Rick Warren - Saving Grace—Part Two

You know, none of us can earn our way into

heaven because the eternal life is a free gift when

you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. Hey, everybody,

this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. And today Rick Warren

continues a series called Good News about Grace. You can't

truly understand the Christian life until you understand grace. It's

at the heart of your faith and your relationship with God.

And in this series you're going to discover how not

to only understand grace, but how to experience it and

the joy that it brings. And now here's the final

part of a message called Saving Grace.

The A and grace stands for available to everyone.

It's available to everyone.

God doesn't play favorites, regardless of your background, regardless of

your status, regardless of your sin, doesn't matter whether you've

been a religious person, are a non religious person, or

you have any religious background at all. In Romans fourteen sixteen,

he says the promise is not only for those people

that live under the law of Moses. It is for

anyone who lives with faith like Abraham. Now, who are

these people who live under the law of Moses? Jews?

Jewish people. The Jewish people were given the Law of Moses.

Moses was their leader, and they were given the ways

of God to do the right thing before the rest

of us were given them. By the way, have you

ever thought about why are the Jews called God's chosen people?

God just loved them more than he loves the rest

of us. No, they were chosen for a purpose. What

was the purpose? They were chosen to spread the message

to everybody else, to tell the world that there is

one true God. That's what they were chosen for. They

were kind of like the missionaries to the rest of us.

Now God has taken that task and given it to

the Church, which includes Jews, Gentiles, on everybody.

Else who put their faith in Christ.

And God says it's available to anybody who opens up

their heart with faith. Look at the verse on the

back of your outline. Everyone who calls in the name

of the Lord will be saved. Circle the word everyone.

There are no quotas in heaven. It doesn't say, oh,

really good people will be saved if they call the

name of the Lord. Really religious people, no, really smart people. No,

it just says anybody anybody who calls the name the Lord,

who has faith in the grace of God.

He says, will be saved.

And the sad thing is that even though many people

know that God offers his grace an unconditional gift to us,

they still try to work their way to heaven. They

think that something in their lives is making them good

enough that they don't need to receive God's.

Gift of grace through Christ.

Now you may have done some really nifty things in life,

but if you think they're going to get you into heaven,

forget it, because Heaven is perfect and you're not. And

the only way you're gonna get into Heaven is by

receiving God's gift to you, receiving it by faith, which

is available to every person. The see in grace stands

for grace comes through Christ. Grace comes through Christ. John

chapter one, verse seventeen says the law was given through Moses,

but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Why through

Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus Christ the only way to heaven?

Why not Buddha, Why not somebody else? Why only Jesus Christ?

Because he paid the price of admission. He's already paid

for your salvation. Nobody else has done that one on

the cross.

He paid for your sins.

Now, grace is free, no doubt about that, But it

is not cheap. It cost Jesus Christ's life. He paid

for your ticket. Now the law tells me when I

do wrong, it says you blew it. But grace says,

here's how to get back on track. You're forgiven. Let's

get going in the right direction. Romans five point fifteen says,

many people have received God's gift of life by the

grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. Now in the Bible,

the favorite description for somebody who has grace, who has

accepted God's grace. The favorite description for a believer, a Christian,

is the term in Christ. Those two words in Christ.

That phrase in Christ is used over one hundred and

twenty times in the New Testament. It refers to somebody

who has found salvation through the grace of God being

in Christ.

Now, let me explain it to you like this.

Let's say this card represents my life, and let's represent

the Bible. This Bible represents Jesus Christ. Now, in my life,

there are a lot of things that I've done wrong

that disqualify me to live in a perfect place like heaven.

And there are things in my life that have ripped

up my life. There are things that I've done wrong.

There things that I'm ashamed of that I don't want

you or anybody else to know about.

In my past.

I wish I could do them over. There are things

that have really hurt me deeply, where I've hurt others

and they've hurt me. There are sins that I've committed,

there are thoughts that I have thought. There are actions

that have been hurtful to other people. And in many

ways I've ripped up my life and allowed others to

rip it up too. And then there are things in

my life that I've done that I'm really ashamed of.

And I just made a total mess of my life.

And I look at that messed up, broken, damaged, scarred

life and I think there's no chance of this getting

into heaven because it's certainly not perfect. But the Bible

says that Jesus Christ takes my life with all the scars,

with all the tatters, with all the mistakes, with all

the guilt things in my life. And the Bible says

that when I come to Jesus Christ and I say,

Jesus Christ, I open my life up to you, and

I want to accept your free get the salvation that

God puts me in Christ. Now, when I'm in Christ,

can you see my imperfections? Can you see them anywhere?

Can you see the things that I'm ashamed of? Can

you see the things that have ripped up my life

and ripped up other people?

No?

All you can see when I'm in Christ is Christ.

And So when God takes my life and he takes

all of the pieces of it that are kind of

messed up, not kind of really messed up, and he

puts me in the life of Christ, I get into

heaven on Christ ticket and when he looks at me

with eyes of grace, he only sees the perfection of

Jesus Christ. Look at the next verse Galatians two twenty one.

Don't treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if

we could be saved by keeping the law, in other words,

by doing good, then there.

Was no need for Christ to die.

In other words, if you could be saved and could

get to Heaven on your own merit, the cross was

a waste. And if you could have gotten to heaven

without any help from God. Believe me, Jesus Christ wouldn't

have come and died on the cross for you because

He wouldn't waste himself like that. But there was no

other way. You're either going to get into heaven in

Christ or you're not going. Now it's a free gift,

you just accept it in faith. Grace is all that

God does for me because of what Jesus Christ did

for me on the cross. Another crost is grace is

God's riches at Christ's expense. It comes through Christ and

only through Christ. E in grace stands for it is

extended throughout eternity, extended throughout eternity. Romans six twenty three says, well,

let's read it aloud. The wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ.

Jesus our Lord.

Now I want you to circle the phrase eternal life,

because the results of God's grace are gonna go on

and on and on forever, eternal life. That's one of

the benefits of grace, eternal life. You could say that

grace is the gift that keeps on giving, and God

saves the best for last and the best is yet

to come, and with Jesus Christ. It just keeps getting

better and better. The Bible says, the free gift of

God is eternal life in heaven. Have you ever thought

about what is heaven really gonna be like? The Bible

tells us that heaven is going to be like four things.

Number One, it's gonna be a place of reunion where

we are reunited with other loved ones who have accepted

the grace of God. Reunited with loved ones who have

accepted the grace of God through Christ. Two it's gonna

be a place of reward where we are rewarded for

the character that we developed in the way that we

served other people here on Earth. Three it's going to

be a place where we are reassigned to do new

work that we like to do, based on our shape,

based on how God has gifted us. We will be

given new assignments that we love to do. And number four,

it's going to be a place of release where we're

free from all pain, all suffering, all sadness, all sorrow,

all grief, all depression, all.

Loneliness, etc.

It's going to be a wonderful place and it is

the gift of God. Now there's one catch. You have

to accept it. As I've said, if you get a

gift for you, but you don't gift a gift and

you don't unwrap it.

It's a worthless gift.

Now you need to realize that Jesus Christ makes this

grace gift available to everybody, but it has also customized

specific for your life.

Because God knows exactly what you need.

One of the most brilliant people I've ever met is

Peter Drucker nineties years ninety years old, father of American Management.

Everything he writes is printed in the Wall Street Journal.

He's written dozens and dozens of books that are textbooks.

A brilliant, brilliant man. Many of you know that he's

been a mentor to me for a number of years.

I asked Peter one day, how did you become a Christian? Peter,

and he said, well, Rick, when somebody first explained grace

to me, I realized I was never going to get

a bigger, a better deal. You're never going to get

a better deal than we've talked about today. So open

your life to the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

It's your only hope and it's free.

Now I know you may be thinking, you know, if

I can God with all the ways that I've messed

up my life, God's gonna give me some big lecture.

I'm going to feel condemned. I'm going to feel judged.

In fact, I'm not gonna feel good at all if

I come to Christ. I'll just get all this rebuke

and reproof and feel bad because I know how many

times I've blown it. And God's just gonna say I

told you so. And if you think that you are

sadly mistaken, sadly mistaken, that's what grace.

Is all about. He says, come to me.

In the Bible, there's a story of a woman who

had numerous moral failures.

I mean numerous moral failures.

She'd slept around with anybody and everybody, and she had

what you would call a reputation, a real reputation. And

in fact, one day some religious leaders actually caught her

in the act, in bed with somebody and brought her

to Jesus and threw her on the ground in front

of Christ, expecting him to condemn her. And they said,

what are you going to do about this woman who's

violated all kinds of principles of God? And Jesus defended

her dignity. He protected her, and in front of the

whole crowd, he said, all right, anybody who is here

without sin, you can cast the first stone. And of course,

since there was no one in the crowd, that was perfect.

They all began to slowly walk away. Then, in the

privacy of that one on one encounter, Jesus looked at

this woman who was filled with guilt, and he said,

where are your condemners? And she said they've all gone, Lord,

And Jesus said to her two very profound things. He said,

do I condemn you?

Now? Go and sin no more.

That's all he said, No long lecture, no big lesson.

He just said, neither do I condemn you, Go and

send no more. Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn

the world. I came to save it. And if you

are expecting to come to Christ and be filled with

a whole bunch of condemnation, you missed the boat. You

haven't heard the story, You don't understand grace, so you

come to Christ. In fact, the Bible says this the

last verse on your outline Isaiah thirty, verse eighteen.

The Lord longs to be gracious to you. Do you

see that God wants to be gracious to you.

It is in his nature to bless undeserving people. He's

waiting for you to accept his grace. He enjoys being gracious.

He is not mad at you. His heart's broken for you,

but he wants you to come home. Now, you say, well,

wait a minute. Does grace just mean that I can

accept God's gift and just keep on living any way

that I want to thumbing my nose to God?

Of course not. There are two very profound statements.

He says, I don't condemn you, and then he says, now,

just stop doing it, go and send no more.

Let me help you change.

He's not saying, oh, just keep on doing whatever's destroying

your life, whatever's opposing the laws of God.

He says, go and send no more. Now.

God's amazing grace is available right here and right now today.

That's why he brought you here. You're not here by accident.

He brought you here. If you have never received that

saving grace gift, what are you waiting on?

Let's power heads.

In the coming weeks, we're going to look at God's

restoring grace and sustaining grace and liberating grace. But first

you've got to settle the foundation saving grace. So why

don't you pray this prayer in your heart? Dear God,

I realized that I could never be perfect enough to

earn a place in your perfect heaven. I realized that

the only way I'll get in is by your grace.

Forgive me for thinking that I could be good enough.

Forgive me for my pride that thinks I could earn

my way into heaven. Thank you that you give me

what I need, not what I deserve. Thank you for

your forgiveness, and I ask for it today. Jesus Christ,

thank you for paying for my salvation on the cross.

By faith. I accept your grace today, and I want

you to guide my life from this day forward. In

your name. I pray Amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept

Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.

Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. We'll send you

free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. And

now here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of

our listeners.

Today.

I want to share a letter from a new listener, Sherman,

who's in Tennessee, and he writes that he and his

wife used Daily Hope to study God's Word together.

Here's what he wrote.

Just recently, a friend of mine turned me on to

your Daily Hope devotional and also gave me your CD

series on the Lord's Prayer and Wow.

Together.

My wife and I now listen to Daily Hope podcast.

We take notes, we pray, We have great conversations about

all the biblical teachings that we get from you, and

we both look forward to that time of being encouraged

and challenged and instructed.

Now I know, Pastor.

Rick, that it was through the giving of other people

that made it possible for me to hear the Daily

Hope teaching, and so now I want to make an

eternal investment myself by giving to this ministry, so that

others may be blessed and impacted in the same way

that my wife and I have been. Well, Sherman, I'm

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It will not only help to grow in faith, it

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