By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 12:1-2, 9-18 

Not long ago I watched a documentary on the transformation that takes place inside a cocoon. With less than scientific language, let me explain it: a caterpillar is enveloped by a cocoon. While in that state the caterpillar literally dissolves into a pile of goo, then miraculously is rebuilt into a lifeform utterly different from what it was. It goes in as an ugly little worm and comes out a beautiful flying butterfly. The scientist’s explanation was longer, but not clearer. Quite simply, they don’t know how the transformation takes place. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 11:17-32 

Adoption is something that is common. Families adopt children every day. What is unique is that these families have a bond of love as strong as families who have not adopted children. God’s love is like that. It is strong enough to love adopted children as much as natural children.

In our text, Paul is addressing gentile believers in Christ. He does not use the language of adoption but speaks about gentiles being grafted into the natural olive tree. The natural tree represents Israel. The gentiles are the wild branches that are brought in from the outside and made a part of the natural tree. However, adoption is a good illustration of what Paul is speaking about. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Roman 10:5-15 

We were walking through Calcutta when we saw the temple for Kali. Curious, we walked to the gate and looked inside. A Hindu priest was holding a goat in one hand and holding up a knife in the other. To our surprise, he suddenly sacrificed the animal. He then dragged the goat through the temple to the Kali idol.

As he did, the Kali devotees frantically took the blood from the animal and put it on the idol. Our interpreter told us they did this because they believed they could be forgiven of their sins through this ritual. Our hearts were heavy as we watched.

In every culture there is a religious system that seeks to address a universal human need. People intuitively know that we are all sinners (Romans 3:10-18). Every religious system seeks to answer the need. Unfortunately, there is no religious system devised by man that can atone for our sins. In Romans 3:23 Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” And in Romans 6:23, Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death….” The need is real but only God can provide the solution.

Unfortunately, despite that reality, people seek to atone for their own sins. In our text Paul is appealing to his Jewish countrymen to trust in the finished work of the cross for their salvation. Addressing them he writes, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).

Centuries before, God gave the Jewish people the law. The law is good and works to teach us about the righteousness God desires from His people. However, it was never meant to be a tool that enables people to earn their own righteousness. It was given to reveal the reality that we don’t have any righteousness within us by which we can appeal to God for salvation. In that regard, its main purpose is to reveal our sin so we will turn to God for salvation (Romans 3:19-20).

Instead of earning our own righteousness, Paul is teaching that we receive the righteousness God requires through faith in Jesus. Jesus earned the righteousness we need to be accepted by the Father. Every person can receive this righteousness. They need only to recognize that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and rose again on the third day.

In Roman 6:23, Paul called this a gift. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To receive this precious gift, and therefore to be saved, one need only to call out to Jesus. Paul wrote, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. … For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ ” (Romans 10:9-10, 13).

A lifetime of religious rituals cannot atone for our sins. A person trusting in their religion, no matter how sincere, will be just as guilty of their sins at the end of their life as they were when they began their religious practices. But a moment of prayer, calling to Jesus, trusting in His gift of righteousness, can and will transform a person from an object of wrath to a child of God.

Have you received this gift yet?

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 8:12-25 

There is nothing like knowing you have a home. Many are familiar with the Christmas song, “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” I was a young soldier in the army as Desert Storm began in 1991. As the prospect of war became real, and as our training began to reveal the dangers we would be exposed to, thoughts of home and knowing that I had a place to go back to one day, gave me both courage and hope. No matter where you are or what you are going through, knowing you have a home waiting for you encourages you to persevere. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 6:1-14 

“So, I’m saved. Now what? I was told that if I confess my sin and call on Jesus I am saved by faith. Further, I was told that because of what Jesus did on the cross I am justified before God, have peace with God, and am declared righteous. But I don’t feel righteous. I still struggle with sinful thoughts and impulses. I feel old urges coming to the surface. Preacher, was I really even saved?” [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 5:1-11 

There are many religions in the world. As a result, people speak about different “faiths.” Used this way, the word faith refers to a set of beliefs that people share. For example, people will say, “I am of the Hindu faith,” or “I am of the Buddhist faith.” Christians will even say, “I am of the Christian faith.”

However, according to Scripture, faith is not a set of shared beliefs. In the biblical economy of language, faith is (and always has been) trust in God’s provision for sin. Specifically, true saving faith trusts that Jesus paid the penalty for sin on the cross at Calvary. It’s for that reason the Bible says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Faith always and only looks to Jesus for salvation. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 3:21-4:3 

As our team crossed the finish line, we were all covered from head to foot in thick mud. There stood a preacher, a lawyer, a housewife, and a construction worker — all looking grimy and tired. The Marine Corps mud run taxed our strength and made us all look like we walked out of a pig pen. The only way to get clean was to allow someone to spray us down with a hose. In Romans 3:19-20, Paul observed that the law has only one real function, to expose our sin. As we stand before a holy God our sin is like that mud. It indiscriminately covers all people and makes them grimy and tired – and worthy of wrath. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 2:17-29 

There is an old saying, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” If something is good for one person, then it should apply equally to another as well. Today we talk about equality. The word implies impartiality and fairness. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world where things like pride create a false sense of superiority. One of the worst forms of superiority can come when someone thinks they are better than another because of their religious practices. Paul was addressing this very problem in the Roman Church.

Our text this week is Romans 2:17-29. The Roman church was composed of both Jewish believers in Christ as well as gentile believers. It appears that there was division in the church along those lines. 

Those from the Jewish background were experiencing pride. While it was easy to charge the gentiles with sin, they were having a harder time applying that label to themselves. They had mistakenly come to believe they were righteous by virtue of their religious tradition and participation in religious ritual. In these verses Paul takes a veritable sledgehammer against that position. [Read more…]

By Travis Biller
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Elizabethton

Focal Passage: Romans 1:18-28, 32 

As I drove down the highway, I noticed a red light appeared on my dashboard warning me that my engine was overheating. I only had a short way to go. I thought I could make it to my destination. I ignored the warning sign and within a minute steam was pouring out from under the hood. I soon found myself on the side of the road with a seized engine. The damage was complete. The engine was beyond repair.

As we travel the road of life, God has given us some large warning signs that we ignore at our own peril. Our text is Romans 1:18-28, 32. In these somber verses, God is seeking to get our attention, letting us know that something is desperately wrong. All people are sinners. The problem is far worse than we can imagine. Sinning against God is not a matter of making a simple mistake. Sinning against a holy God makes us worthy of God’s wrath (v. 18). [Read more…]