SERMON: Grace and Peace to You – Galatians 1:1-10

I preached this sermon at Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church on the morning of November, 13 2011. In this message, I speak of Paul’s gracious calling as an apostle, his gracious welcome to the churches at Galatia, and his gracious warning to those who are believing and teaching a false gospel. Grace is something that characterizes Paul’s ministry, and it should ours as well.

I sincerely hope you benefit from this message!

A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs by Mona Simpson was published in the New York Times after being read at the late Apple CEO’s funeral. It created quite a stir as a bedridden Jobs, surrounded by his family stared into the distance momentarily and uttered these last words before dying a few hours later: “Oh [...]

Nearly ninety percent of Americans believe in heaven, while only thirty percent believe hell is a real place. Moreover, only a small percentage of the thirty believe they’re actually going to hell. Most people believe that being a good person is sufficient to get them to heaven. Most religions teach that good works will earn [...]

This post stands as the final installment to my five part series, which has dealt with the doctrine of justification and the differences that exist between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism concerning this doctrine. In my first post, I introduced the debate, explaining what is at stake and gave some context to the issue (read it [...]

Roman Catholics and Protestants have many doctrinal commonalities. However, they differ, and differ tragically, when it comes to their soteriology and their views of justification. In the first entry to this series, I introduced the discussion, explaining what is at stake and gave some context to the issue (see this post here). In the second [...]

It’s common in our culture today to justify our actions or lifestyle choices based upon only doing what our heart led us to do whether it’s something positive like donating to a charity or pursuing an adulterous affair; supposedly our heart can tell us to do either or both. Jon Bloom warns, “Princess Diana once [...]

Why do we celebrate Easter? Why did Jesus have to die? What was accomplished on the cross? What is important about Christ’s resurrection? Thabiti Anyabwile and Erwin Lutzer help us to think through these important matters.

Rob Bell is dead wrong with his redefinition of “hell.”  He redefines hell in an unbiblical fashion.  Following his discussion of his universalism in Velvet Elvis, he writes, Heaven is full of forgiven people.  Hell is full of forgiven people.  Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.  Hell is full of [...]

Have you ever wondered why Martin Luther and the rest of the Protestant Reformers made such a fuss over the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation? The Reformers certainly disagreed with the Catholics over a number of doctrinal and practical issues, but nothing was more important than their differing views regarding the [...]