Topic
Anthropology
562 sermons · All topics
2 Samuel 1:17-27
David's lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:17–27 is examined as a carefully crafted literary and theological act, not merely an outburst of emotion. The lamentation reveals David's paramount concern for the glory of Yahweh, his unbitter spirit toward a sworn enemy, and his covenantal grief over the loss of Jonathan. The study draws out practical instruction on the role of lament in the Christian life, the ethics of speech about the dead, and the priority of God's honor in prayer.
2 Samuel 1:1-16
2 Samuel 1:1–16 records an Amalekite's false report to David claiming credit for Saul's death, and David's swift, severe response. This exposition examines the inconsistencies in the Amalekite's account, David's genuine grief over Saul and the house of Israel despite Saul's wickedness, and the theological weight of fearing to touch the Lord's anointed. Three practical lessons emerge: guarding against self-promotion, cultivating a multifaceted response to divine judgment that avoids bitterness, and living under the motivating power of the fear of God.
Dr. Steven Lawson - "How Blessed is the Man" - November 8, 2015 PM
Psalm 1 sets two paths before every person who enters the house of God: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. This exposition moves through the psalm's four movements — the pronouncement of blessing, the prerequisites for blessing, the picture of blessing, and the prohibition of blessing — arguing that the blessedness declared in verse 1 belongs exclusively to those who have been sovereignly transplanted by the new birth and who are sustained by the inexhaustible streams of divine grace. All the blessings of Psalm 1 are mediated through Christ alone: his active obedience supplies the righteousness imputed to the believer, and his atoning death reconciles the sinner to God. Hearers are called to examine whether they are on the narrow way of the righteous or the broad way of the wicked, and to sink their roots deeper into the Word of God as the primary means of sanctifying grace.
The Tenth Commandment
The Tenth Commandment forbids not merely external acts of acquisition but the inward disposition of covetousness itself — the inordinate desire for what belongs to a neighbor. The sermon traces three aspects of the commandment: its prohibition (covering a neighbor's spouse, goods, discontentedness, and envy), the reasons underlying it (the spirituality of the moral law and the duty of love for neighbor), and its positive demands (contentment, appreciation for others' blessings, and a charitable spirit). The three classic uses of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — are then applied, with the pedagogical use directed especially toward those who, like the rich young ruler or Paul before his conversion, suppose they have kept the commandments outwardly while remaining guilty of covetousness within.
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.
The Ninth Commandment
The Ninth Commandment forbids bearing false witness, and this sermon works outward from its primary application — perjury in a judicial setting — to the full range of sins committed with the tongue: lying, slander, backbiting, and gossip. The reason God demands truth-telling is rooted in his own character as the God of truth, in man's nature as his image-bearer, and in the stability of the social order, which collapses wherever deception is tolerated. Positively, the commandment calls God's people to speak truth in all areas of life, to exercise charity toward others in thought and speech, and to actively discourage those who would sin with their tongues — while finding in Christ the only sufficient remedy for a history of lies.
1 Samuel 28
First Samuel 28 records one of the most devastating episodes in Saul's life: having been abandoned by God and cut off from every legitimate means of divine communication, the king of Israel disguises himself and consults a medium at Endor on the eve of his final battle with the Philistines. This Bible study traces Saul's trajectory from incremental disobedience in 1 Samuel 13 through to full-blown necromancy in chapter 28, demonstrating that his ruin was not sudden but the cumulative fruit of small acts of defection from the living God. The appearance of 'Samuel' is examined with appropriate tentativeness, with the case for a demonic impersonation receiving the most sustained treatment. The study closes with a contrast between Saul's desperation and David's persistent pleading in Psalm 13, calling hearers to cling to the means of grace rather than abandon them when God seems silent.
The Eighth Commandment
The eighth commandment, 'You shall not steal,' addresses far more than petty theft — it encompasses burglary, robbery, kidnapping, fraud, extortion, property destruction, and even religious theft in the withholding of tithes. This exposition of Deuteronomy 5:19 works through three structural movements: the prohibition and its associated sins (including sins of the heart such as covetousness and idolatry), the theological reasons grounding the commandment in God's sovereign ownership of all things, and the positive duties it implies — diligent labor, charitable giving, and biblical contentment. The civil implications extend to currency manipulation, unjust taxation, and ideological systems such as socialism and communism, all of which violate the same moral principle. The sermon closes with Christ as the fulfillment of Psalm 15, the one who perfectly honored every obligation the commandment demands, and through whose righteousness covetous sinners are justified.
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.
1 Samuel 26
1 Samuel 26 records the last encounter between David and Saul, and this exposition works through the chapter under three headings: the execution, report, and explanation of David's nighttime mission into Saul's camp. David's refusal to strike the Lord's anointed, his threefold articulation of sovereign providence in verse 10, and his longing to remain in the inheritance of the Lord together reveal a man who trusts God's governance while obeying God's word without suspension. Four concluding lessons draw out the providence of God, the progress of the Davidic kingdom, the privilege of corporate worship, and David's typological function as a forerunner of the Greater David who, when reviled, reviled not.
The Seventh Commandment
The Seventh Commandment — 'You shall not commit adultery' (Deuteronomy 5:18) — is grounded in God's creation ordinance of marriage as a covenant of companionship, the prevention of uncleanness, and procreation, and it comprehends a far broader category of sexual sins than adultery narrowly defined. Working through eleven specific violations forbidden by Scripture — from adultery and fornication to pornography, rape, sodomy, and unlawful divorce — the sermon demonstrates that sexual sin is never victimless but is first and foremost an offence against God, confirmed by both divine sanction and the wrath of violated human covenants. The law's pedagogical use exposes every hearer's guilt and drives sinners to Christ, in whose name the sexually defiled may be washed, sanctified, and justified (1 Corinthians 6:11). The sermon closes by urging the mortification of sin, faithful biblical marriage, and renewed communion with God through the means of grace as the only sustainable path to sexual purity.
1 Samuel 25
First Samuel 25 sets David's near-catastrophic act of vengeance against Nabal within the larger narrative of God's providential establishment of the Davidic kingdom. David, who rightly restrained his men from killing the Lord's anointed in chapter 24, immediately loses that self-possession when personally affronted by a foolish and godless landowner, drawing his sword to execute a man who did not deserve death. God sovereignly intervenes through an unnamed servant, a wise woman named Abigail, and ultimately the direct stroke of divine judgment upon Nabal himself — demonstrating that the advance of God's kingdom depends entirely on divine providence, not human vengeance. The practical lesson is that believers must praise God not only for deliverance from suffering but for restraint from sinning, trusting that God himself will repay wickedness in his own time.
The Sixth Commandment
The sixth commandment, 'You shall not murder' (Deuteronomy 5:17), prohibits not only the external act of unlawfully taking human life but also the internal dispositions of hatred, unwarranted anger, and character assassination that Christ exposes in the Sermon on the Mount. The prohibition is grounded in the imago Dei: because every human being bears the image of God, to assault a human life is to assault the divine majesty itself. The sermon carefully distinguishes murder from lawful killing, defending the legitimacy of capital punishment, just war, and self-defense, while applying the command's positive obligation — the active promotion of life — to contemporary issues including abortion, euthanasia, and gossip.
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.
Be Imitators of God
Ephesians 5:1–21 confronts believers with a single pressing question: what is truly honorable and acceptable in the sight of God rather than in the sight of men? Working through three consecutive imperatives — walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom — the sermon grounds each in the indicative of redemption: because the Father has predestined, adopted, and redeemed a people through Christ's perfect and acceptable sacrifice, they must imitate God as dear children. The practical implications range from the mortification of sexual sin and covetousness to the filling of the Spirit expressed in mutual speech, psalmody, thanksgiving, and submission, all of which flow from what Christ alone accomplished as the only sweet-smelling offering acceptable to the Father.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment—'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11)—encompasses far more than profane speech: it governs every use of God's titles, attributes, and works, whether in word, oath, prayer, or conduct. The sermon works through the richness of the divine name (Yahweh, Elohim, El Shaddai, and the Triune persons) before examining the prohibition's reach across blasphemy, unlawful oaths, magic and manipulation, misapplication of providence, and misinterpretation of Scripture. The positive demand of the commandment calls believers to reverent use of God's name in worship, to integrity in oaths and vows, and to a holy profession of faith whose conduct matches its confession. The law's pedagogical use is pressed upon the hearer: all stand guilty before this commandment and are thereby driven to Christ, who alone kept it perfectly and bore the penalty for those who did not.
Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof (2LCF 6.1-5)
What is sin, where did it come from, and what has it done to us? This confession study works through 1689 London Baptist Confession chapter 6, paragraphs 1–5, examining the origin of sin in the covenantal breach of Adam, the universal solidarity of mankind in that guilt and corruption, and the abiding effects of sin in both the unregenerate and the regenerate. The remedy is shown to be twofold: justification to deal with the guilt of sin and sanctification to deal with its remaining corruption, both secured by Christ as the second Adam who fulfilled what the first Adam failed to keep.
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.
The Instruction on Divorce, Part 1
Matthew 19:7–9 presents a Pharisaic challenge to Jesus on the Mosaic permission for divorce, and this sermon works through that challenge under two heads: the Pharisees' objection and Christ's response. The exposition moves through Deuteronomy 24:1–4, demonstrating that its protasis (verses 1–3) assumes the legitimacy of divorce and remarriage, while its apodosis (verse 4) prohibits only return to a first husband — not remarriage as such. Drawing on Leviticus 21, Ezra, Jeremiah 3, and the Westminster Confession 24.5, the sermon argues that porneia (sexual immorality broadly construed) constitutes a lawful ground for divorce and remarriage, and that to forbid what God's law permits is both antinomian and a burden God never intended to lay on innocent parties.
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.
The Vainglory, the Virtue, and the Verity (Part 2)
Jeremiah 9:23–24 sets a prohibitive warning against glorying in wisdom, strength, and riches, and answers it with a positive prescription: glory exclusively in the understanding and knowledge of God. This sermon (Part 2) works through the 'virtue' and the 'verity' of that text — the virtue being the necessity of knowing God (as the source of all true wisdom, everlasting life, and proper humility), and the verity being the three attendant truths God announces about himself: he alone is the Lord, he exercises loving-kindness, and he governs in judgment and righteousness. The sermon closes with a direct call to those outside of Christ to abandon vainglorious boasting and close with the one in whom true wisdom, strength, and riches are found.
He Saved Us
Salvation by works, whether in whole or in part, is a criminal doctrine — so the Apostle Paul insists in Titus 3:5–7, and this sermon works through that text under four headings: the one at work in salvation (God alone, not man), the nature of salvation (regeneration, renewal, and justification), the foundation of salvation (Jesus Christ exclusively), and the certainty of salvation (grounded in the immutable decree of election and the perfecting work of the triune God). The washing of regeneration is not water baptism but the sovereign operation of the Holy Spirit making dead sinners alive, paralleling the new-covenant promise of Ezekiel 36. Justification is a legal declaration in which Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer and received by faith alone — not supplemented by any work of the believer's own. Both the regenerate and the unbeliever are called to rest solely upon Christ, the one foundation of all salvation.
Of Effectual Calling (2LCF 10.1-4)
Effectual calling is the sovereign, monergistic act by which God brings his elect out of spiritual death and into saving union with Christ — by his Word and Spirit alone, apart from any foreseen merit or creaturely co-operation. Walking through 2LCF Chapter 10, paragraphs 1–4, this study situates effectual calling within the broader covenant structure of the confession, distinguishing it from the general gospel call that goes forth indiscriminately to all. The session addresses the regenerating work of the Spirit, the doctrinal grounding of infant salvation, the exclusion of the non-elect from saving grace, and the eternal perdition of those outside Christ regardless of moral sincerity — with a sustained application to how these truths ought to shape corporate prayer and gospel proclamation.
The Warning Against Despising Believers
Jesus' warning in Matthew 18:10–14 against despising fellow believers is neither a peripheral concern nor a suggestion for pleasant church life — it is a binding command addressed to the very tendency toward pride and contempt that lurks in regenerate hearts. The sermon works through three movements: the prohibition itself with its two supporting reasons (the ministry of angels and the redemptive mission of the Son of Man), the parable of the straying sheep (read in its Matthean context as pastoral recovery rather than evangelistic proclamation), and the Father's stated will that none of these little ones should perish. The congregation is pressed to see that when the Father, the Son, and the angels all esteem the little ones, any contempt shown by one believer toward another is an affront to the entire Trinitarian economy of redemption. The exhortation is concrete: kill pride at the root, receive rather than reject fellow believers, and willingly surrender Christian liberties rather than scandalize a brother for whom Christ died.
Of Free Will (9.1-5)
The doctrine of free will, as confessed in chapter 9 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, is neither denied nor affirmed without qualification — it is carefully defined in relation to the fourfold state of man. In the state of innocency man possessed genuine freedom to do good, yet was mutable; in the state of sin he retains natural liberty of choice but has wholly lost all ability to will any spiritual good; in the state of grace God monergistically transfers the sinner from bondage into freedom to will and do what is spiritually good, yet remaining corruption sustains a continual warfare within; and in the state of glory the will is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone. The central pastoral application is that a true grasp of total depravity and total inability is the only ground on which amazing grace is truly amazing, and the presence of ongoing battle against sin — not its absence — is the mark of regenerate life.
The Greatest in the Kingdom
Matthew 18:1–4 confronts the disciples' dispute over who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven with a child placed in their midst as the model of kingdom greatness. The sermon exposes pride as a systemic spiritual disorder native to fallen humanity — present even among the regenerate — and argues from Christ's own words that the kingdom ethic inverts worldly ambition entirely: the greatest is the most humble. Three means of cultivating genuine humility are set out: knowing oneself rightly through Scripture, knowing the person and work of Christ in his self-humiliation, and knowing the glory of God as revealed in texts such as Isaiah 40.
The Healing of a Demon Possessed Boy
Matthew 17:14–23 sets a desperate father's plea for his demon-possessed son against the disciples' failure to cast out the demon, and Christ's authoritative word that immediately effects the cure. The sermon works through four movements: the request for mercy, the Lord's rebuke of faithless Israel and the demon, instruction on the nature and exercise of faith, and the second formal passion announcement of Matthew's Gospel. Throughout, the contrast between Christ's kingdom of mercy and the devil's kingdom of self-destruction frames both the evangelistic and pastoral applications: sinners are called to come to the sovereign Christ who alone delivers, and parents are urged never to despair of the conversion of any soul, pressing the atoning work of the cross upon their children.
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.
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.