When we gather together like this, under such circumstances, it is easy to fall into one of two errors, both of them serious sins.
The first is the sin of complacency. We have heard about grace so much, and paid so little attention to what was actually being said about it, that we take the grace of God, as we call it, as our due. This is the sin of hypocritical faith, which we find denounced throughout the pages of the Scripture.
But the opposing sin is just as deadly, and for conservative, pietistic Christians, far more deadly. Whether this temptation and sin besets you can be seen in your emotional reaction to some of the following statements. I am referring to your emotional reaction—not your catechism reaction.
God loves you deeply. He has looked forward to meeting with you this morning. He delights over your arrival in His courts, and this delight is expressed with singing. You are beloved by Him. He brags about you to the principalities and powers. You are the elect of God, and He clothes you with tendermercies as your only appropriate clothing. You are His people, and He is Your God. He is not ashamed to call you His brethren. You delight Him, and delight Him completely.
The sin which conservative pietistic Christians commit when they hear such things is the sin of unbelief. That unbelief is cloaked in various qualifications and interpretations of the scriptural truths just noted, but the qualifications have the effect of washing away, not the temptations attendant upon such glorious truths, but washing away all the comfort.
But you are the people of God. Comfort, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord.