Simple Grace Radio

How do you bear up under such a heavy load? How do you keep your faith in God when your life isn’t what you wished it were? Some of you are maybe asking that very question this morning. Our text this morning gives us great insight into the answer. In Romans 12:12, Paul shows us how to apply what we know to be true to the day to day reality of our lives.

I’d like you to think about yourself when you were in HS. What did you wish you could change about yourself back then? Most of us wished for external things: we wished we were smarter or faster, or prettier or taller. The flaws we noticed about ourselves tended to be external flaws in our appearance or abilities. Isn’t it interesting, as we grow older, as we mature as a Christian, how we begin to...

Intro: What does a Christian life look like? How would you define a Christian in terms of how they live? If you were to ask that question to people on the street - what do you think they would say? Some would probably define a Christion as a religious zealot – someone who is very concerned about living a religious life – going to church, reading their Bible and saying prayers. Other’s might define...

 What does God want from you? Have you ever wondered that? I think most of us assume that God just wants us to be better. He wants us to be more joyful, more patient, more generous, etc. He wants us to behave – like our parents wanted when we were young. He wants us to be a better version of our present self. But what if that weren’t true? What if the truth was far more magnificent and glorious? F...

One of the questions I constantly ask as I prepare a sermon is this: What is this text about? What’s the point? What is the key truth – and why does it matter? What difference should this truth make in our busy week-day lives? How does this truth help the person dealing with a difficult marriage, or wrestling through profound loss and grief? You get the idea. So, what’s the key truth of Romans 11:...

What is the most common sin that causes people to be lost and go to hell? Have you ever thought about that? When men go to prison, they often share with other inmates why they are there. Do you know the number 1 reason for incarceration? Drugs. Second is guns and third is violent crime. But what is the most common cause for people to be lost? What sin? I would say “unbelief” is #1. But unbelief ha...

If you are a Christian, one of the most painful issues you will face is the reality of loved ones who do not believe in Christ. You know how Paul feels when he says, in 9:1-2, “I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the p...

Why do people who’ve heard the gospel, reject the gospel? Have you ever wondered about that? I mean, it’s understandable why people who’ve never heard about Jesus don’t believe. How could they? We talked about that last week. But why is it that many people who do hear, who know the gospel story – refuse to embrace it? That’s a confounding thing. The gospel is the most incredible, glorious message...

I’d like to start by asking a simple question: Why bother with missions? I mean it’s hard, it’s expensive, it can be dangerous. It involves a lot of loss – particularly for the missionary and their family. And, if we are honest, the work seems to go on fairly well, whether we are engaged or not. I would guess that most of us don’t really think a lot about missions or missionaries. We’re busy with...

This episode, we come to some of the most beautiful words in the Bible. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Isn’t that marvelous?? People don’t talk about getting saved much anymore. Have you noticed that? Getting saved is viewed as a fundamentalist idea. It’s for inner city missions, places like Mel Tr...

The gospel is the simple message that God sent His Son into this world to provide a righteousness we could never gain. His perfectly obedient life was offered up on the cross to atone for our sin and robe us in His own righteousness. This is the righteousness that saves. And that’s why Jesus is the only way to be saved. People scoff at the exclusive claims of Christianity. Why wouldn’t God accept...

Intro: Do you have a favorite Psalm? I’m sure that many of you do. Maybe it’s Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. Or Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Maybe you have a favorite verse from the Ps’s: Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. (Ps 55:22) When I am afraid, I will trust in you. (Ps 56:3) The Psalms have been a...

In Romans 9, Paul is explaining a doctrine that inevitably makes natural man protest: loudly and vociferously. No natural man reads this and says, “Hey, I like this doctrine. This makes perfect sense to me.” The native, fallen instinct is to grumble and argue and talk back to God. Last week, in verses 14-18, Paul had dealt with one objection: if God elects Jacob and doesn’t elect Esau – before the...

Have you ever thought that God was unfair? Maybe you experienced some great heartache, some great loss in your life – and it didn’t seem fair. I have to confess that I have been tempted to question God on this issue – most recently this past year as Randy was dying of cancer. It didn’t seem right that a man, in his prime, with his family still needing him, loved by so many – should be taken away j...

We get into some of the thorny issues, and yet some of the most precious issues as we deal with the sovereignty of God in election. And it's a truth that we really, really do well to get our arms around it. We need to learn how to be comfortable with a God who is beyond our understanding and be able to trust that he knows what he's about, even when we don't fully get it. And the doc...

This morning we’ve come to the end of this great chapter. As I’ve said before, Paul’s grand purpose as he writes to the church in Rome is to expound the glorious truth of the gospel in such a clear and convincing way that his readers will be filled with all with all joy and peace in believing (Rom 15:13). This letter is intended to help God’s people be thoroughly convinced that God is for us, that...

When Paul thinks about the great need of the world, the theme of condemnation is always prominent in his mind. The objective, existential problem with the world is that this world exists under the condemnation of the law and the wrath of God. But this is also the subjective, experiential problem with each of us, as individuals. We are born, as children of Adam, under the judicial sentence of death...

Another story of a sinner saved from eternal death by God’s infinite mercy and sovereign grace. That’s the story for all of us, isn’t it? God has accomplished something incredibly glorious in Christ Jesus for sinners facing death. And Paul invites us to exalt in it as he concludes this portion of his letter. Romans 8:31-39 is one of the most God-exalting, soul-satisfying paragraphs in all of Scrip...

Our text this morning is filled with big, theological words but its message is fairly simple – the primary agent in our Christian life is God, not us. God is the painter; we are the canvas. Or, as Paul will say in chapter 9, God is the potter - we are the clay. Consequently, the foundational story of our Christian life isn’t about what we believe or what we accomplish – but what God has purposed a...

This morning we have come to some of the most precious words in the Bible. The truth revealed here meant to be an unshakeable rock upon which all Christian peace and assurance rests. As we live in this fallen, broken world, with all the pain and tears and groaning that entails - Gods’ children have foundational reasons for a peace that passes understanding. We have a reason to face the trails of l...

This morning we are going to see one key reason why some people who die "make it home" and why we can have great assurance that we shall make it as well. And it all has to do with the Holy Spirit as our Helper. Paul has been talking about the Holy Spirit a great deal in this chapter already. He mentions the Spirit 20 times in the first 27 verses! That’s because this a chapter on assuranc...

Our text this morning is the perfect companion to the sermon on bitterness. It acknowledges the reality and the pain of the brokenness around us. In that sense, it validates our pain. But it places that pain in the panorama of the grand story of redemption and in that great story of God making all things new – we find our pain giving way to hope and our bitterness transformed into anticipation. Th...

Our text this morning promises the most astonishing, over-whelming things to those who belong to Christ. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus. By grace through faith, by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and by the immutable promise of the gospel - the fields of heaven are our true home. The gleaming ramparts and towers of the celestial city are just over the horizon – and the purpose of...

The doctrine of adoption is, to our great detriment, an often a neglected doctrine. If I asked you, “What is the first thought that comes to mind when I say the word, ‘Christian', how many of you would say, ‘Child of God’?" Last week we noted that the definition of a Christian is a person who has been filled with the Spirit of Christ. This morning we see that that Spirit is a Spirit of a...

Paul is seeking to get us to define a Christian as something God has done and is doing. He wants our self-identity as a Christian to be rooted in the objective facts of God’s grace and love in Jesus.