Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God” … just as the Heavenly Host did in Luke 2:13 Remember that these shepherds were terrified at first. Now they take lead from the Heavenly Host in how they responded to the birth of Jesus. The Heavenly Host ‘praised God’ by saying loudly and boldly … ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’ I beli...

What does the Heavenly Host mean by ‘peace’? It is part of their Adoration and Praise. They certainly do not speak of an outward peace negotiated by men. They declare peace when men have been reconciled to God and enjoy an inward peace in their minds toward God. We obtain peace with God when he begins to be gracious toward us. We obtain peace with God when HE takes the guilt of our sinful state aw...

Gabriel’s announcement to Mary describes how this GRAND Miracle resulted in Jesus’s divine nature and human nature both as HIS essence. The theological idea is known as the Hypostatic Union. It is important for us to remember this truth of the incarnation as we seek to worship during this week of Christmas celebration. Gabriel explains to Mary the GRAND Miracle of Christianity is this very real tr...

This first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday morning that begins our HOPE/Anticipation of the celebration of the birth of our Savior on December 25th. The brokenness of God’s fallen creation at last sees hope in the miraculous incarnation of God’s Son. Today’s text will give us a glimpse into the mysterious yet revealed truth of the Incarnation of God himself as he steps into humanity – resulting in...

Matthew climaxes this chapter that focuses so much on greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus’ greatest of attributes, compassion. The interaction with two blind men (Mark 10 & Luke 18 refer to one man) is in stark contrast to the pride illustrated in the parable of the laborers of the vineyard, the self-serving request of the Sons of Zebedee, and the indignant jealousy of the Apostles. Wher...

Where are you in the eyes of our LORD? Are you humble, a servant, a slave to righteousness, looking to Christ alone for all your salvation? Or are you Prideful in your self-righteousness, your prideful ambition? Is ‘The GREAT Sin’, as C. S. Lewis calls the vanity of pride, still the genesis of all other vices? All other sin in your life? Come, be the last so that Christ will be honored as the firs...

Following Jesus is always more difficult to do than the Christian could imagine. A more dangerous struggle faces the veteran Christian because of the sin of Pride and Arrogant Ambition. This scene of Matthew 20:20-28 is only repeated once more in Mark’s gospel [Mark 10:35-40] Here is how C. S. Lewis describes “The Great Sin” “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which w...

Chapter twenty of Matthew’s gospel reinforces the teaching of Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven in response to Peter’s naïve pride from his question in 19:27 “Look! We have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” … the spirit of that interchange between Jesus and his twelve is that of earning one’s kingdom reward. But just as it is true that “With man this [salvation] is impossi...

Eternal Life is the eluding question that haunts the human condition. We all know innately that we have a part of our being that can never die like our physical body. What happens when the physical body ceases? Does this immaterial part of ourselves die with it? Innately we all know without fully knowing why that the immaterial part of ourselves can and will live on. The question we all seek an an...

At the heart of Matthew 19:13-15 is a theme important enough to the kingdom of heaven that the gospels of Mark and Luke both include this scene. Furthermore, this passage has birthed traditions and conflict in the history of the Church around infant baptism, also known as paedobaptism. It also causes us pause in our deeper understanding that salvation is not for the adults to determine. Jesus bles...

The call to singleness is a call to spiritual chastity and once again the twelve disciples ask the wrong question about divorce and remarriage. The interaction between Jesus and HIS twelve concerning the call to chastity does reveal the divine purpose of love and relationships. The striking takeaway from Jesus’ words is that to not be married is a gift. If this is so, then why do single adults, pa...

The Biblical description of Love (God's Love) is not the same as a Lifetime Movie or Hallmark Christmas Romance story. Although God prophecies through Hosea to 'love again' the adulterous wife (prostitution). Chapter 3 of this prophecy will show us God's expectation, His Chastisement, and His redemption of wayward people.

This passage reminds us of a teaching on divorce that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:31-32 I originally preached on those verses on Aug 30, 2020 So I do not want to repeat too much of that sermon today. If you wish to learn more on the various passages of Scripture concerning divorce and the traditional interpretations then I wish to direct you to the Sermon Audio archive on our...

The simple meaning of Jesus’ seventy-times-seven (verse 22) is that just as God does not give up on anyone, neither should we. God’s forgiveness is limitless therefore, why do we hold on to our sin? Why do we not approach the throne of grace with a heart of repentance? Furthermore, the multiplied number of seventy-times-seven illustrates a larger point of ongoing forgiveness. Our Lord does remit t...

All of Chapter 18 has been built to this lesson. This is a parable on its own, or a continuing illustration of the parable of the Lost Sheep, that serves as the corrective aspect of the lessons in the first half of the chapter about correcting the self. It is a hypothetical story, if/then, that teaches the lessons of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. The twelve apostles must learn to correct their ow...

Now Jesus continues his teaching to the twelve apostles about their soon to come responsibility in the Church ... the Kingdom of Heaven. These future leaders must focus on, and value as the greatest, the little ones as illustrated in this parable of the lost sheep. The 'others' are valuable to our LORD so much so that HE will spare no expense in searching for 'one' who has strayed from the flock....

The previous verses of this chapter gave us the scene of Jesus’ twelve asking a childish question concerning who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus knew the genesis of this question to be self-serving. He saw the immaturity of his twelve and brought a child in the midst of them to make a point about humility in the Kingdom of Heaven. Verse 4 "Whoever humbles himself like this child i...

Theme of chapter 18 is the humility and innocence of ‘little ones’ : how Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven How often do we struggle with greatness? Whether we are truly the greatest person alive or not, the struggle of ambition is at the center of all sinful hearts. We long to be better/greater than our peers … greater than who we truly are. It seems then that the desire of all of us is to be...

As Matthew's account of Jesus's journey to Jerusalem and the crucifixion continues, we now follow Jesus and his disciples on their journey back to Galilee from Caesarea Philippi. Most likely, they returned to Peter's home in Capernaum where Jesus often rested and launched out again in ministry. Per Jesus' usual methods, HE uses common events to teach his disciples great lessons about the Kingdom o...

The lesson from Jesus in this encounter with the father of a demon-possessed boy is faith. The Father shows tremendous humility by placing his faith in Jesus as THE CHRIST. The disciples failed to serve this family (verse 16) because their faith in Jesus fell short. But let's remember that this passage has been used to support the idea that if only our strength in Christ was powerful enough, we co...

Imagine what it would be like after a great and miraculous event occurred like Jesus' transfiguration. The Divine revelation described in this narrative was overwhelming to mere men ... Creatures of the Creator. The revelation was so overwhelming that men's hearts panicked .. their bodies collapsed in the abnormal beating of their chests. Today's passage will take us further into the after effects...

The second scene of our Lord's Transfiguration focuses on Divine Revelation and Authority. The reaction of the three disciples shows us how powerful Divine Revelation is. Jesus' instruction to the disciples to not share this moment with anyone shows that Divine privilege decides when, how, and where God speaks. The takeaway from Christ's Transfiguration moment is that Divine revelation causes huma...

Matthew now takes us to the pivotal revelation of Jesus's glory as the Son of God, the fulfillment of God's covenants with Adam, Moses, Israel, David, and the proclamations of the prophets. In this passage, Jesus is 'Transfigured' from the appearance of a normal man to the appearance of divine glory. God the Father has a purpose in this moment. What we will see in this encounter between his discip...

Just as Jesus The Christ must suffer, die, and resurrect, so too will the faithful disciple experience the same. All true disciples of Jesus are described as fellow Men of Sorrows who taste death, both of themselves, their self-serving passions, and literal death of the body. But the promise from our LORD is that none of this suffering and death will go unnoticed. It is God's promise through HIS S...

Jesus came to be Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, bearing the sins of the whole world vicariously. For Jesus, the title of “the Christ” and “Suffering Servant” do not contradict. These two titles actually merge very well. Jesus is the Suffering Christ who bears the sins of the whole world. This great truth is what the Christian Community, HIS Church, must learn from him. Matthew takes us from the quest...