A Finished Product

What does it mean to live in God’s grace?

Intro

God saves his people completely, there is nothing left to question or be undone

Problem: Some of us don’t fully grasp the completed work of God for our salvation.

Illus: A Coastie this week left the office saying: “Chaplain’s are some cool people . . . not a care in the world.”

Our Salvation although unrealized fully, has been accomplished in it’s entirety leaving nothing undone.

Drama

Stephen is still rehashing history to prove that the gospel of the OT is the gospel of the NT.

The Jews who were getting ready to reject the gospel, who had rejected Christ, rejected what their Fathers had claimed as true and had faith in.

The church today is confronted with a growing number of people in the world who do not believe the gospel message, nor no much about God as revealed in his world.

We are also confronted with Christians who are not certain that we fully grasp the gospel or are living it.

Illus: Dr. Neilson on when we think we have it we really don’t.

Doctrine

Understanding God’s providence in His world helps us embrace the gospel message through faith even more.

God saves his people from the evils of the world

- Story of male children being killed by midwives

Story of Moses points to God’s providence over his plan and people

God can and does protect his people from the evils of the world

App: God has protected you to this day, physically and spiritually. God has chosen to protect you. Why?

God does this because there are forces out to destroy the growth of the church and of his Kingdom.

God saves his people from the evil in their own heart

Man’s own heart draws us toward violence

Moses facing his brothers was seen as a murdered because of what he did to the Egyptian

He was rejected by his people even though sent by God

Even though Moses was a murderer, he was saved from it and used by God to bring Israel to a place of salvation

More importantly he did this to preserve the line for Jesus Christ who would e the ultimate fulfillment of all things

God saves his people on his own time

These short stories of Moses although back to back took a long time to complete.

80 years before Moses went and rescued God’s people.

Exodus 7:7 ESV

Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

8- years is a long time to wait isn’t it. That is a whole generation.

God operates on a more grand scheme than we can even imagine.

App: We are impatient and often forget the goodness of our salvation as we wait on the Lord.

God saves his people because only he can do so

Moses is put in his place at the burning bush

Acts 7:32–34 ESV

‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

Acts 7:32

Moses is the obedient servant used by God to rescue his people

Used by God, called by God directed by God

“I have come to deliver them.”

Moses gets no credit, God gets the credit

Only God can save

Jonah 2:9 ESV

But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Edmund Clowney - “this is the summation of the whole Bible.”

Tim Keller says that Clowney would repeat this phrase when quoting , why?

To show that when we think we fully gras the gospel we actually don’t. We need to reflect upon and ponder the gospel so that we, through faith, getting it more and more.

We need to understand and practice daily living in light of the gospel - in God’s grace.

“Salvation is of the Lord” was nothing new to Jonah, but in the belly of the whale and at the bottom of the sea, he held a new perspective of salvtaion - it is only from God.

Only God can save! do you operate that way?

Doxology

Moses as a type of Christ was:

Born under an attempt to kill at birth

was rejected by his brothers

led his people out of captivity to the promised land

Seeing and hearing the story of God doing this for Israel through Moses should cause us to look to Jesus and how he has done this for us.

Where Moses was a type of Christ, Christ is the fulfillment of this completed work of salvation for his people.

It is important for us as Christians to interact with the gospel continually

To see in his word how he has rescued us in Jesus Christ

To look at stories like Moses and see where Christ fulfilled what he could not - the supremacy of Christ in all things

It is important for us to apply this special grace to our current circumstances continually

It will help us avoid the traps of the world

It will help us avoid the traps of our own heart

It is important so we don’t ever see ourselves as having past a primary step and undervalue the gospel

Keller warns that this is how he often viewed the gospel and that many of us still view it this way

Stephen is telling this story as a way of saying that the salvation God offered in the OT is the same salvation offered by Jesus Christ. It was a challenged to look to Christ as the fulfilment and then live in light of tat truth. He is reminding of Moses only to point them to Christ.

Th Lord’s Supper is also a reminder, instituted by Christ himself, of the completed atoning work on our behalf. Why do we do this often? As a reminder to live in the graces of Our Lord and Savior - A God who saves!