Cited in sermons
Dale Ralph Davis
317 sermons · All people cited
The Murder of Naboth
The murder of Naboth in 1 Kings 21 exposes the converging wickedness of covetousness, false witness, state-sponsored murder, and spineless complicity — and then the righteous judgment of God upon those who perpetrate injustice against the innocent. Ahab's sullen greed and Jezebel's ruthless manipulation demonstrate that when idolatry prevails in a society, the whole second table of the law collapses with the first. God's intervention through Elijah, and his surprising mercy even toward Ahab's outward remorse, grounds both a warning for the wicked and a gospel call to the penitent: if God showed regard to so shallow a humiliation, how much more will he receive in Christ those who come to him with genuine repentance.
Remembered in the Land
Genesis 22:20–23:20 records the death of Sarah, Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpelah, and the first parcel of land the patriarch ever owned in Canaan. The sermon unfolds under three headings — God's people pass, wander, and dwell — showing that even in the silence of ordinary providence, where God's name goes unmentioned, he is keeping covenant by securing a burial place in the promised land. Christians still mourn, still sojourn as exiles in this age, but the purchase of Machpelah points forward to the resurrection hope Abraham already believed, a hope now confirmed on the far side of Christ's coming.
The Judgment of God in the Early Church
Acts 5:1–11 records the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, struck down by God for lying to the Holy Spirit. This sermon works through the passage under two headings: the deceitfulness of the couple (vv. 1–4) and the death they suffered by God's direct judgment (vv. 5–11). The preacher grounds the episode in a high doctrine of God — holy, just, and a consuming fire — and insists that the primary practical lesson is the fear of God, not merely ethical instruction about honesty. The sermon closes with the gospel: no one can stand before this holy Lord God except Christ alone, and all who are savingly united to Him by faith stand in Him.
The Prophet Under the Broom Tree
What was Elijah actually doing under the broom tree — fleeing in faithless self-pity, or acting out of zealous grief for the glory of God? Working through 1 Kings 19:1–18, this sermon challenges the dominant commentatorial tradition that reads Elijah's flight and depression as a crisis of faith, arguing instead that his despondency was provoked by legitimate covenantal grief over Israel's continued apostasy after the contest at Carmel. God's response — rest, food, a journey to Horeb, and a formal covenant lawsuit — vindicates the prophet and reveals the divine program of justice and grace through Hazael, Jehu, Elisha, and a reserved remnant of 7,000. The pastoral application is direct: faithful people suffer depression, and those who minister to them must respond with the same patience, kindness, and provision that Yahweh himself showed to Elijah.
The Believer's Race
Hebrews 12:1 calls the people of God to run the Christian race with endurance, laying aside every weight and entangling sin. This sermon expounds the first of three incentives the author of Hebrews sets before believers: the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11, who function not as spectators watching the runner, but as witnesses testifying to the faithfulness of God through every trial and affliction. Drawing on Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, David, Job, Habakkuk, and the martyrs Polycarp and Thomas Hawkes, the sermon presses believers to receive the unanimous testimony of the saints — that God is faithful, God sustains runners, and God will bring them through to the end — and to run without quitting, because the Christian life is a marathon requiring daily faithfulness, not a glamorous sprint.
The Exhortation to Pray, Part 2
James 5:16–18 calls every believer — not a spiritual elite — to confess sins to one another, to intercede for one another, and to pray with the confidence that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The 'righteous man' of verse 16 is not a super-saint but any person justified by faith alone in Christ alone, whose imputed righteousness gives boldness at the throne of grace. Elijah is set before the church not as a larger-than-life wonder-worker but as a man of like passions — weak, despondent, yet prevailing in prayer — precisely so that ordinary believers will not despair of their own access to God. The sermon closes with a searching examination: are God's people truly prayerful as individuals, as families, as elders, and as a congregation?
Free Grace Baptist Church - April 8, 2018 PM
The reception of God's written Word must move the covenant people to thoroughgoing, comprehensive reform—in worship, life, and the observance of the sacraments—regardless of whether such obedience will produce measurable results. Expounding 2 Kings 23, this sermon traces three movements in Josiah's reformation of Judah: a public covenant renewal ceremony, an extensive purge of idolatry from both the southern and northern territories, and the restoration of Passover. The driving lesson is that obedience to God's law is not grounded in pragmatic expectation of blessing but in the simple rightness of what God commands—a faithfulness the speaker calls 'obedience without incentives.'
2 Kings 25
The fall of Jerusalem in 2 Kings 25 is not merely a record of military conquest — it is a theological verdict on covenant unfaithfulness. The chapter traces the Babylonian siege, the systematic destruction of the temple and city, the appointment and assassination of Gedaliah, and the exile of Judah, reading as a sustained fulfillment of the curses pronounced in Deuteronomy 28. Yet the chapter's closing verses, recording the release and elevation of Jehoiachin in Babylon, preserve a glimmer of Davidic hope that Matthew 1 traces forward to Jesus Christ, the son of David whose kingdom has no end.
2 Kings 23:1-30
Second Kings 23 records the most thoroughgoing religious reformation in Israelite history, as King Josiah responds to the rediscovered book of the law by renewing the covenant, purging both the southern and northern kingdoms of institutionalized idolatry, and reinstating the Passover. The exposition traces Josiah's reforms from their covenantal basis through their comprehensive execution — including the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken 300 years earlier in 1 Kings 13 — before confronting the sobering reality that even this unparalleled reformation could not avert God's covenantal wrath against Judah for the sins of Manasseh. Josiah emerges as a typological figure — a second Moses, a Davidic son — whose faithfulness is held out as the model of obedience that does not depend on incentive or outcome, a pattern the New Covenant people of God are exhorted to follow in their own worship, sacrament, and covenant fidelity.
2 Kings 21:1-26
Manasseh's 55-year reign over Judah represents the nadir of covenant unfaithfulness in the southern kingdom, exceeding even the wickedness of the Canaanites whom God had expelled from the land. This expository study of 2 Kings 21 traces Manasseh's systematic religious innovations — reinstituting the high places, introducing Baal and Asherah worship into the temple, practicing child sacrifice and witchcraft, and shedding innocent blood — alongside the divine prophecy of inevitable, terrifying, and just judgment against Jerusalem. The chapter also demonstrates that Judah was not merely victimized by a wicked king but was itself seducible, having provoked God continuously since the exodus. The passage calls covenant people to resist practical atheism, to cherish God's promised blessings rather than forfeit them for the passing pleasures of sin, and to reckon seriously with the connection between idolatry and the collapse of ethical life.
2 Kings 20:1-21
Second Kings 20 closes the account of Hezekiah's reign by exposing both the nobility and the inconsistency of one of Judah's best kings. The chapter is examined under three headings: the extension of Hezekiah's life through answered prayer, the folly of his alliance-seeking with Babylon, and the summary of his reign. The central lesson is that even a covenant-faithful king who trusts God in sickness can lapse into walking by sight in prosperity, and this inconsistency of consistency is the common condition of every believer who depends on the grace of Christ rather than on personal perfection.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
2 Kings 19:1-37
Second Kings 19 narrates the Assyrian crisis under Sennacherib and Hezekiah's response — a pattern of seeking God through the prophet Isaiah, spreading the enemy's letter before the Lord, and praying with conspicuously theological concern for God's honor rather than merely for personal safety. The sermon moves through three sections: the prophet's word of encouragement, Hezekiah's model prayer, and the divine defeat of 185,000 Assyrian troops by the angel of the Lord. Hezekiah's David-like rationale — that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that the Lord alone is God — illustrates why theology matters in trial, and why the best pleas in prayer are those taken from God's honor.
2 Kings 18:1-37
Second Kings 18 introduces Hezekiah, one of Judah's most faithful kings, whose sweeping religious reforms and wholehearted trust in Yahweh are met not with immediate peace but with Assyrian invasion and psychological warfare. The chapter exposes a persistent error: that obedience to God is a formula for earthly blessing rather than a response to grace, and that faithfulness and suffering are not mutually exclusive. The Rabshakeh's two speeches constitute calculated propaganda designed to sow despair and division in Jerusalem, culminating in a blasphemous equation of Yahweh with the powerless gods of conquered nations. The study draws out three practical lessons: that trial coexists with blessing, that even faithful people waver, and that God's people may face genuine despair while still possessing genuine hope in a God who will act on their behalf.
2 Kings 17:27-41
The closing verses of 2 Kings 17 expose three interrelated failures in Israel's religion: a purely pragmatic desire to use God for personal relief, a syncretic manufacture of worship that blends Yahweh with self-made idols, and a defiant rejection of the exclusive covenant demands God laid upon Israel at Sinai. The passage's ironic declaration that the resettled nations 'feared the Lord' is not a commendation but a literary device the author immediately demolishes — true fear of God is incompatible with idolatry. These ancient patterns are alive in contemporary church culture wherever God is treated as a problem-solver, wherever worship is shaped by consumer preference, and wherever the regulative principle of worship is abandoned for pragmatic or syncretic innovation.
2 Kings 17:1-23
The fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 722 BC is not mere political history but theological history: the exile of the ten tribes was the direct judgment of God upon a nation that had spent over two centuries filling up the measure of its guilt through idolatry, covenant-breaking, and the rejection of every prophet sent to call them back. Working through 2 Kings 17:1–23, this study traces the instrument of God's judgment (Shalmaneser and Sargon of Assyria), the reasons for it (Israel's fear of false gods, imitation of the nations, rejection of the prophets, and repudiation of the Mosaic covenant), and its result (removal from God's sight — a loss not merely of land but of divine fellowship). The passage warns that those who follow worthlessness become worthless, while those who worship the living God are conformed to His image — and it calls every hearer to heed the warnings God has given before the same measure of guilt is filled.
2 Kings 16
Second Kings 16 records the reign of Ahaz, one of the most wicked kings in Judah's history — a man whose idolatry, political pragmatism, and innovations in worship reveal a heart comprehensively far from God. The sermon works through three movements: Ahaz's child sacrifice and high-place worship (vv. 1–4), his submission to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria rather than trusting Yahweh's covenant promises (vv. 5–9), and his importation of a Syrian altar and remodeling of the temple (vv. 10–20). The passage serves as a sustained warning against pragmatism over promise, worship innovation over the regulative principle, and the spineless complicity — exemplified by the priest Urijah — that advances evil as surely as outright wickedness does.
Free Grace Baptist Church - November 19, 2017 PM
This expository sermon on 2 Kings 5 traces the threefold structure of Naaman's healing: the providence of God working through a nameless Israelite servant girl, the conversion of a Gentile enemy of Israel, and the judgment upon the covetous Gehazi. The sovereign Lord is shown to govern Syrian politics, military affairs, and the destinies of servant girls alike, so that his free grace — which cannot be bribed, manipulated, or earned — reaches even those outside the covenant community. The congregation is called to see in Naaman's conversion a pattern of genuine New Covenant salvation: humility under the gospel, confession of the one true God, gratitude expressed in worship, and a sensitive conscience regarding ongoing sin.
The Healing of Naaman
2 Kings 5 presents the healing of Naaman the Syrian as a display of divine sovereign grace that crosses every boundary of ethnicity, enmity, and religious ignorance. The sermon traces three movements in the chapter: the providence of God in directing Naaman to Israel's prophet, the humbling and cleansing of Naaman himself, and the condemnation of Gehazi's greed. The preacher presses the text as a gospel pattern — Naaman is healed not by his own resources or merit but by simple obedience to the word of God, a model of the sovereign grace that brings the most unlikely sinners to repentance and faith.
2 Kings 14
2 Kings 14 presents the reigns of Amaziah in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel as twin case studies in the tension between partial obedience and persistent idolatry. Amaziah begins well — executing conspirators according to Deuteronomy 24:16 and heeding the man of God — yet his victory over Edom leads him to bow before Edom's gods, and 2 Chronicles 25 reveals that his subsequent military defeat by Israel was a direct act of divine judgment. Jeroboam II, though wicked like Jeroboam son of Nebat, presides over a Solomonic territorial expansion not because of geopolitical fortune but because God, in covenant faithfulness, saved Israel by his hand. The chapter as a whole foreshadows the Babylonian captivity and demonstrates that God's promises — to David and to Jehu alike — direct history even through judgment.
2 Kings 15
2 Kings 15 surveys five successive kings of the northern kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BC, four of whom seized power through assassination, as the nation spirals toward its destruction by Assyria in 722 BC. The chapter is framed by two relatively stable kings of Judah — Azariah (Uzziah) and Jotham — whose reigns contrast sharply with the chaos in the north, even as they share the sin of leaving the high places intact. The relentless refrain that each northern king 'did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat' is the biblical author's stated rationale for the divine judgment that falls in chapter 17. The study closes with application drawn from Amos 4: when God sends chastening, the right response is repentance and return to Him, not continued rebellion.
The Mercy of God in the Ministry of Elisha
Four miracles in 2 Kings 4 — multiplied oil, a resurrected son, purified stew, and bread multiplied for a hundred men — demonstrate that Yahweh's mercy extends not only to kings and nations but to nameless, destitute individuals in the most ordinary circumstances of life. The prophet Elisha functions typologically throughout: his inadequacy, importunate prayer, and restorative acts all point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true miracle-worker who alone can save sinners from their sins. Where Elisha can relieve physical need and point Israel to God, only Christ forgives sin through his life, death, and resurrection. The sermon closes with a call to gratitude, trust in God's sovereign provision over everyday anxieties, and faith in Christ alone for salvation.
2 Kings 13
2 Kings 13 records the reigns of two northern kings, Jehoahaz and Jehoash, against the backdrop of Syrian oppression and the death of the prophet Elisha. The chapter exposes a recurring pattern: Israel's idolatry provokes divine judgment, yet God's covenant faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob moves him to hear even the prayer of an apostatizing king and send deliverance. Elisha's death, the miraculous revival at his tomb, and the fulfillment of his prophetic word against Syria together press a single point upon the reader: the word of the living God is not extinguished by the death of its instruments. The study calls hearers to reject base ingratitude for God's mercies, to bring every burden boldly to the throne of grace, and to see in Elisha a typological anticipation of Christ's victory over the grave.
2 Kings 12
The reign of Joash in 2 Kings 12 presents an ironic arc: a king who labours to repair the temple of the Lord ultimately strips it bare to bribe a foreign invader. This study traces the regnal formula of verses 1–3 as testimony to the faithfulness of the Davidic covenant promise of 2 Samuel 7, the mechanics and moral lessons of the temple-repair programme in verses 4–16, and the swift depletion of what was restored when Hazael threatens Jerusalem in verses 17–21. The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 24 fills out Joash's apostasy after the death of Jehoiada, underscoring that external restraint cannot produce saving faith, and that every failing king in David's line points forward to the one descendant who does not disappoint.
2 Kings 11
Second Kings 11 records one of the most acute threats to the Davidic covenant: the usurper Athaliah nearly extinguishes the royal line that would ultimately produce the Messiah. The chapter is examined under four headings — the preservation of the Davidic line, the coronation of Joash, the execution of Athaliah, and the renewal of the covenant — tracing how God's providence, not direct intervention, defeats the murderous scheme through the obscure faithfulness of Jehoshabah. Covenant renewal in verse 17 carries an immediate implication: genuine fidelity to Yahweh requires the total destruction of idolatry, a principle that applies with equal force to the believer's ongoing war against sin. The session closes by anchoring the believer's confidence not in the hidden reign of Joash but in the present, absolute reign of his descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Kings 10
2 Kings 10 records the complete extermination of the house of Ahab by Jehu, the destruction of Baal worship in Israel, and the subsequent decline of the northern kingdom — all presented by the narrator as the precise fulfillment of prophecies God gave through Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and 21. Jehu functions as an imperfect, politically calculating instrument in the hands of a sovereign God whose word never fails. The chapter presses a searching application: true conversion turns from all sin — not merely the "wasteful" sins that bring no benefit, but the "gainful" sins a man clings to for security and advantage.
2 Kings 9
Second Kings 9 records the anointing of Jehu and his swift execution of God's long-deferred judgment upon the house of Ahab — a judgment decreed in 1 Kings 19 and pronounced by Elijah in 1 Kings 21. This sermon works through the chapter in two movements: the instrument of that judgment (the anointing of Jehu, vv. 1–13) and the execution of it (the deaths of Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel, vv. 14–37). The exposition draws out the comprehensive sovereignty of God over history, politics, and retribution, tracing how every detail — the location of Naboth's field, the presence of both kings in Jezreel, the dogs and the chariot — fulfills specific prophetic promises decades in the making. Listeners are called to take seriously both the justice of God against the wicked and the legitimate rejoicing of the righteous when that justice is displayed.
2 Kings 8
2 Kings 8 traces three interlocking narrative threads — the restoration of the Shunammite woman's land, the assassination of Syria's king Ben-Hadad by Hazael, and the moral defection of Judah's kings Jehoram and Ahaziah — all set within the larger context of God's prophesied judgment against the house of Omri announced in 1 Kings 19. The chapter demonstrates God's comprehensive, unrivaled sovereignty over individual lives, foreign nations, and royal dynasties alike, as every piece moves toward the purge of Jehu. A recurring application drives the exposition: the knowledge of God must issue in worship and obedience, not mere fascination, and ungodly alliances — whether political or marital — carry devastating consequences across generations.
2 Kings 6:24–7:20
The siege and deliverance of Samaria in 2 Kings 6:24–7:20 exposes both the devastating covenantal consequences of Israel's idolatry and the sovereign mercy of Yahweh who refuses to abandon His people. The cannibalism, famine, and political helplessness that afflict Samaria are not arbitrary calamities but the precise covenant curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, visited upon a nation that had abandoned Yahweh for the gods of Canaan. God's deliverance comes not through royal power or military might but through four leprous outcasts, an unnamed servant, and a supernatural terror sent upon the Syrian army — instruments so unlikely that only God can receive the glory. The passage presses its hearers to trust the prophetic Word of God rather than political power, and to proclaim the good news they have received rather than remain silent.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 13, 2017 Bible Study
Second Kings 6 presents God's sovereign care over both the minute and the massive: a borrowed iron axe head recovered from the Jordan, and an entire Syrian army blinded and marched into captivity at Samaria. The sermon works through three distinct episodes — the floating axe head (vv. 1–7), God's protection of Elisha from Syrian intelligence (vv. 8–17), and the miraculous capture of the Syrian force (vv. 18–23) — to establish that the Lord's providential rule extends without diminution from the trivial losses of a poor prophet to the geopolitical crises of a nation. The controlling application is that verse 16 ('those who are with us are more than those who are with them') is the permanent, unwavering ground of the believer's confidence, whether or not God grants the extraordinary vision of verse 17, and that knowing Scripture deeply is the instrument of the spiritual discernment required to rest in that reality.