We will also have a church dinner after the service next Sunday May 24^th to celebrate the 100^th birthday of Norma Clement.

If you would still like to contribute to the special offering for the construction project for the church in Merida, Mexico, please mark it “Merida Project”. We will be sending the offering to them next week.

A woman said to be recently of her son, “He is a good Christian boy.” By that she meant that he was a good, moral boy who had not given her any trouble. That is good. And a Christian’s life should be an exemplary life! But there is a very real sense that a “good Christian” is an oxy-moron and a contradiction of terms. A Christian is one who is so sinful that nothing less than the blood of the Son of God could put away their sin. They are so evil, so morally bankrupt that they are completely dependent upon free grace. Inherent in the name Christian is a sinner needing Christ. The phrase “a good Christian” usually belies an ignorance of what is involved in being a Christian.

Pastor Todd Nibert

WE KNOW

All men are born in complete ignorance of any spiritual truth. We are all born ignorant of who God is, who we sinners are, and how God saves sinners by His grace alone. When God saves a sinner, God gives us some understanding of who God is, who we are, and how God has saved us by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ. But even after conversion, a believer often sorrows over how ignorant we still are. The knowledge we have is very limited. We are still ignorant of many things and we still have so much to learn.

That being said, a child of God is not ignorant. There are some things that every believer knows beyond a shadow of a doubt.

• We know that we cannot be saved by our own obedience to the law. Christ must save us by His obedience (Rom 3:19).
• We know that we have been born again. That new man cannot sin and that new man cannot perish (I John 5:18)
• We know that we have passed from death in Adam to life in Christ because we have been given a new loving nature (I John 3:14)
• We know that we have union with Christ. We are in Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells in us (I John 4:13).
• We know that when Christ returns, He will make us just like Him (I John 3:2).
• We know that the purpose of God shall be accomplished. Nothing can derail God’s purpose of the redemption of His elect (Rom. 8:28).
• We know that whatever understanding we have is a gift of God’s grace (I John 5:20). This understanding keeps us from pride of grace.

Every believer does still have much to learn, but let us never use that as an excuse for ignorance or lack of faith. Let us rest in and rejoice in the truth that the Lord has revealed to us.

Mercy seeks the guilty. If you are not guilty you do not need mercy. If you are not guilty you do not need pardon. Grace has to do with the wicked. The Physician has not come to heal the well, but to heal the sick.

(1 Timothy 1:15) "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."