Grace!

(2) Practical death – Life was dead because we were entangled in our sin – We longed for the wrong things and then when we received their consequences they were killing us

2. You walked following: (3 sources of spiritual death and sin)

a) The world

(1) We valued what the world valued and it ran contrary to what God values

(2) We need Jesus to rescue us from this present evil age (Galatians 1:3-4)

b) Satan

(1) The prince of the power of the air

(2) The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

(3) There is an active spiritual force laying out the bait of sin before each of us trying to make us fall (1 Peter 5:8)

c) Yourself

(1) Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh

(2) Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind

(3) Our hearts are sinful (Jeremiah 17:9)

3. We were by nature children of wrath – God’s wrath. We were still under condemnation for turning away from God

a) Illustration – Nature of a dog – If you throw a stick what will a dog do? HE will chase it. A human won’t. A squirrel won’t. My cat will look at you like you are stupid. But, a dog will. Why? It is his nature

b) Our nature is bent toward sin. We long for it. We gravitate towards it

4. Like the rest of mankind – the universality of sin!

B. Application

1. Illustration – Tubas – Once they were dinged they were never perfect again

2. We have a serious problem. We are dead in our trespasses and sins

3. We need a solution, but dead men don’t raise themselves

4. We need a Savior

III. God’s forgiveness is unbelievable (4-5)

A. Exegesis

1. But God – Everything hinges on God and His unbelievable mercy!

2. Mercy- Being rich in mercy – This is the greatest truth about God

a) You didn’t get what you deserved

b) His love is never based on worthiness

c) His love is always based on the depth of his mercy and love

d) That is why we do not have to earn it. It is mercy

3. Love- Because of the great love with which He has loved us

a) Even while we were dead in our trespasses

b) This is the love that we long for but can’t find in other people

c) He loved us before we earned his love and in spite of our wrong

d) Romans 5:8

4. Grace

a) Made us alive

b) By grace you have been saved

(1) Define grace: Unmerited favor – You got what you didn’t deserve

(2) You were saved though you didn’t deserve it

(3) You were given honor and esteem you did not earn

B. Application

1. God’s forgiveness is huge

2. He offers us Mercy, Love, and grace, bot because we earned it but because of His love for you.

3. This is what makes our faith unlike any other

4. This is what makes our faith so amazing

5. Amazing Grace – John Newton

IV. God’s grace transforms us (6-10)

A. Exegesis

1. You were given new life in Christ – 3 References

a) He made us alive together with Christ

(1) He gives spiritual life to the spiritually dead

b) He raises us up with Christ

(1) Raising speaks of bringing to life – Regeneration

(2) When we come to Christ he gives us His life

(3) We are no longer dead in our trespasses in sins

(4) We are raised to life in the righteousness of Christ

(5) Romans 6:4

c) He seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus – We have Kingdom authority with Christ

(1) We are children of the King

(2) We have the power of the Gospel

(3) We have the filling of the Holy Spirit that makes us more like Christ

d) Why did he do it? - So that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus

(1) Every time a lost sinner is saved is shows two things

(a) That God is completely just – The punishment of our sin is dealt with

(b) That God is completely loving – He gave us new life and forgave us of our sin

(2) This immeasurable love towards sinners makes Him glorious and shows the world just how good God is

2. You have been given a gift

a) Grace through faith in Him

b) You didn’t earn your salvation – It was freely given to you

c) Not as a result of works that no man may boast

3. You have been made for good works

a) We are His workmanship – He is making you in to something that you could not be on your own

b) You were created in Christ Jesus – BY His shed blood

c) For good works

B. Application

1. We reap the beautiful benefits of God’s glorifying plan

2. We become trophies of His grace when we are saved

a) We were lost in our sin living dead lives

b) Then God gave us the free gift of salvation: Mercy, love, and grace

c) When we rise to new life in Christ and begin to live out the new works that God wants to do through us then we become the trophies of God’s grace

d) We show the wonder of a loving and merciful God to the world as we begin to live glorious and forgiven, redeemed lives before the world!

V. Conclusion

A. Do you know what his means? It means that salvation is available to anyone by His grace and through your faith

B. Do you want to be a trophy of God’s grace?

1. You will never do it on your own with your own goodness

2. Being a trophy of God’s grace means that you are exhibiting His workmanship

C. If you do, the only way to be save is by His grace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ

Galatians 1:3–4

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

1 Peter 5:8

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

What Makes Christianity Different?

Quick, name the practice that most sets Christianity apart from the non-Christian world. Respect for human life? Not really. Religions such as Jainism have, if anything, an even more uncompromising prohibition against harming any living things.

Sexual morality? Again, there are religions—Orthodox Judaism and Islam immediately come to mind—that place an even higher premium on sexual purity than Christianity. If you doubt this, ask yourself when was the last time you saw a Christian woman in a burqa.

The answer to this question is forgiveness. No other belief system has the equivalent of forgiving your brother seventy times seven, i.e., every time—much less commands you to love your enemies, and bless those who persecute you.

The radical nature of Christian forgiveness is so startling, so overwhelming, that it made the CBS Evening News.

The story began in 2005 in the city of Benton Harbor, Michigan. On that day, Jameel McGee was, in his words, “minding his own business,” when he was stopped by a policeman, Andrew Collins. The encounter did not go well for McGee. Collins accused him of selling drugs and arrested him. At the time, McGee insisted that the charges were “all made up.” As CBS noted, “Of course, a lot of accused men make that claim,” and the outcome in McGee’s case was pretty much the same as in other such cases: He wound up serving four years in prison.

In McGee’s words, “I lost everything.”

Making matters infinitely worse was that McGee was telling the truth: He was in fact an innocent man.

We know this because the policeman, Collins, was subsequently “caught, and served a year and a half for falsifying many police reports, planting drugs and stealing.” Among the falsified police reports was the one concerning Jameel McGee.

While exoneration is sweet, it doesn’t make up for the four years spent behind bars. As McGee told CBS, “My only goal was to seek him when I got home and to hurt him.”

He appeared to have gotten his chance when both McGee and Collins ended up working at a café run by Mosaic Christian Community Development Center. As CBS put it, the “bad cop and the wrongfully accused man had no choice but to have it out.”

And that brings me back to what I said about Christianity’s unique emphasis on forgiveness. Collins told McGee “Honestly, I have no explanation, all I can do is say I’m sorry.” McGee’s response, “That was pretty much what I needed to hear.”

But McGee did not stop there: He befriended the man who wronged him, so much so that he eventually told Collins that he loved him. As Collins tells the tale, “I just started weeping because he doesn’t owe me that. I don’t deserve that.”

Thankfully, forgiveness, and the healing it brings in its wake, has nothing to do with “deserve.” As McGee, a Christian, understood, we forgive one another because, as Paul told both the Ephesians and the Colossians, God in Christ has forgiven us.

The power of forgiveness transcends personal relationships. Think of the reaction to the Amish forgiving the man who killed ten young girls back in 2007. There was a power at work there that even the most hardened skeptic could not deny.

Today, McGee and Collins share their story with others. At least one person seems to have taken its message to heart. The CBS reporter ended with the following question: “If these two guys from the coffee shop can set aside their bitter grounds, what’s our excuse?”

The answer, especially for the Christian, is “none.”

Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint commentary 2/10/17

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind, but now I see.