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July - December 2002 Sermons
The Decline of Mankind 020707 We live in a world that accepts anything a person wants to do. Even to the point of accepting an open demonstration of language and activity that the majority of people see as vulgar or obscene. In the Roman Empire such public demonstrations of sexuality and obscenity was common. The Spirit of God spoke out in no uncertain terms on the subject. This passage should convict us to turn away and even to renounce these activities while trying to rescue those who are trapped in the downward spiral. I. The reason for God's wrath. II. They exchanged the glory of God for an idol. III. The progression of man's rebellion. It would seem, on the surface, that God is pushing man away from Himself. Nothing can be further from the truth. God allows man to see the consequence of his sin and then offers a way of escape. People will not turn to God in Christ until they see what their rebellion produces. There are none innocent. God's Judgment 020714 It seems to be hard to relate the blessing of God in the forgiveness of sin to our need to forgive others. In fact our judgment on others reflect our relationship to God in Christ. We are given by God an attitude to
reflect in our relations to others. We are to treat all people the way God has treated us. I. There is no excuse for an unrepentant heart. II. The kindness of God leads us to repentance. III. All people everywhere. God has poured out on the world His kindness and grace. There is no one who has not benefited from the goodness of God. All men will be judged by the same standard. We need to be certain we are in the faith. ( Gal 6:3, 4) Many people are self deceived or deceived by religious leaders. We need to be certain we are in the family of God God's Judgment 2 020721 One of the problems many people have with trust in God is the action of God's people. In the first century, as Christianity was being established, the Jews were the people of God. The gentiles were being brought into this new fellowship of faith. The people of God had the law of God and thought that made them right with God. Today, many believe they are right with God because they are from a Christian family or have joined a church. There is much more to the gospel than this. I. The Jews had the law. II. The law became condemnation. III. Jesus came to fulfill the law. If you are a Christian it is because of the magnificent work of Jesus Christ in satisfying the wrath of God against you. Our ungodliness cannot be overcome in our humanness. Our human strength will never be enough to appease God. Only our faith in Jesus, who alone can atone for our sins, is all that will ever satisfy the demands of God. Praise God for His wonderful gift! All Are Under Sin 020728 Today we come to the end of the beginning in the Book of Romans. The apostle has set forth his commitment to pray for the Romans and presented his confidence in the gospel. Then he systematically has presented the case against humanity. The wrath of God has been revealed and is justified. I. The responsibility of the Jews. II. The Responsibility of the Gentiles. III. All argument ends. The wrath of God is visited on all people everywhere. Not because they are ignorant of God and unable to come to Him but because they know Him and are able to see Him in creation and yet turn to their own way. They know yet they refuse. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. (2 Cor. 5:19) He is the only source of live, joy and peace. Reach for Him today. The Righteousness of God 020804 As we move through Romans we have just finished the beginning of the letter. Now we move into the main body of truth. Here the truth about God and our relationship to Him in Christ Jesus is revealed. Some have said this portion of Romans is the most important. It is really hard to isolate any one passage as being THE most important but this surely is one that is essential to the understanding of our salvation. I. A Righteousness from God is available. II. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. III. Saved by faith in Jesus Christ This passage brings us to see how important the work of Christ Jesus on the cross was. He has not just forgiven us of sins and removed the guilt of Adam from us He has given us a righteous standing with the Father through faith in His blood. Hallelujah! Justification by Faith Alone 020811 This great truth has brought many people out of bondage to sin and into the freedom of the children of God. Here Paul uses two Old Testament men to establish his teaching that a person is justified by faith alone. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and David, the king, both show us God's stress on faith. And faith is the only way God has ever justified a sinner. I. Man is unjust – God is just. II. Abraham and David illustrate God's way. III. The truth is not just that our sins are forgiven. The people God calls out to Himself are people whose sins God has covered and whom God has considered as righteous in Jesus Christ the Son. It is not our goodness or our keeping a set of rules that brings us to God. It is an act of God's grace that does that. Praise His holy name. He has become our joy and our salvation. The Guarantee of Salvation 020818 Salvation, which includes all that is given us as God's people, is of faith. It is not by works, it is not by religion, it is not by law it is not even by the way we act it is by faith. That alone allows our salvation to be by grace. (Eph 2:8, 9) I. The promise to Abraham was to his "seed". II. Salvation does not depend on us – but on God! III. Abraham shows us what faith really is. Our salvation depends only upon God. We come to Him by grace through faith and the faith is His gift to us. He is the One who draws us and He is the One who keeps us. Praise God we do not have to depend on our ability or our strength. "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling" says the old song. That is the truth. The Consequence of Justification by Faith 020825 Paul has ended his great teaching on justification by faith and now moves into his discussion of the consequences of justification by faith alone. These first verses lay groundwork for understanding this important truth of the Christian faith. I. Justification by faith gives us peace with God. II. We are introduced into this grace. III. We are able to rejoice in the love of God. We have been made just through God's grace. This has many results in our lives. We rejoice in these blessings as we realize them. It is important to know and understand what God has given us. Then the peace of God will descend on us because peace with God has been given to us. Once we know that we can really rejoice. Assurance of Salvation 020901 Looking at the consequences of justification by faith Paul hurries to assure us of the strong foundation our salvation rests upon. He begins with "For" which indicates that there should be a clear connection to the preceding verses. We will see that since we have been introduced by faith into grace; since we are able to stand and rejoice in this salvation we can expect God to finish what He has begun. I. The evidence of God's love. II. The results of God's love. III. We can glory in what we have received. We rejoice in the fact that our salvation is secured by the Father giving the Son in our place. We rejoice that our salvation does not depend upon us. We rejoice that God did the work for us when we were absolutely unable to do anything for ourselves. Praise His Holy Name! The "Much More" of Salvation 020908 Having been justified by faith we know we are delivered from the wrath of God. The punishment for our sins have been bore by Christ and we are linked to Him and His life. We are going to be saved from everything that separates us from the grace of God. This is the good news of salvation and it is the work of God. I. Just as sin... so death. V 12 II. So then… even so. V 18 III. So that… even so. V. 21 God in Christ has moved in the lives of those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to do much more than take us to heaven when we die. He moves to save us and to keep us and establish us in heaven with Him. He who saved us will glorify us in His precious Son. Our New Relationship 020915 What shall we say then? Begins this passage and that tells us to look back at the material before. This is Paul's method throughout this book. He states a truth then develops it and returns to it in the next section. This way his readers (and we modern readers) have the benefit of reflecting on what we have already heard. This is good because we will always find more gold and jewels in this mine no matter how often we return to it. I. Doesn't this teaching cause people to sin? II. We died to sin.
III. Our citizenship is in heaven. Col 3:5-11 We who are in Christ are children of God. We have been made part of His family by spiritual birth and by spiritual adoption. This is a very binding transaction. It is one that says it cannot be undone. We are not just citizens of a new country (which we are) we are children in a new family with new resources and new obligations. The next few weeks we will look at those glorious resources and obligations. Our New Citizenship 020922 There are those who actually say, "If grace covers all sin then the more sin the more grace." Paul tells us this is an unbelievable idea. "May it never be!" cry's the Apostle. We have died to sin how can we live in it. We have died to Adam's race and entered into the family of God in Christ Jesus. A Christian is united to Christ in all ways and now can choose to live in that truth. I. Baptized into Christ Jesus. II. We are raised with Jesus. III. Our old man (Adam) was crucified. IV. Having died with Christ we now live with Him. We now have a new citizenship because we have entered into Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. God has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Hallalujah! What Happens When We Die? 020929 The Apostle speaks of not losing heart even though his outer man was decaying. In fact he had spoken of the struggle he faced in 4:7-12. He was no longer able to spring back from the beatings as quickly as before. He was slower as he walked from town to town delivering the good news of Jesus. His view of these things speaks of his view of death that was to come. Of course these truths are for believers in Jesus. I. An eternal weight of glory. II. We have knowledge. 5:1 III. We are of good courage. We will all face Christ's judgment. Thank God it is He who died for us who will be our judge. When a believer steps from this earthly body he or she will be greeted by the living Lord Jesus and will be transformed into the glory God grants. This is our blessed hope reserved for us in heaven and secured by the blood of Jesus, our Lord. Who, or What, is Your Master? 021006 Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." Our Lord did not say we shouldn't, He said we "can not". The master of your life, when you are born, is Satan working through the flesh. When you are born again your master becomes Jesus working through Holy Spirit. As Paul assured the Colossians we have been transferred from the rule of darkness to the rule of Jesus. This transfer is a real and legal one. In Christ we have a new citizenship – a new Master. This does not mean we cannot serve the old, it means we need not serve the old. I. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. V. 12 II. Yet in our mortal body sin can reign. V. 13 B. Habits and memories of sin draw us down. III. Sin shall not be master. V. 14 Christians are new in Christ and have new power to live a godly life. We have be removed from the rule of sin and placed under the rule of God's glorious grace. We can cooperate with the Spirit He has placed in us and gain a level of victory over the body of sin that dwells in our flesh. "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory!" Lord, Teach us to Pray 021006pm Of all the things Jesus did in the presence of His disciples there was only one of them the disciples asked Him to teach them. "Lord, teach us to pray", they said. I would think they might ask, "Teach us to heal", or, "Teach us to preach." Instead they asked for instruction in prayer. They recognized that communion with God was the most important thing they could possibly learn. It is also the most important thing for us learn. I. A model for prayer. Mat 6:9-13 II. Prayer must be persistent. III. How much more. If we really believe in prayer we will actually pray. We will approach the throne of grace and seek, not our desires, but the desires of God. God will change us and our world if we will simply seek His will, His way. Whose Slave are You? 021020 Many people, regardless of their belief system, think they are free to make decisions and act as they wish with regard to most things. The truth of scripture is that we are born enslaved to sin and born again to become Christ's slaves and there is no other option. Your enslavement is not a matter of choice it is a result of birth or an act of God. You are either bound and blind under bondage to sin, or, freed from sin and bound by obedience to righteousness resulting in holiness. You may not think that statement describes you but God's word says it does. I. Sin leading to death. II. Obedience leading to righteousness. III. We show whose we are by how we live. You and I have been led to believe the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has set us free form sin and death. Praise God. It further brought us under the love of God that calls us to an obedient life. We should rejoice in the fact that we are no longer bound to death but are rather bound to righteousness --receiving the gift of eternal life. Dressed up for Prayer 021020pm Prayer is a privilege offered to the child of God. He has given us the opportunity of coming into His presence to present our petitions. In order to come into the presence of an important person we would want to know how to dress to make the best impression. That would be especially true if we were going to be able to ask that person for all our needs and expect to get a positive answer. I. Stand firm. II. Put on the armor. III. Pray in power. Too often we think of the Christian life as preparation for heaven. Heaven is the retirement plan not the active duty purpose. We are to prepare ourselves in order to pray. Have done all we are to stick to our prayers until we receive God's direction. He will meet our needs. Free From the Law 021027 We come to a crucial passage. How can it be that we are free from the dominion of the law yet still subject to it in some way? Is that possible? Or is it that we are free from the law and can now live as though there is no law? Perhaps we can even go so far as to say we can sin all we want since the punishment has been paid? Those are the things people were saying about Paul and he was led be the Spirit to answer to our benefit as well as those who heard this first read in Rome nearly 2000 years ago. I. We are born married to the law. II. In Christ we are dead to the law. III. We are now free to be married to Christ. Our union with Christ is the most important truth we can ever make a part of our understanding. He has set us free from all that drew us down. He has now given us all the rights and privileges of His bride. We have His name and His resources. Praise God! Prayer and Fasting 021027pm Most Christians have relegated fasting to the past or it has become some kind strange thing done very seldom. Yet the Bible is filled with references to fasting. It was an important part of Jesus' life, but not for His disciples (while He was with them). Isaiah tells the people of Israel about fasting and instructs them toward proper fasting. I. There is a wrong motive for fasting. II. The fast God chose. III. To affect the world around us. There are many references to fasting and the results of fasting in the Bible. As we think about prayer we need also to see what fasting has to do with our lives. God really does call on us to fast and to expect His results when we do. Jesus made it a part of His life. How can we do less? The Law is Holy 021103 The role of law in the life of a Christian is hard to grasp by the average person since we have been asserting that we are "free from the law". We could very easily go on to make the law itself a bad thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though the law was never intended to justify a person it certainly was ordained of God for a holy purpose. The law is not sin but "Sin" certainly is. Sin has a power far beyond that of our own mind and the law reveals it. I. The Law reveals the very nature of sin. II. This revelation shows us man's lost condition. III. With this revelation we see the need of a Savior. If we can grasp the deceitful nature of sin as an active force in our lives we can see the great need we have for a Savior. We can then come to salvation because that is His free gift to those He calls out of darkness into light. In Trouble? Pray and Fast 021103pm When we pray we are seeking God's favor. When we fast we reveal how serious the matter is to us. Joel lived in a time of great need. A plague had come on the land and the people were beginning to starve. There seemed to be no place to turn. God spoke through them to turn to Him and there they would find relief. They would even recover all they had lost. I. The people had lost their livelihood. II. God calls for an alarm. Joel 2:1 III. God will deliver His people. The people were not just called to prayer. They were called to fast and pray. This is a part of God's plan to humble His people and teach them dependence on Him. Fasting will cause us to recall our need and return to prayer. We live in the midst of a spiritual drought and are in great need for God to release His spiritual rain in our day. Perhaps if we return to Him He will restore to us and our community His blessings. The Law Doing its Work 021110 Who is the person Paul is describing here? There are at least three possibilities. They all have defenders. He is talking about himself before He came to Christ. He is talking about himself in his struggle to live as a Christian. Or, he is talking about someone else entirely. Let's look at the choices and see. I. The person here is unsaved. II. The person here is saved and struggling. III. The person here is another person. This person has come the knowledge of sin but not of the Savior. He, or she, is under conviction but not yet free. The Apostle cries out, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. " There and there alone is the victory for mankind. The be called by God and to respond to Him. Man without God 021110pm Man's natural condition apart from the grace of God is one of total depravity. There is nothing godly in the natural man without God. There are four things we should see about this truth. I. Man's rebellion is total. II. In total rebellion everything is sin. III. Man is unable to submit to God. IV. Man deserves eternal punishment. There are certain basic truths that every believer needs to make a part of their lives. One of these is that all mankind, born separated from God, is totally contained by sin inside and out. When we know this we understand why the truth of God's love in Christ Jesus is not understandable to them. No Condemnation 021117 One of the sad things about the life of many Christians is that they continue to live under condemnation. These verses, connected to the wonderful truths before and assurances afterward should fill us with confidence. We are not under condemnation – We are in Christ Jesus and His law and power work in us and for us. I. Now no condemnation. II. A higher law prevails. III. God did what the law could not do. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is not just for the few who are somehow powerfully spiritual. This is for all Christians. There are not classes in the kingdom. The law the Spirit of Life comes into play when Christ becomes our Lord. This law sets us free from the law of sin and death. Praise God that we no longer have to live under condemnation. None: not self-condemnation, not Satan-condemnation, not the condemnation of the world. Two kinds of People 021124 This chapter is a powerful statement of the assurance we have of the security of our salvation. Beginning with "now no condemnation" and ending with, nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a blessing to know that our salvation is in the hands of God. The Spirit of God has come to indwell us and give us life. He is our guarantee of salvation. I. Those whose minds are set on the flesh. Vv. 5-8 II. Those whose minds are set on the Spirit. Vv. 5-8 III. Words of confidence. VV. 9-11 We can enter the holy place of God with confidence because God does His work in us. We cannot make ourselves Christian nor can we cause spiritual growth in our lives. Only God can do that. Praise God He finishes what He begins! Our Obligation 021201 Today we finally come to the end of the second section of Romans 8. Verses 12 and 13 apply what Paul has taught in the verses 5 through 11. Stated first in 5-8 and then clarified in 9-11 we are not obligated to the flesh but rather to the Spirit. Our sanctification is brought to the front here. A careful reading of these verses will keep you from moving off into false teaching with regard to holiness. I. Who we are is shown by our mind-set. II. The presence of the Spirit gives life. III. Our obligation. This chapter begins with "no condemnation" and ends with "nothing shall separate". It is filled with hope not condemnation. Every part of the chapter must be read in that light. Don't let false teaching draw you away to some attitude about holiness or sanctification that returns you to being subject to law. We are free from the law – Praise God – and we are free in Christ to serve and honor Him. Children of God 021208 The biblical concept of our becoming children of God is one of the strongest assurances of our salvation. To think that God goes beyond simply forgiving our sins and adds to that His accepting us as His children is absolutely amazing. God has given to the chosen the great privilege of family. We are united to Him in Christ Jesus and made a part of His family with all the privileges that bestows. I. Led by the Spirit. II. Not by a spirit of slavery. III. We are adopted as sons. All those who have come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ have become children of God. There is no rank in this family other than that of the elder brother. All others are equally blessed in all ways. We have the privilege of bearing the name of our heavenly family. We who are Christians are, by God's grace, now family. For This Jesus Came 021215 There has been a popular saying around for some time now: "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". The Reason is important. For too many people Christmas is "Present Day" and Thanksgiving is "Turkey Day." That seems to reduce both special days to their basic significance. That is so sad. We should exchange gifts while remembering the greatest Gift: God sent His Son. We should do no less than respond to that gift with a submission to His Lordship for our salvation. I. He came to be a King. II. He came into the world to bear witness. III. All who are His hear Him when He calls. All the fun things about Christmas are OK. We must be sure to remember the reason for Christ coming into the world. He came, that we might have life and have it abundantly. Don't give up the rich full life of God for the garbage of this world. He came for us and enables us to live for Him. The Word Became Flesh 021222 One of the most amazing facts found in scripture is that God Himself became flesh and lived on earth. He came first as a helpless baby and then a growing boy and then as a man on a cross. Christmas reminds us we are not accidents of nature nor are we alone in the universe. God is with us and He proved it in Christ Jesus. He came to give us life and to give it abundantly. He came to destroy the work of the devil. I. God with us. II. He came to give us life. III. He came to destroy the work of the devil. As we move toward Christmas we should remember that He came to give us much more than a commercial holiday. He came to give us life -- life that is abundant. We should accept nothing less. Jesus Came to Serve 021229 This event follows Jesus' revelation to his disciples that He was on His way to Jerusalem to be arrested, beaten and finally crucified. The only good news was "three days later He will rise again." Imagine that directly after this revelation the disciples began to maneuver for position in the coming kingdom. Who would sit on Jesus' right and left when He came to power. Almost as though they did not even here the suffering He would be going through. I. It was no surprise to Him that He came to die. II. He came to serve not to be served. III. We have been called to be like Him. We have been called to follow our Lord. We are glad to do that when we understand it to be a calling to do good things and be honored by those around us. The faithful through the ages have, by and large, been unknown men and women. We see around us a large number of Christians who consider themselves "leaders" and are to be served. Rather we need to follow the example of our Lord and serve others allowing Him to honor us as He chooses (or not).
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