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EASTPORT BAPTIST CHURCH AND PRESCHOOL
"LOVING GOD BY LOVING HIS PEOPLE" Services: |
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The Roman Road to Salvation Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Over the next couple of weeks I want us to look at what is call the Romans Road to Salvation. We have, as Christians heard of the Roman Road and there may have been many of us who it was used on to lead us to salvation.
The ROMANS ROAD....is a pathway you can walk or Read through. It is a group of Bible verses from the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you walk down this road you will end up understanding how to be saved.
So the first question I want to ask myself or I asked this question when first approached is why must I be saved? What is this person asking me….am I saved? AS a non believer I would say…saved from what? From who, or whom if you want to use the correct English, must I be saved from? The word saved gives us an indication of imminent destruction or a sense of approaching doom and unless we have been saved then the alterative is death. You hear stories all the time of people being saved at the last moment from a fire, from a car wreck or from drowning and when you hear these stories you know that with out that someone who intervened a life would have been lost. In sports the word saved means almost the same thing but just a little different. A last minute shot in basketball or a 55 yard field Goal, or a 2 out bottom of the 9th home run always saves the game. But in that wording you see it’s not a life that is lost but a game. Not so life threatening in losing a game unless you are the player that missed the field goal. Then the hero has saved the day; still from the doom of losing or still from the doom of death. So here is Suzy Christian who has come to save me from doom and destruction and I can understand death but the question now: Why am I doomed to death? I understand that death is coming to us all. But hey…I’m young and indestructible and I have a very long life left to live and in fact I’ve not done nothing no one else has and in fact I’m a lot better person than even Suzie Christian! The stories can be told about her…she’s done drugs…she’s was cheating on her boyfriend and in fact the stories go…well lets just say…she ain’t got no room to tell anyone about their problems when she has done a lot of those things herself. Besides I’m not all that bad and to the point I am a respectively good person. No one talks about me…very much anyway. Well at least that is what I thought until I took a path now that so call Romans road. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." As I look at that verse I see three things that stand out. 1.
all have sinned For all have sinned! I have looked at that and there is no way out. First it says FOR ALL. That doesn’t same some or a few or even just a couple that says all. It doesn’t matter if you are the: Ø pope or the president
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a stripper or a saint It doesn’t matter if you: Ø have or have not wealth
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have or have not health
It doesn’t matter if: Ø are strong or weak Ø confident or shy It says that all of us here where you stand or sit…here or there: It says that all of us here are or there or where ever you may be. That means every person now living on earth or those living in outer space on the space station or under seas in the oceans…all of us are what…. SINNERS It says for all have sinned. What is sin? Is sin breaking the 10 commandments? Found in Exodus chapter 20 Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
So what is sin….is it the 10 commandments, (the, thou shall nots)? Is it all the things that are written in the bible? What God hates and all those things that will send us to hell? What is it that all of us do that puts us in that category? Guess what…I’m going to tell you. God spoke to me Friday while I was driving around town. I had my mp3 player and was grooving on my Christian songs and God started to deal with me. His spirit filled by to the point that I was crying. Sin is simply put in just two words. It’s some thing that we do every day…all of us and there is no one who is honest with themselves can say that they don’t sin every day. It’s rejection of God. Now you may say what about all that other stuff written in God’s Word…. Yes that is sin but I believe in Gods eyes and follow me on this…. The ten commandments. The things God hates The things that will send you to hell These are all symptoms of the bigger problem… We are and have rejected God We are in and have been in rebellion. If we are rebelling against our Lord and the one who saves us from doom, death and destruction then all those things:
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greed all these are symptoms of the real problem….rejection of God from our hearts and our heads.
Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
When we reject God and I realize that is the sin that hurts God the most. I think about my kids and the kids that I have loved over the years. What ever they did that I ask them not to do ..it wasn’t the sin of doing what I told them not to do… Ø it was rejecting me Ø it was rejecting my love for them, Ø it was rejecting my hope for them Ø it was rejecting my teachings that I had given them to prosper in life Ø it was rejecting the hopes I had for them These things that they did and I had taught them better were symptoms…results of their rebellion against me. If they had loved me….what a wonderful relationship we would have had. Me and my
children could have walked in the garden holding hands and just rejoicing in the
love that we have. It says we have all sinned …we have all in our hearts rejected God…and some of us are still rejecting God. We have all fallen short …our sins have kept us from reaching the goal that God has given us. We have not reached the mark. We have not crossed the finish line We are still running the race but with rebellion; Some of us are racing to the goal line but we are doing our way instead of Gods way. Some of us are in the race but on the wrong track. Some of us are in the race but going in the wrong direction. Can you imagine the Daytona 500 and the cars going in all directions…what would happen? Doom and destruction And what have we fallen short of? We have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God! What is the Glory of God….my vision the gospel according to book of Jim It’s everything that you can imagine when you take your child in your hand for the first time and all those dreams come flooding into your mind…. I am going
to give this child The glory that we imagined for our kids
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They were going to grow up Then as they grow older Satan enters into the garden and they start to rebel… And our souls hurt for them every time they make a wrong decision or every time they get hurt. Oh God we don’t reject them but they reject us and our love for them. Oh how they unsuspecting hurt us because all they have on their hearts is pleasing themselves and we are forgotten. We have been rejected. And that Folks is what we have done to our father in heaven….. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin's control.
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And that first
step on the Roman’s road That first step to being loved and being able to love again in a relationship like we have never had is to: - Admit that you are a sinner.
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Webmaster : DeanLast modified: 01/04/09 |
