Cited in sermons
James Hamilton
8 sermons · All people cited
The Victory of David Over Goliath
David's defeat of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 is not a moralistic lesson in overcoming personal giants, but a theological declaration that the living and true God vindicates His covenant people against those who defy Him. The narrative turns on two explicit lessons David announces in verses 46–47: that all the earth will know there is a God in Israel, and that Israel will learn the Lord does not save by sword and spear. David functions typologically as the singular seed of the woman, his headshot of Goliath advancing the Genesis 3:15 promise toward its fulfillment at Golgotha, where Christ crushed the serpent's head through His death and resurrection. The sermon calls believers to the same confidence David displayed — trusting the living God rather than human strength, because the same God who delivered David has promised to build His church and defend His people.
The Joy of Abraham in the Day of Christ
John 8:54–59 presents the most concentrated claim to divine identity in this chapter: Jesus asserts unity with the Father, declares that Abraham rejoiced to see His messianic day, and finally identifies Himself as the eternal 'I Am' of Exodus 3:14. The sermon traces Abraham's anticipatory faith through the protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15, the Abrahamic covenant promises, and their fulfilment in Christ alone, demonstrating that old covenant saints were justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The response of the religious leaders — picking up stones for blasphemy — confirms what they rightly understood Jesus to be claiming: equality with the Father. The sermon closes with a direct call to faith, contrasting the animosity of unbelieving Jerusalem with the joy of Abraham, and urging hearers not to harden themselves against the one who promises that whoever keeps His word shall never see death.
2LCF Chapter 22 - Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, Part 1
The fourth commandment, 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy' (Exodus 20:8–11), is grounded not in Mosaic legislation alone but in the creational ordinance of Genesis 2:1–3, where God's sabbathing after six days of work establishes the one-in-seven pattern binding upon all his image-bearers. The Deuteronomy 5 parallel adds redemption alongside creation as a second rationale, and these twin foundations carry into the New Covenant. Surveying Genesis 2–4, Exodus 16, Mark 2, Isaiah 56 and 58, and Jeremiah 31, this exposition demonstrates the trans-covenantal utility of the Decalogue and argues that the Sabbath is not a burdensome restriction but a gracious gift through which God's people enter into fellowship with their Creator.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 2
John 1:29 records the Baptist's singular declaration — 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' — a phrase saturated with the weight of Old Testament redemptive history. This sermon works through the theological freight of that title, tracing the Lamb through Genesis 22, Leviticus 16, and Isaiah 53 to show that Christ's mission is substitutionary blood atonement: he takes up the sin of his people in order to take it away entirely. The 'world' from which sin is removed is not every individual without exception but men and women without ethnic or national distinction, saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
The Christian Sabbath, Part 1
The Fourth Commandment's call to Sabbath observance is grounded not in Mosaic legislation alone but in the created order itself, the pattern of divine rest in Genesis 2, and the logic of redemption running through both Testaments. This sermon, the first in a series on the Christian Sabbath, expounds Deuteronomy 5:12–15 alongside key Old Covenant passages — Genesis 2, Exodus 16, Isaiah 56 and 58, and Jeremiah 31 — to argue that Sabbatarianism is a moral, perpetual, and trans-covenantal obligation rooted in creation and confirmed by covenant. The confession of the Second London Baptist Confession chapter 22 frames the doctrinal parameters, and the sermon closes with a call to receive the Sabbath not as a burden but as a blessed provision of God for his creatures.
The Fourth Commandment
The Fourth Commandment's call to observe the Sabbath is not a Mosaic innovation for Israel alone but a creation ordinance rooted in God's own rest and ratified across redemptive history. This sermon surveys Old Testament Sabbath theology — from Genesis 2 through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah — arguing that the Ten Commandments carry trans-covenantal moral force and that the Sabbath commandment retains binding validity for New Covenant Christians. Christ's defense of Sabbath in Mark 2 is shown to confirm rather than abolish the commandment, clearing away Pharisaic distortion while pointing back to the creational gift given for man as man, not Jew as Jew. Hearers are called to call the Sabbath a delight, to work diligently the six days, and to gather with the covenant community on the Lord's Day in holy worship.
Genesis 2:1-3
Genesis 2:1–3 establishes the Sabbath not at Sinai but at creation, where God's completion of the cosmic temple, his rest of holy delight, and his blessing and sanctification of the seventh day together constitute a creational ordinance binding on all mankind. The text moves in three movements: the completion of creation (v. 1), the rest of the Creator (v. 2), and the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day for the creature's benefit (v. 3). Christ's declaration in Mark 2:27 — 'the Sabbath was made for man' — is not a new pronouncement but a commentary on Genesis 2, confirming that the day was given to image-bearers as a gift from the beginning. Any theology of the Sabbath that does not begin here in Genesis 2:1–3 is defective, and believers are called to receive the weekly Sabbath as a good gift from God rather than resist or dispense with it.
The Enthronement of the Priest-King
Psalm 110, the most-quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament, sets forth the Messiah under three aspects: divine king enthroned at the right hand of Yahweh, eternal priest after the order of Melchizedek, and conquering warrior who shatters every enemy of God. The sermon argues that Christ's enthronement at the ascension inaugurates a reign that cannot fail, grounded in the unbreakable oath of the covenant of redemption, and that his priestly office is inseparable from his role as both offerer and offering — the seed of the woman crushed on Golgotha so that he might crush the serpent. The congregation is called to hold this warrior-king vision without embarrassment, to grieve sin without shock at its prevalence, and to press forward as a willing people in the day of his power.