Topic
Theology Proper
369 sermons · All topics
2 Kings 5
2 Kings 5 presents the curing and conversion of Naaman, commander of the Syrian army, as a window into the comprehensive sovereignty of God, the free grace of God, and the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant promises of Israel's God. Working through three sections — the sovereignty of God (vv. 1–8), the healing of Naaman (vv. 9–19), and the greed of Gehazi (vv. 20–27) — the exposition argues that the greater miracle is not Naaman's cleansed skin but his cleansed idolatry, his monotheistic confession of Yahweh as the only God in all the earth. The simplicity, exclusivity, and freeness of God's grace illustrated in Elisha's instruction to wash in the Jordan anticipate the gospel itself, while Gehazi's attempt to monetise the cure warns against every addition to grace.
The Miserable End of Judas Iscariot
What does it look like to use God rather than worship Him? Preaching through 2 Kings 3, this sermon exposes Jehoram's utilitarian religion — reaching for Yahweh only in crisis, and blaming His sovereignty when circumstances sour — and sets it against the godly example of Jehoshaphat and the prophetic word of Elisha. The sermon closes by drawing the Christological thread that Jehoram received water and victory not by desert but by proximity to Jehoshaphat, a son of David's line, and that every believer stands in the same position: receiving massive mercies not on their own merit but because they stand next to Jesus, the Davidic King.
The Translation of Elijah
2 Kings 2 presents the translation of Elijah into heaven and the subsequent manifestation of Elisha as his divinely appointed successor. The sermon works through the chapter in two main sections — the ascension of Elijah and the confirmed ministry of Elisha — arguing that every element, including the healing of Jericho's waters and the cursing of the youths at Bethel, serves to authenticate Elisha as the legitimate prophetic voice of Yahweh in Israel. The two she-bears are not a moral embarrassment but the execution of the covenant curse of Leviticus 26, consistent with the same God who sends sweet water to the previously cursed city of Jericho and who ultimately sends His Son to deal in mercy with sinners.
The Supreme God
First Samuel 5 narrates a comedic yet deadly serious confrontation between Yahweh and the Philistine god Dagon, exposing the utter powerlessness of idols and the supreme sovereignty of the living God. When the Philistines place the ark of the Lord beside Dagon, Dagon twice falls prostrate before it — losing his head and hands — while Yahweh's hand falls with devastating judgment on city after city across Philistia. The passage teaches both that all false gods are helpless before Yahweh and that idolatry remains the deepest disease of the human heart, whether expressed in carved images or in the good things we elevate above God. The call of the sermon is to turn from every idol — visible or conjured — to the one divine Warrior who conquered sin and death, and in whom alone there is everlasting life.
2 Kings 2:1-25
2 Kings 2 presents the translation of Elijah and the public authentication of Elisha as his prophetic successor. The chapter divides into two broad movements: Elijah's assumption into heaven by whirlwind (vv. 1–12) and Elisha's manifestation as the new man of God through miracle-working (vv. 13–25). The parallels to Moses and Joshua, the divided Jordan, the healing of Jericho's water, and the covenant curse executed through two bears all establish that Elisha stands in an unbroken line of authorized prophetic ministry — and that God's Word, not any individual instrument, is the true power sustaining His kingdom. The controlling application is that when God removes an Elijah, a Calvin, or a Spurgeon, His Word and His kingdom march on, calling His people to fix their confidence on the strength of God's arm rather than the charisma of His servants.
2 Kings 1:1-18
2 Kings 1 records the idolatry, judgment, and death of Ahaziah, king of Israel — a man who, when facing death, turned not to Yahweh but to Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. The chapter exposes the nature of idolatry as a practical confession that the living God is incompetent to meet one's needs, and it establishes the certainty of God's word against any king or army that would silence it. God's protection of Elijah through consuming fire is neither divine caprice nor Old Testament barbarism, but the settled, holy justice of a God who will brook no rival and whose jealousy for his own glory is inseparable from his mercy toward sinners. The passage calls hearers to examine what their instinctive cry in trial reveals about the true object of their allegiance.
He Cares for You
The murder of Naboth the Jezreelite in 1 Kings 21 exposes the convergence of covetousness, governmental tyranny, and idolatry — and demonstrates that no crime against God's people escapes divine notice. The chapter divides into two broad movements: the orchestrated injustice Jezebel engineers against Naboth (vv. 1–16) and Elijah's prophetic condemnation of Ahab (vv. 17–29). Four conclusions emerge: God's people will face injustice in this world; governments may administer that injustice; God nevertheless intervenes in the affairs of men; and the abandonment of the first table of the law invariably produces the abandonment of the second. The chapter closes on a surprising note of divine mercy — even Ahab's shallow remorse moves God to suspend judgment, which becomes a ground for confidence that a true penitent who comes to Christ will receive far more.
1 Kings 20
1 Kings 20 presents the beginning of the end for Ahab, Israel's most wretched king, as God delivers him twice from Syrian armies he had no right to expect to defeat — not because Ahab sought God, but because God sovereignly extended unsolicited, unmerited grace to a rebel. The chapter's true climax arrives in the closing parable of the prophet (vv. 35–43), which functions as Ahab's 'thou art the man' moment: having freed Ben-Hadad, whom God had appointed to utter destruction, Ahab pronounces his own condemnation. The study presses the application that defective theology — whether Syrian paganism that compartmentalizes God by geography, or modern versions that shrink His sovereignty — carries serious consequences, and that God's patience with wretches like Ahab must not be mistaken for indifference to rebellion.
The Contest at Carmel
The contest on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18 is not merely a dramatic episode from Israel's monarchic period — it is a confrontation between the living God of Israel and the futility of every false god. Elijah's challenge to a compromised people, 'How long will you falter between two opinions?', exposes the recurring temptation to blend true religion with idolatry, whether in ancient Israel's Baalism or in the subtler syncretism of today. The sermon traces the theological case for why Baal attracted Israelite worship — royal sanction, tradition, relevance to felt needs, and sensual appeal — before showing how God's consuming fire rendered that attraction indefensible. The application presses toward total allegiance: no halting between God and money, God and self, God and any competing lord.
Paul at the Areopagus
Paul's sermon at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22–34) is an unapologetic proclamation of the exclusive lordship, unbounded glory, and all-sufficient independence of the one living and true God over against the multiplicity of Athenian idols. The sermon traces Paul's argument through four movements — the prelude, the proclamation proper, the mercy extended, and the Athenian reception — grounding each in the prophetic witness of the Old Testament. The idols of Athens are shown to be dependent, spatially confined, and utterly without refuge, while Yahweh is immense, uncircumscribable, and the source of all life, breath, and existence. Hearers are pressed to abandon the folly of any idolatry, old or modern, and to believe on the risen Christ before whom all will be judged.
The Proper Motivation in Prayer
The proper motivation and manner of prayer stand at the heart of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6:5–13. Drawing a sustained parallel between the false prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 and the hypocrites and heathen Jesus condemns, this sermon argues that prayer is corrupted whenever it is reduced to a technique for manipulating God or impressing men. True prayer flows from faith in a sovereign, omniscient God who is not domesticated, not coercible, and not indifferent — and the Lord's Prayer is not a formula to be rattled off but a framework that reorients the believer's priorities toward God's name, kingdom, and will before personal need. The sermon calls hearers to abandon both performative religion and mercenary devotion, and to seek the face of God alone in the secret place, trusting that He hears and rewards those who draw near to Him in faith.
1 Kings 18:1-40
1 Kings 18:1–40 presents the contest on Mount Carmel as a divinely ordained demonstration that Yahweh alone is the living and true God, and that Baal is no god at all. The chapter sets Elijah's bold, public confrontation against Obadiah's quiet, behind-the-scenes faithfulness, showing that God deploys His servants in different ways toward the same kingdom purpose. Elijah's challenge — 'How long will you falter between two opinions?' — indicts both ancient syncretism and every form of divided allegiance, insisting that God demands total loyalty and is not manipulated by religious frenzy. The sermon closes by warning that a Baal-worship mentality — doing religious duty in order to extract blessing from God — can infiltrate even Reformed churches.
1 Kings 15:25 - 16:7
How does a sovereign God relate to the sinful actions of wicked men? Expounding 1 Kings 15:25–16:7, this study traces the reigns of Nadab and Baasha, kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, demonstrating that God employs even regicide and political treachery to fulfill prophetic word while holding the perpetrators fully culpable for their sin. The structural instability of the north — in stark contrast to the covenantal preservation of Judah — illustrates that God measures rulers not by political or military achievement but by obedience to His revealed law. The doctrine of divine providence that emerges calls believers to neither deny God's sovereignty nor abuse it as license for sin, but to find comfort in the certainty that no evil escapes either God's governance or His just judgment.
Of Christ the Mediator 1 (2LCF 8)
The person and work of Christ as mediator stands at the center of Christian theology, as this study of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 8 makes clear. Working through all ten paragraphs of the chapter in overview, the session traces the pre-temporal appointment of Christ as mediator in the covenant of redemption, the historical stages of his mediatorial work, and the necessity of his threefold office as prophet, priest, and king. Particular attention falls on paragraph 2's account of the incarnation — the eternal Son taking true human nature with all its essential properties yet without sin — and paragraph 7's careful rule for reading Scripture passages that attribute what belongs to one nature to the other, guarding against both a divinized humanity (Lutheran ubiquitarianism) and a humanized deity. Hearers are called to hold fast the church's historic confession of Christ as one person in two natures, whole, perfect, and distinct, without conversion, composition, or confusion.
The Fear of God
Proverbs 1:7 declares that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, yet this disposition is widely misunderstood and neglected among professing Christians. This topical survey distinguishes slavish fear from filial fear, demonstrates from Romans 3, Jeremiah 32, and the book of Proverbs that true fear of God is a gracious implantation sovereignly worked in the regenerate soul, and traces its necessary effects on the mind, the conduct, and the perseverance of believers. The sermon closes by calling both individual believers and the corporate assembly to cultivate this fear — in personal holiness, in theological engagement, and in God-directed, regulative-principle worship.
The Governing Principle of Kingdom Life
Matthew 6:31–34 contains Christ's governing principle for kingdom life: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and the necessities of life will be added. The sermon works through the contrast Christ draws between the Gentiles, whose obsessive anxiety over food, drink, and clothing flows from their exclusion of God, and the children of God, whose heavenly Father already knows their needs. Worry is exposed as a sin that betrays the sovereignty of God, divides the believer's attention, and paralyzes kingdom advance. The remedy is not passivity but a reordered priority — the Lord's Prayer models the same sequence — combined with a cultivated contentment grounded in the goodness and providence of God.
1 Kings 8 Part 2
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 exposes several foundational truths for the people of God: the covenantal faithfulness of God across the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants; the nature of God's presence among His people, which produces both reverential awe and deep joy; and the theological precision required for rightly ordered prayer, including the doctrines of divine incomparability, transcendence, immanence, and simplicity. The sermon closes by drawing out practical lessons for new covenant believers: the centrality of Scripture, the necessity of heart obedience, the perpetual need for forgiveness, the remedial purpose of afflictions, and the indispensable role of communion with God in the genuine pursuit of holiness.
1 Kings 8 Part 1
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8 presents some of the richest theology in all of Scripture. The prayer's foundation is theology proper — God's incomparability, faithfulness, transcendence, and imminence — before moving to seven petitions that range from civil justice to Gentile inclusion to the prospect of exile and restoration. The sermon draws direct lines between Solomon's theology of prayer and the structure of the Lord's Prayer, and calls believers to cultivate daily communion with God as the indispensable ground of genuine holiness.
1 Kings 7
The construction details of 1 Kings 7 — Solomon's palace complex and the bronze furnishings of the temple — press the reader toward several theological lessons: that the worship of God takes priority over earthly government, that all skilled labour done to God's glory is honoured in Scripture, that the twin pillars Jachin and Boaz are theological sentinels declaring Yahweh's promise and power, and that the preparation and splendour of the temple calls every generation to approach God with reverence rather than casualness. The sermon traces these lessons through the chapter's three main sections — Solomon's palace, the craftsman Hiram, and the temple's furnishings — while drawing on Proverbs, Ephesians, and 1 Thessalonians to ground a doctrine of faithful ordinary vocation. The controlling warning comes from 1 Kings 6:11–13: external religious magnificence means nothing without the obedience of the heart.
Of Divine Providence (2LCF 5)
Divine providence — God's upholding, directing, disposing, and governing of all creatures and things — is the subject of 2nd London Baptist Confession chapter 5, here expounded in a single-session overview. The chapter is read in full, then traced through its seven paragraphs: the definition and scope of providence, the relationship of God's sovereign first cause to secondary causes, the place of sin within providence (both for believers and unbelievers), and the special providential care God exercises toward his church. The session presses toward pastoral comfort: because the God of chapter 2 — infinitely wise, holy, and good — is the God of chapter 5, whatever befalls the elect is by divine appointment for God's glory and their good.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is examined as a biblical mandate rooted in the sanctity of human life as image-bearers of God, tracing the consistent teaching of Scripture from Genesis 9:6 through Romans 13:1–4. The sermon argues that the Noahic covenant establishes civil government's God-given authority to execute murderers, an authority confirmed rather than overturned in the New Testament. Common objections — from the sixth commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, the woman caught in adultery, and concerns about deterrence and salvation — are answered exegetically. Believers are called to submit to governing authorities as God's ministers of wrath, to pray the imprecatory psalms, and to reject both personal vengeance and the sentimental rejection of God's revealed standard of justice.
Of Creation (2LBCF)
The doctrine of creation as confessed in chapter 4 of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LBCF) establishes that the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — created all things ex nihilo in the space of six literal days, for the primary purpose of manifesting His own glory. Man was made in the image of God, constituted as a dichotomous being (body and soul), endowed with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, and placed under a probationary covenant arrangement that sets the stage for all subsequent redemptive history. This session surveys all three paragraphs of the chapter — the overview of creation, the creation of man, and the probation of man — before drawing out ethical implications concerning vocation, the sanctity of human life, marriage, gender, and the rejection of Gnosticism in all its forms.
Of God's Decree (2LCF 3.1-7)
The eternal decree of God — whereby He freely and unchangeably foreordains whatsoever comes to pass — is the subject of 2LCF Chapter 3. This study works through all seven paragraphs of the chapter, examining the definition, agency, character, and freedom of God's decree, before turning to the decree's specific application to predestination and reprobation. The doctrine is grounded in the divine perfections established in Chapter 2: God's simplicity, absoluteness, and independence. Hearers are called to hold this high mystery with prudence and care, drawing from it not vain curiosity but praise, humility, and abundant consolation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - December 4, 2016 PM
The Trinity is fully active in the death of Christ — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each play distinct and glorious roles in the one work of redemption. Drawing from 1 Peter 1:1–2 and 1:10–21, this Lord's Supper meditation traces how the Father purposes and orders Christ's death, bruises the Son to secure salvation, and receives his human soul; how the Son bears the punishment due to sinners, actually and fully saves his people, and continues to intercede for them; and how the Spirit testifies beforehand to Christ's sufferings, supports Christ's human nature under those sufferings, and applies redemption's benefits to the elect. The threefold application calls believers to rejoice in Christ, gird up the loins of their minds as obedient children, and rest their faith and hope entirely in the triune God who saves to perfection.
Of God and the Holy Trinity (2LCF 2)
The doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 2, is approached here through three progressive affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Reformed confessional tradition: God is, God is one, and God is one in three persons. The incomprehensibility of God frames the entire study — not that He cannot be known, but that He cannot be exhaustively comprehended by any creaturely mind. Moving from general revelation through the law of nature to the biblical witness of monotheism and finally to the Trinitarian distinctions of unbegottenness, eternal generation, and eternal procession, the sermon demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculative theology but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.
Thanksgiving for the Mercy of God
Psalm 103 calls the redeemed sinner to bless God with the totality of his being, and to resist the ingrained tendency to forget the Lord's benefits. This expository sermon works through the psalm's three movements: David's self-directed reminder to bless God (vv. 1–2), the reasons that fuel that blessing — the gifts received, their recipients, and above all the character of the Giver whose mercy is infinite, thorough, tender, and enduring (vv. 3–18) — and the recognition of God's sovereign kingdom that widens the summons to bless into a universal chorus (vv. 19–22). The sermon closes with five applications showing that thanksgiving is not an annual posture but the daily disposition of every soul that has tasted the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Of the Last Judgement (2LCF 32)
The Last Judgment, as confessed in chapter 32 of the Second London Confession of Faith (1689 LBCF), is certain, comprehensive, and purposeful: God the Father has appointed a day on which God the Son will execute righteous judgment over fallen angels and every human being, accounting for thoughts, words, and deeds. The goal of that day is the manifestation of divine mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect and divine justice in the eternal damnation of the reprobate — a theocentric purpose rooted in Romans 9. The secrecy of that day is itself a means of grace, designed to deter sin, sustain the godly through adversity, and cultivate watchful readiness to say, 'Come, Lord Jesus.'
2 Samuel 22:32-51
Second Samuel 22:32–51 closes David's great psalm of praise — a passage paralleled in Psalm 18 — by celebrating what the speaker calls the invincibility of God's kingdom. The study traces four movements: the incomparable power of Yahweh as the sole ground of David's military victories, the people encompassed by David's expanding dominion (both internal opponents and foreign nations), the praise David ascribes to the living God, and the Davidic covenant promise (2 Samuel 7) that secures the kingdom's advance through David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. David's assertion of his own righteousness in verse 21 is read through a redemptive-historical lens — the imputed righteousness of Christ — grounding Old Testament soteriology in the same doctrine of justification by faith that Paul expounds in Romans 4 from Psalm 32. The congregation is exhorted to learn from David's example: to praise the living God publicly and to trust Him through every internal and external trial.
The Confidence of the Believer
Micah 7 presents one of the most concentrated confessions of faith under duress in all of Scripture: a prophet who surveys moral collapse, political corruption, and the breakdown of domestic trust, yet steadfastly declares, 'I will look to the Lord.' This sermon works consecutively through Micah 7 in three movements — the prophet's lamentation over the state of the covenant community, his counsel to the godly remnant, and his closing doxology — to show what it means in practice for the just to live by faith. The doxology of verses 18–20 grounds that faith not in optimism or circumstance but in the revealed character of God: his pardoning of iniquity, his delight in mercy, his subduing of remaining sin, and his unbreakable covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct exhortation to feed faith on Scripture and sound theology, because faith cannot lay hold of what it does not know.
Gospel and Doxology for the Galatians
Galatians 1:4-5 presents both a summary of the true gospel and a call to doxology, set against the backdrop of the false gospel threatening the Galatian churches. The sermon works through three movements in the gospel itself: Christ who gave Himself (His free act, His assumption of human nature, His vicarious obedience, and His sacrificial death), the substitutionary and cleansing effect of that giving 'for our sins,' and the deliverance from this present evil age effected according to the sovereign will of God the Father. The exposition closes with Paul's doxology, arguing from Job, Acts 17, and the 1689 confession that God does not stand in need of glory but that His creatures are called to ascribe to Him the glory eternally due His name. Hearers are exhorted to know the triune God, guard against every false gospel, and train themselves now in the ascription of glory that will occupy the saints forever.