This was a difficult sermon for me as I started to write about the sheep and the goats. I realized that this passage could be interpreted to mean that good works saves a person. Think of Mother Theresa.

I was stumped how to reconcile this message with being saved by grace. As I prayed about the mater, the Holy Spirit led me to list the times the God-man spoke about salvation and eternal life. After seeing this list, I came to the realization that there is no place in the four Gospels where Jesus laid out a salvation plan from A to Z.

There is a separation of believers in Christ from the unsaved. This is where we will find wise and foolish virgins; along with faithful servants and those who are lazy. These are the sheep and the goats. The righteous are on the right and the cursed on the left.

Then I examined the apostles and how they preached. What did they tell people to do in order to get saved? Peter stressed the fact that people needed to repent of their sins and believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Paul stated we are saved by grace, not by works, and laid out the steps to salvation in the letter to the Romans. He also established that Jesus shed his blood for the human race on the Roman cross and paid for the sins of humanity.

Reading the four Gospels can be confusing since Jesus spoke in parables to the people and made a number of points of what leads to salvation. The God-man conveyed truth, but He wasn’t completely clear on the subject. It was a cumulative punishment for the generations of sin over the centuries. This will be a thought-provoking message that needs to be studied in detail.

Print out the sermon outline and let's examine the Scriptures together Sunday morning at 9:00 AM PST.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor John S. Torell