Theological term
Covenant
121 sermons · All terms
1 Samuel 29
God's providential deliverance of David from an impossible dilemma — being compelled to march against Israel with the Philistines — and the immediate plunge into the disaster at Ziklag raise a single pressing question: how does a believer endure when the last straw is not the last straw? Working through 1 Samuel 29–30:8, this study traces two movements: the Lord using the objections of the Philistine lords to extract David from his dilemma without David having to act, and the devastation at Ziklag that arrives the moment he returns home. The sermon draws out three means by which David strengthened himself in the Lord his God — the experiential knowledge of God, the promises of God rehearsed through fellowship, and the use of the means of grace — setting these against the contrasting figure of Saul, who in the same crisis had no priest, no ephod, and no word from the Lord.
1 Samuel 27
David's flight to Philistia in 1 Samuel 27 presents one of the most theologically ambiguous episodes in his life: the author records neither divine approval nor censure, and God is not mentioned once in the passage. The sermon examines the difficulty of interpreting David's strategy — either a shrewd military calculation or a lapse of faith overruled by providence — while surveying the crushing pressures David faced. Six practical lessons are drawn for believers, centering on the need to speak to oneself theologically, to recall God's proven faithfulness in difficulty, to seek wisdom before acting, and to resist presuming on providence as a license for careless living.
The Escape from Saul
God's provision for David during his flight from Saul — through bread at Nob, deliverance at Gath, fellowship at Adullam, safety for his parents in Moab, and a prophetic word at the forest of Hereth — is the controlling theological theme of 1 Samuel 21–22:5. The narrative exposes both the reality of severe trial in the life of God's people and the sovereign grace that meets them in and through their own failures. David's response of praise, crystallised in Psalms 34, 56, 57, and 142, rebukes a health-and-wealth theology and models the only fitting reply to affliction. The gathering of the distressed, indebted, and discontented to David in the cave of Adullam functions as a type of Christ, who bids weary sinners come to him as captain and lord.
The Covenant between David and Jonathan
The covenant between David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20 is examined as both a historical narrative of loyalty under mortal pressure and a typological pointer to the new covenant secured by Christ. The chapter is organized around three movements: David's urgent meeting with Jonathan, Saul's explosive response at the new moon feast, and the final covert signal and farewell. Four features of the Davidic-Jonathanite covenant — help in trouble, uncommon commitment, costly commitment, and peace in the midst of confusion — are shown to find their fullest expression in the Lord Jesus, whose blood, righteousness, and resurrection constitute the only ground of covenant peace. The sermon calls hearers to covenantal faithfulness in marriage and family, to kill pride after the pattern of Saul's ruin, and to enter the new covenant through faith in Christ alone.
The Fifth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment, 'Honor your father and your mother' (Deuteronomy 5:16), is the first commandment of the second table of the law and governs not merely the parent-child relationship but all relationships between superiors and inferiors in family, church, and civil society. The command to 'honor' (Hebrew: to treat as weighty and burdensome) carries covenantal significance for Israel and is extended by Paul to Gentile believers in Ephesians 6, demonstrating that the moral law transcends any particular covenantal administration. The sanction attached to its violation — from the rod and reproof of Proverbs to the death penalty of Deuteronomy 21 — underscores the gravity God assigns to lawful authority. Pedagogically, the commandment exposes the universal failure of all people to render perfect obedience and drives sinners to Christ, who alone fulfilled this word by continuing in subjection to Joseph and Mary throughout his earthly life.
1 Samuel 23
First Samuel 23 traces David's flight from Saul through a series of dramatic reversals — the rescue of Keilah, Jonathan's covenant encouragement in the wilderness, and the treachery of the Ziphites — all held together by the governing theme that God did not deliver David into Saul's hand. The chapter exposes the stark contrast between Saul, who has no access to God's word and sinks deeper into self-deception and tyranny, and David, who inquires of Yahweh through priest and prophet and receives both divine direction and covenantal friendship. The providence of God is the chapter's spine: from the fortuitous arrival of Abiathar's ephod, to Jonathan's timely encouragement, to a Philistine invasion that halts Saul's encirclement at the last moment. Hearers are called to recognize the privilege of access to Scripture, to be Jonathans who encourage others with the promises of God, and to rest in the providence of the God who orchestrates all things for the preservation of his people.
The Deliverance of David by God
1 Samuel 19 records the escalating persecution of David by King Saul and God's sovereign deliverance of his chosen servant through Jonathan, Michal, and the overpowering work of the Holy Spirit at Ramah. The chapter functions typologically: Saul embodies the murderous rage of all who reject God's anointed, while David's preservation foreshadows the Father's protection of the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon traces two broad movements — the defense of David by Jonathan and the deliverance of David by Yahweh — and calls hearers to trust the same God who delivered David through every trial, on the ground that his care for his people does not always mean the removal of affliction but sustaining grace in the midst of it.
1 Samuel 20
1 Samuel 20 narrates the covenant bond between David and Jonathan at the moment Saul's murderous hostility becomes unmistakable, and this study treats that covenant as the chapter's controlling theme. The covenant of hesed — loyal, steadfast, committed love — provides David recourse in danger, proves a vehicle for uncommon faithfulness (fulfilled in 2 Samuel 9 with Mephibosheth), demands costly commitment (Jonathan surrendering his royal rights under the threat of his father's spear), and affords peace in the midst of confusion. The central application is that the church of Christ, and Christian marriage in particular, ought to display the same covenant fidelity Jonathan and David embodied: a kingdom-first selflessness that subordinates personal ambition to the advancement of God's purposes.
"The Instruction on Riches and Rewards" - July 12, 2015 AM
Matthew 19:23–30 presents Christ's instruction on the spiritual dangers of wealth, the impossibility of self-salvation, and the gracious recompense awaiting those who follow him. Working through three movements — the commentary on riches, the question of salvation, and the instruction concerning rewards — the sermon argues that riches (and by extension every besetting sin) render men spiritually helpless apart from sovereign, effectual grace. The sermon closes with both a gospel call to the unconverted and a sober exhortation to believers: no one who follows Christ will ever be a loser for it, because eternal life and the hundredfold recompense of the messianic community are the portion of all who believe.
The Second Commandment
The second commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) distinguishes the object of worship, addressed by the first commandment, from the manner of worship — forbidding both the making and the worship of images as representations of God, including images of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through three considerations: the positive demand for regulated worship according to the regulative principle, the twofold prohibition against idol-making and idol-worship, and the reasons grounded in the jealousy of God and the covenant curse and blessing. The great need of the hour is not merely moral reform but the proclamation of the gospel so that sinners are turned from their idols to worship the living God in the way He has prescribed.
The Instruction on Celibacy and Children
Matthew 19:10–15 presents two closely linked teachings: Christ's instruction on celibacy and His reception of little children. Against Rome's doctrine of clerical celibacy and any Protestant tendency to exalt singleness above marriage, the sermon argues that celibacy is a sovereign gift of God given to some, not a spiritual superior state to be mandated or celebrated above the married estate. The blessing of the children exposes the disciples' failure to understand that Christ receives the weak and dependent, and the passage calls fathers to the concrete duty of bringing their children to Christ through prayer, Scripture, and faithful church attendance.
The Instruction on Divorce, Part 2
Sexual immorality and willful desertion are the two lawful grounds for divorce recognized in Scripture, and this exposition of 1 Corinthians 7:10–16 establishes both the prohibition against divorce and the Pauline exception. Paul's instruction divides into two sections: the command to believing spouses not to separate, and the rule governing mixed marriages in which one partner is converted after the wedding. The sermon argues that when an unbeliever departs and dissolves the marriage, the believing spouse is released from bondage and may remarry, grounding that conclusion in the absence of a prohibition in verse 15, the consistent biblical assumption that lawful divorce permits remarriage, and the analogy with Matthew 19:9. Throughout, the original intent of marriage as a lifelong, one-flesh covenant is upheld as the governing norm, with the exceptions confirming rather than undermining that norm.
1 Samuel 17, Part 1
1 Samuel 17 is not a self-help narrative about overcoming personal giants; it is a theological vindication of the glory, sovereignty, and honor of the living God of Israel. Goliath's meticulously described size, armor, and defiance serve to magnify the God who defeats him through an unlikely shepherd boy operating in faith rather than military strength. The chapter sets fear and faith in sharp contrast: Saul and the armies of Israel are dismayed and flee, while David — anointed by the Spirit and proven in the wilderness — brings a theocentric worldview that transforms the entire situation. The central lesson is that God is glorified through the faithfulness of ordinary men and women in ordinary callings, and that faith in the present is nurtured by remembering God's deliverances in the past.
1 Samuel 10:17–11:15
The public recognition of Saul as king and his first military victory over the Ammonites mark the decisive transition from the period of the judges to the Israelite monarchy. God's indictment of Israel's rebellion in demanding a king frames the entire ceremony at Mizpah, yet divine grace operates through this very act of national sin to establish the covenant people under a new order. The Spirit of God coming upon Saul — not the institution of kingship itself — is the power behind Israel's deliverance, a pattern the church cannot afford to miss. The lesson closes with four redemptive-historical observations: the significance of the move to monarchy, the grace displayed through Israel's rebellion, the Spirit as the true source of victory, and the perpetual opposition of God-haters toward the covenant people.
1 Samuel 8
Israel's demand for a king in 1 Samuel 8 is not condemned because monarchy is inherently sinful, but because the motive behind the request was a rejection of God's sovereign rule in favour of earthly security. The people, having witnessed God's deliverance in chapter 7, nonetheless turned from him to seek a human king who could fight their battles — a pattern that mirrors their recurring idolatry from the Exodus onward. The description of the king's oppressive conduct (vv. 10–18) exposes the total depravity of a people who, even after hearing every consequence, still demand the king. The passage drives the hearer toward Christ, the true and perfect King, who executes his office by subduing, ruling, and defending his people in a manner no earthly monarch can.
1 Samuel 7
Israel's 20-year lament after the Lord following the return of the ark sets the stage for 1 Samuel 7, a chapter that contrasts the manipulation of God in chapter 4 with genuine covenantal repentance, exclusive worship, and intercessory prayer under Samuel's prophetic and judicial leadership. Three movements structure the passage: the longing for God evidenced in Israel's lament, the preparation for God through tangible repentance and exclusive allegiance to Yahweh, and the presence of God vindicated in miraculous deliverance at Mizpah. Samuel functions typologically as prophet, judge, and intercessor — pointing forward to Christ, who always lives to make intercession for his people. The closing exhortation calls Christians to maintain their own Ebenezers — Scripture, prayer, the Lord's Table — as bulwarks against spiritual amnesia and apostasy.
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 5 records the Ark of the Covenant's journey through Philistia after its capture at Ebenezer, where the God of Israel systematically humiliates Dagon and devastates every city that receives the Ark. The chapter is structured as a deliberate polemic against idolatry: Dagon is twice found prostrate before Yahweh, then stripped of head and hands, while Yahweh's 'heavy hand' of judgment moves from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron. The passage calls for reverent, humorous recognition that idols must be propped up by their worshippers, whereas the living God carries His people. The sermon draws out the perennial relevance of this account by connecting it to Isaiah 44, Isaiah 46, Psalm 106, and Romans 1, arguing that modern idolatry — whether of self, money, sexuality, or ideology — is the root disease for which the gospel of Christ is the only cure.
The Importance of Acceptable Worship
Malachi 1:6–14 records God's indictment of Israel's priests for offering defective, stolen, and contemptible sacrifices — worshipping with the form but without the heart. This sermon examines three movements in the passage: God's accusation, the people's oblivious response, and the implications of unacceptable worship for the covenant community. The preacher presses home that careless worship is not a minor infraction but a major sin that provokes divine wrath, and calls every hearer to come before the great King with regenerate hearts and faithful, Scripture-ordered devotion.
1 Samuel 4
Israel's defeat at the hands of the Philistines and the capture of the Ark of the Covenant in 1 Samuel 4 expose a fundamental corruption in Israel's religion: the attempt to manipulate God through sacred objects rather than seek him through repentance and faith. The elders ask the right theological question — why has the Lord defeated us? — but then reach for the Ark as a kind of holy talisman, treating Yahweh as a means to military victory rather than as the sovereign end of all worship. The sermon presses the contemporary application that the same impulse toward religious technique and formulaic spirituality pervades much of professing Christianity today, and calls hearers to seek God for who he is rather than for what he gives.
1 Samuel 3
The Word of God stands at the center of 1 Samuel 3, framing the entire chapter like bookends — its scarcity in verse 1 and its prevalence in verse 21. This study traces Samuel's official call to the prophetic office through four movements: the rarity of revelation as divine judgment, Samuel's gradual calling as the new preacher of the word, the grave threatened judgment on Eli's house, and the establishment of Samuel's prophetic ministry throughout all Israel. The abiding application is that the presence of the word is God's blessing and its absence is God's judgment, pressing hearers to be diligent students of Scripture while it remains freely available.
Ruth 2
Ruth 2 unfolds the doctrine of divine providence through the seemingly ordinary movements of a destitute Moabite widow in a harvest field. Three features of the chapter are examined: the initiative of Ruth, the covenant kindness (hesed) of Boaz, and the sovereign blessing of the Lord — the last of which the narrator ironically frames as Ruth 'happening' upon Boaz's field, a literary device meant to press the reader to see God's comprehensive decree at work in the mundane. Boaz functions throughout as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true kinsman-redeemer (goel), whose grace toward the undeserving surpasses every expectation — as Ephesians 3:20 declares, exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. The study closes with a call to seek refuge under the wings of the God of Israel, a metaphor woven through the Psalter and embodied in the narrative of Ruth.
The Unholy Alliance Seeks a Sign
Matthew 16:1–4 records a politically improbable coalition — the theologically opposed Pharisees and Sadducees — uniting in their demand that Jesus produce a sign from heaven. The sermon traces three features of this encounter: the nature of their demand, the hypocrisy Jesus exposes in their selective discernment, and the gravity of his description of their generation as wicked and adulterous. Jesus refuses to satisfy carnal curiosity or submit to carnal scrutiny, responding instead with the sign of the prophet Jonah — the death and resurrection of the Son of Man — the very gospel that calls every hearer to repent and flee to Christ rather than bargain with God.
The Birth of Samson
Judges 13 presents the only birth narrative in the book of Judges, and this exposition works through two broad categories: the sin of Israel and the provision of a deliverer. A striking feature of this cycle is the absence of Israel's cry of distress — the people have made peace with Philistine oppression, a condition the sermon applies directly to the church's accommodation of cultural wickedness. The passage is read as a type of Christ's coming: a barren woman, a sovereign divine promise, a Spirit-empowered deliverer who only begins what the greater than Samson will complete. The sermon closes with calls to uncompromising allegiance to Christ, reverent worship, and confidence in a God who initiates salvation toward those who are not seeking Him.
Judges 21
Judges 21 closes the appendix of the book of Judges (chapters 17–21) with a portrait of a nation morally unmoored: the eleven tribes, grieving the near-extinction of Benjamin, pursue the preservation of that tribe through oath-keeping so selective it becomes its own form of wickedness. The chapter exposes the pattern of sin snowballing from small beginnings into national catastrophe, the inconsistency of piecemeal holiness, and the horror of unrestrained human depravity. Yet God's sovereignty overrules the chaos, preserving the tribe of Benjamin — from which both King Saul and the apostle Paul would come — and the passage closes with the theological verdict of verse 25: without a king, every man does what is right in his own eyes.
Judges 16
Judges 16 presents the concluding episode of Samson's judgeship, closing the largest section of the book (chapters 3–16). Working through three movements — the removal of Gaza's gates, the departure of the Lord, and the destruction of the Philistines — the study argues that Samson is consistently misread as a brute driven by lust, when the narrative instead presents him as a purposeful, faith-walking servant of God raised up to crush Philistine oppression. The typological resonance of Samson's death — killing more enemies in death than in life — points forward to the greater Deliverer whose death and resurrection accomplish what no judge could complete.
The Lord's Concern for Widows, Part 2
What qualifications must a widow meet for the church to enroll her in ongoing financial support, and how should the church handle younger widows? Expounding 1 Timothy 5:9–16, this sermon works through Paul's three-part framework: the existence of a formal widow's list, the qualifications for older widows (age, marital fidelity, and a record of good works), and the apostolic counsel to younger widows to marry, bear children, and manage the household rather than receive church support. The underlying principle throughout is that the church is a steward of God's resources and must distribute them according to Scripture, not sentiment — and that God's own character of compassion for the needy is the ultimate ground and pattern for the church's care.
Judges 10
Judges 10 presents two minor judges (Tola and Jair), a deepened cycle of Israelite apostasy, and a divine response that exposes the difference between genuine repentance and utilitarian manipulation of God. The chapter shows Israel pursuing every available idol — seven foreign pantheons catalogued to underscore total spiritual corruption — and God threatening judicial abandonment before relenting not because of Israel's sincerity but because of his own covenantal faithfulness to Abraham's seed. The lesson driven home is that God's deliverance does not rest on the quality of the people's repentance but on the intensity of his compassion and his commitment to preserve a people through whom Christ the deliverer would come.
Judges 8
Judges 8 traces Gideon's final chapter as a military judge — his diplomatic handling of Ephraim's wounded pride, his severe punishment of the treasonous towns of Sukkoth and Penuel, the execution of the Midianite kings, and his morally ambiguous twilight years marked by the making of an idolatrous ephod and the accumulation of royal trappings he formally disclaimed. The sermon presses two sober warnings from Israel's failure: the spiritually deadening power of prosperity, which produces forgetfulness of God and ingratitude toward his instruments, and the inability of any merely human deliverer to save finally and completely. Every flawed judge in the book of Judges points beyond himself to the one Champion who does not disappoint — the Lord Jesus Christ, who breaks the back of sin itself rather than merely a Midianite army.
The Description of Israel's Apostasy
Israel's apostasy in Judges 2:7–3:6 is traced to a second generation that possessed cognitive knowledge of Yahweh but had no experiential, saving faith — a spiritual death that issued inevitably in Baal worship, covenant judgment, and escalating moral degradation. The passage unfolds three movements: the root of apostasy in the failure to know the Lord, the description of that apostasy in the service of Baals and Ashtoreths, and the divine response of covenant judgment followed by sovereign, gracious deliverance through imperfect human judges. Each judge prefigures the one deliverer — Jesus Christ — who alone can break the power of reigning sin where no left-handed savior can. The sermon calls believers to mortify spiritual amnesia through faithful use of the means of grace, and calls the unconverted to believe the gospel of Christ rather than await a full intellectual resolution of divine sovereignty.
Judges 2
Judges 2:7–3:6 exposes the root, description, and divine response to Israel's apostasy in a pattern that drives the entire book. The generation that arose after Joshua had only cognitive knowledge of Yahweh — not saving, experiential knowledge — and that deficiency produced the idolatry, covenant-breaking, and moral devolution that follows. Yet the dominant note of the passage is the unmerited grace of God, who raised up deliverers for a people whose groaning was not repentance but merely the pain of consequence. Each earthly judge is a type pointing forward to the one decisive Deliverer, and the church neglects the book of Judges at the cost of losing fresh reasons to sing of amazing grace.