You're not accepted because you're
a member of some denominational church. Some of you just, you
know, you just go, go, go, go, go. I mean, you're at mass every
day, you're confessing to some priest, you're in some church. I mean, you've got your Sunday
school pins somewhere at home. If you put them all on, you look
like Gaddafi. I mean, you just, first year,
second year, third year, you haven't missed Sunday school.
And all of that is good that you haven't, but that's not why
you're going to heaven. You're going to heaven because,
bless God, He's been good to you. He saved us to the praise
of the glory of His grace where He has made us accepted in the
blood. We're accepted in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. You're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold from your vain conversation,
but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away
my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins
and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. It's in the blood. the propitiation
for sin, the blood of Christ, the appeasing factor. Somebody
had to pay your debt. See, you had a sin debt, and
you're bankrupt, and I'm bankrupt, and we had nothing to pay. And
that's not bad enough. Not only were we bankrupt, but
he demanded a perfect righteousness, and I don't have it. You see,
two things. Make this just make sense that
salvation is by grace and that God did it because I was bankrupt
and he paid the price. I needed a perfect righteousness
and it was imputed to me through his doing and dying on the tree
of the cross. And I stand before God justified
today because of him. We're not talking about measly
grace. We're talking about rich grace. We're talking about abundant
mercy. It wasn't just a little handful
of grace that got you here. It was amazing grace. How sweet to sound. Is it amazing
to you? I hope it is. That saved a wretch
like me. Old brother Newton never got
over it to his dying day. He never got over it. You think
about Newton, slave trader. Slave trader, sexual immorality
with the slaves. Actually got so bad for him that
he was bought by an African American lady and he became her slave
and ate under her table. John Newton, you know who I'm
talking about, right? The guy who wrote amazing grace. You know why he said amazing
grace? Because it's amazing. And you never worship till you
see that. As long as you're going around feeling worthy, you still
don't have it yet. All of your works to obtain the
favor of God are nothing but filthy rags of unrighteousness. It's when you come to Him just
as you are without one plea, broken, seeing yourself a poor
sinner in need of a Redeemer and Savior, and you trust Him. Do you know it's a miracle for
a crack-using, heroin-using, Jack Daniel using self-righteous
church person to exercise faith alone in Jesus Christ. You know
what a miracle that is? Where you just lay down everything. I surrender all. I give up. I hoist the white
flag. I surrender. No hope here. I look outside of myself to Jesus
Christ. What a miracle that is!