Theological term
Lex Talionis
68 sermons · All terms
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment—'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20)—extends far beyond courtroom perjury to govern every word spoken about another person. This sermon works through the prohibition in two directions: first, the specific offenses the commandment forbids (perjury, lying, slander, gossip, and tailbearing, including both their active propagation and their passive reception); second, the positive duties the commandment requires (truth-telling under oath, honest speech in all of life, charitable restraint, and the active discouragement of slanderers). Because no hearer perfectly fulfils Psalm 15's portrait of the righteous man, the sermon closes by directing the conscience to Christ, whose active obedience and atoning death cover the very sins of the tongue that the law condemns.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not a political issue but a theological and ethical one — a violation of the Sixth Commandment against murder and a direct assault on the image of God borne by every human being from conception. This sermon works through Exodus 21:22–25 to demonstrate that the Mosaic case law governing accidental injury to a pregnant woman treats the pre-born child as a full person, applying the lex talionis — life for life — when the child is killed. Supporting passages from Genesis, Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, Luke, and Paul establish the biblical case for the personhood and sanctity of the pre-born. The sermon closes by calling the church to preach the whole counsel of God on this subject, to pursue sexual fidelity, to pray for the end of abortion, and to proclaim the gospel's mercy to all who have sinned in this way.
The Death Penalty
Genesis 9:6 grounds the biblical mandate for capital punishment in the image of God: to shed human blood unlawfully is to assault God himself, and the prescribed penalty reflects the weight of that offense. This sermon works through the Noahic covenant as a common-grace ordinance never abrogated, traces the continuity of capital punishment into the New Testament through Romans 13, and then systematically answers both biblical and pragmatic objections — including the mistranslation of Exodus 20:13, the pacifist reading of Matthew 5:38–42, and the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Believers are called to submit to the whole counsel of God on this issue, even where it cuts against cultural sentiment, because consistency with Scripture requires affirming what God has commanded for the governance of civil society.
Genesis 34:1-31
Genesis 34 presents one of the more disturbing episodes in the patriarchal narrative: the rape of Dinah, the calculated retaliation by Simeon and Levi, and Jacob's conspicuous failure of leadership. The exposition argues that the sons of Jacob were not acting out of unbridled blood vengeance but engaged in a deliberate, tactical mission to liberate their sister from what amounted to a hostage situation — an argument that reframes the deceit and slaughter as purposive rather than criminal. Jacob's response stands in sharp contrast to his spiritual high points in chapters 32–33, exposing the ebbs and flows of genuine faith and the truth that God's preservation of his people rests entirely on sovereign grace, not the consistency of the saints.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 2
Acts 13:4–12 records the opening episode of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey: their arrival in Cyprus, their preaching in the synagogues of Salamis, and the dramatic confrontation at Paphos with Bar-Jesus, a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet who attempted to prevent the proconsul Sergius Paulus from hearing the gospel. The sermon examines three movements — the journey to Cyprus, the arrival at Salamis, and the confrontation at Paphos — with extended attention to Paul's Spirit-empowered rebuke of Elymas and the resulting judgment miracle. Central to the exposition is the insistence that the Word of God preached is the irreplaceable means of salvation, that Satan's primary strategy is to obstruct its reception, and that divine sovereignty rather than human merit accounts for every conversion, including that of a powerful Roman official.
The Need for Due Process
Proverbs 18:17 establishes that the first to state a case seems right until cross-examination occurs — a principle with profound implications for personal conduct, church life, and civil justice. This sermon expounds that verse alongside Deuteronomy 19:15–21 and Deuteronomy 25:1–3 to demonstrate that due process — including cross-examination, the two-or-three-witness rule, proportionate punishment, and the preservation of human dignity — is grounded in the law of God, not in modern legal convention. The Old Testament judicial laws are shown to protect the accused, deter false witness, and honor image-bearers even in their guilt. The sermon closes with a Christological application: Psalm 15 describes the perfectly law-keeping Mediator, and union with him by grace through faith is the only ground on which any person stands before God.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is not a relic of Old Testament severity but a universal, creation-order ordinance grounded in the image of God and confirmed in the New Testament — and therefore not in tension with a pro-life ethic but demanded by it. Expositing Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:1-4, this sermon argues that God commissioned the civil magistrate to wield the sword as His appointed agent of retributive justice precisely because human life bears divine dignity. Common objections — from the Sixth Commandment's 'thou shalt not kill,' to Christ's handling of the woman caught in adultery, to the fear that execution forecloses repentance — are examined and answered on biblical grounds. Hearers are called to embrace the full counsel of God's Word on civil ethics, to resist the moralizing of secular humanism, and to see in God's hatred of bloodshed the very reason every sinner needs the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
The Bible and Abortion
Abortion is not merely a political question but a theological one, demanding that Christians know what Scripture says about the pre-born. Working through Exodus 20:13 and Exodus 21:22–25, this sermon establishes the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder, grounds the sanctity of human life in the doctrine of the image of God (traced from creation through the incarnation), and demonstrates from the Mosaic case law that even accidental harm to a pre-born child carried the full force of the lex talionis — life for life. The sermon closes by addressing the church's responsibility to preach both law and gospel, to vote and live consistently with the conviction that abortion is both sin and crime, and to extend the forgiveness of Christ to those who have been party to this particular transgression.
Genesis 9:1-17
The Noahic covenant establishes not only capital punishment but a comprehensive framework for criminal justice that the civil magistrate is bound to apply. Drawing from Genesis 9, Ecclesiastes 8, and the Mosaic civil law, this sermon traces three lesser forms of punishment — restitution, indentured servitude, and corporal punishment — demonstrating that each is governed by due process, proportionality, and a concern for the dignity of the offender as an image-bearer of God. The modern prison system is evaluated against these biblical categories and found to undermine restitution, rehabilitation, and human dignity alike. Hearers are called to think carefully about what Scripture actually teaches concerning crime and punishment rather than dismissing it as barbaric.
Genesis 9:1-7
Genesis 9:1–7 establishes the Noahic Covenant, which mandates capital punishment as a universal and perpetual ordinance rooted in the image of God — not merely an Old Covenant provision for Israel. This study addresses common biblical objections (Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:38–42, John 8) and pragmatic objections (deterrence, innocence, forgiveness), arguing that none successfully overthrow the divine mandate of Genesis 9:6, which is confirmed and not abrogated by the New Testament. The session urges listeners to think carefully from Scripture rather than from cultural sentiment, trusting that God's law concerning criminal justice reflects his character and serves the stability of the created order.
Genesis 4:16-26
Genesis 4:16–26 traces two diverging lines from Adam: the ungodly line of Cain, marked by escalating sin, polygamy, and bloodlust, and the godly line of Seth, which ends with men calling on the name of the Lord. The passage raises questions about cultural achievement, common grace, and the preservation of God's people in the midst of rampant wickedness. Eve's naming of Seth reveals genuine covenant faith in the promise of Genesis 3:15, trusting that God would yet raise up the seed of the woman. The sermon calls believers to grow in faith as those who possess not only the promise of the Redeemer but its fulfillment in Christ.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), rests upon the foundation of the imago Dei — the conviction that every human being, from the pre-born to the elderly, bears the image of the Creator, and that to assault an image-bearer is to assault God himself. The sermon distinguishes murder from lawful killing, arguing from Genesis 9, Exodus 22, and Romans 13 that capital punishment, self-defense, and just war are not violations of the commandment but are grounded in the same principle that makes murder heinous: the sanctity of human life. Modern applications — abortion, euthanasia, and the neglect of capital punishment — are examined in light of both Old and New Testament texts, and the sermon closes by directing those who have participated in these sins to the pardoning grace of Christ.
The Bible and Abortion
Exodus 21:22–25 is examined as a direct biblical address to the ethics of abortion, situating the text within the Sixth Commandment's prohibition of murder and the broader biblical witness to the sanctity of human life from conception to death. The sermon argues that the Hebrew vocabulary of the passage — the language of childbirth rather than miscarriage — establishes that God's law affords protection, including capital sanction, to pre-born image-bearers of God. The image of God in man, displayed across every stage of human life from Genesis to James, grounds the absolute moral prohibition of abortion and exposes the moral bankruptcy of societies and churches that disregard it. Hearers are called to informed prayer, faithful proclamation of the law, sexual purity, and confidence in the sufficiency of Christ's blood to forgive even this sin.
The Bible and Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is examined as a biblical mandate rooted in the sanctity of human life as image-bearers of God, tracing the consistent teaching of Scripture from Genesis 9:6 through Romans 13:1–4. The sermon argues that the Noahic covenant establishes civil government's God-given authority to execute murderers, an authority confirmed rather than overturned in the New Testament. Common objections — from the sixth commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, the woman caught in adultery, and concerns about deterrence and salvation — are answered exegetically. Believers are called to submit to governing authorities as God's ministers of wrath, to pray the imprecatory psalms, and to reject both personal vengeance and the sentimental rejection of God's revealed standard of justice.
Exodus 19-24
Exodus 19–24 presents the Old Covenant in concentrated form: a holy God descends on Sinai in storm theophany, sets forth the conditions of the Mosaic covenant, and binds Israel in blood to stipulations they prove incapable of fulfilling. The study moves through three units — the holiness of God (chs. 19–20), the Book of the Covenant with its judicial laws for a theocratic nation (chs. 21–23), and the ratification of the covenant in blood and covenant meal (ch. 24). Because the Old Covenant is conditional and Israel is faithless, the study drives toward Christ as the true Israel who fulfilled the covenant of works and the Mosaic stipulations alike, securing for his people the better covenant foreshadowed at Sinai.
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 Death Penalty
Romans 13:1–4 grounds the civil magistrate's authority to execute criminal offenders not in political theory but in the creational ordinance of Genesis 9:6 and the delegated wrath of God. The sermon traces a biblical theology of capital punishment from the Noahic covenant through the Mosaic economy into the New Testament, demonstrating that the sword Paul assigns to the magistrate in Romans 13 is no metaphor but a mandate. Common objections — drawn from Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:38–42, and John 8 — are answered exegetically, and pragmatic objections (racial disparity, deterrence, forgiveness) are answered from Scripture and reason. The hearer is called to submit to governing authorities as God's ordained ministers of justice, to renounce private vengeance, and — if an unbeliever — to flee to Christ before facing the ultimate Judge whose assessment of the heart no magistrate can anticipate.
The Ninth Commandment
The ninth commandment, 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' (Deuteronomy 5:20), governs far more than courtroom testimony — it encompasses every form of lying, slander, backbiting, gossip, hypocrisy, and doctrinal heresy. Three grounds obligate God's people to truth-telling: God himself is truth, man bears God's image and his reputation is inviolable, and the stability of every social order depends on trust. The positive demand of the commandment calls believers to speak truth in all spheres of life, to discourage slander, and to resist the co-opting of humanist language that obscures biblical categories.
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 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.
Deuteronomy 28
Deuteronomy 28 sets out the covenantal sanctions of the Mosaic economy: comprehensive blessing for obedience and devastating curse for disobedience, with the curses dwarfing the blessings in scope and detail. The chapter's structure mirrors ancient Near Eastern treaty form, and its predictive detail concerning plague, exile, siege, and national reversal has been dismissed by naturalistic interpreters who deny Mosaic authorship — a denial the sermon firmly rejects. The curses, including cannibalism during siege and the reversal of every Abrahamic promise, are traced through Israel's history from the wilderness to A.D. 70. The sermon closes by directing the hearer to praise God for the new covenant, in which Christ as covenant surety rendered the personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience Israel never could, bearing the curse of the law so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon His people.
Deuteronomy 25
Deuteronomy 25 contains a cluster of miscellaneous laws governing the theocratic covenant community of Israel — provisions for workers, levirate marriage, the threat to progeny, just weights and measures, and the command to destroy Amalek. Each law is examined in its covenantal context, with recurring attention to the twin promises of seed and land that anchor the Abrahamic covenant. The study draws direct lines from Old Testament case law to New Testament ethics, showing that God's moral order is consistent across both Testaments and demands integrity in every area of life — domestic, commercial, and civic.
Capital Punishment, Part 2
Capital punishment is examined through Scripture, addressing both biblical and pragmatic objections to the state's God-ordained authority to execute criminal offenders. Drawing on Genesis 9:6, Romans 13:1–4, and several New Testament texts, the study demonstrates that the sixth commandment prohibits murder — not all killing — and that covenant theology maintains continuity between the Testaments on this point. Matthew 5:38–42 and John 8 are answered in turn, showing that neither the call to personal forbearance nor Christ's compassion toward the adulterous woman overturns the civil magistrate's duty to execute justice. Christians are called to govern their interpersonal relationships by a spirit of longsuffering while trusting God-appointed authorities to bear the sword faithfully.
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.
Capital Punishment, Part 1
Capital punishment is not a relic of Mosaic legislation but a moral mandate rooted in the Noahic Covenant and reaffirmed in the New Testament. Beginning in Genesis 9:6 and tracing through Romans 13:1-4, this study argues that God has delegated the sword of retributive justice exclusively to the civil magistrate — not to private individuals — as his ordained minister of wrath in history. The biblical theology presented here distinguishes three lawful forms of killing (self-defense, just war, and capital punishment), locates the theological ground of the death penalty in the imago Dei, and counters the common claim that the death penalty was abrogated with the Mosaic economy. The listener is called to submit to governing authorities as God's appointed agents and to understand retributive justice as the proper frame for capital punishment rather than rehabilitation or deterrence.
Deuteronomy 20
Deuteronomy 20 sets forth three categories of principle governing Israel's holy warfare: a general call to fearlessness grounded in the presence and power of Yahweh, specific exemptions from military service, and regulations for engaging enemy cities. The chapter distinguishes between cities far from Canaan — to whom peace must first be offered — and the Canaanite nations under the ban, who were to be utterly destroyed lest they corrupt Israel's worship. Throughout, the text reveals a God who fights for His people, restrains their conduct in war by humanitarian concern, and warns that failure to execute the ban would produce exactly the idolatry Israel later fell into.
Deuteronomy 19
Deuteronomy 19 addresses three domains of civil and judicial justice under the Mosaic law: the cities of refuge for accidental homicide, the prohibition against moving a neighbor's landmark, and the law governing witnesses and perjury. The cities of refuge reveal that God's law is concerned equally with punishing the guilty and protecting the judicially innocent — unexecuted murder and the execution of an innocent man both bring blood guilt upon the land. The law of witnesses, culminating in the lex talionis applied to the false witness, demonstrates that God does not take perjury lightly, and that biblical judicial procedure builds in structural safeguards against abuse.
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12 — the Golden Rule — stands as the hinge of the Sermon on the Mount, summarizing the entire ethical instruction of chapters 5–7 in a single positive imperative: treat others the way you want to be treated. This sermon distinguishes the positive form of the rule from its negative rabbinic counterpart (Hillel's formulation), showing that the positive form not only restrains evil but actively promotes love — love defined not by sentiment but by obedience to the second table of the Decalogue. The preacher traces the Golden Rule through Matthew 22, Leviticus 19:18, Romans 13, and Galatians 5, arguing that antinomianism cannot survive an open Bible, and that the rule's comprehensiveness, perpetuity, and proactivity demand Spirit-empowered obedience that flows from the gospel, not toward it.
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.
The Law of Love
Matthew 5:43–48 contains the sixth and final antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Christ corrects the Pharisaic addition 'hate your enemy' — a phrase found nowhere in Scripture — and restores the full demand of the moral law: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you. Christ is not introducing new legislation but faithfully expounding the eternal righteousness of the Father, whose law always required love even toward enemies, as texts from Exodus, Leviticus, Proverbs, and Job demonstrate. The sermon traces the contrast between true law and scribal distortion, the three positive duties of love, the theological ground of sonship in reflecting the Father's common grace, and the summary call to perfection — which ultimately drives the believer to the cross and to the imputed righteousness of Christ who alone satisfied these demands perfectly. Kingdom citizens are not bare-minimum disciples but are called, by the Spirit's enabling, to embody an ethic that distinguishes them entirely from tax collectors and pagans.