Cited in sermons
Steve Lawson
9 sermons · All people cited
The 8th Command - You Shall Not Steal
Exodus 20:15 — 'You shall not steal' — encompasses far more than common burglary. This study works through the range of sins prohibited by the Eighth Commandment, from robbery and kidnapping to fraud, extortion, the destruction of property, and the robbing of God through withheld tithes, before examining the inner dispositions — covetousness, discontentment, and idolatry — that drive those external violations. The theological grounding for the command rests on three pillars: God's sovereignty as owner of all things, the position of man as steward and vice-regent, and the recognition that an attack on another's property is an indirect attack on the life that property sustains. The study closes with a direct application to civil government, arguing that unjust taxation, inflation, and redistributive economic systems are themselves violations of 'you shall not steal.'
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) - Sunday School Study - July 18, 2021
The self-authenticating authority of Scripture cannot be separated from sound principles for reading it. This 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Sunday school study works through chapter one, paragraphs five through ten, drawing out the hermeneutical principles the divines embedded there: the scope of Scripture (all glory to God through Christ), the sufficiency of Scripture (confined to God's glory, man's salvation, faith, and life), the perspicuity of Scripture (salvation truths are plain even to the unlearned), and the availability of Scripture in translation. The session also addresses textual criticism, the transmission history of the biblical manuscripts, and the distinction between necessary inference and explicit statement as sources of scriptural authority. Hearers are called to come to the biblical text with humility, the illumination of the Spirit, and a due use of ordinary means rather than intellectual pride or lazy avoidance.
2LCF Chapter 25 - Of Marriage
The 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 25 sets forth a comprehensive theology of marriage as a monogamous, creational institution between one man and one woman, ordained for companionship, procreation, and the prevention of sexual immorality. This study walks through each paragraph of the chapter, examining the biblical case against polygamy, homosexuality, bestiality, and unequal yoking, while grounding each prohibition in specific Old and New Testament texts. The two paragraphs on divorce and remarriage that the Westminster Confession adds but the 1689 omits receive extended treatment, with the conclusion that Scripture's exception clauses permit dissolution of the marriage bond in cases of adultery and desertion, without penalising the innocent party. Hearers are exhorted to treasure their spouses, pursue marriage only in the Lord, and rear their children in the fear of God.
The Rebellion of Moab
Matthew 27:1–5 exposes two devastating portraits set in immediate sequence: the murderous resolution of the Sanhedrin and the miserable end of Judas Iscariot. The sermon presses a distinction the text itself demands — that remorse, however acute, is not repentance, because genuine repentance moves God-ward and Christ-ward, apprehending the mercy of God in Christ, whereas Judas's guilt drove him only to self-destruction. Listeners are urged to see in Judas the bitter end of undealt-with sin, and to flee instead to the one who is altogether lovely and chief among ten thousand, trusting that saving faith and repentance are themselves gifts granted by sovereign grace.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 1
Matthew 26:57–61 places Jesus before the Sanhedrin in what the preacher demonstrates was not an impartial criminal trial but a predetermined hearing whose guilty verdict had been settled before any witnesses were called. The sermon maps the political and ecclesiastical machinery of the Sanhedrin — its composition, its lack of authority to execute, its violations of due process, and its need to construct a charge sufficient to deliver Jesus to Pilate — and addresses the charge that the gospel accounts of these events are colored by anti-Semitism. Against that background, the contrast between the faithful witness of Christ and the fearful, distanced discipleship of Peter issues a direct call to close, unashamed allegiance to the Savior, and an invitation to unbelievers to come to the One who restores even those who deny him.
2LCF Chapter 25 - Of Marriage
What does Scripture teach about the nature, purposes, and lawful boundaries of marriage? Working through 2LCF Chapter 25, paragraphs 1–4, this study defends the confessional definition of marriage as a monogamous, heterosexual, lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, instituted by God at creation before the fall. The three divine purposes of marriage — companionship, procreation, and conjugal relations — are grounded in Genesis 1–2, and the lawful parties are examined with particular attention to the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. The session closes with practical counsel on the dignity of marriage, the responsibility it entails, and the discriminating wisdom required of those who would pursue it.
The Danger of Covetousness
Covetousness is condemned throughout Scripture not because possessions are evil but because the love of money and the pursuit of riches displace God as the supreme object of the heart's devotion. Expounding 1 Timothy 6:6–10, this sermon distinguishes between the lawful possession of wealth (which Paul nowhere forbids) and the idolatrous craving for it (which Paul calls a root of all kinds of evil and warns leads to destruction and perdition). Godliness with contentment is set forth as the great gain that exposes the false teachers' mercenary religion as a counterfeit, while the positive commands to labor diligently, give generously, and seek God's kingdom first are offered as the practical antidotes to a covetous spirit.
The Fallen King and the Grace of God
David's catastrophic fall into adultery and premeditated murder in 2 Samuel 11–12 is the lens through which this sermon examines the nature of sin, its inevitable exposure before a holy God, and the sovereign grace that pursues and pardons even the most heinous transgressor. Working through four observations — the sin itself, the attempted cover-up, the divine verdict, and the Lord's response through Nathan — the exposition magnifies not David but Christ, the only King without blemish, whose finished work is the sole ground of forgiveness. The confession 'I have sinned against the Lord' and Nathan's immediate declaration 'the Lord has put away your sin' together demonstrate that intensity of repentance contributes nothing to atonement; pardon rests wholly on grace. Listeners are called to see themselves in David's cover-up, to abandon every attempt to hide transgression, and to come to Christ whose death is the only reason any sin can be put away.
The New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31–34 contains the Old Testament's sole explicit use of the phrase 'new covenant,' and this sermon expounds its announcement, essential features, and fulfillment in Christ. Against the backdrop of Judah's covenant-breaking idolatry, God promises a covenant that is unbreakable, one that internalizes his moral law, grants saving knowledge of himself, and secures the definitive forgiveness of sin. The Hebrews quotation of Jeremiah 31 and Christ's own words at the Last Supper confirm that this covenant finds its ratification in the blood of Jesus, the surety and mediator of a better covenant. The sermon closes by drawing out the Reformed Baptist implication that new covenant membership — marked uniformly by regeneration, law-internalization, knowledge of God, and forgiveness — necessarily implies believers' baptism, and by calling the unconverted to seek that fountain open for sin and uncleanness.