Topic
Biblical Theology
1,075 sermons · All topics
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.
The Son-Tilted Focus of All Things
Colossians 1:16 presents the Son of God as the author, agent, and goal of all creation — not merely its first product, but its sovereign Lord. The sermon argues that 'firstborn of all creation' (Col. 1:15) carries the Old Testament sense of preeminence and rank, not ontological origin, so that the Son is the Creator and not a creature. From this text the preacher traces a 'Son-tilted' architecture running through creation, providence, and redemption, showing that all three are oriented toward the glory of the eternal Son. The sermon closes with the gospel call: the same Son who made all things assumed human nature, suffered, rose, and now brings many sons to glory — a glory in which believers will stand blameless before God with great joy, solely on the ground of Christ's righteousness.
A Brief Survey of Covenant Theology, Part 3
Why is the New Covenant necessary? This session of a three-part survey of covenant theology works backwards through redemptive history to answer that question with six interlocking reasons: the Mosaic Covenant was temporary and could not save; the Abrahamic Covenant promised but did not present Christ; Genesis 3:15 gave only the first promise of a mediator; Adam's failure as covenant head made Christ's obedience necessary; Adam broke the covenant of works God placed him under at creation; and the entire plan was purposed by God before the foundation of the world. The argument culminates in the claim that the New Covenant does not restore believers to Adam's pre-fall probationary state but brings them, through the last Adam, to the glorified status Adam forfeited and Christ secured.
A Brief Survey of Covenant Theology, Part 2
What is the new covenant, and how does it differ from the Mosaic covenant? Drawing from Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, and the book of Hebrews, this lecture surveys both the Old Testament promises and New Testament fulfillment of the new covenant. The new covenant is not conditioned upon the obedience of its members but secures — through the active and passive obedience of Christ — the forgiveness of sins, regeneration, and the indwelling Spirit for every member of the covenant community, both Jew and Gentile. Obedience within the covenant is the fruit of sovereign grace, not the ground of covenant blessing.
A Brief Survey of Covenant Theology, Part 1
What is a divine covenant, and why does 'covenant theology' accurately describe the Bible's own architecture? This lecture — the first in a three-part survey — defines divine covenants as relational arrangements sovereignly initiated by God for man's benefit, with ways and means established by God alone to obtain the designated blessings. Drawing on Nehemiah Cox, 2 Samuel 7, Exodus 19, and Hebrews 10, the speaker demonstrates that both Testaments are covenantally structured documents: the Old Testament is the covenantal record for old covenant Israel, and the New Testament is the covenantal record for the new covenant church, both centering on Christ in his sufferings and glory. The lecture concludes that covenant theology is not an alien grid imposed on Scripture but the organic, Christocentric shape of biblical revelation itself, best interpreted by allowing the New Testament to illuminate the Old.
The Devil's Defeat
Revelation 12 presents a cosmic conflict between the dragon and the people of God, explained through richly layered Old Testament imagery. The chapter identifies the woman as the true Israel of God, the dragon as Satan, and the male child as the Lord Jesus Christ whose ascension signals the inauguration of his universal reign. The devil is defeated not once but four times — failing to destroy Christ, failing against Michael's angels, failing to destroy the church in the wilderness, and failing against the offspring of the woman. This theology of suffering equips the persecuted church to endure, knowing that the rage of the dragon is itself the consequence of his defeat, and that Christ's people are kept safe in the hand of the triumphant Lamb.
The Announcement of the Coming King
Isaiah 9:6–7 announces a coming King whose titles — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — identify both his divine nature and his redemptive office. Preached against the backdrop of the 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy, this exposition argues that the world's violence and depravity find their only explanation in the doctrine of human sin and their only remedy in the incarnate Son of God. The sermon works through seven descriptors of Christ in verse 6 and five characteristics of his kingdom in verse 7, culminating in the assurance that the zeal of the Lord of Hosts — not human effort — secures and advances Christ's everlasting reign.
Unsolved Homicide, Family Matters, and the Executed Criminal
Deuteronomy 21 presents five laws that appear culturally strange to modern readers — an unsolved homicide, female captives of war, the firstborn son's inheritance, the rebellious son, and the disposal of an executed criminal's body — but each displays the equity and justice of God's holy law as it protected the vulnerable within theocratic Israel. The chapter closes with a passage Paul quotes directly in Galatians 3, revealing that the one who is hanged and accursed of God is none other than Christ, who bore the curse of rebel sons in their place. The sermon moves from the civil legislation of the old covenant to the glory of the Son, showing that God made him who knew no sin to be sin, constituting him the disobedient son so that his people might become the righteousness of God in him. Readers of this chapter must resist dismissing it as barbaric and instead marvel both at the fairness of God's law and at the redemptive transaction accomplished at Calvary.
Deuteronomy 23
Deuteronomy 23 addresses the holiness of the covenant community through laws governing exclusion from the assembly of the Lord, ritual cleanliness in the military camp, and miscellaneous regulations for community life. The chapter's detailed and seemingly mundane stipulations — covering the castrated, the illegitimate, hostile ethnic groups, bodily waste, escaped slaves, cult prostitution, usury, vows, and gleaning rights — all flow from one unifying concern: Israel was a sanctified, set-apart people who were to reflect the character of the God who dwelt in their midst. These Old Covenant regulations, grounded in God's love for his covenant community, point toward the New Covenant expansion in which eunuchs, Gentiles, and all nations are called without restriction to enter the assembly of the Lord through the proclamation of the gospel.
Deuteronomy 22
Deuteronomy 22 presents two categories of miscellaneous Mosaic legislation: covenant community obligations (verses 1–12) and laws governing the integrity of marriage and sexual relationships (verses 13–30). The exposition examines each of the six laws in both categories, demonstrating that the principles underlying them — mutual care within the covenant community, God-ordained gender distinctions, sexual purity, and the protection of the innocent — remain directly applicable in the new covenant era. Sin is the constant in every generation, and God's law, rightly understood, punishes the guilty and protects the innocent, pointing his people toward holiness and away from the patterns of the surrounding nations.
Deuteronomy 21
Deuteronomy 21 addresses five distinct legal cases in ancient Israel: an unsolved homicide, a female prisoner of war sought as a wife, the inheritance rights of the firstborn son, the incorrigible rebellious son, and the disposition of an executed criminal's body. Far from being a barbaric legal code, these provisions consistently protect the vulnerable — the murder victim whose blood cries out, the captive woman, the unloved wife's son — and reflect the equity, righteousness, and goodness of God's character. The chapter also anticipates the gospel: the heifer's substitutionary death foreshadows atonement, and the curse pronounced on the hanged man is cited by Paul in Galatians 3:13 as fulfilled in Christ, who bore the curse of the true rebellious son in the place of sinners.
The Cross of Christ in the Book of Acts, Part 2
The cross of Christ is not one truth among many in the book of Acts but the central content of apostolic proclamation, divinely purposed, promised, and accomplished before being heralded to the nations. This sermon completes a two-part topical study by examining two final aspects: divine proclamation, the reality that God sends his own heralds to declare a message of divine origin, and divine proficiency, the certainty that the cross efficiently accomplishes the salvation of every sinner appointed to eternal life. The governing text is Acts 13:26–49, where Paul's sermon at Pisidian Antioch displays both the content and the electing power of gospel preaching. Hearers are called to glory in the cross as the wisdom and power of God and to observe the Lord's Supper as a living symbol of that cross.
The Cross of Christ in the Book of Acts, Part 1
What does the book of Acts reveal about the cross of Christ? This sermon works through Acts 2:22–23 and supporting passages in Acts 3, 4, and 20 to establish four of six planned headings on the cross: divine purpose (the cross was decreed in eternity past by the triune God), divine promise (the Old Covenant prophets announced the suffering Christ throughout redemptive history), divine providence (God brought about His eternal plan through the lawless hands of human agents), and divine performance (the one who shed His blood on Calvary was very God of very God, as Acts 20:28 declares). The sermon closes with a direct application to the Lord's Supper observed that evening, exhorting believers to prepare by meditating on these doctrinal realities rather than by anxious self-examination, and calling unbelievers to repent and trust Christ before the wrath of God abides on them.
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.
The Conversion of Rahab the Harlot
Joshua 2 records the conversion of Rahab the harlot — a pagan prostitute in Jericho who confessed Yahweh as 'God in heaven above and on earth beneath' and cast herself upon his mercy. This exposition works through her conduct, her confession, and her blessings, arguing that the narrative is strategically placed in Joshua to arrest the reader before the conquest begins with a reminder that God saves to the uttermost. The sermon draws out three implications of a Jonah-like contempt for 'unsavory' sinners: it is an implicit denial of one's own depravity, a failure to comprehend the power of the gospel, and a lack of appreciation for divine grace.
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 Covenant Ceremony with Abraham
Genesis 15 records a covenant ceremony between God and Abram that is strange to modern readers yet central to understanding the entire architecture of redemptive history. God answers Abram's request for assurance by commanding him to prepare slaughtered animals, then passes between the pieces alone — a unilateral self-maledictory oath binding himself to the fulfillment of his covenant promises. The sermon argues that this solitary divine passage is ultimately fulfilled at Calvary, where Christ, as the surety and mediator of the covenant of grace, bore the curse of the covenant in the place of his elect people — which is precisely what Galatians 3:13 declares. Believers find their assurance not in their own covenant-keeping but in the oath and promise of God sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
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.
Deuteronomy 18
Deuteronomy 18 addresses two offices of spiritual leadership in Israel — the priests and the prophets — and sets them against the backdrop of the occultic practices of the Canaanites. The provision for Levites and priests (vv. 1–8) establishes that God, through the faithfulness of his covenant people, is the material sustainer of those devoted to sacred service. The prohibition against divination, sorcery, and necromancy (vv. 9–14) makes plain that Israel was to seek God's word through appointed means, not pagan dark arts. The chapter reaches its pinnacle in the promise of a prophet like Moses (vv. 15–22), which finds its ultimate antitype in the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet to the church.
Principles Governing Kings
Deuteronomy 17:14–20 sets out divinely ordered principles for Israelite kingship: the king must be chosen by God, must refrain from multiplying military power, wives, and wealth, and must govern with the written law of God as his supreme and daily authority. The sermon traces how Israel's kings mostly failed these standards, how the judicial system of Deuteronomy 17 anticipates New Testament church discipline and the teaching of Romans 13, and how the entire institution of Israelite monarchy typologically points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, the ideal and eternal king enthroned at his resurrection and ascension. Hearers are called to receive the gospel plea of Psalm 2 — to kiss the Son, to trust in him, and to pattern their own lives after the king's posture of submission to the Word of God.
Deuteronomy 17:8-20
Deuteronomy 17:8–20 sets forth two connected institutions for Israel's civil life: a central tribunal empowered to adjudicate cases too difficult for local courts, and a set of governing principles for the monarchy Israel would eventually request. The passage establishes that both judicial authority and royal office are subordinate to the law of God, and that contempt for divinely instituted authority — whether in court or in kingship — carries grave consequence. The same pattern carries into the New Testament, where submission to governing authorities (Romans 13) and church discipline (Matthew 18; 1 Timothy 5) reflect identical principles of evidence, procedure, and obedience. The sermon's driving application is that trust placed in any human institution — monarchy, military, wealth, or political alliance — rather than in the living God is the root of covenant unfaithfulness.
Deuteronomy 16
Deuteronomy 16 prescribes three annual feasts for Israel — Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles — each grounded in the Exodus as the paradigmatic act of divine redemption. This study traces the structure, purpose, and manner of each feast, showing that God commanded His covenant people not merely to observe religious ceremony but to rejoice corporately, give generously, and remember His saving work. Six lessons emerge for new covenant Christians: the necessity of remembering redemptive history, the priority of joy, the importance of corporate community, the relationship between divine blessing and giving, protection from idolatry, and the promotion of obedience through the indicative-imperative pattern of grace and gratitude.
Nothing Left but a Bleeding Saviour
Isaiah 53 presents with prophetic clarity the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, written seven centuries before Calvary yet as theologically precise as any New Testament text on the atonement. This sermon expounds five dimensions of Christ's saving work as the congregation prepares to observe the Lord's Supper: His humility in condescending from glory to ignominy, His substitution bearing the penal sanctions due His people, His resolve in completing the messianic task despite affliction, His ethical and redemptive perfection, and His triumphant reward shared with those for whom He died. The Lord's Supper is presented as the occasion for believers to return to the ABCs of Christianity — glorying afresh in a bleeding Saviour who is the only treasure in the treasury of merit.
Acts 3
Acts 3 provides the occasion for examining the constituent elements of apostolic gospel proclamation throughout the Book of Acts. Working from F.F. Bruce's fourfold structure and expanding it to eight points, the study traces how Peter's sermon in Acts 3:11–26 typifies the apostolic pattern: announcing prophetic fulfillment, presenting the objective work of Christ as the gospel, declaring Christ's exaltation, employing Scripture as apologetic witness, pronouncing blood-guiltiness upon the guilty audience, warning of coming judgment, calling for repentance, and attaching a covenant promise to those who believe. Central to the study is a careful definition of the gospel itself — grounded in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 and Romans 4:25 — distinguishing the Historia Salutis (redemption accomplished in Christ's death and resurrection) from the Ordo Salutis (its spiritual application), and insisting that regeneration, glorification, and the evangelical command to believe are effects or consequences of the gospel rather than the gospel itself.
Seduction to Idolatry
Deuteronomy 13 confronts Israel — and the church — with three escalating scenarios of seduction to idolatry: the false prophet who performs genuine signs and wonders, the intimate family member who whispers in private, and the city that has given itself wholly over to apostasy. The sermon argues that the severity of the prescribed penalties is not barbarism but proportionate justice rooted in the holiness, jealousy, and justice of the God who redeemed Israel by sovereign grace — and that the New Testament, far from softening this standard, intensifies it in passages such as Galatians 1:8-9 and 1 Corinthians 16:22. Throughout, the preacher insists that the church today does not wield the civil sword, but must nonetheless take with utmost seriousness the danger of idolatry in all its forms — including the subtlest idol of self — and find refuge from it only in the cross of Christ.
Apostle of the Mystery
Paul's description of his own apostleship in Ephesians 3:8–13 opens five interlocking themes: the humility and grace that characterize a true gospel minister, the Christological and Gentile-inclusive focus of Paul's calling, the divine objective of making God's manifold wisdom known through the church, the eternal and purposive nature of God's redemptive plan in Christ, and the pastoral application that theology rightly received produces comfort rather than despair. The sermon presses the unsearchable riches of Christ as the only treasure worth seeking, and closes with the exhortation that believers must not lose heart under trial because God works all things according to an eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus.
Peter's Christocentric Message
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:22–36 is examined as a case study in Spirit-empowered, Christocentric proclamation. The transformation of Peter — from the man who called down God's curse upon himself while denying Christ to the bold herald of the risen Lord — is traced under four headings: his current strength, his refined zeal, his Protestant recovery from sin, and the Christ-centered shape of his message. The sermon argues that the gospel is precisely and exclusively the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners, not its ethical consequences or the command to believe that follows it, and calls believers to fly immediately to Christ's blood and righteousness when they sin rather than to self-loathing or self-atoning disciplines.
The Great Day of God
Malachi 4:1–6 sets before the reader two destinies — the wicked consumed like stubble in the fire of divine judgment, and the righteous flourishing under the Sun of Righteousness. This sermon argues that the prophet's vision of 'the great day of the Lord' finds its near-historical fulfillment in the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem (typified in Revelation 6:12–17), while simultaneously serving as a portrait of the final judgment when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. Preparation for that day consists in two things Malachi commands: remember the law of Moses by immersing oneself in Scripture, and look to the kingdom announced by the Elijah-figure John the Baptist. The closing exhortation is urgent — flee to Christ now, for on that day there is no third position between the wicked and those who fear the Lord.
The Promise of a Redeemer
Genesis 3:15, the proto-evangelium, is the first gospel promise in Scripture — the divine announcement that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. This sermon traces the background of the fall, the covenantal framework of Genesis 2–3, and three observations from the text: the Deliverer would be a man, he would accomplish redemption through suffering, and he would achieve total victory over sin, death, and the devil. The sermon is preached as a preparation for the Lord's Supper, calling believers to receive the bread and cup as those who have been redeemed by Christ's decisive defeat of Satan at Calvary.
Deuteronomy 14
Deuteronomy 14 calls Israel to a holiness that pervades every dimension of life — how they grieve, what they eat, and how they handle their increase. The chapter's unifying principle is covenant faithfulness expressed through visible distinctiveness from the surrounding Canaanite peoples: to mourn, eat, or tithe like the pagans was to open the door to worshipping their gods. The dietary laws are treated not primarily as hygiene codes but as daily, embodied reminders of Israel's chosen status before God, while the tithing legislation frames giving not as burden but as festive, God-fearing rejoicing and provision for the community's most vulnerable.