Pure Grace

I want to invite you to turn to the Letter to the Romans, chapter 3. Let us go to verses 21 through 26. I am going to call this sermon Pure Grace. It sounds like a brand of coffee or something like that, but I am referring to something very important, which is that our salvation is by the pure grace of God. Our status as children of God is by the pure grace of the Lord. And I am going to tell you a little about the genesis, the origin, of this meditation, of this message. But before that, let us go directly to the Word.

Try to make the connection between forgiveness by grace and the sermon we preached last Sunday on Psalm 32, which begins by saying, “Blessed is the man—and, by extension, blessed is the woman—whose transgression has been forgiven and whose sin has been covered.” This is like the second part of that message. The Apostle Paul says here:

“…But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ”—this is an elaboration of what he has just said—“for all who believe in him, because there is no difference, because all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely”—that precious word—“by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth—Christ—as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his patience he had passed over”—that is, had disregarded—“the sins previously committed. With a view”—that is, with the purpose—“of demonstrating his righteousness at the present time, so that he, God, might be just and the one who justifies the person who has faith in Jesus…”

May the Lord bless his holy Word. Amen. Forgiven by grace, brothers and sisters. Last week’s sermon—and here is the connection—spoke about the forgiveness that comes as a result of acknowledging our sin, confessing it, and repenting before him.

I preached about the benefits that come as a result of the forgiveness we have received from God. If you read [inaudible], it says, “I will instruct you and teach you the way in which you should walk.” Guidance, direction, counsel for our lives, as a result of acknowledging our sin, confessing it before the Lord, and receiving forgiveness from him.

And in that sermon we also spoke about the need to maintain an attitude of perpetual acknowledgment of our sinful condition. I told you that it is not enough—that psalm goes beyond simply calling us to say, “Well, you sinned, you confessed, and then you sin again and confess again.” I believe that if we limit that psalm to this dimension of mechanical acts, we lose the essence of the psalm, which instead invites us to a life of perpetual acknowledgment before God of our need for his grace.

What God wants, rather, is for you and me to live—even while we sleep, even while we go about the ordinary things of life—with an acknowledgment always there, as it were, in the back of our minds. As the psalmist says, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” May we always acknowledge that we are convicts of grace, prisoners of the Lord’s grace. May that be like a recording that plays continually in our lives while we laugh, enjoy life, have fun, and work: “I know that I need the Lord’s grace. By myself, I cannot earn salvation or God’s acceptance.”

So it is a call to a perpetual acknowledgment of our sinful condition: the fact that we will inevitably violate God’s law and that we constantly require his grace. Who can say, brothers and sisters, that they have gone two or three hours, or even one hour, without sinning before the Lord? It is almost impossible, brothers and sisters. We produce sins the way we produce carbon dioxide. It is simply something that is there.

Sometimes I think about the trip from Somerville, where we live, to Boston. On Sundays it can take about 15, 17, or 20 minutes, and if I press the accelerator a little too much, it can even take a little less. But do you know what is interesting about this? It is only a few miles, yet on the way from there to here, no matter how hard I try or how restrained I am, somehow I will have violated some traffic law, even if I did not mean to, because perhaps without realizing it I moved over a little, crossed into another lane without using my turn signal, and I have already broken the law. And perhaps I did that without realizing it. I moved a little into the middle lane or across a double yellow line, and I have already broken the law. If the light turned yellow and I thought, “Okay, what do I do? Do I keep going? There is someone behind me,” and I went through it, then I have broken the law. If I pressed the accelerator a little too much and went from 50 to 51 miles per hour when the limit was 45 or 50, I have already broken the law. It is incredible.

Even in human affairs, it is impossible to go through life without violating laws. We are always transgressing some law. How much more so with God’s law, which involves not merely the movement of a single vehicle but our minds, thoughts, desires, energies, subconscious memories, actions, and words. It is impossible not to violate some law of God.

And that is why I believe sin is more than merely—It is not that we are sinners in the sense that we sin deliberately; it is simply that the world is filled with barriers everywhere, and the universe is filled with little invisible lines that it is impossible not to touch at some point in the course of our human functioning. Therefore, we are always violating God’s law, and we always need God’s grace to cover us. That is why it is necessary always to have that continual, “Lord, I know I need your grace. I know I need your forgiveness.” Always. And that is a covering for your life, one that is incredibly important.

I call that preventive acknowledgment: always being conscious that we are in a perpetual state of deficiency before God and that it is only through his constantly flowing mercy that we can draw near to him and have fellowship with him.

And we also said, brothers and sisters, that we are not referring to guilt, to a sense of condemnation that torments and weakens us. I am not referring to that, but rather to a wholesome, natural acknowledgment that recognizes God’s perfect holiness as well as our inherent, inevitable imperfection. That is our very constitution.

The psalmist says in Psalm 51, “Behold, my mother conceived me in sin.” Notice that. In other words, a person is formed in wickedness. That is the soup in which we swim; we cook in that soup all our lives. That is a human condition. And so what I mean is that we recognize God’s perfect holiness and that we are inherently imperfect. That is the condition, the world in which we live.

And in that posture of humility and surrender there is great security and, as we said, many important benefits, as the psalmist points out in Psalm 32. We move naturally within that grace. We acknowledge, “Okay, I know. Why should I defend myself? I am condemnable. Lord, forgive me,” and the matter is settled. We go on with our lives, enjoying the grace and mercy of God.

After I preached that sermon, I thought that Psalm 32 is, in truth, a beautiful theological exposition of the doctrine of forgiveness, which is later developed much more comprehensively in the New Testament. It is as though David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, anticipated a number of teachings that the Apostle Paul would later develop in his theology—in Romans, in First Corinthians, in Ephesians, and in different passages that together form a beautiful mosaic of the doctrine of salvation by grace.

Notice this: David wrote Psalm 32 while the system of sacrifices and all these other things was in effect, but God inspired and enlightened him to understand that, ultimately, a person cannot be saved through sacrifices, observing festivals, or abstaining from certain foods. Rather, it is simply through acknowledging one’s sin before God and through God granting that person grace as a result of their humility.

I thought it would be good this Sunday to finish that and round it out with a New Testament meditation on the doctrine of forgiveness and salvation by grace, because that brings the circle to a close and gives us a complete exposition of that teaching.

That is why this sermon is going to be somewhat doctrinal. It is not so much a sermon in which we rejoice and say, “Glory to God! Hallelujah!” It is a sermon for you to put on your thinker’s hat, your theologian’s hat, and receive it, and perhaps it will help you lead some soul to the knowledge of Jesus because you know what the Word says.

I could even… I heard Delmi over there say “Amen,” and mention the small groups. I will gladly provide you with the outline of this sermon for about 50 dollars per person, and you can use it in the small groups next week or the week after; it does not matter. We are generous, brothers and sisters.

You can use it in one of the small groups to study this, because it is very important for you to have a clear understanding of it.

This is a good occasion, brothers and sisters, to briefly review that doctrine of salvation by grace and understand it better, both for our own lives and so that we can explain it to others.

Interestingly, Paul—and I realized this this morning as I was preparing this sermon—turns to Psalm 32 in his exposition of the doctrine of forgiveness by grace. I had not realized that. The Holy Spirit makes the connection. Just as I made it in my mind, the Holy Spirit led Paul to make the connection that in the Old Testament David was giving us an exposition of what would become the doctrine of salvation by grace and not by works: salvation that comes from believing that God is faithful and merciful, acknowledging our sin, asking for forgiveness, and then receiving mercy and restoration.

Paul finds that same exposition in Psalm 32. Let us turn for a moment to Romans—I warn you that we are going to use the Bible a little more actively—Romans 4:6–10. Look at what Paul says here:

“…Just as David also speaks, in Psalm 32, of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works…”

If you read Psalm 32, there are no works there. The person who receives forgiveness for his sins—David himself—does not receive it because he went to the temple with a ram or an elephant to burn it on the sacrificial altar. No. He simply says, “I confessed my sin, I did not conceal it, and God forgave me.”

So it is not because of anything he did. Paul understands this, which is why he says, “Look, Jews, salvation has always been by God’s mercy, not by works.” For Paul judicially recalls that before the law was instituted—hundreds of years before the law went into effect, before Moses came onto the scene—God had already credited Abraham with righteousness, not because of works but because of faith.

So Paul is developing that point here and saying that, judicially, there is a legal precedent declaring that the first justification of a man on earth did not come as a result of a sacrifice he made, but as a result of believing God. And David, Paul says, takes this up again in his psalm and develops it, in the same way that I am doing now in the light of Christ Jesus, with a much greater understanding of what it meant.

We have the privilege of having a front-row box seat, sitting right up front and watching this, because we now have the complete picture. So Paul says:

“…the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works, saying, ‘Blessed are those’”—plural in this case—“‘whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord does not hold guilty’”—does not hold guilty, that is, does not attribute sin to him—“Is this blessedness, then, only for those of the circumcision?” In other words, is it only for those who are in the Mosaic covenant of works and justification by works, through sacrifices and all these things? “Or is it also for those of the uncircumcision…?”—that is, for the Gentiles in Paul’s case and, by extension, for us in the twenty-first century?

In other words, is that salvation which is given through grace, confession, and believing God only for the Jews, or is it also for us? Then comes the answer:

“…For we say that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. How, then, was it credited to him? While he was circumcised—that is, after Moses? No. Or while he was uncircumcised—before Moses? Before Moses.” He says, answering his own question, “Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”

In other words, Paul is an incredible theologian, and as a Pharisee he had been trained in a particular way of constructing his arguments. He is very logical; the progression he is making is very tight. First, he is establishing the judicial principle that throughout all of God’s dealings, what has always pleased God is a man or woman who believes what he says. How did Abraham believe God? When God told Abraham at the age of 75, “You are going to have a son, and you are going to have him with a woman who is also very advanced in age and has never had children. And I am going to give you a son—not only a son, but descendants in your old age, when you are already nearly dead—so that, just as the sand of the sea cannot be counted, neither will your descendants be counted.”

And what does the Bible say? That instead of being scandalized and saying to him, “How dare you say that, Lord? Such a thing has never been seen,” Abraham believed God. And that pleased the Lord. So God credited righteousness to him; he gave him a voucher, gave him credit, for righteousness.

You know what? What pleases God is a man or a woman who believes Him, who does not question God’s character. And how do we do the same thing? When we believe God concerning Jesus Christ. When we believe what God said: “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him.” He is the Savior of the world; He is the promised Messiah. When you believe that, you can receive the same justification Abraham received. You too can please God in the same way and also receive the same blessing.

So, as for Abraham, he received justification because he believed God when He promised him a son and many descendants in his old age. This was counted to him as righteousness.

Now we see, brothers and sisters, that both in Psalm 32 and throughout the entire doctrine of Christian salvation, the same thing is said: that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive them. That if we believe God concerning what He has said about the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, Jesus’ messianic character, and His resurrection from the dead, then for the person who simply decides to believe God about these things, a mystical, magical, spiritual transaction takes place in which believing God becomes an essence of righteousness in that individual’s life.

It says, then, that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive them. Why is God faithful to forgive? Why doesn’t the writer say that if we confess our sins, God is good or merciful? Why? Because God has promised that He will forgive us if we confess our sins. Isn’t that right?

If God says to you, “Look, confess your sin and I will forgive you,” and you confess your sin, what do you expect? That God will forgive you. So by doing that, God reveals Himself to be faithful to His promises. Who can doubt God’s faithfulness?

Brothers and sisters, I want to sort of underline this. Again, this is rice and beans; this is basic food. This is meat and potatoes with a little salad. Because this is the basic doctrine of the Gospel; what I am telling you is no great subtlety. Our standing as righteous people, brothers and sisters, is not due to anything we do. It is not because you give money to the church, or come to church, or fast, or belong to the ministry of deacons or ushers. None of those things earns you salvation, but rather the simple fact—listen to this, if you are new to the church or are visiting today, listen to this—the simple fact that we have acknowledged and confessed that we have sinned before the Lord, that we exist in a condition of sin, and that we turn to the grace and mercy of God through the work Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. And when we do that, God forgives us. It is a work of pure grace, pure mercy.

Now, let me clarify something: that does not mean it is unnecessary to obey God’s law, behave well, do good works, and obey the Lord’s commandments. The only thing salvation by grace and not by works means—the only thing it means—is that works are not what make us acceptable before God.

What obtains for us the standing of being righteous before God is believing God regarding what He has said about His Son Jesus Christ. Now, after that—after you believe God, confess your sin, and God forgives and justifies you—you know what? You are then expected to do good works, obey the Lord, keep the commandments, sanctify yourself, and enter into a life devoted to honoring the principles of the Kingdom of God.

After you are saved. Some people want to put the cart before the horse. And they say, “I can’t go forward; I can’t accept Christ because I haven’t gotten married yet. I’m living with someone out of wedlock or whatever; I have many problems; I need to clean up my mind a little; I’m addicted to soap operas or whatever.” And then people say, “No, I’m going to wait until that gets sorted out, and then…” No. The first thing you have to do is confess, acknowledge, and believe; and then God says, “Okay, now let’s talk; now you and I can have a dialogue.”

And then God, now that His grace is flowing through you, teaches you and leads you in how to please Him and how to obey His commandments. But first you need the Holy Spirit within your life in order to obey the Lord and do what He wants you to do. Because if God is not within you, if His Spirit is not flowing within you, you will never be able to please the Lord; you will never have the strength.

That is why David says, “When God forgave me, He told me, ‘I will give you understanding and teach you the way you should go.’” Many people want the Lord to teach them the way and give them understanding so that they can then seek Him. It is exactly the opposite. Seek Him, and He will teach you the way you should go.

How wonderful the word of the Lord is. So, what God does—this has caused people a great deal of confusion. Well, is it by grace? Is it by works? Do I have to obey the Lord, or, now that I am free, can I simply do whatever I please? God does not eliminate any of the elements of salvation; what He does, I believe, is change the order.

People used to say, “Well, first works, then salvation.” And now God says, “No, no—first salvation and then works.” That is the difference in the Christian economy. After you are saved, after you are justified, after you have the Holy Spirit within you, it is necessary to keep God’s moral and spiritual law.

Incidentally, that is what the Bible calls the fruit of righteousness. Look at Romans 6:22. The Apostle Paul says here:

“…But now that you have been set free from sin—see, now that you have been cleansed, healed, set free, forgiven, justified—and have become servants of God…”

Now that you are a servant of the Lord, because you have the Holy Spirit within you through Christ Jesus, “…you have as your fruit sanctification…”

In other words, after you have been made a servant of God, a servant of the Lord, now you sanctify and consecrate yourself and live as God wants you to live. Now, there is an additional reason, and it is that you are now a member of the Kingdom of God; you are destined for eternal life. How can you defile yourself?

Paul says that the Holy Spirit now lives within you. How can you make the Holy Spirit a kind of spouse or partner in improper behavior? Now you have to live in accordance with your standing. Look at chapter 6, verses 15 and 18. Paul asks:

“…What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?…”

In other words, because it is now much easier to enter into a relationship with God, are we going to sin? Are we going to behave licentiously? He says:

“…By no means!…—and verse 18, which I already read, says—…and having been set free from sin, you became servants of righteousness…”

What happened? Before, you were a slave to sin. Now, in Christ Jesus, you are a servant of righteousness; you are a slave to righteousness. I do not mind saying that I am a slave to love, goodness, holiness, righteousness, mercy, compassion, joy, peace, and hope. I am glad to be bound to all those things because before Christ we were bound to the devil, death, condemnation, lies, adultery, and the violation of all God’s principles. Now we exist to glorify the Father and to glorify the principles of the Kingdom of God.

That is to say, that distinction is important. Brothers and sisters, good works are not a requirement for our salvation, but they are evidence of our standing. They are not a requirement, but they are evidence of our standing as children of God.

Let us now turn briefly to Romans 3:21. I want to touch quickly on a few points here. The Apostle Paul says:

“…But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed…”

Why does Paul say, “But now”? Before that, in verses 19 and 20, Paul makes it clear that under the old system of salvation through rituals, works, and diet, everyone was trapped in a condition of guilt because no one could keep the law perfectly.

Do you know what Paul says, what the Bible says? That the law was a device of God, a trap set by God. The law was scaffolding that God used to prepare humanity for the coming of Christ. What the law did was put up a sign defining what sin is, and when man stumbled over that sign, he realized that sin exists.

It is like Adam and Eve. While Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they were naked and did not realize that they were naked. Suddenly, when they disobeyed the Lord and the law came into effect, what happened? They immediately felt ashamed of their nakedness, and what happened? They covered themselves.

The law serves to point something out. So God devised a system. The first thing God did historically was prepare the world and prepare the universe for this permanent and eternal system of salvation by grace. And so He first said, “You know what? Let’s prove to people that they cannot save themselves. Let’s make them conscious of sin. Let’s trap them in sin. And let them wallow there, trying to justify themselves; and when they have grown tired and it is clear that they cannot save themselves, then I will send My Son Jesus Christ.”

That is why Paul says, “But now.” Why? Because look at what verses 19 and 20 say:

“…But we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may come under God’s judgment, since by the works of the law no human being will be justified before Him…”

The law was always an aid until the true thing came. And that is all. Then Paul says:

Now, however, under the new system it is different. Now, apart from the law—that is, God has already set the law aside—the righteousness of God has been revealed; the true thing has now arrived. Who is the true one? Jesus Christ. How is righteousness now revealed if not through the law? How is God’s righteousness revealed? Through faith in Jesus Christ.

Look at what it says: the righteousness of God, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Look at what Romans chapter 10, verses 8 through 10, says.

“…This is the word of faith that we preach: that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…”

You can almost hear the judge’s gavel coming down as he says, “That is the way.” If you confessed, you are saved. If you believed, you are saved. That is the way God’s righteousness is revealed today.

The person who wants to feel free, justified, saved, and healed only has to believe that Christ is who He says He is.

What does John chapter 1, verse 12, say?

“…But to all who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…”

The new way in which God reveals His righteousness to humanity, apart from the law, is simply when people believe God concerning His Son. Because it says here:

“…through faith in Jesus Christ…”

It is in Jesus Christ, and nothing else. It is not a system, it is not a church, it is not another individual; it is through the person of Jesus. That is why the person of Jesus is so important in the theology of the church. Another passage says:

“…For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we can be saved, except through the man Jesus Christ…”

It is Jesus, through Him, for all who believe in Him. That is, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Bolivians, or whatever, all who believe in Him receive the righteousness of God. It does not matter; everyone who takes shelter under the blood and name of Jesus and His saving work is automatically saved. There is no difference. Do not try to add gimmicks or embellishments to that plain and simple doctrine.

Whether you are from here or there, whether you do this, whether you behave well, whether you are a good person—none of that matters; it is through Christ Jesus. There is no difference, for all have sinned, it says; we have all sinned and all fall short of the glory of God.

Without Christ, you have no access to the presence of God’s glory. Without Christ, you are dead in your sins and trespasses. That is why Christ is so important; that is why we can never play games with the person of Jesus. Never, brothers and sisters—listen carefully to this—never accept any teaching that robs Jesus Christ of even an iota of His importance.

Do you know how you can tell when a doctrine is false? There are many doctrines that call themselves Christian and all that, but do you know how you can tell? Ask yourself what degree of centrality they give to Jesus. If they are clear that Jesus is the only way, the only mediator, the Son of God, God Himself, who died on a cross and rose again on the third day, the only way to receive grace, forgiveness, and salvation, then we are fine. But if they take away even one little thing, stay a thousand miles away. There are teachings today, there are doctrines that mix science with other methods and other things, and what they are doing is robbing Christ Jesus of His kingship.

It is Christ alone, because there is only one mediator. We are justified by that belief, that confession, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I will leave it there, brothers and sisters. I want us to stand for a moment.

When David, in his Psalm 32, says, “Blessed is the man, the woman, whose transgression has been forgiven and whose sin has been covered,” he is saying what a blessing, what a privilege it is to pass through that sieve of grace and be able to receive forgiveness through the work of Christ. To believe Jesus and receive healing in that way.

Blessed is the person who can say, “I have done what God told me to do. I have believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of humanity, my mediator, my substitute. He has paid the price, and I understand it clearly; that is how I receive it.”

Look, brother, do not make life too difficult for the people out there. When you have the opportunity to preach the Gospel to them, simply tell them, “Look, what the Bible says is that if you believe from your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the Savior of your life, you are saved.” And once you have done that, the Holy Spirit will enter your life, and then you can begin a relationship for the rest of your days in which he will walk with you and gradually sanctify you, as long as you remain close to him and keep his commandments.

It is as simple as that. Brothers and sisters, our young people out there need to hear that teaching; your classmate or your coworker needs to hear it—memorize it. If you follow this passage step by step, you will realize how easy it is to develop the doctrine of salvation, and we believe that God does what he says he will do: when a person confesses Christ as Lord and Savior and believes God, that person is a citizen of the Kingdom of God and can then begin a life of intimate relationship with him.

I want us to bow our heads for a moment, and first of all I want to thank God for how consistent his doctrine is. From Genesis to Revelation, there is only one doctrine: salvation by grace, salvation by believing God, salvation by confessing our sins, salvation because God is generous and has withheld the condemnation that he could very well give us.

If you have not yet had the benefit of taking that step of faith, before closing this wonderful service I want to invite you. I want to single out each of my brothers and sisters who have not yet had the privilege of saying, “You know what? I want to belong to Abraham’s family—Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness—and I too want to leave here today knowing that I have gone through the process God has defined: salvation by faith, salvation by believing.”

And if anyone here this afternoon, before leaving, wants to test what I am saying, I want to invite you to raise your hand before you leave here and experience the salvation that will come as a result of confessing your sins before God.

Is there anyone who wants to take that step and has not done so before? If you have not done so before and, before leaving here, want to be sure that you are covered by that sacrifice and by that saving work, if you want to raise your hand before you leave—if you have not done so before and want to take that step of faith this afternoon—I invite you. We want to pray for you, wherever you may be.

Is there anyone who has not done it yet? If you have not done it yet. I see a hand raised back there. Amen. Anyone else? The sister over here too. Glory to God.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive them. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we are saved. Anyone else? Another young man there. God bless you.

It is so easy, brother; in one sense, it is easy. That is why it is pure grace: everything begins with a confession. You do not have to go far. It is right here. You do not have to say, “I am going out to search for that salvation”; it is at hand. Simply by believing God.

I see hands raised over here. Glory to the Lord. Anyone else? What a beautiful opportunity, when the doctrine of salvation is presented so simply, for you to make sure you have your passage ready to enter the presence of God.

I want to invite those brothers and sisters to come over here for a moment. Would someone accompany this person? Come over here for a moment.

The Lord Jesus Christ says, “If you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father who is in heaven.”

Come over here. Someone accompany him so that he feels supported. Come over here. We are going to pray for you. We are going to entrust you to the Lord.

I want you to say in your heart, as the psalmist did, “I confessed my sin, and my life flourished again. The grace of the Lord was manifested in me once more.” This is for the glory of the Lord. It is as simple as that.

If only this city might one day be revolutionized by thousands of people who came to know Jesus in that way, who spoke to God and received righteousness as a result.

In the name of Jesus, I declare thousands—thousands of people. You are the reservoir. One day the Lord will open the pipelines of heaven, and we will see thousands of people responding to God’s call, believing God, and confessing that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. I see it, I celebrate it, and I declare it to be a fact this afternoon; and you are the beginning, the firstfruits of the Lord.

I bless you and invite you to believe God. There in your heart and with your mouth, say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior, is my Lord, died on the cross, rose again, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for me; and one day he is coming a second time, and I will be in his presence for eternity through his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection.”

Oh, if you believe that, you can go home assured. Write it down wherever you can; say, “On this day I made my covenant, my agreement with God. I believed the Lord, and he was faithful and did what he had promised.” I assure you of one thing today: if someone asks you, “If you died right now, would you go to heaven?” you have to tell them with a shout, “Of course I would, because my passport is stamped, my visa is secured!” You are a child of God.

Now begin to live as a daughter, as a son of God. I encourage you to take seriously this step you are taking. Now you must live for Christ. Before, you were slaves to the world, the flesh, sin, and the devil; now you are servants of Christ Jesus. Live up to that and begin this walk hand in hand with Jesus Christ. And I guarantee you that the Lord will guide you, bless you, protect you, keep you, and provide for your every need.

Hallelujah! Because he is Lord and he is faithful. I bless you; I break every curse over your lives, I break every accusation of the devil, I break every scheme against your well-being. We open clear paths before you, and we believe that the Holy Spirit enters your hearts and takes his place at the center of your lives. You are children of the Kingdom of God. Live as children of the Kingdom of God. Thank you, Father; thank you for your word, Lord. Oh, thank you for the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. In a few weeks we are going to have baptisms. I would love to see you enter the baptismal waters, because that is part of the blessing too. Through baptism, you will give another expression of your surrender to the Lord, so I hope you remain faithful until that day comes, and we will all rejoice.

I know that we are going to have a great celebration with many more people who have received the Lord in recent days. We bless you, and if you would do me a favor, my brothers will accompany you for just another moment because we want to give you a New Testament, a Bible, and pray for you. Go over there quickly for just a moment. We are finished now, and may you be blessed. We want to bless your lives and help you in every way possible.

Brothers and sisters, let us give glory and honor to the Lord. Amen. Let us bless the Lord with a song of praise and thank him for all the goodness he has shown us.