Message for January 30, 2021 from Pastor Jerry

“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 4(NKJV)

     I heard about a famous rapper that for decades had sung and preached all over the world, impacting thousands of people. I didn’t know him but recently he renounced Christianity, said he didn’t believe in it any more, asked his home church to remove his name from membership, and denied the Lord Jesus saying he did not believe any more what he sang and preached nearly all his life.

     It is a deadly thing to deny the Lord.  God said in 2 Timothy 2:12 “If we endure we will reign with Him.  If we deny Him, He also will deny us.”  The rapper and anyone else who declares he doesn’t believe any more and thus denies the Lord falls into the group mentioned in Jude.

     In His preaching Jesus said, “He who endures to the end shall be saved.”  Jesus wasn’t talking about trying to work hard to be good and keep the Law of Moses, He meant something else.  Jesus meant that if we don’t keep the faith and keep on believing we will be guilty of denying Him.  We are not saved by grace and then must keep the law and do everything right.  That would mean we are saved by our works or performance.  To believe that would be against Scripture which says, “not by works” Eph. 2.  

     Everything we needed was finished at the Cross.  We must believe Jesus paid it all.  His sacrifice wasn’t added to the Law, it replaced it.  We must receive it and by God’s grace and love learn to live in it.