When you come to ERBC, you will hear the gospel being preached from the Bible. The gospel is the message of good news concerning Jesus Christ. God created the first man and woman as holy human beings who delighted in knowing God and living in communion with him. However, Adam and Eve sinned by rebelling against God’s good commands. As a result, except for Jesus, everyone born into this world enters life as a guilty sinner cut off from fellowship with their Creator and condemned to death.
But God, being rich in mercy and love toward sinners, sent his eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to take on our human nature so that as the God-Man he might work salvation for all those whom the Father loved. On behalf of his people, Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life keeping all of his Father’s commands. When he died on the cross, he took on himself the sins of all of his people so that he bore the punishment of God’s wrath as their substitute. He also rose from the dead and ascended into heaven where he now sits as King over heaven and earth. Soon Christ will come again to earth in order to judge those who wickedly refuse his salvation and to bring those who love him into his presence forever.
The benefits of Christ’s work are given as a free to gift to all who come to Christ himself by faith, trusting in him alone for the forgiveness of all their sins. This faith is itself a gift of God which he gives freely to all who ask. The gospel is a wonderful message because it reveals the greatness of God’s grace and gives him all the glory for a person’s salvation. The gospel is a wonderful message because it speaks hope to all who experience the guilt, power and pollution of sin and cannot save themselves. For this reason, the pulpit ministry at ERBC seeks to preach the gospel each week in order to bring glory to God and joy to sinners.