The Gospel Sermon delivered at my mom's funeral.

The Gospel


John 1:11-14

[11] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This text states that Jesus was not received by His own people, but those that did receive Him, He gave the right to be one of God’s children. They were not born into God’s family, in the natural way, nor by their own will, but they were birthed into God’s family by God’s will, alone.

Jesus was full, completely full of grace and truth. Grace has been defined as God’s un-merited or un-earned favor toward man. Another very good definition is that it is God’s one way love to man. It is one way because it is rooted and based in God’s love for us, and not based on any thing we do.
American Christianity is familiar with Jesus being full of grace. Obviously, He has always been correctly portrayed as our Savior, as our substitute on the Cross, the Cross we deserved. Many American Christians know that God and His Son Jesus planned for this grace, this one way love performed by Jesus, since before Creation. And many American Christians know He was the Teacher of truth. Unfortunately though, most Americans do not know of God’s one way love to us before time. And obviously our culture is saturated with moral relativism as it main belief system. This moral relativism leaves most of us believing that there is no objective truth, or absolute right and wrong. And what is the worst sin of all in our culture? It is that we think we individually are sovereign in our own lives, and fail miserably at recognizing that our maker, the eternally self-existent God, is completely sovereign over us, and in fact over every part of this universe, both seen and unseen. But, I tell you, Jesus is THE Truth. He is very God with God. Jesus has always existed as God with God. Jesus, with His Father and the Holy Spirit in full agreement, chose to willingly become a man. He willingly humbled Himself, fully, and became part of His own Creation. He, Jesus, who was very God, became very man also.
So, Jesus was the Truth made flesh. I want you to know that Jesus did talk of love and forgiveness, righteous living, and on the importance of knowing Father God, but there is one other important thing that Jesus taught on, and that is on the coming judgment and on the wrath of God. In fact Jesus spoke of hell more than any other person in the New Testament. Let me read Luke 12: 4-5 to you: Jesus was teaching His disciples, in this text and this is what is states: [4] “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. [5] But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Ladies and gentlemen, I solemnly tell you with every assurance from years of study and reading God’s Word, only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have the authority to cast a soul into an eternity in hell.
So when you think of grace and truth, Jesus not only forgives, heals, and saves souls, but He, as God, judges, and executes God’s wrath on unrepentant sinners by casting them into the Lake of Fire for eternity.
Here is truth that is found in Romans 3: 9-20: What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged all, both Jew and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Let me repeat a few key words in this text: all are under sin, none is righteous, not one, no one understands, no one seeks God, all have turned aside, together they all have become worthless, no one does good, not even one. They all use their tongues to deceive, their words are like poisonous snake venom, they are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery is their normal activity, and the way of peace they do not know. They do not have any fear of God! And their state for eternity will be hell, unless God intervenes.

This text universally convicts mankind of being basically evil….

So I ask, Do we have any hope… any chance for forgiveness and redemption, and ultimate restoration to God and His Son Jesus: YES…..YES…. and again I say YES!

Let’s look at a text in Ephesians 2: 1 – 10 to see why:
And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God…being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved---and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand, that we should walk in them.

This is Jesus’ grace, it is freely given to us. Remember God’s grace is His unmerited favor. It is God’s one way love poured out in a sweeping flood upon our souls. We do not have to work for it, in fact we can not. God outrageously and with over the top grace, floods us with His love and forgiveness and redemption through His Son, and restores us fully to Him.
In our culture there is a big lie that is believed by a majority of people. That lie is that God helps those who help themselves. That is not in the Bible…ladies and gentlemen. Benjamin Franklin spoke that. It is not true. The truth is that we were dead sinners, completely enslaved by our sin, our lusts, and our flesh’s unholy cravings. We were completely helpless to help ourselves, and what is much worse, we are not willing to help ourselves, separate and apart from God’s one way love making us alive spiritually, from the dead. We do not want or desire God in this dead and sin filled state. We love our sin. Sin is our nature. But God… because of His great love with which He loves us, can and will outrageously grace us with grace and make us alive in His Son Christ Jesus.

Let’s go back to Romans chapter 3, and read a few more verses that I intentionally wanted to read at this point of the sermon. The verses are Romans 3: 20 – 28:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law (our works), although the Law and the prophets bear witness to it---the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness, at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can give everything we own to the poor, we can volunteer all of our extra time working in soup kitchens, we can constantly visit the sick in hospitals, we can defend the defenseless, we can fully take care of our widows and our orphans, we can feed the world’s hungry, but if we do these things without first recognizing that we can not earn God’s favor, that we can not purchase His love and forgiveness by our works, then we are hopelessly vain and lost in our pride. Because, good works do not save us. We, as spiritually dead sinners are in need of God’s regeneration of our dead souls to become living souls. Our new birth as living souls is His to work. It is not ours. We can not birth ourselves into His kingdom; no more than a baby can be born by it own choice. Only when we are born again, spiritually alive in Jesus Christ can we glorify Him. I say again, then and only then do the works that we do honor Him alone and not ourselves.


So, what are we to do? Simply respond… respond to God’s one way love to us. Repent of your old ways of sin and self-worship. Repent of the worldly wisdom that states that we can make it on our own. We can not. We absolutely must receive God’s free offer of grace. But people, I remind you that though it was freely offered to us, it was not free to God and His Son. Jesus, very God Himself, became a man. He walked and lived a sinless life. He was completely obedient to His father; He was spotless, pure, just, and righteous. What did we do with Him as a man, we crucified Him. His crucifixion was for helpless, dead sinners, like you and me. Again, I ask that you repent of dead works, and a life that is dead, that is lived for yourself, and that you receive Jesus and all that He freely gives us based on His work, His merit, and His righteousness. In Romans 10:13 it states that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Will you, will you please, for your soul’s sake and for the sake of those that love you, call upon Jesus Christ to save you today. Please!!!

Thank you.