LFSTL

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In this sermon, Pastor Blade Sbisa walks through Romans 3:9–20, showing why no excuse, religious background, or good work can make us righteous before God. Our words and actions reveal our need for salvation, and the law exposes the sin we cannot overcome ourselves. This passage calls us to abandon self-reliance, recognize our need for God’s grace through Jesus Christ, and approach others with humility, compassion, and a willingness to listen.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In this sermon, Pastor Blade Sbisa explores Romans 3:1–8, concluding a study of ten escape tactics people use to avoid accountability before God—and why each one fails:

1. Comparison: “I’m better than others.” Being better than another sinner does not make you righteous before God.
2. Presumption: “God hasn’t judged me, so I must be fine.” Delayed judgment does not mean no judgment.
3. Good works: “My good deeds will save me.” Good works cannot erase sin or establish God’s righteousness.
4. Ignorance: “I didn’t know God’s law.” Even without the written law, conscience bears witness to our accountability.
5. Birthright: “My religious heritage makes me right with God.” Being born into a privileged people or believing family does not mean being born again.
6. Knowledge: “I know what the Bible says.” Knowing the truth is not the same as believing and obeying it.
7. Religious observance: “I practice the right rituals.” Outward religious activity cannot replace an inward change of heart.
8. Unbelief: “I don’t believe, so I’m not accountable.” Our unbelief does not change God’s truth or cancel his judgment.
9. Judging God’s actions: “God would be unjust to punish me.” Our sin revealing God’s righteousness by contrast does not make him wrong to judge it.
10. Abusing grace: “If good comes from my sin, my sin is justified.” God’s ability to bring good out of evil never gives us permission to do evil.

Every excuse fails, every mouth is stopped, and all the world stands guilty before God. Our hope rests in being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In this sermon, Pastor Blade Sbisa continues our study of “Escape Tactics” in Romans 2:17–29, examining how religious heritage, biblical knowledge, and outward observance can give us false confidence before God. Through Paul’s warning against religious hypocrisy, we are challenged to examine our hearts, live the truth we teach, and place our trust fully in Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In this sermon we look at the 4th of 10 escape tactics that men and women use to relieve themselves of their knowledge of sin and the wrath of God abiding against them.

The 4th Tactic:
God can't judge me because I was ignorant of the law. 

KEY POINT 1
Those who sinned without law shall "perish without law."
Those who sinned in the law shall "be judged by the law."

KEY POINT 2
The man without the law cannot turn its absence into innocence.
The man with the law cannot turn its possession into righteousness.

KEY POINT 3
The man who ACCUSES declares plainly to God, I knew what is right.
The man who EXCUSES declares plainly to God, I knew what was wrong. 

Why this escape tactic fails: 
Men who have sinned without the law remain accountable to the law in their heart: a law that they still fall short of fulfilling. 

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

After revealing the wrath of God against sin in Romans 1, Paul turns to the excuses men use to escape the judgment of God. Romans 2:1–11 confronts one of the most common defenses: relative righteousness.

“I’m a good person.” “I’m not as bad as other people.” “Surely my good deeds count for something.”

But another man’s badness cannot become our righteousness.

In this message, we examine the first three forms of self-defense found in Romans 2: comparison, presumption, and good works. Paul shows that God’s judgment is according to truth, without respect of persons, and that His goodness should lead us to repentance.

The purpose is not simply to prove that man is guilty, but to show why the gospel is necessary. When every excuse is answered and every mouth is stopped, we are brought face to face with our need for the righteousness that only Jesus Christ can provide.

Romans 2:1–11

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In Romans 1:18–32, Paul establishes why every person needs salvation. Before men will understand the good news of salvation, they must understand the bad news of their condemnation and guilt.

1. The wrath of God is revealed but reserved.
2. Sin increasing but not imputed.
3. Truth is available but not accepted.
4. Judgment is knowingly deserved and dodged.

We are all guilty before God. Yet God, in His longsuffering, offers pardon and justification through Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

In Romans 1:16–20, Paul explains the power of the gospel and the righteousness of God revealed through it. The gospel is not only the message that saves us. It is the truth that establishes, roots, and matures us in the faith.

Paul reveals two things God has made known: His righteousness and His wrath. The righteousness of God is revealed “from faith to faith,” pointing us away from our own righteousness and toward the righteousness found in Jesus Christ. The law reveals God’s standard of righteousness, but it cannot produce righteousness in sinful man. Christ accomplished what the law could not do.

At the same time, God’s wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness. God has clearly revealed Himself through creation, His eternal power, and His Godhead, leaving mankind without excuse.

This message challenges us to consider whether we are truly established in the faith and, ultimately, what or who is the object of our faith. Our own righteousness cannot save us. The only answer is the righteousness provided through Jesus Christ.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.

Paul’s Burden to Establish the Saints — Romans 1:8–17

In Romans 1:8–17, Paul was thankful for their testimony of faith, which was spoken of throughout the whole world. Yet, while their faith and evangelism were commendable, Paul recognized their need to be established in the doctrine of the gospel.

Paul was zealous to see them established, continually praying for them and longing to minister to them so that they might grow, bear fruit, and experience mutual comfort and edification. His desire to come to Rome was submitted to the will of God. 

Finally, Paul was ready to preach the gospel—to the Greek and Barbarian, the wise and the unwise, and even to believers who needed to be established in the gospel they had already believed. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, knowing that it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

This message challenges us to follow Paul’s example: be thankful for the faith of others, zealous to see believers established, and ready to preach the gospel to everyone.

Thanks for listening to the Living Faith St. Louis podcast. This episode is part of our weekly sermon ministry from Pastor Blade Sbisa, with occasional guest speakers and special series.
 For more information, visit the LFSTL website.