6th Jul 08 - Evidence of Grace

Speaker: Rev Dave Cave

Topic: Evidence of Grace

Text: Jude 

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Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. By Grace (and not by our works), we gain access to God’s provisions. The Grace of God remains the same and unchanged but is life-changing. 

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³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 

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We should be eager to communicate Christ wherever we are. Through our speech and behaviour people around us should recognise we are Christians. We are urged to contend for the faith. Grace does not mean license or freedom to ignore divine laws or legalism – trying to gain merit before God by keeping the Law. We should watch out for false teachers who pervert or modify the Grace of God. Their design is to replace the sheer Grace of our God with sheer license – which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master. These teachers do not live a life consistent with the Gospel. They are more concerned about themselves than the things of God. Their teaching and manner of life do not lead to repentance. 

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⁵Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of , but later destroyed those who did not believe. 

We are instructed to persist in our faith because there is no hope for us if we defect. (Romans 2:5) In order to accomplish this we have to put on the full armour of God so that we will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the devil (Romans 6:11)