Cited in sermons
Palmer Robertson
4 sermons · All people cited
Ask FGBC #14: How do we connect modern day Israel to Old & New Covenant Promises?
How should Christians understand the modern state of Israel, the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, and the land promises in light of the New Testament? This Q&A exchange argues that the church is not a replacement for Israel but is the eschatological Israel of Old Testament prophecy — one people of God, Jew and Gentile together, united in Christ. Dispensationalism's two-peoples-of-God framework is evaluated and rejected on hermeneutical grounds, with Romans 11, the Davidic covenant, and the land promise examined in turn. The conversation broadens into the necessity of reading Scripture canonically and horizontally, the value of confessionalism, and the danger of allowing political rhetoric to distort biblical interpretation.
A Cry from God's Oubliette
Psalm 88 is the most sorrowful psalm in the entire Psalter — a cry from one whom God has placed in what the preacher calls an 'oubliette,' the lowest and most forgotten prison in a medieval dungeon. Heman the Ezraite, whose name means 'faithful,' addresses the covenant LORD from the depths of unrelieved affliction, offering no tidy resolution but only the continued cry of faith in darkness. The sermon argues that this psalm validates the reality of deep suffering among God's faithful people, calls the church to companionship with those who suffer, and ultimately points to the Lord Jesus Christ, who descended into a darker oubliette than any of his people will ever know — and who therefore sympathizes with and intercedes for all who cry out to God in their trouble.
The Resurrection in the Book of Acts
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an isolated miracle but the climactic fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to David and Abraham, the ground of every redemptive blessing the church now enjoys. Working through the Book of Acts, this sermon traces five blessings that flow from the risen and ascended Christ: the revealed Word, the sovereignty of his reign, his active direction of the church, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the remission of sins through his blood. Because Christ sits enthroned at the Father's right hand with all authority in heaven and earth, nothing in the church's history is haphazard — every trial, every addition, every missionary advance is governed by the living Lord. The sermon closes with a direct summons to the unforgiven: the empty tomb is the loudest declaration that sin's power is broken and pardon is available to all who believe.
A House for the Lord
Haggai 1 confronts the people of God with misplaced priorities: sixteen years after returning from Babylonian exile, the foundation of the Lord's house lay exposed while the people paneled their own homes and filled their own comforts. The sermon situates the book within the history of the restoration period — from Cyrus's edict through the eventual completion of the second temple — and argues that the people's neglect of the temple was not merely architectural indifference but a rejection of God's presence among them. God's covenantal judgment fell in material scarcity and providential drought, precisely as Moses had warned in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. The chapter closes with genuine repentance, divine reassurance, and the Spirit-wrought enablement that always accompanies God's call to a great work — pressing the congregation to examine their priorities, investments, and worldview in light of Matthew 6:33.