Topic
Worship
962 sermons · All topics
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.
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.
The Conversion of Cornelius, Part 4
Acts 10:44–11:18 records the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his Gentile household and the controversy that erupted among Jewish believers in Jerusalem when Peter reported what had happened. The sermon examines the divine initiative behind Gentile inclusion in the covenant of grace, the cessationist significance of the tongue-speaking at this 'Gentile Pentecost,' the apostolic command of water baptism following credible conversion, and the collapse of Jewish objections before Peter's ordered defense. The passage's closing doxology — 'God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life' — presses home that faith, repentance, and the Spirit himself are gifts of sovereign grace, received through the preaching of Christ crucified and risen, apart from any work of the law.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 2, 2019 Bible Study
Genesis 28 records God's sovereign confirmation of the Abrahamic covenant blessing to Jacob at Bethel — a man fleeing for his life after his own deception, yet met by Yahweh in a dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder between heaven and earth. The passage is expounded under three movements: Jacob's relocation to Padanaram, Esau's futile attempt to secure parental blessing through marriage, and Jacob's vow at Bethel. The dream is interpreted on two complementary levels — as a declaration of divine providence over Jacob's solitary journey, and as a messianic anticipation of Christ as the one mediator between heaven and earth, the interpretation Christ himself provides in John 1:51. The chapter marks a turning point in Jacob's life, from grasping deceiver to worshipping covenant-keeper, and sets a paradigm for all Israel of worship, tithing, and trust in Yahweh's faithfulness.
The First Commandment
The First Commandment — 'You shall have no other gods before me' (Deuteronomy 5:7) — demands both the rejection of every rival and the cultivation of genuine knowledge of the true and living God. The sermon works through the specific sins condemned by the commandment (atheism, polytheism, syncretism, idolatry, sorcery, heresy, and creature-worship), grounding each in Old and New Testament texts, before turning to the positive obligations the commandment requires: knowing God as Trinity, knowing His divine perfections, and knowing His external works in creation, providence, and redemption. The commandment functions pedagogically to expose humanity's chronic unfaithfulness and drive sinners to repentance, and normatively to call the redeemed to a rigorous, lifelong growth in the knowledge of who Yahweh is.
The Conversion of Cornelius, Part 3
Peter's sermon to the household of Cornelius in Acts 10:34–43 marks a watershed moment in redemptive history: the formal, Spirit-ordained inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant of grace, without circumcision or submission to the ceremonial law. The sermon examines the providential convergence of Peter and Cornelius, the content of apostolic gospel preaching — the peace, person, work, and prophetic witness to Christ — and the doctrinal significance of justification by faith alone apart from ethnic or ceremonial identity. The central application is urgent: because Christ is ordained as judge of the living and the dead, sinners of every tribe and nation must believe now and receive remission of sins through His name alone.
The Preface to the Ten Commandments
Deuteronomy 5:1–6 opens the Ten Commandments with a preface that sets law within the context of grace: God identifies himself as the one who redeemed Israel from Egypt before issuing a single command. This sermon introduces a new series on the Decalogue by situating it within its canonical, covenantal, and historical setting — tracing the narrative from Exodus through Numbers to Deuteronomy's second giving of the law. The preface establishes the lawgiver's identity (Yahweh, the covenant God), his personal involvement with his people, and the redemptive act that grounds all the commandments that follow. The threefold use of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — frames how believers are to receive and apply the Decalogue in the new covenant era.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 22, 2019 AM
Acts 10:9–16 presents Peter's vision of the great sheet as more than a curiosity about dietary law — it is a decisive turning point in redemptive history, signaling the formal inclusion of the Gentiles in the covenant promises of God. The sermon works through three particulars of the vision: its occasion (Peter's noon prayer on the housetop), the vision proper (the sheet with clean and unclean animals), and God's explanation ('What God has cleansed you must not call common'), tracing the contrast with Ezekiel 4 to show that where Ezekiel's unclean diet symbolized Israel's defilement among the Gentiles, Peter's vision announces the Gentiles' purification alongside Israel. The exposition addresses the threefold division of the law — moral, ceremonial, and judicial — demonstrating that the food laws were ceremonial and always purposed by God to be abrogated by Christ's fulfillment, with implications for how new covenant Christians navigate Christian liberty, avoid judgmentalism toward one another, and proclaim a gospel that comes to helpless sinners without additions or conditions.
The New and Living Way
Hebrews 10:19–25 presents two encouragements and three exhortations for the covenant people of God. The two encouragements — bold access into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, and the possession of a great high priest — ground the three commands that follow: draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, hold fast the confession of hope without wavering, and consider one another so as to stir up love and good works. Neglect of these exhortations is the path by which professing believers drift toward the apostasy warned against in verses 26–31, making faithful corporate worship, steadfast confession, and mutual encouragement indispensable means of perseverance.
The Nature of the Gospel
Galatians 1:1–5 is not merely a conventional greeting but a compressed summary of the gospel itself. Working through each clause of verses 4–5, this exposition identifies five defining features of Christ's death: it was voluntary, it consisted in penal substitution, it secured deliverance from this present evil age, it was determined by the Father according to His eternal will, and it promotes the glory of God alone. The sermon presses toward the Lord's Supper, calling each hearer to examine whether they can say with Paul in Galatians 2:20, 'He loved me and gave Himself for me,' and to receive the bread and cup only on that ground.
The LORD is my Shepherd
Psalm 23 is examined as a hymn of trust composed amid difficulty rather than prosperity, arguing that David's confident confession — 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want' — is made precisely in the shadow of danger, not in spite of it. The sermon expounds the psalm under two headings: the covenant Lord as the shepherd who provides daily physical and spiritual provision, and as the gracious host who prepares a table in the presence of enemies. Christians are exhorted to make diligent use of the means of grace — private prayer and Scripture, corporate worship, the preached word, and the Lord's Supper — as the God-ordained way to walk with Christ through the valley of the shadow of death toward their eternal dwelling in the house of the Lord.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 18, 2019 AM
Psalm 5 is a prayer tutorial in which David models how to approach God in desperate and messy circumstances, not by appealing to personal righteousness but by preparing ordered petitions, meditating on the character of Yahweh, and resting in confident trust that God will surround the righteous with his favor. The sermon works through four movements in the psalm: prepare your prayer, know your God, make your request, and declare your confidence. A sustained emphasis falls on the character of God — his holiness, his hatred of evildoers, and his intimate, covenant nearness as Yahweh — as the necessary foundation for all genuine prayer. The congregation is urged to pray not chiefly for deliverance from difficult circumstances but for righteousness within them, echoing David's petition in verse 8: 'Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness.'
Psalm 5
Psalm 5 is David's prayer tutorial, teaching the believer how to approach God in dangerous and difficult circumstances. The sermon works through four movements in the psalm: preparing prayer with ordered intentionality, grounding prayer in a precise knowledge of God's character, making requests on the basis of divine grace rather than personal merit, and declaring a confident assurance in Yahweh's protection of the righteous. Because God abhors not merely evil deeds but evildoers themselves outside of Christ, the believer can pray against oppression with holy boldness, resting in the promise that Yahweh's favor surrounds the righteous as an encompassing shield.
The First Post-Conversion Visit to Jerusalem by Paul
Paul's first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26–31) exposes three realities: the suspicious reception Saul faced from the Jerusalem disciples, the bold gospel ministry he conducted among the Hellenists despite two attempts on his life, and Luke's summary statement on the condition and growth of the churches in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. The sermon argues that faithful churches grow not through gimmick or manipulation but through walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit — conditions that produce peace, edification, and genuine multiplication. Along the way, the preacher presses the congregation to pray for bold preaching, to value the supporting roles of 'Ananias and Barnabas figures' in the church, and to pursue the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace as an active, worked-for reality.
Free Grace Baptist Church - August 11, 2019 AM
Acts 9:26-31 records Paul's first post-conversion visit to Jerusalem, where his attempt to join the disciples was met with fear and suspicion before Barnabas vouched for him to the apostles. The sermon traces three interlocking themes: the indispensable ministry of supporting figures like Ananias and Barnabas, the biblical pattern of bold gospel proclamation modeled by Paul and attested throughout Acts, and the threefold blessing — peace, edification, and multiplication — described in the summary statement of verse 31. The application presses the congregation to pursue these blessings not through programmatic gimmicks but through walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and to pray earnestly for those who preach the Word.
The Baptism of Saul of Tarsus
Acts 9:17–25 records the baptism and initial preaching of Saul of Tarsus following his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road. Ananias addresses the former persecutor as 'brother Saul,' and Saul is immediately baptized — a pattern the sermon presses as normative: conversion precedes and grounds baptism, which is the public confession of a forgiven sinner, not a converting ordinance. The sermon then traces the character of Saul's early preaching: immediate, Christocentric, apologetic, and persuasive — proving from the Old Testament that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God — while showing that the same mission statement of Acts 9:15–16 (preach and suffer) begins its fulfilment within hours of his conversion. Hearers are urged to confess Christ openly, to submit to baptism without delay, and to recover a persuasive, Scripture-grounded proclamation of the gospel rather than the entertainment-driven substitute that fills contemporary pulpits.
The Priority of the Moral Law
Proverbs 21:3 states that to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice — a declaration that exposes the perennial human tendency to substitute external religious performance for genuine moral obedience. This sermon traces that priority through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms before examining Christ's fifth woe against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, where he condemns the same imbalance of tithing mint, anise, and cumin while neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. The threefold division of the law underlies the exposition: the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ and abolished as a covenant obligation, but the moral law — comprehending both tables, duty to God and duty to man — retains its binding claim on the people of God. The sermon closes with the gospel ground of that obedience: because our righteousness before God falls short on the best of days, the imputed active obedience of Christ, received by faith alone, is the only hope — and the motivation for the wholehearted, balanced compliance Solomon demands.
Psalm 33
Psalm 33 calls the people of God to praise the Lord for His sovereignty in creation and in history, grounding that praise in the character of a covenant-keeping God whose word is unfailingly right and whose purposes stand forever. The sermon moves through the psalm's three movements: the call to skillful, joyful worship; the manifold reasons for praise drawn from God's power over creation, His overruling of human counsel, and His providential care over His elect; and the psalmist's concluding resolution to wait on God alone as help and shield. Listeners are pressed to ask whether their worship reflects genuine delight in the sovereign God of Psalm 33 and whether their trust rests in Him rather than in any human means or strength.
The Sovereignty of God
Proverbs 3:19–20 grounds God's sovereignty not merely in creation but in every sphere of existence — the world was founded by divine wisdom, and that same sovereign wisdom governs all of history and secures the redemption of His people. Drawing widely from Proverbs alongside Genesis, the Psalms, Daniel, and Romans, this sermon traces three distinct expressions of God's sovereignty: His free, unconstrained creation of all things; His comprehensive providence over human affairs including civil government; and His eternal purpose in redemption, centred in the pre-existent Christ of Proverbs 8. The practical force of the message is that divine sovereignty — rightly understood — produces neither fatalism nor hyper-Calvinist passivity, but rather deep comfort, stable faith, and the use of appointed means, all to the glory of God.
The Worship of God in Private Families
Family worship — the regular practice of reading Scripture, praying, and singing with one's household — is grounded in a consistent biblical pattern running from Abraham in Genesis 18 through the Apostle Paul's commands in Ephesians 6. This topical survey traces the biblical warrant for family worship through key Old Testament figures and texts, examines the elements that should mark it, and presses the duty home with both positive examples and negative warnings. Parents and grandparents are called to diligent, consistent instruction of their children in law and gospel, with the sobering reminder that neglect — not busyness — is the real obstacle.
The Purity of God's Word
Proverbs 30:5–6 presents two inseparable claims: every word of God is pure, and God is a shield to those who trust him. This sermon expounds the purity of Scripture as an attribute derived from the character of God himself, extends it across every genre and testament, and anchors it in the New Testament's own witness to its inspiration and authority. The warning of verse 6 — that adding to God's words brings divine rebuke and the verdict of liar — is applied not only to unbelieving Judaism, Roman Catholic tradition, and Charismatic continuationism, but to the Reformed believer's own temptation to bind consciences where God has not legislated. Hearers are called to read the whole counsel of God daily, to rest in its sufficiency, and to resist every impulse to place human words on a level with or in competition with divine revelation.
The Samaritan Pentecost
Acts 8:14–17 records the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritan believers through the apostolic ministry of Peter and John — an event frequently misread as a proof text for Roman Catholic confirmation or Pentecostal second-blessing theology. This sermon argues that the Samaritan Pentecost is neither a repeatable pattern for individual Christian experience nor evidence of a subsequent work of the Spirit distinct from regeneration, but rather a unique, unrepeatable, redemptive-historical event marking the corporate inclusion of Samaritans into the one covenant people of God, in direct fulfillment of Acts 1:8. The three Pentecosts — Jerusalem (Acts 2), Samaria (Acts 8), and the Gentile household of Cornelius (Acts 10) — together attest Christ's messianic lordship from the Father's right hand and demonstrate the unity of His people across every ethnic division. Believers are called to receive the Word by faith, submit to baptism as its public sign, and embrace the corporate solidarity of the one new man in Christ.
The Joy of Keeping God's Law
Proverbs 29:18 sets before us two contrasting conditions: the lawlessness that follows the absence of God's revealed word, and the happiness that accompanies obedience to that word. This sermon works through the classic Reformed threefold use of the law — civil/political, pedagogical, and normative — applying the first two uses to the unbeliever and the third to the justified believer. The practical conclusion is that keeping God's law is simultaneously a consequence of justifying faith, a means of promoting assurance of salvation, and an expression of gratitude to God for sovereign grace.
The Profession of Simon Magus
Acts 8:9–13 presents a direct clash between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the sorcery of Simon Magus, who had captivated the whole population of Samaria with his claim to divine greatness. The sermon expounds two movements in the text: the comprehensive grip of false doctrine under Simon, and the liberating power of divine grace through Philip's proclamation of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes exclusively through faith in Christ — not through a mixture of truth and magic, not through works — and believers' baptism publicly identifies the convert with the triune God while repudiating every former allegiance. The passage is set forth as a demonstration that Christ, enthroned at the right hand of the Father, must reign until all his enemies are made his footstool, which is ground for courage, prayer, and faithful gospel proclamation in every generation.
Free Grace Baptist Church - May 5, 2019 AM
Christ declared 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me' — a claim as offensive to the ancient world as to the modern, yet the only word that addresses the guilt, ignorance, and rebellion of sinners. Working through Acts 8:1–17, this exposition traces the Spirit-confirmed extension of the gospel from Jerusalem into despised Samaria, showing how Philip's preaching of Christ — not social commentary, not racial reconciliation programmes, but Christ as prophet, priest, and king — produced joy in a city that had been alien to the covenants of promise. The sermon argues that the cross, and only the cross, is the answer to ethnic hostility, civic disorder, and personal despair, and calls hearers to attend to the preached Word with the same urgency the Samaritans showed when Philip came among them.
Genesis 18:16-33
Genesis 18:16–33 presents the Lord's evaluation of Sodom and Abraham's intercessory prayer on behalf of any righteous persons within the doomed cities of the plain. The passage establishes two theological axioms: divine omnipotence silences doubt concerning God's promises, and divine justice — 'shall not the judge of all the earth do right?' — silences every charge of divine arbitrariness. Abraham's descent from fifty to ten righteous persons is examined as a model of humble, persistent intercession, set within a wider biblical pattern running from Moses and Samuel through Jeremiah, Daniel, and the New Testament exhortations of 1 Timothy 2. The sermon calls God's people to regular, corporate intercessory prayer for all kinds of men, including civil authorities, grounded not in human merit but in the great mercies of God.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 24, 2019 Bible Study
Genesis 18:1–15 presents the Lord's appearance to Abraham at Mamre, where the promise of Isaac's birth is reiterated — this time directed toward Sarah, who laughs within herself at what she judges a physical impossibility. The study examines the identity of the three visitors (most likely the angel of the Lord and two attendant angels), the exemplary hospitality of Abraham as a model for Christian brotherly love, and the rebuke issued to Sarah's unbelief. The passage pivots on the question of verse 14 — 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?' — and calls believers to ground their confidence not in circumstantial possibility but in the omnipotence of God, whose covenantal promises are not contingent on human capacity.
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 21, 2019 PM
Ephesians 4:7–16 presents the ascended Christ as the sovereign giver of gifts to his church — gifts that are men appointed to the ministry of the Word. This exposition argues that the purpose of those gifts is not to provide an outlet for individual expression but to bring about corporate maturity, doctrinal stability, and Christlikeness among the people of God. Listeners are pressed to examine whether they genuinely value word-based ministry, hold fast to the unity of the faith, and live as model members of Christ's new-creation temple.
The Antithesis between the Upright and the Wicked
Proverbs 29:27 declares a mutual abomination between the upright and the wicked — a reality rooted not in mere personality conflict but in the God-ordained enmity of Genesis 3:15. This sermon traces that antithesis from its origin in the protoevangelium through its characteristics in Proverbs 30:11–14 (rebelliousness, self-righteousness, arrogance, and oppression), and into its New Testament confirmation in John 15 and 1 John 3. Believers are called to respond to a godless generation not with violence or character assassination, but with righteous indignation tempered by tears, faithful parental discipline, proclamation of God's law, and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Stephen's Defense, Part 9
Acts 7:51–53 records the climactic conclusion of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, in which he reverses the charge of blasphemy against Moses and the temple by indicting the council itself for idolatry. Each epithet Stephen employs — 'stiff-necked,' 'uncircumcised in heart and ears,' and 'always resisting the Holy Spirit' — is drawn from the Old Testament vocabulary of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the Psalms, showing that the council stands in unbroken solidarity with the idolatrous generations before them. The pinnacle of their guilt is the betrayal and murder of the Just One, the Messiah foretold by the prophets, whose coming was the very purpose of the law and the temple they claimed to defend. The sermon calls hearers to recognize that the law of Moses and the temple of God both point inexorably to Christ, and that to reject him is to break the law one professes to uphold.