Last week, as we began our study of Romans we saw that Paul introduced himself as a bond servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.  And if you will recall we talked about this idea of servanthood, and how foreign it is in modern Christianity.  The concept of servitude is something abhorrent to our modern culture. But having the attitude or heart of a servant is fundamental to the principles of our faith, even though it be alien to our nature.  In this age when individual rights are championed, in our culture of self gratification, and self promotion on social

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We are beginning a new study today on Sunday mornings in the book of Romans.  I have preached through Romans before many years ago, but I don’t think very many of you were here then.  And so I want to look at it again as Romans is the most thorough book concerning the nature of our salvation.  Many notable people down through the years  have credited the book of Romans as the source of their salvation, such as Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley to name a few.  And so it is an unparalleled source for understanding our great salvation.

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As most of you probably are aware, I do not usually make a point to preach messages that correlate with the holidays. We are usually studying a certain book of the Bible verse by verse, and I let that be the guide for the subject matter of my sermon, and not what a holiday, either secular or religious, might suggest. However, we have recently concluded a long study in the Sermon on the Mount. And as I said, I believe that sermon title might better be titled “The Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.” In that sermon Jesus laid out

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We have finished our study of the Sermon on the Mount, or what I prefer to call the Manifesto of the Kingdom of Heaven.  This message of Christ described and delineated the character and nature and practices of those who are citizens of the Kingdom.  And yet sprinkled throughout this message are references to different aspects of the Kingdom which are what I would like us to think about today.  Because as Jesus teaches it, there is a progression to the present and future aspects of the Kingdom which are not always that clear to us.  Modern Christians often have

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Today, after more than 7 months of exhaustive study,  we reach the conclusion of the first recorded sermon the Lord preached, known as the Sermon on the Mount. And in the last chapter of His sermon He has shown us that there are only  two types of people, two ways in which to live, and two possible destinations or outcomes of their lives.  He has shown us three illustrations of that principle, and now the one in today’s passage is another one, which is the third.  In the first illustration, Jesus presented two ways, entered into by two gates, leading

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Last week we considered what really is the beginning of the culmination of the Lord’s message in the Sermon on the Mount.  He begins to wrap up His message by showing that the contrast between the natural man and the spiritual man reaches it’s eventual destination.  And since Jesus has been teaching that there are two possible types of men – the natural and the spiritual, the unregenerate and the regenerate, those born again and those who have not been born again – then it stands to reason that He indicates that there are  but  two possible destinations. So Jesus

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It’s interesting, if not ironic, that the world has picked up on certain statements or principles contained in  the Sermon on the Mount, and yet in considering them out of the context of the rest of the sermon they fail to understand what Jesus was really teaching.  We come to another such statement today, which is commonly known as the Golden Rule. It used to be a stand alone principle that was taught in secular as well as religious settings with a certain amount of frequency.  I can faintly remember one of my teachers from public elementary school talking about

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Last time in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we said that the verse of scripture most well known by the unsaved person is that of vs 1 of this chapter; “judge not, lest you be judged.”  And though the interpretation of that verse by those people is not in line with the greater context of scripture, we did our best to show the correct interpretation.  We showed that on the one hand Jesus was saying not to judge out of a sense of comparison and condemnation of others, but on the other hand, in verse 6, He

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The first verse of scripture we read today at the beginning of this passage is undoubtedly the most famously known verse in the Bible among those who are not believers.  Yet unfortunately, though they know the verse well enough, they do not understand very well what it means.  For the unsaved, or even for the so called carnal Christian, it is the proof text that they hope gives accommodation to whatever lifestyle they chose to live. However, just a few verses further in this chapter, in vs 15-16, Jesus says that we shall know them by their fruits.  And so

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