By Grace Alone

hi this is Pastor John from popular

Assembly of God and welcome to midweek

insights with Pastor John if you're

looking for a church you'd like to

attend we'd like to welcome you to come

and join us at popler for the

Porterville area or you can catch us our

on our live stream on

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Services as well as

Facebook um today I want to talk about

by grace

alone um the Apostle Paul wrote in

Ephesians chapter 2 he says and you hath

he quickened who were dead in trespasses

and sins wherein in time pass you walked

according to the course of this world

according to the prince of the power of

the air the spirit that now worketh in

the children of Disobedience among whom

also we all had our conversation in

times past in the lusts of our flesh

fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and

of the mind and were by Nature the

children of Wrath even as others but God

who is rich in Mercy for his great love

wherewith he loved us even when we were

dead in sins hath quickened us together

with Christ by Grace you are

saved and hath raised us up together and

made us sit together in Heavenly places

in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come

he might show the exceeding Riches of

his great gra in his kindness toward us

through Christ Jesus for by Grace you're

saved through faith and not and that not

of yourselves it is the gift of God not

of Works lest any man should boast for

we are his workmanship created in Christ

Jesus unto good works which God hath

before ordained that we should walk in

them there's a lot of

different people out there that will

tell you you're not saved unless you've

been baptized you're not saved unless

you've been baptized in a specific way

and all of these things even though they

sound good they're not scriptural the

Apostle Paul made it completely clear

that it's only by grace that we're saved

there is no works that we can do in of

any kind that will bring us to Salvation

it is only through Christ Jesus in um

Romans 10: 9- 10 it says if you confess

with your mouth that God has raised

Jesus from the dead you shall be saved

and that's it in a nutshell so it's by

grace alone that we're say no works

there's nothing you can do to make you

good enough to um receive salvation it

comes from a

complete place of you surrendering

yourself to Christ and that's the only

way that we can be

saved baptism doesn't save you Works

doesn't save you act of righteousness do

not save you only Jesus can save and a

lot of people get caught up with well if

I'm if I'm a good person and I and and I

help the needy and I help the poor then

God's going to look on my good works and

that's good enough and even though those

are

all honorable and notable things to do

and as a Christian you should do them

but they cannot save you

only faith by grace get you

saved um I

was right now there's a lot of

controversy and a lot of people that

have been greatly offended by what

happened uh last Friday at the opening

ceremonies of the

Olympics and I was praying about it and

I realized that

they were mocking

Christ and I couldn't get offended

because it wasn't me that was being

mocked it was Christ that was being

mocked and our job and this is really

tough one too our job is to love the

unlovable our job is to love them God's

job is to show them grace and mercy

right now he truly is a god of

righteousness and Justice and a god of

wrath and that will happen but right now

we are in the dispensation of Grace and

during that dispensation God is God of

love he he says in John 3:16 for God so

loved the world that he gave his only

begotten son that whosoever should

believe them should not perish but have

everlasting life Jesus went to the cross

for those people

he went to the cross for you and I as we

read there in Ephesians chapter 2 all of

us had to be saved by grace all of us

were guilty of rebellion against God we

walked in wickedness we walked in

offenses we walked in our own he and

high-mindedness and it's because of

Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross

that gave us the ability and

opportunity to enter into a relationship

with God and nothing else um you can't

do enough good things you can't be a

good enough person you can't um work

your way into heaven there's only one

way in and that is through God's grace

and mercy extended To Us by believing

and accepting Jesus Christ and what he

did on the

cross so

what does that mean when we're talking

to other people about Jesus because that

is what we're supposed to do we have to

share with them regardless of what

they're doing we have to share the love

of Christ with them no matter what and

we can't get offended because they're

mocking him it's not us that's being

mocked it's not us that went to the

Cross it's not us that shed our blood it

wasn't us that died and it wasn't us

that

resurrected from the dead it was Jesus

and Jesus alone so don't get offended

when people are doing all this crazy

stuff rather pray seek God's guidance go

in with the attitude of no matter what

they do I'm still going to Proclaim

Jesus Christ and him crucified because

for us that is everything for them it's

mockery it's a joke uh the unsaved

cannot wrap their mind

around the sacrifice that Jesus made on

the cross it makes no sense to him it's

foolishness why would anybody do

something like that that's the questions

they ask and the answer to the questions

is simply

love Jesus went to the cross out of love

he loved us he wanted to save us he

wanted to restore our fellowship with

the father and to do that it required a

blood

sacrifice and a one-time only sacrifice

and that's what the word teaches us

Jesus died once for everyone from the

beginning to the very last Soul one

sacrifice covered

all and when you stop and look at it

from that perspective it's amazing what

the blood of Christ has

done and you know when I was when I was

studying for this I was looking at John

chapter 4 and to

before to set the stage here we we need

to go back just a little bit

to Jesus when he went to John to be

baptized now I think we all can agree

Jesus was all man and all God he was

perfect and without sin so there wasn't

any real reason for him to need baptism

he didn't need to re

repent yet he set the example for us by

getting baptized in other words when in

Matthew

28:19 when he says go ye therefore into

all the world preaching the

gospel baptizing in the name of the

father Son and the Holy Ghost and

teaching him to observe all the things

which I've commanded you he set the

pattern just like he did when he washed

the disciples feet he demonstrated the

proper way for us to interact with the

world now in John chapter 4 in the first

three verses it talks about the fact

that Jesus made and baptized more

disciples than John and John's baptism

was a baptism under

repentance

um and then it it it tells us this one

statement which is huge it says and

Jesus baptized not but his

disciples and so when we

look in places like acts 238 where Peter

says repent and I want you to notice the

way this the sentence is structured he

says

repent and be baptized every one of you

in the name of Jesus Christ and you

shall be saved so the first step in

getting saved is to

repent that is what creates the

Salvation the

baptism is a is an outward expression of

an inward

experience when the new birth

comes and salvation comes we are a new

creature and so when we get baptized

we're making a public confession of what

Jesus did for us and that our life has

changed that our old life has passed

away that's what happens when you go

under the water and then we're raised to

new New Life in Jesus Christ that's what

happens when you're raised back up and

that is the significance of baptism and

it's one of two things that Jesus

commanded he commanded that that you get

baptized and he commanded that we

celebrate communion the Lord's

Supper both things both of those things

we do in remembrance of what Jesus did

on the cross they both are outward

expressions of an inward experience

between us and Christ when we got saved

so remember as you're going through

life's

journey that there's no works you can do

that are good enough to get you saved

and nobody else is going to get saved by

the works

either what we do have to keep in mind

is that we're saved by

grace and that comes through faith in

Christ Jesus the one who extends the

grace and that we weren't worthy of it

but he loved us so much that he did it

anyway so keep that in mind as you go

through this week understand that With

God all things are possible without him

nothing is

possible and that learn to

walk in Grace because it's by grace

alone that we're saved I'll see you next

week