious hypocrisy and the neglect of minors by those who camp exclusively on justice and mercy. The sermon closes with a direct gospel summons: neither tithing nor social virtue saves; salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, after which the redeemed are called to obey all of God's law in its proper proportion.
An Encouragement to Look unto Jesus
Hebrews 12:2 calls the struggling Christian to run with endurance by looking unto Jesus — not merely as a moral example, but as the author and finisher of faith, the one who both originates and secures the believer's perseverance to the end. The sermon works through five aspects of Christ presented in the verse: his person, his work as author and finisher of faith, his resolve in enduring the cross for the joy set before him, his shame and suffering in the crucifixion, and his present exaltation at the right hand of God. The cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 testifies unanimously that God is faithful, but the believer's gaze must ultimately rest on Christ himself, in whom all hope, trust, and confidence are grounded. The practical summons is to use the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, the Lord's Supper, and the gathered assembly — to keep the eyes of faith fixed on Jesus and to press on without coasting.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 29, 2016 PM
Hebrews 12:1-2 issues a command to run with endurance the race set before believers, and the preacher works through the incentives the apostle supplies for doing so. The sermon focuses on the cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11, arguing that their function is not to cheer runners on as spectators but to testify — as witnesses — to the faithfulness of God Most High. By surveying Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab, the judges, David, and others, the sermon presses the congregation to internalize the consistent testimony of God's people through redemptive history and to lay aside every weight and besetting sin in order to persevere to the end.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 29, 2016 AM
Matthew 23:14–22 presents Jesus pronouncing three woes upon the scribes and Pharisees — condemning their exploitation of widows under a pretense of piety, their missionary zeal that produces converts destined for hell, and their casuistic perversion of the oath. Far from being an anomaly in Christ's ministry, these denunciations stand in the prophetic tradition of Isaiah and serve as a direct warning to the contemporary church: religious appearance, evangelistic fervor, and clever theological reasoning are no evidence of saving grace when divorced from a true and plain understanding of God's word and genuine inner righteousness.
Of the Church (2LCF 26)
Matthew 7:6 — 'Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine' — is not a withdrawal from gospel witness but a call to Spirit-given discrimination between brothers in Christ and hardened enemies of the gospel. The sermon works through the contrast between Matthew 7:1–5 (censorious judgment toward brothers) and 7:6 (the prohibition against treating dogs and pigs as brothers, and vice versa), showing that the same Jesus who forbids a judgmental spirit also forbids a naive one. Drawing on Calvin, Spurgeon, and the apostolic precedents in Acts and the Pauline epistles, the exposition applies the text in three directions: guard against judgmentalism toward brethren, remove your own plank before correcting others, and seek wisdom to identify genuine enemies of the gospel without lazily writing off ordinary sinners.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 22, 2016 PM
Colossians 3:12–14 grounds Christian virtue not in moral effort but in the sovereign grace of God — the elect are holy and beloved not because they were found worthy, but so that they might become so. This sermon works through the identity and character of the new man in Christ, showing that tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, and love are not conditions for election but fruits of it. The believer is called to forgive as Christ has forgiven — casting sin into the depths rather than holding it over others — and to put on love as the bond that holds every other virtue together.
The Condemnation of the Religious Leaders, Part 1
Matthew 23:13 introduces the first of eight woes Christ pronounces upon the scribes and Pharisees — men who, rather than opening the kingdom of heaven, slammed its door in the faces of those seeking entrance. The sermon establishes the prophetic precedent for Christ's condemnation by tracing the woe-oracle tradition through Isaiah and Habakkuk, and by grounding Christ's authority in the Deuteronomy 18 promise of the coming prophet. The first woe is shown to encapsulate all the rest: the religious leaders shut out others through hypocrisy, legalism, doctrinal heresy, and above all their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. The sermon closes with a direct call to believe the gospel — to look to Christ and live, as Israel once looked to the bronze serpent in the wilderness.
The Practice of Family Worship
God commands parents to instruct their children in His Word — not occasionally, but diligently, formally and informally, in every setting of daily life. This sermon surveys the biblical warrant for family worship across both Testaments, from God's covenantal purpose for Abraham in Genesis 18 through Paul's charge to fathers in Ephesians 6, establishing that the propagation of biblical religion through the home is not optional but normative for the covenant community. The elements of family worship are then treated in order: commitment to public worship as the irreducible foundation, the sanctification of the Lord's Day, the use of the family altar (including psalm-singing, prayer, Scripture reading, and catechism), and the usefulness of historic creeds and confessions. The sermon closes with a direct charge to recognize the importance of family worship, implement it without delay, and persevere in it as a primary means of evangelism toward one's own children.
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 Ascension of Christ
The bodily, visible, local ascension of Christ into heaven forty days after his resurrection is not a peripheral doctrine but the hinge on which the entire exaltation of the Mediator turns. This sermon expounds Acts 1:9–11 in three movements: the historical reality of the ascension (real, visible, bodily, local, and glorious), its theological significance (fulfillment of Scripture, completion of Christ's priestly work, his enthronement at the Father's right hand, and the glory given to him as Mediator), and its practical benefits for the church (the gift of the Holy Spirit, the perpetual intercession of Christ, and the guaranteed second coming). Believers are called to draw courage from Christ's present reign, flee to the cross before the judgment that the ascension makes inevitable, and rest in the advocacy of the enthroned Savior who always lives to make intercession.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 1, 2016 PM
The precious blood of Christ as the sole ground of Christian redemption is the focus of this Lord's Supper meditation drawn from 1 Peter 1:18-19. The sermon first establishes the necessary denial — that redemption cannot come through corruptible things such as silver and gold, idolatrous religion, the ceremonial law, or the aimless traditions of the fathers. It then unfolds the proper assertion, showing that the blood of Christ is called 'precious' because of the high value Peter assigns it, the identity of the one who sheds it (the God-man, Christ Jesus), the manner in which it is shed (the cross death), and what it accomplishes (the definite redemption of guilty sinners). Believers are urged to approach the Lord's Supper with cheerful and examined compliance, knowing they congregate on the Lord's Day not out of mere tradition but because the God-man shed his blood for sinners on Calvary.
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 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.
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.
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.
The Question Concerning the Messiah
Matthew 22:41–46 records the final public controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders, in which Jesus turns from defendant to questioner and asks: 'What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?' The Pharisees answer correctly but incompletely — 'the Son of David' — and Jesus presses Psalm 110:1 upon them to show that David, writing in the Spirit, calls the Messiah his Lord, which demands that the Messiah be not merely a human descendant but also the divine Son of God. The sermon traces Matthew's sustained identification of Jesus as both Son of David and Son of God, explains the Hebrew distinction between Yahweh and Adonai in Psalm 110:1, and grounds the hypostatic union in that one verse. Believers are called to love this God-man with whole-hearted devotion; unbelievers are urged to reckon with the Christ who alone could fulfill the law and bear the wrath owed to sinners.
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.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 10, 2016 AM
Matthew 22:41–46 records the final public controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders, in which Christ turns from defendant to questioner and presses the Pharisees with a two-fold inquiry: whose son is the Messiah, and how does David in the Spirit call him Lord in Psalm 110:1? Working through the Hebrew distinction between Yahweh and Adonai, the sermon demonstrates that David's son is simultaneously David's Lord — the hypostatic union in seed form — and that the Pharisees' silence is itself a figurative fulfillment of the very footstool imagery they could not refute. Believers are called to examine whether their confession that Jesus is both Son of David and Son of God issues in whole-souled love, discipleship, and the ordering of all of life under his Lordship.
The Greatness of God
David's prayer in 2 Samuel 7:22–24 structures a twofold ascription of greatness to God: first for who God is in Himself (His unity, triunity, immutability, impassibility, and incomparability), and then for what God has done for His people in redemption, preservation, and positional covenant blessing. The sermon applies David's method directly to the New Covenant, arguing that the greater privileges of the New Covenant demand a correspondingly greater response of worshipful prayer and adoration. The closing movement presses the congregation toward the Lord's Supper as a concrete occasion to extol God's greatness in the very pattern David modeled at the throne of grace.
The Lawyer and the Great Commandment
Matthew 22:34–40 records a Pharisaic lawyer testing Jesus with the question of which commandment is greatest — a live dispute in rabbinic Judaism with deadly intent behind it. Jesus answers by citing the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) as the first and great commandment and Leviticus 19:18 as its inseparable companion, demonstrating that the whole Decalogue hangs on love to God and love to neighbor. The sermon argues that these two commandments expose every person's total failure to render the perfect, personal obedience God demands, driving the hearer to the only One whose obedience is reckoned to all who trust Him. Believers are exhorted to examine whether their love to God is genuine and whole-hearted, expressed in Sabbath observance, rejection of idolatry, and tangible love for the brethren.
2 Samuel 7:18-29
David's prayer in 2 Samuel 7:18–29, offered in response to the Davidic covenant, models the proper shape of Christian prayer: confession of unworthiness before God, ascription of greatness to God alone, and petition grounded in God's own promises rather than personal merit. The sermon traces how David's prayer moves from humble acknowledgment of grace, through a declaration that God's incomparable greatness is displayed in Israel's redemption and preservation, to specific petitions that mirror the structure of the Lord's Prayer. Particular attention is given to the scope of the Davidic covenant as a charter for all humanity — elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation — fulfilled ultimately in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon calls hearers to bring God's promises back to Him in prayer, to prioritize praise before petition, and to understand redemption as liberation unto possession, not liberation unto autonomy.
Free Grace Baptist Church - March 27, 2016 PM
The Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 is not merely an episode in Israel's history but the foundation upon which the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ rests. God's refusal to let David build a temple is not a rejection but a reversal: before Israel can build a house for God, God himself will build a house — a dynasty — out of David, culminating in the Son who would construct the true temple of God's dwelling. The sermon traces that promise from its initial revelation to Nathan, through its perpetuity secured against death, sin, and time, to its New Testament fulfillment in Christ's resurrection-enthronement at the Father's right hand and his building of the church. Believers are called to recognize their saving interest in this covenant and to read the Old Testament as the unfolding of the glory, majesty, and beauty of Jesus 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.