Sermon for Sunday, Oct 12th, 2025 at Tuscarora Inn, Bethel, PA
Scripture Reading:
[Romans 15:1-7 ESV] 1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Sermon Text:
[Romans 15:4 ESV] 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Introduction
You probably think this sermon is about you. Don’t you? Don’t you?
Most of you will probably recognize the 1972 song of Carly Simon. She sang “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you.” (Don’t you, don’t you?)
Have you ever had that experience, that the sermon is about you?
Perhaps the most regular feedback I get from sermons is to have someone say, “that was exactly what I was thinking about last week.” “Your sermons was precisely what I needed to hear given my current troubles.”
And I can promise you that these responses are not because I’m some great preacher on the lines of Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, or Billy Graham.
The reason the sermon is “about you,” is that the Word of God is FOR YOU.
A 2000+ year old text and yet suited to All believers in All times. How is that possible? That is what I want to explore in today’s sermon, “Is this sermon about me?”
The most cited verse on the doctrine of the Scriptures is 2 Timothy 3:16 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
Yet, I chose another verse as the text for our sermon. [Romans 15:4 ESV] 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Well look at both of these verses later, but first we need to look at something preliminary to the discussion.
When it comes to that amazing ability of the Word to reach our ears, our minds, and our hearts, we first have to understand the Doctrine of Man, the truth that we are made in the Image of God.
I. Image of God
Genesis 1:27 says: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
This image we say in Reformed theology is “holiness, righteousness, and knowledge.” God has those attributes, and we have them in a creaturely way as God communicates them to us.
But what I want to emphasize from Genesis 1:27, from this idea that we are made in the image of God, is that WE ARE IN TUNE WITH GOD – THE SERMON IS ABOUT YOU – BECAUSE GOD MADE YOU.
That is the what the children’s catechism says. Q: Who made you? A: God.
God has made you IN TUNE with Him and His Word. You can read it, hear it, understand it, know it, and apply it. No wonder the sermon is about you; God designed YOU to hear his word.
Ephesians 2:10 says: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are His workmanship. God created us, and made us so that we can hear his Word.
II. Word of God
Then, if we are made in tune with God (able to hear his word), so also was His word spoken IN TUNE with us.
All of God’s word. So we can read, preach, hear it, from any passage of Scripture and it will have bearing on our lives.
That most popular text I noted, 2 Timothy 3:16 says: ALL Scripture is breathed out by God and PROFITABLE for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I’ve long emphasized, from my first sermon at Unionville, that we ought to hear to WHOLE COUNSEL of God. ALL SCRIPTURE. Why? Because it is ALL profitable. There is nothing that is to be overlooked.
And I’ve been trying to understand the church I grew up in, the Lutheran Church, that argues that sermons are to be only on certain passages of Scripture. They preach through a 3-year series of passages, and back around again. I’m preaching what I consider to be a 30 year series of passage, the whole Bible. I don’t doubt that some passages are more central than others, but ALL scripture is profitable.
Not only is it profitable, it has that way of being profitable for YOU, and profitable NOW. You hear the word and it strikes you, as you relate it to something in your own life. [I want to address that more later. Those things that strike us]
But first, our sermon text:
[Romans 15:4 ESV] 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Just as 1 Timothy 3:16 says that “ALL scripture is profitable” now we find Paul telling us that “WHATEVER was written in former days was written for our instruction.”
In this Paul is relating the words of the PAST to lives in the PRESENT. Whatever WAS written IN FORMER DAYS was written for OUR instruction.
Moses wasn’t just writing to the people in the desert.
David wasn’t just writing to his contemporaries in Israel.
Luke wasn’t just writing to Theophilus, the man he ascribes his writings to.
All Biblical books were written also to us!
No wonder the sermon is about you, for you, even today.
There are other verses that support and amplify this point, that God’s word is tunes for us.
It is profitable.
It is written for us.
And, as Hebrews 14:12 says “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
And David says in Psalm 19: The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
So the word is living and active, and revives the soul.
That’s why we need to hear it frequently.
And we find it in tune with our needs.
III. The Word is Perspicuous
All of this is to say that Word of God, the Bible, is perspicuous. My favorite word and favorite doctrine. The perspicuity of Scripture. That is just a fancy way of saying that it is clear. We can read the Bible because it is in tune with us. We don’t need a pope, a team of scholars, or a modern prophet to help us understand it. The vast majority of Scripture can be understood quite simple, by the PLOW BOY as it was spoken of in the Reformation.
That was a line from William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English.
The Catholic bishop argued with Tyndale that it would be dangerous for the people to have the Bible themselves, and “it would be better for the people to have the pope’s law than God’s law.” Tyndale famously replied, “I defy the pope and his laws! If God spares my life, in a few year a plow boy shall know more of the Scriptures than you do.”
The plow boy can know the Scriptures because they are tuned to him.
And reading those Scriptures he would know more than the Bishops who spend more time reading church law if they read at all.
So the word of God is clear, and it impacts you with his strength, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.
IV. In the Word we have Hope.
Well, what is it precisely that makes us say “This sermon is about me” or “This sermons is for me.”?
It relates to us. It speaks of the same things we think of.
Sin
Salvation
Struggles/Persecution
God’s grace and His preservation of us through all things.
And it gives us hope.
That is what the second half of our verse says:
“that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
We need hope, and the Bible gives us hope.
Remember, the REASON for the hope that we have is primarily the Resurrection of Christ. It is other things as well, but primarily the resurrection.
And that hope comes because, if Christ was raised from the dead, so we also will be raised from the dead.
The sermon is about you, it is for you, — not because I’m picking on you, or that cosmic forces have aligned directly at you — but because the Word of God is geared for you. It tells you the truth: you are a fallen, sinful person and you are saved only by Jesus Christ, in his death, and given hope through his resurrection which the Word tells you of.
So if the sermon is SOMETIMES not relevant to you, that might be OK. But if the sermons is never about you, there is a problem. Probably you’re not listening. Or I’m doing a terrible job. But if the Word of God is preached IT WILL address you, even confront you. And it will change you.
Conclusion
So you’re not vain to think that a sermon is about you.
It IS always about you.
While I almost never write a sermon with a particular person in mind, yet the sermon IS about you, because God’s Word is powerful, and you are made in the image of God to hear His word.
From listening to a sermon you might be thinking these:
I needed to know … that I am loved.
I needed to know … that I am forgiven.
I needed to be told … to stop doing that sin.
It often happens that the present sermon meets your needs.
Yet almost never have I planned that. I mostly preach text by text through the Bible. And God Tailors the messages to you. He created you to have ears to hear. And his message works in any era.
If I talked with you during the week, I’d actually be apt to AVOID preaching about an issue you have. But, if the text is about it, I’ll stick with the text. So I’m neither looking to preach on your issue nor scared to do so.
But the Scriptures, and the preaching of them have a universal message. Sin, salvation. Jesus. That’s the story for all of us.