God's Grace Is Truly Amazing!

GOD’S GRACE IS TRULY AMAZING! (Outline)

June 29, 2008 --

PENTECOST 7 --

Ephesians 1:3-14

INTRO: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me!” God’s grace is amazing, truly amazing. We are all in the very same condition in this life. All of us are sinners. All of us ought to be condemned. But God’s grace is truly amazing. "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (ROMANS 3:22b-24).

GOD’S GRACE IS TRULY AMAZING!

I. God chose me as his own child.

II. God redeemed me with his blood.

III. God sealed me with his Holy Spirit.

I. GOD CHOSE ME AS HIS OWN CHILD

A. This letter of Paul opens with praise, verse 3. God provided every needed spiritual gift for believers.

1. These believers had hope, peace, joy, comfort, and forgiveness. Praise God for his grace.

2. Verse 4. It is God’s choice to save man. It is absolutely, positively not man’s choice.

3. The Lord God Almighty saves purely out of his divine and loving purpose and will, verse 5.

B. Those once outside the family of God are now made his very own children. God adopts and saves.

1. Truly God’s grace is amazing. The reaction of the believer is the same reaction of Paul.

2. God’s grace chooses and adopts for a single purpose – praise, verse 6. God’s grace is free.

C. It can be a bit difficult to understand the depth of the meaning of being adopted as God’s own child. Today there are many broken homes, broken families. The relationships of fathers, mothers, children, and stepchildren are strained to the limits of understanding. Today God says to you, every believer, and me: “You are my child”. We no longer belong to the devil or this world. The family of God is graciously our family. Our inheritance is eternal. "So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir"(GALATIANS 4:7). We have the full rights of son and daughters of God.

D. God’s grace is truly amazing. What makes it so amazing is that it is the grace of God that chooses us. For left on our own we would most certainly make the wrong choice. Consider Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Only one choice not to make and they made the wrong choice. Our eternal inheritance is far too important and valuable to be left up to man’s choice. Praise God that he chooses us as his child. "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name"(JOHN 15:16). This is God’s amazing grace.

GOD’S GRACE IS TRULY AMAZING!

God chose me as his own child. There is more amazing grace.

II. GOD REDEEMED ME WITH HIS BLOOD

A. Praise God for every spiritual blessing that he has provided. Praise God for his choice, verse 6.

1. Now praise God for redemption, verse 7. Redemption is defined: a. blood = b. forgiveness.

2. God’s redemption (blood forgiveness) is freely given according to his wisdom, verse 8.

B. Verse 9. These believers knew the mystery of his will. Christ lived, died, and rose again – for them.

1. This mystery was revealed according to God’s good pleasure. Redemption was seen in Christ.

2. Verse 10 speaks of God’s New Testament. Believers worship under the headship of the Christ.

C. God’s grace is truly amazing. One drop of blood pays for all of our sins. Yes, Scripture speaks very plainly and clearly about blood theology. It is the very price that God demanded of himself for the dis-obedience of man. Jesus’ innocent sufferings and death, Jesus’ holy, precious blood pays for the sins of this wicked and rebellious world. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin"(1 JOHN 1:7). The sins that are forgiven are more than a few. The sins are not some or even many but ALL! This is God’s grace.

D. Once again the grace of God is not just amazing but it is truly amazing. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot buy salvation. We cannot earn salvation. Most definitely we do not deserve salvation. In spite of all this against us God and his grace is for us. Consider Paul. Paul was once known as Saul, the great persecutor of the “followers of the way”. God found him. God chose him. God redeemed him. God did it all because of his grace. It is no different with anyone of us. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy"(TITUS 3:4,5a). This IS God’s truly amazing grace.