Theological term
Davidic Covenant
107 sermons · All terms
The Deliverance of the Psalmist, Part 4
Psalm 18:46–50 closes with a threefold ascription of praise to the God who delivers His anointed King — a King who is not merely David but David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage is expounded under four movements: the praise of God as the living Rock (v. 46), God as the God of vengeance and victory (v. 47), God as the God of deliverance and destruction (v. 48), and God as the God of grace and glory (v. 49), all grounded in the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7. The sermon presses the church to find in the invincibility of God's covenant kingdom the steel needed to persevere through present affliction, and to ground all worship in the theological confession that the Lord lives, that Christ's righteousness is imputed to His people, and that God's promises are yea and amen in His Son.
The Freeness of the Priceless Feast, Part 2
Isaiah 55:3–13 grounds the free gospel summons in the covenant of grace secured by Jesus Christ, the greater David and covenant champion. The sure mercies of David — an everlasting covenant made with Christ and all the elect in him — are fulfilled in the resurrection of the Son, as Paul's sermon in Acts 13 makes plain. The response to that summons is fourfold: seek, call, forsake, and return — not as the price of the feast, but as the fruit of regenerating grace. The passage closes with the guarantee that God's word never returns void, that the redeemed go out in joy and peace, and that Christ the second Adam has reversed the curses of Genesis 3, securing an abundant, priceless feast for all who believe.
The Power of the Word of God
Isaiah 55:10–11 declares that God's word, like rain and snow sent from heaven, does not return to him void but accomplishes precisely what he purposes. This sermon expounds that promise under two heads: the power of the written word and the glory of the incarnate word. The written word is shown to be efficacious in gospel proclamation — bringing either the aroma of life or of death — while the incarnate word, the eternal Son proceeding from the Father, accomplishes a definite redemption that cannot be frustrated. Both heads converge in a call to sinners to seek the Lord while he may be found and to believers to renew covenant at the Lord's Supper with confidence in the abundance of divine pardon.
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's reign, celebrated across 1 Kings 3–10 as a golden age of wisdom and divine blessing, collapses in chapter 11 under the weight of multiplied foreign wives and the idolatry they drew him into — a direct violation of the Mosaic prohibitions in Deuteronomy 7 and 17. The sermon traces the idolatry itself (vv. 1–8) and the divine response (vv. 9–13), showing that Solomon's sin was aggravated by his knowledge of the law, the good example of his father David, and two personal appearances of God. From this sobering case the sermon draws eight practical warnings: that experience, godly example, knowledge, and wisdom are not in themselves sufficient to secure present faithfulness, and that the believer's only safeguard is constant dependence on the Holy Spirit and a mind rooted in Scripture.
The Dedication of the Temple
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8:22–53 is grounded not in Israel's merit but in the character of God — his incomparability, faithfulness, and transcendence held together with his immanence. The petitions that follow address every covenant curse Moses had warned of: civil injustice, military defeat, drought, famine, and exile, each met with Solomon's recurring plea that God hear from heaven and forgive. The prayer reaches beyond Israel to encompass the nations, anticipating the Gentile inclusion Paul expounds in Ephesians 3 and finding its ultimate fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of God who builds the eternal house of God. Believers are exhorted to imitate Solomon's theology-saturated prayer, to receive affliction as God's appointed means of conformity to Christ, and to rest in the faithfulness of a God who has always kept his covenant promises.
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.
Psalm 13
Psalm 13 gives voice to the experience of God's apparent absence — the prolonged, disorienting silence when His face seems hidden and the enemy seems to be winning. This expository treatment of David's lament psalm traces two movements: the fourfold 'how long' of questions arising from the Lord's seeming absence (vv. 1–4), and the sudden turn to trust in His mercy and salvation (vv. 5–6). The sermon argues that faith is not a feeling but a tenacious clinging to the promises of a covenant-keeping God, and calls believers to keep praying, keep coming to the house of the Lord, and direct their attention away from their plight and toward God's unchanging goodness — even when, especially when, they must cry out 'how long.'
The Regulative Principle of Worship, Part 2
What authorizes the church to add, subtract, or substitute elements in corporate worship? Tracing the divine appointment of worship from Exodus and Leviticus through Deuteronomy 12:32 and into the books of Chronicles, this sermon demonstrates that Old Covenant Israel worshiped according to explicit divine command — not human creativity, cultural accommodation, or felt need. The same God who consumed Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire, who filled Solomon's temple with his glory when worship was ordered according to his word, has not relaxed his standard in the New Covenant. The regulative principle is not a straitjacket but a guard against idolatry, and the New Covenant church is called to the same obedience: asking King Jesus what he has commanded, and doing that.
The Regulation of the Church's Worship
What gives the church the right to dictate the forms of its own worship — and what happens when it does? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:14–16, this sermon grounds the regulative principle of worship in the nature of the church itself: because the church is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, God alone determines what is done within it. The sermon surveys the pastoral epistles to show that Scripture consistently prioritizes sound doctrine over therapeutic or culturally-tailored substitutes. The practical call is to use the means God has ordained — corporate prayer, preaching, psalm-singing — trusting that Christ is genuinely present in the midst of his gathered people.
The Triumph of the Church
What is the church, who builds it, and can anything destroy it? Expounding Matthew 16:13–18, this sermon works through Peter's confession of Christ as the Messiah and Son of the living God, traces the promise of the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7 to its fulfilment in Christ's declaration to build His church, and refutes the Roman Catholic claim that Peter is the rock upon which the church rests. The sermon closes with the triumph of the church: Christ owns it, Christ builds it, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The Triumph of the Church
Matthew 16:13–18 presents three interlocking realities about Christ and his church: the identity of Christ confessed by Simon Peter, the divine source of that confession, and the indestructible promise Christ appends to his church. The rock upon which the church is built is not Peter's person but the Christ Peter confessed — the second person of the triune God who assumed humanity, died, and rose for his people. Christ himself is the builder, foundation, and protector of the church, which means the gates of Hades assault the church not as a conquering force but as a defensive one being overrun by the church's gospel advance. The practical summons is for the church to fulfil her three marks — the preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline — with the confidence that Christ's triumphant headship guarantees the church's survival into the eschaton.
The Riches of God's Grace
David's fall into adultery and murder in 2 Samuel 11 sets the stage for one of Scripture's most striking displays of divine grace in 2 Samuel 12:1–15. Nathan's parable exposes David's sin through the unstoppable initiative of God, and the prophet's indictment demonstrates that David's wickedness was aggravated, not mitigated, by the abundant grace God had already shown him. David's two-word confession — 'I have sinned against the Lord' — is met immediately with pardon, not because the confession was elaborate, but because forgiveness rests entirely on the atoning work of Christ, to whom David looked in faith through the promises of the Davidic covenant. The sermon calls both believer and unbeliever to receive the same grace: real forgiveness for real sinners, grounded in the righteousness of Christ imputed through faith alone.
The Promise of God's Son
The Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7 stands at the center of redemptive history, advancing the promise of the seed from Genesis 3:15 through Abraham to David and ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ. The word 'house' in the passage carries triple meaning — David's palace, the dynasty God promises to establish, and the temple God will build through David's line — and each meaning finds its terminus in Christ, who reigns on David's throne forever and builds a spiritual temple from living stones. God's covenantal fidelity is the sole reason the Davidic dynasty survived the persistent sin of its kings, and that same fidelity secures the church today as citizens of Christ's everlasting kingdom. The sermon calls believers to come to the public worship of God on the Lord's Day with the joyful expectation of those who know they live in the age of fulfillment.
The Promise of Eternal Life
Isaiah 55 presents God's universal, gracious, and free invitation for sinners to come to Christ for life eternal — an invitation that has never changed from Genesis to Revelation. The sermon expounds the chapter in two movements: the invitation to come (vv. 1–5), grounded in covenant promise and secured by the Davidic king, and the exhortation to believe and repent (vv. 6–13), which calls sinners to faith and a change of mind toward sin. God's thoughts are not man's thoughts precisely because He pardons abundantly where man would not, and His word goes forth with certain efficacy to accomplish all He purposes in the salvation of sinners from every nation.
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's idolatry in 1 Kings 11:1–13 exposes how a man richly blessed by God — with the law, direct divine appearances, a faithful father, and transcendent wisdom — can fall into the grossest sin when he fails to guard his heart. The sermon traces the problem, precedent, and practice of Solomon's idolatry before examining God's just and covenant-shaped response: judgment tempered by the unconditional Davidic covenant that finds its telos in the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage issues sober warnings against the assumption that age, experience, knowledge, or good pedigree secure ongoing faithfulness apart from vigilant dependence on the Holy Spirit.
The New People of God: Part 2
The titles given to the church in 1 Peter 2:9–10 — chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, and his own special people — are drawn directly from Old Testament Israel typology and applied to all who believe in Christ. Working through Deuteronomy 32, Exodus 19, 2 Samuel 7, and the Abrahamic covenant, the sermon traces how God's act of separating Israel from the nations at Babel prefigures his rescue of the spiritual Israel — the church — from the dominion of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. The sermon argues that the new covenant fulfils what the old covenant typified: believers now constitute the household of God, the spiritual temple, and a royal priesthood whose commission is to proclaim the excellencies of the one who called them out of darkness. This demands that the church pursue its prophet-priest-king calling not through military or political dominion but through the proclamation of the gospel of King Jesus to every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
Book introduction: The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom
Samuel Renihan introduces his book 'The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom,' explaining its origins in his seminary-era dissatisfaction with both pedobaptist and Baptist covenantal literature. He argues that historical particular Baptist covenant theology has been largely forgotten, and that modern Reformed Baptist literature has suffered from poor historical theology, excessive polemicism, and conclusions stated without premises. The book is structured by biblical theology rather than systematic theology, tracing three covenantal kingdoms — creation, Israel, and Christ — and contends that the concept of mystery in Paul is essential to a properly calibrated covenant theology that distinguishes the old covenants from the new covenant without collapsing the progressive development of divine revelation.
The Prophecy Concerning the Resurrection
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:24–32 anchors the resurrection of Jesus Christ not in apostolic invention but in the prophetic word of Psalm 16, written by David nearly a millennium before the event. Working through Peter's appeal to and interpretation of that psalm, this exposition traces four aspects of the Messiah's disposition before His death — His focus, joy, confidence, and dependence upon the Father — and demonstrates that David, writing as a prophet under the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7, could not have been describing his own resurrection since his tomb remained occupied. The resurrection is therefore the Father's public vindication that divine justice has been fully satisfied by Christ, the ground of the believer's justification, and the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant promise that one from David's line would build an eternal house for God. The sermon closes by calling sinners — however guilty — to call upon the risen Lord Jesus, the one on the middle cross who alone can grant everlasting life.
The Promise of the Coming King
Isaiah 9:6–7 presents the promised Messianic King in language that exceeds any earthly monarch — a child born yet mighty God, a son given yet everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace who secures shalom through conquest. This exposition sets the passage in its historical context of Assyrian devastation and prophetic hope, then works through the fourfold identification of the King and the fourfold character of His kingdom. The central application is that this King presently reigns at the right hand of the Father, and entrance into His eternal, covenantal, just, and secure kingdom is by grace through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Preservation of the Kingdom
2 Kings 11 records the near-extinction and miraculous preservation of the Davidic royal line under the murderous usurpation of Athaliah — and its theological significance reaches from Genesis 3:15 to the throne of the ascended Christ. The chapter is read as a node in the unbroken typological-covenantal chain running from the proto-evangelium through the Davidic covenant, the incarnation, and the present reign of the Lord Jesus at the Father's right hand. The sermon argues that every assault on the messianic line, whether Athaliah's massacre, Herod's slaughter of the innocents, or the devil's wilderness temptation, is overruled by the sovereign providence of God, who protects his kingdom through unexpected instruments and will advance it until every enemy is made a footstool. The congregation is exhorted to draw courage from this narrative in the face of present opposition to Christ's church, resting in the certainty that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform his promise.
A Practical Example for the Suffering Christian
Psalm 61 presents David at the edge of the wilderness — heart overwhelmed, throne usurped, kingdom collapsing — as a concrete example of what it looks like for a suffering believer to cry out to God, refocus on covenant faithfulness, and be brought from despair to joyful praise. The sermon traces three movements in the psalm: the cry for help from the brink of despair (vv. 1–2), the deliberate refocusing on God's past faithfulness, the Davidic covenant, and the eternal inheritance of the Messiah's kingdom (vv. 3–7), and the resulting resolve of praise (v. 8). David's process is not mystical — it is conscious, disciplined engagement with the means of grace: prayer, meditation on covenant promises, and fixing the mind on the eternal kingship of Christ. Suffering Christians are exhorted to follow that same pattern rather than abandoning the means of grace at the very moment they are most needed.
The Earthly Temple in Stephen's Defense
Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:44–50 is not an attack on the temple but a demonstration that the Sanhedrin itself has misunderstood it. Working through the tabernacle, David's desire, Solomon's building, and Isaiah's oracle, Stephen shows that Israel's entire sacrificial and dwelling-place theology was typological — pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ as the true temple in whom God dwells with his people. The sermon argues that the dispensational expectation of a rebuilt physical temple in Jerusalem represents a retreat from fulfilled typology, and calls hearers to receive Christ as the antitype of all that the earthly sanctuary signified.
The Redemption of Boaz and the Hope of Christ the King
Ruth 4 culminates the book's central theme of redemption, showing how Boaz's costly love for Ruth and Naomi foreshadows the costlier love of Christ for his unlovely people. The kinsman-redeemer who willingly takes on an obligation he was not bound to fulfill — redeeming land, line, and a Moabite widow — points forward through the Davidic genealogy to the King who identifies with sinners and purchases his bride at the price of his own blood. God's sovereign providence moves through unsavory sinners and hopeless circumstances to build the royal line, a pattern that should silence despair among God's people in every age. The sermon calls believers to find their only settled hope in Christ the King, and invites the unbeliever to look to that same King and live.
The Testimony of John the Baptist, Part 1
John 1:19–28 records the official interrogation of John the Baptist by a delegation sent from Jerusalem to establish his identity and authority. The Baptist's threefold denial — he is not the Christ, not Elijah bodily returned, not the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 — is matched by his positive confession as the voice of Isaiah 40, the forerunner who prepares the way of Yahweh and thereby implicitly confesses the deity of Jesus. The sermon traces the Baptist's testimony through Luke 1's prophecy of Zacharias, the Transfiguration account in Matthew 17, and the prologue of John 1, showing that the Baptist preached not only repentance but the remission of sins through the coming Messiah — that is, justification by faith alone. The governing application is that Christ's people exist to proclaim His preeminence, following the Baptist's model of humble, courageous, light-and-heat ministry that makes nothing of self and everything of Jesus.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 1
The trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57–64) was no honest hearing but a predetermined execution by the highest religious court in Israel, assembled in violation of their own law and Scripture. This sermon examines the setting of the hearing, the fraudulent witness testimony regarding the temple, and the high priest's sworn examination of Jesus — in which Christ openly affirms that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and Daniel's Son of Man. The temple charge against Jesus is shown to be a deliberate misquotation and misinterpretation of John 2:19, where Christ spoke not of the physical structure but of His own death and resurrection. The Sanhedrin's wickedness is set in sharp contrast to the resolve of Christ, who endures this sham trial in silence and then under oath, fulfilling Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7, in order to accomplish the salvation of His people.
Nations Rage, God Mocks
Psalm 2 confronts the rage of earthly rulers against God and His anointed with a sober theological question: why do the nations engage in so futile an endeavor? The sermon expounds the psalm under three headings — the rebellion of earthly kings, the reign of the heavenly king, and the recognition of the true king — tracing the Davidic covenant through its fulfillment in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. The Covenant of Redemption grounds the certainty of Christ's present reign at the right hand of the Father, and that certainty is the sole comfort available to God's people as nations continue to rage and the history of the church runs red with the blood of martyrs. Hearers are called either to kiss the Son in filial fear and find blessing, or to perish in the way of the ungodly.
Immanuel
Isaiah 7:10–8:10 presents the Immanuel prophecy not as a comfortable seasonal text but as a word of judgment against Ahaz's faithless trust in Assyria and a word of hope for the covenant remnant. The sermon traces two contrasting realities: 'Assyria with us,' the consequence of royal unbelief, and 'God with us,' the promise that anchors the remnant through exile and desolation. The Immanuel sign finds its definitive fulfillment in Matthew 1, where the virgin-born Son saves his people from sin rather than merely political oppression — a truth that remains the ground of steadfastness for the church in every era of suffering and exile.
The Covenant with David
The Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7:1–17 is a sovereign promise by God to David that a seed from his line will establish an eternal kingdom — a promise that cannot be annulled by death, destroyed by sin, or exhausted by time. The sermon traces the historical background of the covenant (the ark's wandering, God's presence with his pilgrim people, David's own rise from the sheepfold), then unfolds the triple meaning of 'house' — physical dwelling, dynastic succession, and temple — showing that God's answer to David's desire to build for him is instead to build a dynasty for David. Covenant theology frames the whole: the Davidic covenant is not a new or separate covenant of grace but a further discovery of the one covenant purpose moving from Genesis 3:15 through Abraham and David to its full realization in the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David who now reigns over a kingdom without end. The sermon closes with Jeremiah 23:5–6 — the Lord our righteousness — pressing hearers to rest in Christ's imputed righteousness as the ground of their entry into that everlasting kingdom.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 13:26–37 records Paul's synagogue sermon in Pisidian Antioch, in which he explains the two pivotal events of Israel's Messiah: the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Jerusalem rulers condemned Jesus without cause, yet in doing so they fulfilled the very prophetic scriptures they heard read every Sabbath, demonstrating the sovereign providence of God working through the wickedness of men. Paul marshals Psalm 2:7 to establish the eternal generation of the Son and his fitness as mediator, then Psalm 16:10 to prove that David's body saw corruption while Christ's did not, and Isaiah 55 to ground the sure mercies of the Davidic covenant in the risen servant of Isaiah 53. The sermon drives toward justification by faith alone in Christ alone, urging hearers not to repeat Jerusalem's fatal error of rejecting the one through whom alone there is forgiveness of sins.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:13–41) opens with a sweeping sketch of Israel's redemptive history — election, deliverance from Egypt, wilderness forbearance, the land promise, the judges, the monarchy, and the Davidic covenant — all converging on one point: the law and the prophets inevitably lead to Jesus Christ. The sermon examines why Paul structures his argument this way, showing that a correct hermeneutic always produces a Christocentric reading of Scripture and that God's faithfulness in the lesser promises guarantees his faithfulness in the greater seed promise. Along the way, the exposition confronts the temptation to doubt God's sustaining care in hard seasons, insisting that God never abandons his people and that every believer can rest on his unwavering covenant faithfulness. The sermon closes with a direct appeal drawn from verse 38: forgiveness of sins — which the law of Moses could never provide — is freely available through this man, Jesus Christ.