September 15, 2024

• Welcome and Announcements
• Shout To The Lord
• Prayer of Invocation
• Wonderful Grace Of Jesus
• Scripture Reading and Prayer - Ephesians 2:1-9
• This Is Amazing Grace
• Grace Flows Down
• Pastor's Message - The God of Grace
• Amazing Grace

Ephesians 2:1-9

¹ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

SERMON NOTES - The God of Grace

INTRODUCTION

• We are going to begin a series on the attributes of God simply entitled, "Knowing God," which is also the title of a book written by J. I. Packer.
• The God of the Bible can be known. He revealed Himself to us through His creation, through His word, and finally and completely through His Son.
• Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
• The God of the Bible is revealed to us not only by what He does, but by who He is, by characteristics we call attributes. An attribute is a characteristic or quality that describes who God is.
• Has God told us everything about Himself in the Bible? The answer is no, but He has told us enough about Himself that we can believe in Him and trust Him.
• Theologians generally divide God's attributes into two categories: incommunicable and communicable.
• God's incommunicable attributes are unique and exclusive to God alone. They are characteristics that He alone possesses.
• His communicable attributes are those that He shares with us, attributes of God we can possess, though in a finite sense.
• Today, we will look at the attribute of grace.
• In the Old Testament there are several words translated in English as grace but the most common meaning is "to favor, to have, implore, show or be shown compassion."
• In the New Testament the Greek word for grace (charis) had a double meaning - beauty, charm, attractiveness, that which is lovely and delightful, and the expression of kindness, favor, friendliness.
• One way to define grace is unmerited favor which means being given what we do not deserve and cannot earn.
• The emphasis on grace is not just that it is a gift, but that it is a gift that is unmerited, undeserved and unsought. It is God giving us blessing or good that we do not deserve. Grace is God's love in action towards people who deserve the opposite of love; His favor to those who are under condemnation.
• To appreciate God's grace we need to understand why He gives it and why we need it. We need grace because we have sinned against God and broken His law. We are sinners who cannot atone for our own sin. We are debtors who cannot pay our debt, we are lost and cannot find our way, and we are spiritually dead and cannot make ourselves alive. Simply put, we cannot make ourselves right with God; we cannot save ourselves.

GOD GRACE IS SAVING GRACE

• For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
• Notice it is not faith that saves us, but grace.
• The whole point of grace is that it is God's gift and that gift is a person.
• For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
• "Grace should never cease to amaze us. God has an absolute, pure, holy standard of justice. That's why we cling with all our might to the merit of Jesus Christ. He alone has the merit to satisfy the demands of God's justice, and He gives it freely to us. We haven't merited it. There's nothing in us that elicits the Lord's favor that leads to our justification. It's pure grace." - R.C. Sproul
• God gives saving grace and a particular benefit of salvation is forgiveness.
• In Christ we are given forgiveness.

GOD'S GRACE IS A SUSTAINING GRACE

• God gives us grace to live the Christian life.
• We need God's grace day by day to live as His children.
• Believers don't just receive life, but experience resurrection life in Christ.
• "God…made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him (Christ), and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." What an awesome statement about our identity with Jesus.
• We live In freedom by God's grace - Romans 6:14
• We grow spiritually by grace - 2 Peter 3:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:10
• We serve by grace - Romans 12:6 and Ephesians 4:7
• Our needs are met by grace - 2 Corinthians 9:8
• We are provided power through grace - 2 Timothy 2:1-2
• We come to God in prayer through His grace - Hebrews 4:16
• We gain victory through struggle by grace - 2 Corinthians 12:7-8
• There is never going to be a time when God's grace is not enough.
• There is nothing that God brings into your life that God's grace cannot meet.
• The will of God will never take you, where the grace of God cannot keep you.

GOD'S GRACE IS A SECURING GRACE

• Because salvation is the gift of God's grace and not as a result of works, because it is God's doing and not ours, grace not only saves us but it secures us.