Cited in sermons
Dale Ralph Davis
317 sermons · All people cited
1 Kings 7: Solomon's Palace, Hiram, and the Temple Furnishings
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.
1 Kings 6: Solomon's Temple and the Covenant Faithfulness of God
The construction of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6 is not a collection of architectural trivia but a testimony to the covenant faithfulness of God, who not only delivers his people but settles them. Three movements structure the chapter: the exterior of the temple, a divine interruption demanding covenantal obedience, and the interior with its climactic Holy of Holies. The temple points typologically beyond Solomon to the Son of David who is also Son of God — the Lord Jesus Christ, who builds the true and final temple, his church.
The Incarnation and the Victory of Christ
Revelation 12 presents three symbolic figures — the woman (the messianic community and church), the dragon (the devil), and the male child (Christ) — to narrate the decisive victory won at Christ's first advent. The chapter demonstrates that the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God accomplish what was promised in Genesis 3:15: the crushing of the serpent's head. Against prosperity-gospel distortions, the sermon insists that Christ's enthronement does not remove the church's trials but rather explains them, calling believers to resist the devil through the blood of the Lamb and to identify themselves as those who keep the commandments of God.
1 Kings 3
Solomon's opening of his reign in 1 Kings 3 presents two defining realities: the prayer in which a young king, conscious of his own inadequacy, asks God not for riches or long life but for wisdom to govern God's people justly, and the verdict over the two harlots that publicly demonstrates the divine wisdom God poured out upon him. The structure of Solomon's prayer — beginning with praise for God's covenant faithfulness to David and Abraham before petitioning — is held up as a pattern for Christian prayer, in which rehearsing God's past faithfulness becomes the basis of present confidence. Solomon's request is set in deliberate contrast to the self-serving instincts of ordinary rulers, pointing forward typologically to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden, and who is the greater Solomon the text anticipates.
The Reformation of the Church
What does it mean for the church to be 'the pillar and ground of the truth'? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon examines the identity and confession of the church through three descriptions Paul gives in verse 15 — the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth — before applying the doctrinal legacy of the sixteenth-century Reformation to the contemporary church. The great Christological confession of verse 16 is shown to be the theological center around which all church conduct, worship, and proclamation must orbit. The sermon calls the church to guard sola scriptura, justification by faith alone, the regulative principle of worship, and a proper Christology against the perpetual drift toward pragmatism, experientialism, and Romanizing errors.
1 Kings 2
1 Kings 2 narrates the final charge of David to Solomon and the subsequent elimination of the kingdom's enemies as the foundation for stable, God-honoring rule. David's charge binds Solomon's strength and prosperity directly to covenant obedience — walking in the law of Moses — while the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 stands in the background as the unconditional guarantee that Messiah will come from David's line. The chapter's recurring refrain of the kingdom being 'firmly established' (vv. 12, 24, 45, 46) is the theological engine of the narrative: security is achieved not through political calculation but through sovereign divine purpose, as threats against the kingdom are neutralized one by one. Both David and Solomon function typologically, pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, who shows grace to his people and executes terrible judgment upon his enemies — a reality that ought to produce more holy fear than the sword of Benaiah ever could.
1 Kings 1:1-27
Adonijah's brazen self-installation as king over Israel — in defiance of David's sworn oath that Solomon would succeed him — exposes the dangers of undisciplined character, unqualified leadership, and a kingdom whose security rests ultimately not on any human actor but on the sovereign hand of God. Expounding 1 Kings 1:1–27 under three headings — David's declining health, Adonijah's ambitious self-exaltation, and Nathan's faithful intervention — the study draws sharp typological lines back through Absalom and Saul to press a recurring biblical principle: God does not select leaders by outward appearance but by the fear of Yahweh and obedience to His word. The closing application calls hearers to trust that King Jesus steadies His church through every threat, to insist on genuinely qualified leadership, and to take seriously the parental duty of discipline as a form of love.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 6
Matthew 24:21–22 describes a 'great tribulation' and its sovereign limitation — but what event does this language describe? Working through a preterist reading of the Olivet Discourse, this sermon argues that verse 21's unparalleled tribulation language refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, not to a future global event. Drawing on parallel idioms in Exodus 11, Ezekiel 5, Ezekiel 7, and Daniel 9, the sermon demonstrates that such hyperbolic judgment language is standard biblical speech for covenantal catastrophe, and that the AD 70 destruction constituted the decisive covenantal transformation by which the kingdom was taken from old covenant Israel and given to the church. The sermon closes with a direct call to sinners to flee to Christ, whose promise in John 6:37 and 1 John 3:23 provides the warrant for faith.
Introduction to 1 & 2 Kings
The books of 1 and 2 Kings constitute the final volume of the Former Prophets and span roughly four centuries of Israel's monarchy, from the death of David to the release of Jehoiachin in Babylon. This introductory study surveys the authorship, date, structure, and major theological themes of these books, demonstrating that their history is fundamentally covenantal history: the kings are measured by the law of Moses, particularly Deuteronomy, and the fall of both kingdoms is God's judicial execution of covenant curses, not merely geopolitical misfortune. The Davidic covenant provides the thread of hope that runs through the narrative's darkest moments and points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true and final king who builds the temple of God and extends the glory of God throughout the cosmos.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 2, 2016 PM
Genesis 15 records God's covenant with Abram, and this sermon expounds that passage under two headings: the promise to Abram (vv. 1–6) and his request for a sign (vv. 7–17). The central argument is that when God alone passes between the divided animals — taking the covenant's self-maledictory oath entirely upon himself — he typifies what Christ accomplished on the cross: bearing the curse that covenant-breaking sinners deserved. Justification is by faith alone, as Genesis 15:6 declares and as Paul confirms in Romans 4 and Galatians 3; Abram's faith was not in a nebulous future hope but in the promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon closes by leading the congregation into the Lord's Supper, calling believers to eat and drink in grateful remembrance of the substitute who passed through judgment in their place.
2 Samuel 24:1-25
Second Samuel 24 closes David's reign with a sobering account of a sinful census, divine judgment, and the necessity of atonement — raising difficult questions about divine sovereignty, second causes, and human culpability. The chapter sets David's genuine repentance in sharp contrast to Saul's hardness, and traces the themes of propitiation and substitution that run through all of redemptive history. The threshing floor of Araunah is identified as Mount Moriah — the future site of Solomon's temple — so that the sacrifice David offers becomes a typological pointer to the atoning work of Christ. The sermon calls hearers to maintain short accounts with God through prompt confession, to receive the Spirit's conviction as a mercy rather than an offense, and to offer worship that costs something.
Free Grace Baptist Church - September 18, 2016 PM
Second Samuel 23:1–39 records the last words of David and the roster of his mighty men — warriors whose exploits are attributed not to raw human ability but to Yahweh's gift of victory. The sermon draws four observations from the passage: the divine power behind the three elite warriors (vv. 8–12), the sacrificial devotion of the three unnamed men who fetched water from Bethlehem (vv. 13–17), the notable exploits of Abashai and Benaiah (vv. 18–38), and the sobering reminder of David's sin in the final mention of Uriah the Hittite (v. 39). The Uriah reference serves a double function: it grounds David's success entirely in the grace of God, and it drives the reader forward to the greater Son of David — the Lord Jesus Christ — who alone rules with untainted justice, righteousness, and perfection.
2 Samuel 23:8-39
2 Samuel 23:8–39 catalogues the mighty men who served David, and this exposition draws out four interlocking themes: the power of Yahweh standing behind every human exploit, the costly sacrifice of unnamed warriors who broke through a Philistine camp for a bowl of water, the particular exploits of Abishai and Benaiah as models of courage and resourcefulness, and the sobering placement of Uriah the Hittite at the list's end as a reminder that David's reign rested entirely on sovereign grace rather than personal virtue. The passage ultimately functions as a pointer toward David's greater Son, who will administer judgment and justice in utter perfection where David fell short, and the congregation is called to be faithful, courageous, and sacrificial in the kingdom of Christ.
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.
The Atonement at Gibeah
2 Samuel 21 presents a famine in David's Israel caused by Saul's covenant-breaking slaughter of the Gibeonites, resolved only when seven of Saul's sons are executed as a blood-atoning sacrifice before the Lord. The passage illuminates the costliness of covenant-breaking, the terror of divine wrath, and the nature of substitutionary atonement — themes that point unmistakably to Calvary. David's protection of Mephibosheth in the midst of judgment typifies Christ's covenant-keeping faithfulness toward his own people, while the death of the seven sons at Gibeah typifies the penal substitution of the innocent for the guilty. The sermon presses believers to resist domesticating the atonement into a bloodless abstraction, and to confront afresh the drippy, bloody, smelly reality of what the Son of God endured in the place of sinners.
2 Samuel 19:9-43
Second Samuel 19:9–43 narrates David's return to Jerusalem after Absalom's failed rebellion, exposing both the political complexity of restoring a dethroned king and the deeper spiritual condition of those who surround him. Three figures — Shimei, Mephibosheth, and Barzillai — are studied as contrasting portraits: pragmatic self-interest, costly loyalty, and contented faithfulness. The passage closes with a petty tribal quarrel between Israel and Judah that foreshadows Sheba's rebellion in chapter 20, illustrating that division in the covenant community is driven by the craving for position and prestige rather than submission to God's king. The application is direct: examine whether your allegiance to Christ is a matter of genuine conviction or merely policy, and cultivate the decreasing posture of John the Baptist.
2 Samuel 18-19:8
David's army defeats Absalom in the woods of Ephraim, but Absalom's death — hanging from a terebinth tree, killed by Joab in defiance of David's orders — reduces a day of military triumph to one of royal mourning. This exposition of 2 Samuel 18–19:8 argues that David's inconsolable grief over Absalom is not mere paternal sentiment but is inflamed by the guilt of his own sin in 2 Samuel 12, where Nathan pronounced that the sword would never depart from his house. The study applies two lessons to the congregation: a biblical realism about the inconsistency of every human being, and a call to faithful parenting in the fear of God.
2 Samuel 17
Second Samuel 17 narrates the competing counsel of Ahithophel and Hushai during Absalom's rebellion against David, but the narrator's own theological commentary in verse 14 reveals that the decisive factor is neither military strategy nor political cunning — it is the sovereign purpose of Yahweh. God defeats good counsel to bring disaster on His enemies and preserve His anointed king, and He does so through entirely ordinary, hidden means. The sermon draws out the hiddenness of divine providence, the certainty of judgment upon all who oppose God's kingdom, and the comfort that the kingdom of Christ will never be destroyed.
2 Samuel 16
When David flees Jerusalem, he encounters three enemies — Ziba the manipulator, Shimei the curser, and Ahithophel the treacherous counselor — yet his response to each reveals a man who trusts the sovereign hand of God rather than the sword of his own men. This study of 2 Samuel 16 traces how David's suffering under divine chastisement, provoked by his own sin in 2 Samuel 11–12, fulfills Nathan's prophetic word and demonstrates a practical faith in God's comprehensive sovereignty over the wicked acts of men. David's refusal to retaliate against Shimei and his hope that God might 'repay him with good' prefigures Christ, who when reviled did not revile in return but committed himself to him who judges righteously. The study closes by urging believers to read the Psalms in light of their historical background, to embrace God's sovereignty over trials, and to cast themselves upon divine mercy when waves of affliction come together.
2 Samuel 15
Second Samuel 15 records Absalom's carefully orchestrated conspiracy to usurp David's throne and David's subsequent flight from Jerusalem. The chapter is expounded against the backdrop of God's word of judgment through Nathan in 2 Samuel 12, showing how divine sovereignty works through the wickedness of responsible human agents without excusing that wickedness. David's submission to God's sovereign will in sending the Ark back to Jerusalem, his prayer against the counsel of Ahithophel, and his use of Ittai, Zadok, and Hushai as instruments of providence together model a robust, active faith that casts itself entirely upon God rather than upon religious superstition or human cleverness. The passage closes with typological overtones, as David's weeping ascent of the Mount of Olives anticipates his greater Son's own rejected kingship and lament over Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 14
Second Samuel 14 records Joab's scheme to engineer Absalom's return from exile through the parable-like appeal of a wise woman from Tekoa, David's capitulation, and the uneasy non-reconciliation that follows. The chapter exposes David's chronic inactivity as a father and king — his refusal either to punish or fully forgive Absalom producing the very bitterness that will fuel Absalom's usurpation in chapter 15. The narrator's portrait of Absalom's stunning appearance, his family, and his manipulative conduct warns that outward impressiveness without inward submission to God is a recipe for leadership disaster, a theme that runs from Saul through Eliab to Absalom himself. Parents and leaders alike are called to deal decisively with sin rather than tolerate the "no man's land" between justice and mercy.
2 Samuel 13:1-22
The rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13:1–22) is examined as the beginning of God's covenantal judgment on David's house, fulfilling the word of Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12. Before entering the narrative, the study clears apparent contradictions in the Mosaic legislation on rape and incest (Deuteronomy 22; Leviticus 18; 20), demonstrating that the Pentateuch treats rape as equivalent in gravity to murder and that the disputed passage in Deuteronomy 28–29 describes consensual seduction, not rape. The passage is then worked through under four headings — Amnon's lust, Jonadab's counsel, the act itself, and its aftermath — with sustained attention to what each character reveals about the nature of sin, the failure of justice, and the sovereignty of God even in sordid judgment.
2 Samuel 12:15-31
David's sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah bring severe temporal consequences even after divine forgiveness is granted: the infant son dies, and the Davidic household faces ongoing judgment. Yet grace appears most strikingly in the very aftermath of these crimes — God loves Solomon, names him Jedidiah, and advances the Davidic Covenant despite David's catastrophic failure. The sermon draws from 2 Samuel 12:15–31 to show that forgiven sinners still bear temporal chastisement, that sovereign grace is not undone by human wickedness, and that faithful worship — not withdrawal — is the proper response of the suffering saint.
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.
2 Samuel 8:1-18
2 Samuel 8 records David's military conquests as the God-ordained stabilization of Israel's land in preparation for Solomon's temple-building, rooted in the promises of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7. The chapter is expounded under three headings: the advancement of the kingdom through David's campaigns from north to south, the stability of the kingdom seen in the dedication of spoils to Yahweh and the administration of judgment and justice, and the power behind the kingdom — not David's military skill, but Yahweh's faithful preservation of His servant wherever he went. David's reign is treated as typologically anticipatory of Christ's kingdom: conflict precedes conquest, the wealth of the nations is consecrated to Israel's God, and the Son of David exercises universal dominion in judgment and justice as promised in Psalm 2 and Isaiah 9 and 11. The study closes with a call to recover the church-militant posture, trusting the same God who gave David victory to bring victory to the new covenant church through the weapons of prayer, preaching, and faithful witness.
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.
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.
Colossians 1:10-14
Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:9–14 reveals what the apostle considered most essential for the people of God: not merely physical welfare, but a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. This study works through the four participial phrases of verses 10–14 — fruitfulness in good works, growth in the knowledge of God, God-wrought patience and long-suffering with joy, and thankfulness — showing how each flows from being filled with the knowledge of God's will. The practical challenge is double: to pray for others in the manner Paul prays, and to examine honestly whether one's own life resembles what Paul prays for.
2 Samuel 6
God's holiness and the regulation of his worship stand at the center of 2 Samuel 6. The chapter presents two attempts to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem: the first interrupted by the death of Uzzah for transgressing explicit Mosaic law, and the second completed with sacrificial worship, joy, and dancing. The narrative teaches that sincere motives and good intentions are always subordinate to the commandment of God, and that right worship is neither invented by the worshiper nor shaped by cultural preference, but governed by the Word of God alone. David's response to Michael's contempt further illustrates the contrast between genuine, humble devotion and the cold externalism of an unconverted heart.