Sermons on Judgment
Romans 5:12-21
Ruin and Rescue Introduction: We come this morning to a very profound and difficult portion of Romans. That’s one of the reasons I enjoyed so much last week’s passage. The theme was so clear, the concept so simple—all we had to do was to drink in the truths that … God’s love is without cause. God’s love is without measure. God’s love is without end. Today we are faced with a very different kind of text. Its theme is difficult to understand and perhaps…
1 Cor. 3:5-15
Building the Church Introduction: Did you know that the manner in which you serve in God’s church will determine how you spend eternity? Now some of you are probably saying to yourselves, “Did I hear him right? Is this Pastor Andrus, who has always preached salvation by grace, not works, now telling us that our service in the church will determine how we spend eternity?” Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. But please note, I didn’t say where you spend eternity, but rather how you spend it. The…
Jude 5-11
You Already Know All This, But . . . SCRIPTURE: Jude 5-11 SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Last Lord’s Day we began a four-week study of a small but powerful book of the NT, the book of Jude. It’s so short it’s been called a postcard instead of a letter. It’s not easy reading and it’s certainly not pleasant in its tone. It is what is sometimes called a diatribe, which Webster’s defines as “a thunderous verbal attack,” a strong warning about traitors in the…
Jude 12-16
Sorry Shepherds Who Feed Only Themselves SCRIPTURE: Jude 12-16 SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus I have been chided by a few for planning a sermon about sorry shepherds on Mother’s Day. I guess my only excuse is that Mother’s Day is not a biblical holiday, though respect for mothers is certainly biblical–and not just on the 2nd Sunday in May but every day! Mother’s Day originated in 1908 when a spinster named Anna Jarvis started a letter-writing campaign to set aside a special day to…
Matthew 25:31-46
The Least, the Last, and the Lost Introduction: The Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24-25 concludes with the Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats. Prophecy experts love to debate this passage. In fact, there are almost as many interpretations as there are interpreters. They argue over whether the sheep and goats are individuals or nations, over when this judgment takes place, over the basis for the judgment, and over every other conceivable issue one could imagine. But it seems obvious to me that what…
Luke 3:1-20
A Voice from the Wilderness Introduction: The last time we heard anything about John the Baptizer, he had just been born, named, and blessed. In the last verse of Luke 1 we are told, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.” The last we heard about Jesus was his visit to the temple in Jerusalem when he was 12 years old, recorded for us in Luke 2. Twenty years have passed…
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
How the Gospel Enables the Church to Escape God’s Wrath Last week we studied the amazing truth that Jesus is coming again, and when He returns, the Church will be raptured, caught up together with Him to be with Him forever. We suggested that Paul’s teaching on this topic in 1 Thess 4 was designed to deal with a problem, namely the problem of bereavement. Some of the Thessalonian believers had misinterpreted Paul’s teaching on the possibility of the soon return of Christ as…
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
The Justice and Judgment of God Introduction: My kids ask me whether I’m nearsighted or farsighted on a regular basis, not because they have a bad memory, but because the concept is hard for them to understand. I always respond the same way to their question, which turns into a small litany. I say, “I’m nearsighted,” and they say, “What does that mean again?” I say, “It means I can see near, but not far.” Then they say, “Can I put…
Luke 7:36-50
Have You Miscalculated Your Indebtedness? Every one of us likes stories, and Jesus was a storyteller par excellence. It just so happens that the first parable I am going to tackle is a parable about two debtors, but that is where the connection with last Sunday stops. Missionary aviation is a field of service that for the past fifty years has enabled the gospel to penetrate the most remote areas of the third world. About six years ago I left the southernmost…
Luke 16:19-31
Rich Man, Poor Man: Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Our Scripture text for today comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, verses 19-31. This whole chapter is about money. It opens with the parable about the Shrewd Manager–a parable we studied together last October and which is one of the chapters in the free book we offered you at the Debt Elimination table in June. If you didn’t receive one, it is still available at the Welcome Center. Jesus’ point in…
Hebrews 1:4-2:4
Angels Are Son Worshipers Last Lord’s Day we read Hebrews 1 and learned that the author’s principal point is that “as great as angels are, Jesus Christ is vastly superior.” We also observed that in order to grasp his argument fully we needed to have a truly biblical understanding of angels. So instead of jumping headlong into the argument, we examined all that the Bible teaches about angels–their existence, their nature, their number and organization, their ministry to God, to Jesus Christ,…
Hebrews 9:11-28
The Blood of Christ Introduction: Christianity has been called a bloody religion, and so it is, but perhaps not in the sense that some mean by that. I had a philosophy professor at S.M.U. who blamed the bombing of Dresden in W.W. II, in which thousands died, on Christianity, as others have done with the Holocaust. That can only be done by reading history with a jaundiced eye. But there is another sense in which both Christianity and the Judaism from which it came…
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