Sermons- Trinity Bible Fellowship Davenport

There is a lot of discussion about what baptism is and what it means.  From this week’s passage, it is associated with Christ’s death and resurrection.  And association with His resurrection doesn’t just mean new life in the hereafter, but new life now.

Those who take their sin lightly also take their Savior lightly.  This passage addresses those who take grace and turn it into a license to sin, and it says, “Don’t even go there.”

One sin is enough to condemn, but by one act of righteousness Jesus saves after many sins.  We begin to see how great His grace is.

This passage, verses 12 to the end of the chapter, continues developing the theme of how ‘much more’ Christ did for us (see verses 15, and 17).  But to get there, we have to wade through the difficult and unpopular doctrine of original sin.  Today’s message will look at what the Bible teaches about this, and try to settle the question.

In this passage, there are two ‘much mores’ and a ‘not only this.’  If God loves us so much that He sent His Son for us, how much more can we celebrate what He does for us?

The word ‘Peace’ (v.1) gives way to ‘Celebration’ (vv. 2-3), and celebration is not limited to just the good times.  The hard times lead us to our third word: Hope.  And Hope does not disappoint.

It is a terrible mistake to be at war with the King of the Universe; and a wonderful thing that Jesus gives us peace.

Thomas was a little late to the party, but he was welcome when he finally joined in.

We’re going to look at Peter’s boast, and then at Peter’s failure, and then at Peter’s failure.  And then we’ll fast forward to Pentecost, and ask, “What happened to Peter?”  And we’ll discuss what the Holy Spirit does for a person.

<VIDEO LINK>Abraham was as good as dead (15:19), Sarah’s womb was dead (15:19), but our faith is in the One who raised Jesus from the dead (15:24).  Faith works because our faith is in the One greater than death.

We can debate about the chicken or the egg, but it is clear that faith came before works.  Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation, but he is also the father of the faithful.

With the example of Abraham, the focus was on faith.  With David, it is forgiveness.

There's nothing wrong with good works, except they look kind of shabby compared to perfection.  Faith, on the other hand, declares us righteous.

There is no hierarchy in salvation, because we’re all saved the same way.  Therefore, there is no room for boasting between believers.

If God is going to judge us for unrighteousness, He must be righteous Himself.  Today’s passage says He is just that.

First, Romans demonstrated how lost in sin we are; now it shows that in Christ, God is satisfied with us.  This is truly good news.

It is not by the deeds we do, but by the works Jesus has done that we can be declared righteous; and this is available to us by faith.

People like to say that We’re all God’s children; that being human unites us as His children.  But it’s more like the opposite.  We’re all alienated from God; being sinful unites us as not His children.  The good news is that since we share the sentence sin brings, we can also share the salvation Jesus brings.

This book so far can leave us feeling pretty defeated.  The Gentiles are sinful, the Jews are sinful.  If the people called God’s people are just as lost as the people who are not called God’s people, then what’s the point?  Maybe it’s not us who have failed, but God Himself!  That is the voice of frustration, not of truth.  God has not failed His people.

Most of us have given up on New Year's resolutions, because we’ve been there, done that, and they don’t work.  But Jesus makes us new creatures, we can change because we are changed.  Therefore, we need to live changed.