Sunday AM Service Template 07/07/19 Grace - God's Acceptance

G.R.A.C.E. - Acceptance BR/Text: Ephesians 2:4-7; 4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Eph 1:6; To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Introduction: This topic of Grace is the essence of our Christian faith. The reality of Grace resides in the most dominating characteristic of our heavenly Father, His Love. While it is true that God judges and punishes Sin – It is truer still that God prefers Grace! Eph 5:20.2; But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That is why he gave it, that is why he sent his Son Jesus Christ to die and pay the price for us. But what is Grace? Grace has been defined as the unmerited favor of God It means that God granted us pardon and favor that we were unworthy of. Let’s look at two extreme examples, You take someone who perhaps has been a good family man, he’s been in the military, he’s worked hard, raised his kids to do right and be respectful, he’s been unselfish and helpful to others, he has been an upstanding member of society his entire life. Then, you take a person who has been in and out of prison their whole life, they’ve robbed, cheated, stolen, harmed others, you name it. Now they are standing accused of murder. They haven’t committed any redeeming act to help their situation, they are hoplessly, and helplessly in front of the judge awaiting their sentence. He has no merit to stand on. One man would stand on his merit and expect reword and acclamation for his righteous life, while the other is helpless and in expectation and worthy of penalty and judgement. The grace of God through Jesus Christ takes the deeds of the unrighteous man and puts them onto the righteous man, and punishes him for the other man’s actions, and takes the actions of the righteous man and places them onto the unrighteous man and bestows benefit upon him for the deeds of the righteous man. It is the love of God that this in born from, through the love and obedience of Jesus Christ. Rom 5:6-9; 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him This is the Grace of God! God delights in Grace, God desires to give grace God paid the highest price for this grace, so that Grace could be applied abundantly God gives every opportunity for grace to work. God would rather grace prevail unto salvation, than for sin to prevail unto destruction. What truly Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Amazing Grace shall always be my song of praise, for it was grace that bought by liberty. And there’s no other word for Grace but Amazing! Week 3 - Acceptance First we spoke on how Grace is the gift of God – It is the gift given to the entire world. Not a select few – For God is not willing that any should perish, but that ALL would come to repentance. So he gave us the free gift of Jesus Christ to be received by Faith Last week we spoke on Grace being God’s redemption. We spoke on the price of sin, and that we were indebted to die as a result. But Christ paid the price FOR us that was too high for us to pay. He paid the Debt. We have been Redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. This week we explain how through God’s Grace we have Acceptance. We will talk about Justification, Propitiation and it is all made possible through Faith and by his Grace. Grace’s Acceptance - Intro We all seek acceptance. People may brag and boast, and say that they don’t care what other people think. And while it may be true that we don’t care about what certain people think, we DO care what people think about us. We want to be accepted. As kids growing up we want to be in the cool crowd, this stems from the desire to be accepted. Boys growing up seek the acceptance of their Father. They have a desire in them to make their Father proud. Brendon when he would get a strike (swinging or watching) he would look back at me to see if I was disappointed. Although Coach is glad and thankful that parents come to support their kids when they play, he said that sometimes it causes a distraction for the players because they are more concerned about pleasing their parents than they are focusing on the game. This all stems from that desire to be accepted. I. Sin’s Rejection Rom 3:23; For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; We were born into the world sinners. Born of the nature of Adam. Adam who was created in innocence, but through his disobedience the curse of sin was passed onto all mankind. David said, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He wasn’t speaking that he was conceived out of wedlock, but his mother was a sinner, his father was a sinner, and therefore David was born a sinner. We are born spiritually separated from God. God can’t look at us, his favor can’t cover us because this great obstacle of sin. Short of his Glory Coming short of the glory of God doesn’t just imply the difference between our righteousness and God’s righteousness. But also implies the Glory of God and his acceptance not being able to shine upon us. Our sin and our shame causes the Glory of God to turn away. In his love he wants to take us in, but our sin causes him to turn away. Have you ever been turned off by something. Maybe it was a food that didn’t pass the eye test, or the smell test? Have you ever been repulsed by something? My daughter for my birthday one year made me green eggs. She added tasteless green food coloring to the eggs, but man It did not pass the eye test! I knew there was NOTHING wrong with it, and I ate it, but that green food coloring was playing tricks on my mind (and my stomach), I had to close my eyes and choke it down. But God can’t choke down our sin, he is repulsed by it. It literally drives him away. His glory cannot shine upon us because of our unrighteousness. II. Grace Made way to Acceptance by Faith BUT GRACE MADE A WAY. Grace made a plan. That plan was to take Jesus Christ. He wasn’t shapen in iniquity, His mother didn’t conceive him in sin. Luke 1:35; And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Jesus wasn’t born after sinfulness man, he was born after the Righteousness of God. He walked this world in defiance to the curse of sin, overcoming temptation of the flesh, defeating sickness, demonstrating power over nature, confounding religious hypocrites, defeating death. How? Because he was LIFE Incarnate. So being righteous, and obedient unto death, he paid the price for our sins. The wrath of God upon sin from the foundation of the world was poured out upon Jesus Christ. This is why he was in agony in the garden. This is why he prayed If there be any other way let this cup pass from me! This is why he said My God my God why has thou forsaken me! Because just as the Father couldn’t look at us in our sin, when the sin came upon Jesus, the Father had to turn away from him as well! But Christ’s work isn’t done. He didn’t just pay the price for our sin. But the same way our sins were imparted to him, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS is imparted to US. When the Believer through FAITH accepts what Christ has done, repents and accepts him as their LORD, and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead. Salvation comes. and along with that comes ACCEPTANCE. This process of Christs righteousness being applied to our lives is called the Propitiation. Propitiation is the process, Justification is the Result! Remember we read Rom 3:23; For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God? That is where Sin left us, that is where Adam left us. Listen to what faith in Jesus Christ does, and where Jesus leaves us! Rom 3:24,25; 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Justified – (Just as if I’d) never sinned. Our sins are gone, paid for by the Blood of the Lamb. Now when God looks at us what does he see? He sees the righteousness of Jesus in us. His righteousness triumphs over our unrighteousness, His obedience is more powerful than our disobedience. WE ARE ACCEPTED! III. With Acceptance comes Favor Listen to Paul writing of our Acceptance. Rom 5:1,2; 1Therefore being justified (What does Justified mean?) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We don’t have to cower in fear because of our sins before an angry God. He said we have access. God doesn’t have to turn his glory away because of our sin, we have access. Have you ever heard of an all access pass? It is an exclusive ticket that gets you VIP treatment. You get all the perks! Diamond level access! Well we have Crimson level access to the Father through the Blood of Jesus Christ! V.2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand! Have you ever been to a restaurant or event and you were underdressed? You felt out of place, you didn’t want to draw undue attention to yourself, try to hide in the back? Bro Paul bailed me out at the fellowship meeting last weekend! I forgot my tie, and he let me borrow his! I was able to stand with my peers! We stand before the Lord, clothed and adorned in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We belong there! Because Christ’s righteousness looks good on us! So we have standing, but he also says, “And rejoice in hope of the glory of God” Before Grace we fell short of the glory of God? Glory was unobtainable, we couldn’t come into the divine favor of the glory of God. But through Grace we rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. We stand in his presence, bask in his glory! I enjoy the sun. After the polar vortex and this past winter that lasted into May and still didn’t want to let go, you wont hear me complaining about the sun! I enjoy the warmth of the sun! Well we can enjoy the warmth of the Glory of God because through Grace we have ACCEPTANCE!