Sermons

Satan is a liar. And one of the lies he never stops muttering is that the Christian has to sin. That there is no way to stop sinning… at least some sins. Hoogly. The real Christian is dead to sin. And he has become a weapon in the hand of King Jesus for righteousness in this fallen world. Now is the time for every believer to stand before God and say, “Here I am, Lord! Use me!”

Having spent an entire chapter unpacking some of the greatest blessings of being justified by God through faith, Paul turns to consider how we now saved sinners (or, Christians) should live the rest of our lives. In particular, what place should we expect sinning to have in our lives?

You cannot know every detail about your future, but your future isn’t completely unknowable. God makes promises in his word and his faithful character backs each of his promises up. If God has promised something, it will happen. So in a sense, your future isn’t completely unknowable - and thinking on God’s promises and character can be a huge encouragement to Christians in their suffering. Thinking on such things can also be a huge warning to the unbeliever.

The gospel calls for a response: Will you repent of your sin and trust in Christ, or will you reject His call and remain in your sin? Many who choose the latter cite a perceived lack of evidence or demand a clearer sign. In Luke 11:29–32, Jesus confronts this challenge and declares that His own life is the ultimate sign and the decisive evidence of the truthfulness of His claims. In the words of Christ and the facts of His life, we have all we need to accept, submit to, and boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

The fact that the Bible has so many different words for sin is a good indication that God takes it quite seriously. Not only that, such a comprehensive list of words helps us understand the breadth and depth of our offences. Rarely does a person appreciate the cure until they realize the extent of the disease. A deep dive into the sinfulness of sin should make our hearts sing with hope in the Saviour of sinners!

Every person in the world has a representative before God. It is either Adam (the first man), or Jesus Christ (God’s Son). Your eternal destiny hangs upon which of these two men represents you. You were born with Adam as your representative. You must be born again to procure Jesus Christ as your new representative. Only one of them will lead you to eternal life.

Tragedies are an unfortunate part of life. For the majority of people, the natural reaction to calamities is to grieve and comfort those who have been negatively affected by the situation. These responses are right and appropriate, but is there anything more that should come into our minds when we hear of disasters? According to Jesus, there is, and He will teach us what this is in Luke 13:1-5.

There are parts of your Bible that are not impossible to understand, but are easy to misunderstand or just breeze over. Romans 5:12-14 is one of those little paragraphs, but it sets up a vital foundation for what follows in the rest of this chapter. Most of us love the idea of Jesus becoming our representative before God. Where we struggle is in believing that we were born with Adam representing us, without any input from us whatsoever. Why all this representation and why must you have both or none?

Every good pilot follows a pre-flight checklist where he or she makes final preparations of their airplane and the way in which it will be flown. Even though these things are simple and routine, a failure to do them might result in catastrophic outcomes. So the Christian’s walk through this world of delighting in God must be maintained by certain choices and disciplines. None of them are all that startling, but the absence of any will greatly reduce our delight.