HCBC 11-5-06 AM
Communion Message
The Grace of God Brings Salvation
We have come to celebrate the Lord’s Table this morning.
This is a celebration of salvation!
Are you “saved”?
In order to be saved a person must understand certain things.
He must understand that being saved is a gift from God… It is not earned or deserved!
He must understand that he is a sinner, utterly lost and he cannot save himself!
He must understand that thou God is merciful, He is also just and must punish sin!
He must understand that Jesus Christ, who is God who became man, took the penalty of our
sin on the cross to purchase salvation!
And he must understand that this salvation is received by a childlike faith, trusting in Jesus
alone and no merit of his own.
This is the grace of God that brings salvation!
There are only two principles that relate to the way that God deals with people – grace and law.
Throughout human history God has saved people by His grace.
The principle is: God saves people by grace.
According to this principle, God deals favorably with sinful people in a way that they
do not deserve.
Eph 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ps 103:10-12 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear
him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us.
Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Rom 4:1-5 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?
2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but
not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Rom 11:5-6 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by
grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
The only other principle by which God can deal with people is law, or works.
This principle requires Him to deal with people in a way that they do deserve.
Since sinners deserve death and hell,
they cannot be delivered from this penalty by this works principle.
Rom 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law;
rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Rom 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful
nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin
offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
Gal 2:16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in
Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be
justified.
Gal 3:10-11 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed
is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will
live by faith." 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does
these things will live by them."
Heb 7:18-19 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for
the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw
near to God.
The spiritual blindness of those who would be saved by keeping the law or works
is evident in that all their religions teach that people are saved by their works,
the very principle that bars them from acceptance with God.
No one can ever be saved from his sins apart from God’s grace.
Regardless of how good a person may be,
one sin will bring him or her divine condemnation and hell.
The fact is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
In his book, “No Wonder They Call Him Savior,” Max Lucado gives this illustration:
Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world.
Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city.
One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart.
Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her.
On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures.
She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself.
With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero.
Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money.
She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up.
When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable.
Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes.
She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth.
And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.
It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home.
The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village.
It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs.
Her young face was tired.
Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear.
Her laughter was broken.
Her dream had become a nightmare.
A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet.
Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face.
She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother.
Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo.
Written on the back was this compelling invitation.
"Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home."
She did.
God has left us so many “pictures” of Himself!
So many notes!
So many ways of calling us to Himself.
When we were so lost, that we could never find our way home by ourselves, He sent His Son to show us the way!
When were so separated from God by our sin that there was no way we should be in His family, He took our sin upon Himself!
When we were so dead in our sins that there was no life in us, He who knew no sin became sin for us!
This is GRACE!
What we celebrate here this morning is a ritual! May it never be routine!
What we commemorate here this morning is an ordinance! May it never be ordinary!
What we remember here this morning is communion! May it never be commonplace!
May it never be just something that we do simply because it is the first Sunday in the month!
May it never be mundane!
But may it always be a special reminder of the grace of God that brought us salvation,
when we didn’t deserve it,
when we could earn it,
and when there was no other way to receive it,
out of His indescribable love, and mercy, and grace God condescended
to give us the gift of salvation!