God’s amazing Grace Part one
Ephesians 2:1-10
Introduction-
This morning we start a 2 week sermon on grace. God’s amazing grace and what benefits it means to each of us.
Commercials are designed to create a picture of need and a picture of want. Words like “revolutionize your life” “one pill a day” to look amazing. “New and Improved” to make you want to try that product again.
God’s grace paints a picture also. It paints a picture of where we are without Christ and where we are in Christ.
Biggest losers program with before and after pictures- they make us see the difference because you notice that drastic change.
Apostle Paul shows us several ways God brings change into our life.
He shows us we need a make-over.
He shows us we need to be rescued from our past.
Jesus offers us a new hope in life.
The song Amazing Grace is iconic in the Christian circle because it puts that transformation and God’s rescue into words that most of us could not put together.
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
Was blind but now I see.
Once, we were dead, doomed to die in our sins, and then because of God’s grace and mercy we are offered a do-over.
Ephesians 2:1-10
The first thing that you have to recognize is:
I. Man’s condition without Christ
He is talking to converted believers and acknowledges that before Christ they were dead in their sins.
They were born into sin.
They were doomed to die.
Like the song,
I once was lost, but now I am found,
Was blind but now I see.
Lehman Strauss
“The clearer the picture of our destitute condition before we were saved, the greater is our appreciation of what God has undertaken to do for us.”
A person without Christ is alive physically, but dead spiritually.
3 kinds of dead
Physical
Spiritual
Eternal
That is why Jesus says that physical death is not what we ought to fear.
Physical death only separates our spirit from our body.
Spiritual death is our spirit apart from God for eternity.
That is why we are alive in Christ!
(1) “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you use to live, when you followed the ways of the world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
Spiritual death is the past condition of the believer, and the present condition for everyone else.(repeat)
One of my favorite verses is II Peter 2:9
“ The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
I can also picture a weeping Jesus as He watches people trying His patience.
Not realizing the high cost that He paid.
People putting His invitation on the pile and saying maybe another time.
Illustration
When I was in High school, the military draft was in effect. My freshmen year the draft was in full effect. Upon graduation, I would have been drafted according to my birthday. By my junior year, the draft was stopped and all graduates were required to register upon graduation at the post office.
When I was a freshmen, had I been drafted, Uncle Sam says “I want you”, and I would have had no choice but to go. My Senior year, Uncle Sam says to you “I want you”, but you are not required to go, but to register if I need you. The draft is a terrible way to recruit people, because most do not want to go.
God, on the other hand, sees us in our lost condition, still looks at us and tells us “I want you”, but offers us a choice.
“yet to all who receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God, children not born out of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husbands will, but born of God.”
You were not born a Christian- you were not born a Nazarene, you were born a sinner.
You just don’t decide- your good enough to be accepted by God.
You cannot get their by who your parents are.
You willfully have to sign up so to speak!
Illustration-
I am a hugger. Surprise! I’d rather hug you than shack your hand. I have noticed some people are not huggers. It’s not your fault, your just not use to it. Most of you are not good at it. You know who you are! You tighten up tighter than a drum. You hug on the same side and we almost crash heads. Some, over the years we have laughed about it, because now, I wouldn’t call you a hugger, but you don’t tighten up as much.
You have learned to embrace it! Brings me to point II.
II. Embracing God’s Grace
I heard it this way- G.R.A.C.E. - God’s riches at Christ expense.
Webster has many definitions of grace.
As a trait- carry yourself with grace.
As approval-remain in his good graces.
As a title- Your grace
As a prayer- saying a prayer before a meal.
As a name- Grace
Webster’s top definition
“Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration.”
That is what makes Grace so amazing!
It is undeserved.
It strips us of thinking that we did it on our own.
That we were good enough.
Grace is God’s gift to us- if we accept it.
(8) “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Grace is a person- Jesus Christ. Jesus never mentions the word grace because He is grace.
We receive that grace through faith in the giver of grace- Jesus Christ.
To understand grace is to understand;
His kindness
His unmerited or undeserved favor
His forgiving love that He has for us.
You take Jesus out of it and there is no grace.
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that comes by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23
God loves us so much that while we were sinners, He raised Jesus from the dead so that we could experience salvation and God’s grace. Amen.
Salvation is not a reward for good things that we have done, so none can boast. It is because of God incredible love for us.
Illustration-(SermonCentral)
Jeffrey Dehmer, a man who murdered 17 people and ate them back in my home town of Milwaukee can receive the grace of God the same as you and I can. It is not based upon goodness. In 1982, he committed these disgusting crimes. In 1994, he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of his life by a preacher who worked at the prison. Shortly after that, while coming back from a prison church service, a prisoner attempted to cut his throat. He sustained moderate injuries. Days later, he was killed by a prisoner while mopping the floors. We cannot comprehend that behavior or crimes like that. All crimes have consequences, but if he truly made a decision for Christ-
he experienced the grace and mercy of God.
He experienced salvation. We may not like that- because we want to justify our lesser sins as being good.
Good does not get us to heaven. Jesus does.
Just like the thief on the cross.
He could not earn salvation, yet Jesus said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
You cannot earn salvation, no matter how hard you try, and no matter how you compare your sins against someone else.
Don’t pollute the gospel- we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”
This should tell us that there is nothing too bad that you did that you cannot experience the forgiving love of God in your life.
Christ bridged the gap and made salvation available.
Closing
Grace is risky, because some will take advantage of God’s love and test God at His patience.
They will attempt to pollute it by comparing themselves to others than to a sinless God.
Grace is free to us, but it cost Jesus everything!
Grace is hard sometimes to grasp- like Jeffrey Dehmer making heaven. But it is a gift of God.
The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is life!
He doesn’t save us because we are good, He offers salvation because of His mercy for us.
Of all the sinners in the world, of all who have ever lived, there is more than enough grace, more than enough love, more than enough mercy for you and I
There is room at the cross for one more.
Testimony
Before Christ, I was a professional sinner. I willfully sinned against God.
After Christ, I’m a not so bad sinner. Notice I am still a sinner, now a sinner saved by grace.
Forgiven and on my way to heaven- how about you?
Do you want to experience that grace and mercy of God? It is available for you now.
Amen
