Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

This sermon was preached on 29/6/2014 So far, in looking at Paul’s introduction to this letter, we have thought about his greetings to them (1:1-7) and his description of his prayers for them (1:8-15). In this third sermon on the words of his introduction we will consider how Paul regarded the gospel and how he summarised it. Of course, some do not regard these verses as part of the introduction, but see them as a kind of heading that describes the message of the Letter to the Romans. Whether they are part of the introduction or not does not really matter as long as we understand the meaning of Paul’s words. The apostle’s attitude Paul informs his readers of the outlook he had with regard to the gospel, which was that he was not ashamed of it. As we think about this response, it is obviously a personal one, which leads us to consider what kind of person Paul was. To begin with, we can notice that Paul was a man with a towering intellect. He tells us that he studied at th...

Some of you may be interested to know that on the 1st of July 1643, the Westminster Assembly began its meetings with a sermon by William Twisse on John 14:18 (‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you’ – although he used a different version of the Bible from what we use). It was a good verse from which to encourage the delegates who produced the Westminster Confession of Faith as well as the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. In this section, the Lord Jesus holds out to his people some of the greatest of Christian experiences.     The Comfort Promised Jesus had indicated to the disciples that he was to leave them. Normally when a leader was separated from his disciples they would be without his help. The disciples had known the help of Jesus in a wide variety of ways and it is very likely that they would have concluded that they could not live without his presence. They would have been confused and apprehensive. It is worth noting that Jesus here addresses th...

There are some teachings in the Bible that disturb us when first we hear them or even perhaps they challenge our faith although we have listened to explanations of them on several occasions. One such doctrine is that of eternal punishment. We may wonder if such a severe penalty is what those who are very nice and kind deserve? There have been many attempts to minimise or re-explain this doctrine, yet the fact remains that it is taught clearly in the Bible. So some have problems with what will happen at the end of the process of delivering salvation. And some have difficulties with what happened at the commencement of salvation as well. The Bible traces the beginning of salvation not to where we might initially think it would. We might imagine that it would say that the process of salvation began when Adam first sinned against God and brought about the situation of sin and punishment from which we need rescued. It is the case that Genesis 3 reveals that God had a plan of mercy for ...