Topic
Hamartiology
8 sermons · All topics
Laws Concerning Debt, Slaves, and Firstborn
Deuteronomy 15 contains three interlocking bodies of legislation governing debt release, indentured servitude, and the sacrifice of the firstborn — all set within the framework of Old Covenant Israel's theocratic obligations under the covenant of works. The sabbatical release of debts and the manumission of Hebrew slaves both press beyond bare external compliance to demand a right internal disposition: generosity flowing from a heart shaped by the memory of God's own redemptive act in the Exodus. The firstborn legislation culminates typologically in Christ, the unblemished firstborn Son of God, whose sacrifice fulfills what the animal sacrifices prefigured. The session closes with an extended Q&A examining how these principles of restitution, due diligence, and ordered benevolence translate into the life of the New Covenant church.
2LBC Chapter 25, Of Marriage
What does Scripture authorize regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage? Working through Chapter 25 of the 1689 London Baptist Confession alongside Westminster Confession Chapter 24, paragraphs 5–6, this lesson establishes that marriage is a monogamous, heterosexual covenant ordained by God for companionship, procreation, and the lawful expression of sexuality. The confession's teaching is set against contemporary assaults on the definition of marriage, and extended exegesis of Deuteronomy 24, Matthew 5 and 19, and 1 Corinthians 7 demonstrates that Scripture authorizes divorce and subsequent remarriage for the innocent party in cases of porneia and willful desertion.
Deuteronomy 14:1-29. Laws of Death, Diet, and Tithing
Deuteronomy 14 regulates Israel's mourning practices, dietary laws, and tithing — each regulation grounded in the same theological foundation: Israel is a holy people, chosen by God as his special treasure, and every dimension of life must reflect that covenantal identity. The dietary laws in particular are not arbitrary hygiene codes but ceremonial law designed to separate the covenant community from surrounding pagan practice, laws now abrogated and fulfilled in Christ, the true Israel of God. The tithing legislation calls God's people to acknowledge that prosperity is divine beneficence, to fear the Lord in feasting as much as in prayer, and to provide materially for the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. New covenant believers are not bound by these ceremonial structures, yet the underlying logic — that God governs every dimension of his people's lives and calls them to distinction, generosity, and gratitude — carries forward unchanged into the present age.
The Goodness of God's Law
The goodness of God's law is not nullified by the false teachers who mishandle it, nor by those who reject it in the name of the gospel. Expounding 1 Timothy 1:8–11, this sermon establishes that the law is intrinsically good because it is a revelation of God's own nature, and then works through the three classical Reformed uses of the law — civil, pedagogical, and normative — showing that each harmonises with the gospel rather than opposing it. The civil use restrains external lawlessness, the pedagogical use drives the sinner to Christ by exposing sin and misery, and the normative use directs the blood-bought believer in the pattern of sanctification. The sermon closes with a direct exhortation: do not seek justification by the law, use it lawfully to show the unconverted their need for Christ, and in the life of faith delight in it as the Spirit-empowered norm of obedience to God.
The Central Demand of the Covenant
Deuteronomy 10 confronts Israel — and every subsequent reader — with the central demand of the covenant: to fear God, love Him, walk in all His ways, and serve Him with undivided heart and soul. The first eleven verses narrate the renewal of the Sinaitic covenant after the golden calf catastrophe of Exodus 32, demonstrating that Israel's continuation rested entirely on divine long-suffering and the intercession of Moses, not on any righteousness of their own. Verses 12–22 then press the covenantal demand that runs from Genesis 18 through Micah 6:8 and into Matthew 23, showing that the people always knew what God required but consistently failed to live accordingly. The passage finally anticipates what only the new covenant can accomplish: the circumcision of the heart wrought by the Spirit through the gospel of the true Israel, Jesus Christ, apart from any merit in the creature.
CTF 2026 - Session 3: Is God the Author of Sin?
The comprehensive decree of God—that he has ordained whatsoever comes to pass—immediately raises two pressing questions: Is God therefore the author of sin, and do a believer's own sins somehow work for their good? Drawing on 1689 LBCF 3.1, Acts 2:23, Acts 17:28, and Romans 8:28, this session argues that God cannot be the author of sin because sin is a privation of good rather than a positive entity, and God, being essentially and immutably good, cannot be the deformed agent that authoring sin would require. The doctrine of concurrence—God acting as the divine first cause while creaturely second causes act according to their own natures—resolves how God upholds sinners in their sinning without being morally implicated in that sin. Believers are called to receive even their falls as instruments in the hand of a sovereign God who overrules the effects of sin to produce humility, dependence, and ultimately a glorified state exceeding even Adam's original condition.
The Authority of Christ Over the Demons
Christ's authority over the demonic kingdom is the central demonstration Matthew presents in chapter 8, where two men reduced to a subhuman, tomb-dwelling existence are liberated by a single word from the Son of God. The passage exposes both the wretchedness of Satanic bondage — no glamour, only madness, nakedness, and self-destruction — and the sufficiency of Christ's power to deliver the most apparently irredeemable sinners. The sermon draws a direct line from the Gadarene demoniacs to Paul's confession in 1 Timothy 1:15, arguing that the same sovereign grace that rescues the most visibly ruined also reaches the self-righteous religious man who trusts in his own standing before God. Parents, youth, and all hearers are urged to flee the occult, resist the devil through gospel proclamation, and rest in the one whose word alone — 'Go' — dismantles the kingdom of darkness.
The Exhortation to Perseverance and Unity
Philippians 4:1–3 presents two interconnected apostolic exhortations: the call to stand fast in the Lord and the call to pursue unity among the saints. The sermon examines the apostle's affection for the Philippians as his joy and crown, the meaning and manner of steadfast perseverance, and the concrete dispute between Euodia and Syntyche as a vehicle for a thorough exposition of biblical conflict resolution from Proverbs 18, Matthew 5, and Matthew 18. The practical burden is that both perseverance and unity demand disciplined, long-haul commitment — fastening one's grip on Christ, the doctrines of the gospel, and the one-another obligations of church life.