Scripture
Exodus
75 sermons
Exodus 6:1-13
Exodus 6:1–13 presents God's sevenfold 'I will' promise to Israel as the thesis of the entire book: Yahweh, the covenant Lord who revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will deliver his enslaved people not because of any merit in them but because he remembers his covenant. This study surveys Exodus 1–18 under three heads — the divine promise to Abraham, the divine destruction of Pharaoh, and the divine provision for Israel — showing that grace precedes law throughout. The typological pattern of Israel's redemption finds its fulfillment in Christ, the true firstborn and greater Mediator, who brings his people out of bondage to sin into the slavery of righteousness.
The Shedding of Innocent Blood
The sixth commandment's prohibition of murder, grounded in the doctrine of man as image-bearer of God, applies with full force to abortion. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic civil law affords explicit legal protection to both mother and pre-born child, and that the correct translation of the passage — 'she gives birth prematurely' rather than 'she miscarries' — is exegetically decisive for the abortion debate. The sanctity of human life is established across the full range of human existence: before the fall, after it, in children, the pre-born, the handicapped, the sick, and the elderly — and is ultimately grounded in the Incarnation, by which Christ assumed and thereby dignified human flesh. The sermon closes by calling the church to informed prayer, chaste living, and flight to the cross, where there is full forgiveness even for those implicated in abortion.
The Murder of the Preborn, Part 1
Exodus 21:22–25 provides the case-law context for examining what Scripture teaches about the sanctity of human life, the personhood of the preborn, and the biblical prohibition against abortion. The sermon grounds the argument against abortion in the imago Dei — man is not merely made in God's image but is the image of God, a dignity that extends from conception through old age and that no civil court or medical consensus can override. The preborn child is demonstrated to be a full human person through the consistent testimony of Genesis, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament, while the Lex Talionis of Exodus 21 establishes that taking the life of a child in the womb carries the full capital sanction reserved for murder. Hearers are called to understand, articulate, and act upon this biblical truth — in their prayer closets, at the ballot box, and in their own personal holiness.
The Murder of the Preborn, Part 2
Exodus 21:22–25 grounds a biblical answer to the hardest objections raised against the prohibition of abortion. The sermon establishes that Scripture recognises exactly three instances of lawful killing — self-defense, just and necessary war, and capital punishment — and demonstrates that abortion satisfies none of them. The death penalty, far from contradicting the sanctity of life, is its strongest legal expression, grounded in the imago Dei of Genesis 9:6 and confirmed for the new covenant era by Romans 13:1–4. The church's response to abortion requires preaching the law of God without apology, loving neighbours through practical compassion, and declaring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only remedy for guilt.
The Revelation of God's Glory
Exodus 34:6–7 reveals the attributes of God not in the abstract but in the wake of the catastrophic covenant-breaking of the golden calf — making the declaration of divine mercy, grace, long-suffering, and forgiveness all the more staggering. This sermon works through the context of Exodus 32–33 to show that God meets great sin with greater grace, and that sovereign grace is not a theological concession but the very content of the divine name. The same passage that grounds Moses' intercession grounds the call to flee to Christ, who accomplishes what Moses could only typify: atonement for covenant-breakers.
The Bible and Abortion, Part 2
Scripture consistently treats the unborn as image-bearers of God, and this sermon works through four questions designed to test that conviction: whether abortion is ever lawful, how to handle hard cases such as rape and incest, how to avoid abortion altogether, and what the church is called to do. Drawing on the biblical categories of lawful killing — self-defense, legitimate war, and capital punishment — the sermon demonstrates that abortion satisfies none of these conditions and therefore remains sin without exception. The hard cases do not alter the status of the conceived, and Deuteronomy 22 establishes that in rape the criminal, not the child, bears the penalty. The church's answer is the whole counsel of God: law that restrains sin and gospel that offers genuine hope to those who have already committed it.
The Bible and Abortion, Part 1
What does Scripture say about abortion, and does it offer a coherent case for the sanctity of unborn life? This sermon works through three interlocking biblical arguments: the sanctity of human life grounded in the imago Dei, the established personhood of the pre-born throughout both Testaments, and the specific prohibition against abortion implied in the case law of Exodus 21:22–25. The lex talionis applied to accidental premature birth demonstrates that God holds the life of the unborn equal in worth to the life of the mother, making intentional abortion a violation of the sixth commandment. The sermon closes by insisting that the only remedy for the guilt of a murderous culture is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is a real Savior for real sinners.
The Sin of Abortion
Abortion is not primarily a political question but a theological one, grounded in the biblical doctrine that every human being bears the image of God from the moment of conception. This exposition of Exodus 21:22–25 argues that the case law of Israel assigns the full protections of lex talionis to the pre-born child, treating even accidental abortion as a capital offense — which renders intentional abortion an act of murder. The sermon also addresses the abortifacient mechanisms of certain contraceptives as an extension of the same ethical concern, and closes by directing those who bear guilt over past abortions to the forgiveness available in Christ.
A Biblical View of Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 presents a case of accidental premature birth caused by fighting men, and the lex talionis applied to any resulting harm — including harm to the child — establishes that the pre-born bear full legal and moral standing under the law of God. This sermon argues that abortion is first and foremost a theological issue, an assault on the imago Dei, and that the church is without excuse in its silence or ambiguity on this question. Drawing on texts from Genesis through the New Testament, the preacher demonstrates that the pre-born are persons from conception, that the civil use of God's law restrains even unregenerate society, and that the church must respond with weeping, prayer, witness, and gospel proclamation.
The Ninth Commandment
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Exodus 20:16), is examined through its prohibition, its underlying reasons, and its positive demands. The sermon identifies seven specific violations — perjury, lying, backbiting, slander, gossip, hypocrisy, and the willing reception of evil speech — and grounds them in the character of God, who is truth, and the dignity of man made in His image. The three uses of the law frame the exposition: the law convicts the unconverted liar and guides the regenerate believer toward a life of truthfulness. Hearers are called to speak truth in every domain of life, to swear to their own hurt, to exercise charity toward others, and to actively discourage the gossip and slanderer.
The Sanctity of Life
The sanctity of human life is grounded not in sentiment but in the biblical doctrine that God created man in his own image — a dignity that persists after the fall and extends to every category of person, including the preborn. Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a text that directly addresses the legal standing of the unborn: the lex talionis applied to a premature birth demonstrates that God's law protects prenatal life with the same weight it protects any other. The sermon then takes up the wickedness of murder across its biblical dimensions — divine prohibition, divine hatred, divine observation, and divine punishment, including eternal judgment — while insisting that the church's primary instrument against these evils is the preaching of the gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone, under which even those guilty of abortion may find forgiveness in Christ.
A Tale of Two Lambs: Typology of the Passover Lamb
The Passover ordinance of Exodus 12 is not merely an ancient Israelite ritual but an exact typological prefigurement of the person and atoning work of Jesus Christ. Through eight points of comparison — the lamb's unblemished character, its prime age, its public slaughter by the congregation of Israel, the inestimable value of its blood, its blood's power to deliver from destruction, the thoroughness of its roasting, the preservation of its bones, and its being eaten — the sermon demonstrates that the Passover lamb was designed by God to point forward to Christ as the true and final Passover sacrifice. Sinners are called to behold the Lamb of God, to trust in his blood alone for refuge from divine wrath, and to rejoice in the new-covenant redemption he has accomplished.
A Biblical View of Lying
The ninth commandment — 'You shall not bear false witness' — reaches far beyond the courtroom to govern every form of speech: perjury, slander, backbiting, gossip, tailbearing, and religious hypocrisy. The command is grounded in the character of God as the Lord of truth and in the practical necessity of social order, which collapses when confidence between persons is destroyed. The sermon closes by directing the hearer not to resolve moral reformation but to flee to Christ, whose sinless tongue and atoning death are the only ground on which the tongue-defiled sinner may stand.
A Biblical View of Private Property
The eighth commandment — 'You shall not steal' (Exodus 20:15) — grounds a comprehensive biblical ethic of private property that reaches far beyond street crime into fraud, extortion, currency debasement, and even the withholding of tithes. This sermon works through the prohibition in its many forms, then sets out four theological reasons for the command rooted in God's sovereignty, man's dignity as image-bearer, and the positive law of Scripture. The exposition closes by calling hearers to diligent labor, charitable giving, and contentment — and by pointing thieves and extortioners alike to the justifying blood of Christ, under which such sinners have been washed and sanctified.
A Christian View of Abortion
Abortion is not a political question but a theological and ethical one, answered definitively by Scripture. This sermon works through the biblical case for the sanctity of human life from creation to law, grounds the personhood of the pre-born in texts from Genesis through Luke, and then expounds Exodus 21:22–25 to show that God's law affords full legal protection — including the lex talionis — to the unborn child and the mother alike. Christians are called to weep over this ongoing atrocity, to arm themselves with Scripture, to pray and witness faithfully, and to proclaim both the law that condemns and the gospel that saves to all who have participated in it.