In preaching classes, they teach you that illustrations are essential to a good sermon.  I tend not to use them as much as many other pastors do.  Last week I used one regarding the great chasm between man and God, and I think I can say confidently that it was not a good illustration.  I find that the best illustrations for a sermon come from the Bible itself. And in Paul’s message on Romans we come now to an illustration from the life of Abraham.  You might say that Abraham is the best personal illustration of the righteousness which comes

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The thesis of Paul’s message in Romans is found in Romans 1:16-17. He says there, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it [the] righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS [man] SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” This message is the gospel, the good news, that the righteousness of God has been manifested to man on the basis of faith. Paul gives us in that statement a

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We have come to the middle of chapter 3 in Romans and Paul has been endeavoring to prove that all of mankind is a sinner, and that every man is condemned without excuse before the standard of God’s righteousness. Though it’s difficult to hear, Paul doesn’t add any honey to his message to make it go down easier because he knows that in order for mankind to be saved he must be shown conclusively that he is completely without hope before God. So in chapter one Paul has shown that the Pagan is without excuse. In chapter 2 he showed

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It’s evident from the way Paul has written the book of Romans, that Paul expects Christians to be interested in learning theology. Theology is the study of God. And so I hope you are prepared to put on your thinking caps this morning as we study the nature of God and His gospel of salvation. I make no apology for the fact that it is somewhat heavy lifting for so early in the morning. But God calls us to reason together, to study His word, so that we might know Him and come to be known by Him. It may

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Romans 2:17 to 29 deals with the subject of false security. The idea of false security is illustrated by the attitude of the people who set sail on the Titanic.  They believed that the ship was unsinkable. And yet history shows that their security was ill founded. The sinking of the Titanic was the greatest maritime disaster because they failed to recognize that they had a false security.  And so even though telling someone that they have a false security may not always be welcome news, yet it actually can be the means of their salvation. Now Paul has been addressing

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In Hebrews chapter one the author quotes a Psalm concerning the nature of the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ. And at the beginning of that book, he states that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature.  So then what the Psalmist says about Jesus is also true of God.  The Psalmist says in Psalm 45:6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness (or justice) is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the

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One of the disadvantages of an expositional, verse by verse style of preaching is that sometimes you find yourself having to deal with a passage of scripture that you would rather not have to deal with. Charles Spurgeon said of this passage that it was not worthy of public discussion. He refused to preach from this text because he felt that it was too upsetting to proper decorum. While I might sympathize with him, I ultimately feel that I must recognize that if God felt comfortable talking about it, and Paul felt comfortable enough writing about it, so that it

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Last week we studied verses 16 and 17, in which Paul lays out his thesis for the epistle of Romans. The thesis for the book of Romans is simply justification by faith. The righteousness of God applied to man on the basis of faith. The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, it is conveyed to man by faith, resulting in imputed righteousness, or to say it another way, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited to man’s account by faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross. That is the gospel; the good news from God

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If you are a person who has achieved even a basic level of maturity, who has even a rudimentary intelligence, then you probably have come to the realization that life is not all that we wish it to be. It doesn’t take too long for the average person as they live their life to realize that something’s wrong, something’s missing. It may seem like some other people manage to get it right and things seem to work out for them, but we think for us it’s just not the case. But I think that rather than that being a personal

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