This Amazing Salvation Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Last week, we began looking at the thought of “This Amazing Salvation” - We have four points concerning this thought, and last week, we looked at the first point, being “A Provided Salvation”
Aren’t you glad tonight that although God was under no obligation to give us anything, would give us salvation!
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
It was of His own will that He has done everything He has done.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Yes, we have a provided salvation…Tonight, I’d like to cover point number 2 in this message on “This Amazing Salvation” and look at how this amazing salvation is...
II-A Prompted Salvation
II-A Prompted Salvation
All of us enjoy the positive over the negative.
We like to think about the positive. But the positive is only positive because the negative is so negative!
For example, we would rejoice in having a job because we understand the negativity of trying to make it in life without one.
We enjoy our health much more after we go through some sickness.
To understand the richness of God's love, we must first understand just how much He hates sin!
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
So, in these verses I’ve just read, we see the sin of mankind… “the wickedness of man was great…every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually...”
This says a lot. It means there was no aspect of man’s nature not corrupted by sin.
God sees this, and He was grieved by it…He was so grieved by it that He was sorry that He had made man!
It’s interesting to note that “grieve” is a love word—we do not grieve for those we do not love. The word is highly expressive, for it reveals the heartache of God over the rebellion and wickedness of men.
His lovingkindness was scorned, His patience abused, His offer of salvation ignored.
It stabbed Him to His heart.
In verse 7, God’s response to man’s sin didn’t stop at the grieving, but we see a decision is made because of man’s sin...
“And the Lord said, I will destroy man … it repenteth me that I have made them.”
The decision was made then, God would destroy the world using a flood.
4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
Neither shall evil dwell with thee.
5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight:
Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing:
The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
5 The Lord trieth the righteous:
But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
I think God’s Word is pretty clear as to what He thinks of sin.
Thankfully, the attribute of God’s love responded to the need of sinful man.
14 For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
Ya’ll know the expression "There is no sense crying over spilled milk" right?
It came from the Bible! When you spill liquid there is no sense crying about it -it's gone and cannot be put back into the container. Likewise when we die, we cannot come back and relive our lives--they are gone.
But God saw our condition and in His great love devised a means so that when we die, though we deserve to be banished from His presence forever because of our sin, we can be brought back into fellowship with Him. What was that means?
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
We are prone to become frustrated in trials and think that God doesn’t love us, but just remind yourself of how lost you were without Christ.
Yeah, remind yourself of your lost condition and you’ll realize the love that it took to save you!
If God could love us in our sinful condition and redeem us from all sin, He can give us the grace to get through a present trial!
There are two things tonight, I want to look at concerning “A Prompted Salvation.”
Wow, that was a long introduction wasn’t it?
Look in our text tonight in 1 Peter...
We find...
An Unexplainable Grace
An Unexplainable Grace
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Boy, I’m glad that God is merciful and gracious!
Without His mercy and grace, we would be without any hope at all.
22 It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger for ever,
Because he delighteth in mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us;
He will subdue our iniquities;
And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
It’s pretty easy to love someone who loves us, but God loved us when we were sinners!
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
This is one of the most amazing things about God…That He loves people who will never love Him back!
He sent His Son to die for people who will never accept that gift.
I love to give things to people when I know they will enjoy them and appreciate them, but God provided eternal life even for people who will reject Him!
That’s amazing love!
So, we see An Unexplainable Grace, but also, we see:
An Absolute Gift
An Absolute Gift
1 Peter 1:3 (KJV 1900)
3 ...hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The Bible word for hope is not wishful thinking like we use it today, but the word hope in the Bible is a confident expectation.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
It’s closely related to faith.
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Neither one of these involves blindness though…Did you notice that?
They are absolute! There is evidence for what we believe!
No doubt, you’ve received some wonderful gifts in your life.
Some gifts are expensive, while others are practical.
But if you think of all the gifts you’ve ever received, nothing compares to the gift of eternal life!
Nothing compares to the expense, the expression, or the experience of the gift of eternal life!
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Think about this, if when we were sinners, God gave us His best, now that we are His children, will He not give us all that we need?
15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
What is his unspeakable gift? I preached a while back that it was Jesus, Salvation, Love…You think about this:
All blessings are from Him, but the love of God in Christ is neither known nor can it be spoken of, according to it’s worth.
The old hymn says it this way:
The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell;
it goes beyond the highest star,
and reaches to the lowest hell.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were every stalk on earth a quill,
and everyone a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky.
The love of God is unspeakable!
Conclusion
Conclusion
I mentioned when I began last week that we have a big problem today in our churches, that is, we have lost our awe of God.
Salvation no longer moves us…When we hear the preaching of how our precious Savior died on that rugged cross to save our souls, we just sit through it emotionless…We have lost our awe of God.
In the book “Dangerous Calling” Paul David Tripp writes,
“Awe of God should be the reason I do what I do with my thoughts. It should be the reason I desire what I desire.
Awe of God should be the reason I treat my wife the way I do and parent my children in the manner I do. It should shape and motivate my relationship with my extended family and neighbors
Awe of God should be the reason I function the way I do at my job or handle my finances the way I do. It should structure the way I think about physical possession and personal position and power.
Awe of God should give direction to the way I live as a citizen of the wider community. It should form the way that I think about myself and my expectations of others.
Awe of God should lift me out of my darkest moments of discouragement and be the source of my most exuberant celebrations.
Awe of God should make me more self-aware and more mournful of my sin while it makes me more patient with and tender toward the weaknesses of others. It should give me courage I would have no other way and wisdom to know when I am out of my league.
Awe of God is meant to rule every domain of my existence.”
How sad that we so often neglect This Amazing Salvation.
We take it for granted and live often in apathy and indifference toward the One Who made it all possible.
One of the great secrets to the Christian life is understanding that God appreciates appreciation...