God's Antidote In A Sin-Stricken World Series

Turn your Bibles to Psalm 145:4-9

Title: God’s Antidote in a Sin-stricken World

Theme: Saving Grace

Series: Living in the Aroma of God’s Grace

Listen as I read Psalm 145:4-9, “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.” (Psalm 145:4-9) Pray!

Proposition: I would propose that Christians have a wealth of praise to offer to the Lord and that God wants the wealth of His grace shared with all who live the whole world.

Interrogative Sentence: This grace is available to everyone. Who gives the gift? How is it received? Who chooses to enjoy it? How is it obtained? And lastly, how long can it be enjoyed?

Introduction: Psalm 145 is psalm of praise written by King David and sets for all Christians the heart that God wants to see in the Church of Jesus Christ. There are some powerful truths proclaimed by David in these passages of Scripture that must be briefly pointed out before we can proclaim with confidence the graciousness of our Lord. Notice I said with confidence, there are some people who mention that God is gracious only because it makes them sound religious.

Christians, who crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God, grow in their salvation and have tasted that the Lord is good. With confidence, “They will speak of the glorious splendor of [His] majesty, and they will tell of the power of [His] awesome works, and [they] proclaim [His] great deeds. They… celebrate [His] abundant goodness and joyfully sing of [His] righteousness.”

Because the Lord Jesus Christ is the Christian’s faithful High Priest who is able to sympathize with their weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15-6) they are confident in His goodness and generosity. They know that the Lord is good and His compassion is on all He has made. This enables them to express a confidence that the Lord Jesus treats His creatures with kindness, His subjects with consideration, and His obedient children with favor. Christians who understand the benefits of God’s grace know that it is impossible for Him to forget them or be to harsh with them. When He chastises His children it is for their own good. When He surrenders willful sinners over their own flesh, to the world’s lures and even to the lies of the devil, He is still working out His saving grace to call all to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The New American Standard gives us this wonderful translation of Psalm 145:4, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” There is much for the child of God to meditate upon and to share with the next generation that is Sin-stricken.

Transitional Sentence: God’s antidote to a sin-stricken world is “saving grace” and it is a gift that only comes from God. Romans 3:23-24 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

The first truth that must be agreed upon is that God’s free gift of saving grace is for everyone because everyone has sinned.

It is like everyone was on a ship and everyone on that ship had inherited the sinful nature. Sin caused the ship to sink and the people were able to make it to an island that is a mile wide. One day the people could see a huge wall of water coming at them that was several miles wide and tall enough to engulf the whole island, thus bringing sure death and total destruction. The nearest land that could secure their safety was 15 miles away, separated by shark invested frigid waters. Without assistance of some kind death was guaranteed to anyone who would venture in the water. No one could jump far enough or doing anything of his own accord to get where they could find safety.

Everyone who lives on this earth is on an Island that is going to be destroyed. There is a wave of death that is going to hit everyone on this earth if Jesus tarries another 120 years. Therefore, God intervened and made a way from escape from utter destruction. He knew that there was absolutely nothing that man could do on his own accord to overcome that sinful nature so He gave “Saving Grace.”