Most important for you and me
is that we grow in grace. It's important for you to know
the message of God's free and sovereign grace. It's a very
foundation of the gospel that we are saved by grace, that it's
not by works. Many of you have been raised
in churches where you've been taught what I call the legalistic
gospel. You're saved by keeping the commandments,
by being a good person, you're saved by baptism, you're saved
through being a Catholic or Methodist or a Baptist, Presbyterian, whatever,
whatever. The truth is that God's grace
is totally unmerited. God has saved you and blessed
you, but there was no cause in you that caused God to come to
you and do for you what he did. We're saved by grace and grace
alone. We do not frustrate the grace
of God. by adding something to God's
grace. It's sovereign, it's an act of
God, and it's without a cause on our part. Our goodness did
not move God to give us life. I ask those of you who are watching
today, and you think that you can be saved or you've been taught
that by law-keeping, don't you hear what the law says? What
a scary thing it is to be under law. For God to demand that you
be perfect inside and out. Every day you as a believer in
your nature, it's so sinful. You need a lawyer, a good one,
because you're guilty. The blood of Christ cries out
on your behalf, forgiveness. righteousness, no condemnation,
no judgment, that's the power of the blood of Christ. Law or
grace? I hope that you And this church,
we stick to the message that salvation is by grace alone. We don't add, we don't subtract.
I'm not out to scare the hell out of anybody. I'm out to preach
the good news, the glad tidings that salvation is something God
does and he does it in a powerful way. We're not under law. we're
under grace. I pray that God will bless you
and that you will grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.