Riverside Church

Riverside Church

By Riverside Presbyterian ChurchReligion & SpiritualityChristianity
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Riverside Church episodes

  • Believing, Confessing, Preaching and Hearing

    Read: Romans 10:9-21

    “In the formality of setting aside preachers and in the formality of preaching by those officially set apart, the greatness and the power of the king are emphasized as well as the submissive attitude of the hearers. Behind the official preaching of the word is God himself and the message comes with his authority. The congregation is gathered before the king to receive his word. And that is the context in which faith is normally born and grows. Faith is not something that we discover. It is a response to a message from the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And it is a message of good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

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    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    40 min
  • Christ the End of the Law

    Read: Romans 10

    “But what Paul is emphasizing here is the fact that one of the key purposes of God’s law is to lead us to Christ and Paul expresses that here by saying that Christ is the end of the law. God’s law shows us how sinful we are so that we will see that we need Christ’s righteousness in order to be saved. And if we understand that clearly and we are trusting in Christ, we can sing, “It is well with my soul.” That is a wonderful practical result of understanding the different ways the law is intended to function in the lives of believers.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

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    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    39 min
  • God’s Sovereign Prerogative in Salvation and Damnation

    Read: Romans 9

    “Our God is a surprising God. He does not conform to our ideas of how a God should act and pursue his purposes. And much of what he does is designed to humble us, to put us in our place and to prick the bubble of our pretentiousness and our pride. The way of salvation that God has designed is offensive to us in many ways. This is by design. The way of salvation through Jesus is designed to be a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.””
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

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    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    43 min
  • Life in the Spirit, Future Glory and God’s Everlasting Love

    Read: Romans 8

    “An unsaved person, who is ruled by his sinful nature, sets his mind on the things of the flesh. A saved person, because of the work of the Holy Spirit within him, sets his mind on the things of the Spirit. This is an important self-examination verse. Indeed, this is an important self-examination section because Paul is describing the difference between a person who is not saved – that is still in the flesh – and a person who is saved - who is being changed by the Holy Spirit.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    44 min
  • The Law and the Christian

    Read: Romans 7

    “Our sinful nature is provoked to sin by the law because we are rebellious at heart. If we see a law, we want to trample it. But that is also the way that God brings us to see how sinful we are. Once we understand how the law provokes us to sin we come to see how profoundly sinful we are, and we realize that we are dead in sin and that we need to be made alive to God which of course is exactly what God does to us through our union with Christ when we believe.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    40 min
  • A Natural Question Profoundly Answered

    Read: Romans 6

    “The good news is not only that we are forgiven and accepted as righteous by God through faith in Jesus Christ. The good news is just as much that the power of sin over us is broken. A huge part of what is good about the good news is that we are set free from the power of sin in our lives when we believe in Jesus. The problem with sin is not just that it makes us liable to God’s punishment. The problem with sin is also that sin is destructive and dehumanizing and devastating. Sin takes away from our joy and our happiness and our quality of life in the deepest sense. And so, it is a huge part of the good news that believers are released from the slavery to sin and to Satan.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    42 min
  • Celebration and Theology (go together)

    Read: Romans 5

    “Now given the fact that Christ gave his life for us while we were his enemies, we can be all the more confident that he will save us in the end now that we have been reconciled to God. Given the fact that Christ gave his life for us while we were fighting against him, we can be sure that we will be saved by his life. It is wonderfully true that Christ’s life saves us as well as his death. But the point the Paul is emphasizing at this point is since Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us while we were his enemies, we can be absolutely sure that we will be saved in the future.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    42 min
  • The Importance of Faith in Salvation

    Read: Romans 4

    “A clear understanding of this idea that we are counted righteous on the basis of Christ’s righteousness and not on our own obedience is crucial for our confidence that we are right with God and that God therefore accepts us and is looking upon us in favor. If assurance of God’s favor was based upon our works, we could only have assurance if we were perfect. That means that there can be no assurance if our acceptance with God is based on our works. But if we understand the gospel we can have that assurance because Jesus’ work is perfect, and his perfect righteousness is credited to us.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    44 min
  • Sin and Grace

    Read: Romans 3

    “All that talk about our sin and guilt and our inability to keep the law and to be justified by law-keeping – all that negative stuff paves the way for this message that we can be free from our sin and guilt and in God’s good books by receiving righteousness as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ. There is nothing more precious in all the world than being right with God and we can have that without earning it, just by receiving it by faith.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    42 min
  • God’s Covenant People Need the Gospel

    Read: Romans 2

    “The application here is that we must realize that being part of the church does not automatically make us right with God and that we must examine our own hearts and lives so that we are aware of our own sins and the seriousness of our own sins. This is so very important because the only way to be saved is through the gospel and the gospel requires that we understand and confess that we are sinners and that we deserve the wrath of God against our sins. This is the point that Paul is stressing in this second chapter of Romans.”
    — Rev. Jerry Hamstra

    Download Manuscript

    Sermon Series: An Overview of Paul’s Letter to the Romans

    41 min

About Riverside Church

From the publisher's feed

This podcast includes sermons delivered at Riverside Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, Ontario. Join us for morning and evening worship services each Sunday. Visit Riverside online at…