Winning the War Within
For the Christian there is a battle within—a battle between our spirit that wants to please the Lord, and our flesh that wants to please self. In Romans 8, Paul gives us three encouraging ways that the Holy Spirit helps us to fight the battle of the flesh and spirit: He empowers us, adopts us, […]
No Condemnation, No Separation
In Romans 8, Paul opens and closes the chapter with two important exhortations: (1) There is no condemnation and (2) There is no separation from the love of God for those who are in Christ Jesus. Too many Christians still walk around under the heavy weight of condemnation, shame, and guilt. In addition, some Christians […]
The Importance of God’s Law
Since Christians are under grace instead of the law, the question becomes—is the law of God pointless now? Some Christians think that! But Paul says otherwise. In Romans 7, Paul gives us three reasons why God’s law is important in the life of the Believer today. Pastor Gary unpacks Romans 7 and also helps us […]
Getting Victory over Sin
The Christian life will have its share of temptations. That’s because when a person trusts Christ as Lord and Savior, his or her spirit is regenerated but not the flesh. The flesh is constantly at war with the spirit so that the spirit wants to please God, but the flesh wants to please self. In […]
What Adam Ruined, Jesus Redeemed
When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden by eating from the one tree that God had warned them not to eat, the human race became tainted. The genetic code of the human soul became permanently altered, and thus all of the descendants of Adam inherited the same sinful nature. That’s […]
Stepping Stones to Hope
There are a lot of people in the world who have no hope—overwhelmed with grief, or pain, or sorrow, or anxiety—regretting the past, uncertain about the present, or worrying about the future. But God offers us a HOPE that the world does not have. In Romans 5, Paul tells us that there is a path […]
And Now, the Good News!
The world says, “Man is basically good.” But God’s Word says, “Man is basically bad and in need of a Savior!” Since man is guilty before God and deserves punishment, the question is—How can we be made right with God? Paul answers that question from three different angles. Join Pastor Gary as he teaches through […]
Guilty as Charged
Some people are self-righteous and they judge everyone else by their own standard. Some people are overrighteous and they pride themselves in being better than everyone else. But both are sinful before God. In fact, ALL of us are “guilty as charged.” Paul makes the case that no one has an excuse for denying or […]
When a Culture Excludes God
What does a culture of any nation look like when it excludes God? Take a look around at American culture right now. It looks like that! Even though Paul wrote Romans 1 in the first century A.D., what he describes then is just as apparent now. When man removes God from the equation, man resorts […]
First, the Bad News
There is a common saying… “There’s some good news, and there’s some bad news.” That saying could describe the book of Romans. It has a lot of good news (in fact, the word “gospel” means “good news”). But the book of Romans also has some bad news about God’s wrath and how we deserve it […]