Don't Dishonor The Spirit Of Grace

Introduction

The winner of eight Academy Awards, Amadeus is a fascinating study of the way in which jealousy destroys those who cannot accept the fact that God sometimes gives remarkable gifts to undeserving people. This fictional story explores the competitive relationship between Antonio Salieri , gifted classical musician, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an even greater musician who continually outshines Salieri. Salieri, court composer to the eighteenth-century Austrian emperor, now from childhood that he was destined to write music, and he dreamed of becoming great. Recognizing that music was from God, he bargained with the Almighty:

Lord, make me a great composer Let e celebrate your glory through music and be celebrated myself. Make me famous throughout the world, dear God. Make me immortal. After I die, let people speak my name forever with love for what I wrote. In return, I will give you my chastity, my industry, my deepest humility, every hour of my life.

Although Salieri becomes a well-respected musician, he knows nothing of the fame or talent God gives Mozart.

In the movie, Mozart is depicted as profligate, spending more money then he makes. When in dire financial straits, Mozart’s young bride, Constanze, requests Salieri to help her sell some of her husband’s manuscripts. As Salieri reads each manuscript, he plays the notes in his head, astonished by the perfection of each composition. Wildly jealous, he exits the room and sits in his parlor, contemplating why God allowed Mozart to drink of the fame for which he’s thirsted all his life. Angered, he pulls the crucifix off the wall and throws it into the blazing fireplace.

He speaks the following words to God:

From now on we are enemies, you and I. Because you choose for your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for my reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation; because you are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block you. I sear it. I will hinder and harm your creature on earth. As far as I am able, I will ruin your incarnation.

Transition To Body

People Willfully Take God’s Grace For Granted

People of God, even, ignore the counsel of the Holy Spirit

This counsel of the Holy Spirit is an act of God’s grace

Help, advocate, intercessor, encouraging, mediating on our behalf, counselor (lawyer)

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Issue of Grace In the Holy Scriptures

We pray for grace

Psalm 86:6 ESV

6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.

Grace From Our Enemies When We Need Rest

Jeremiah 31:2 ESV

2 Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,

God Pours Out a Spirit of Grace

Zechariah 12:10 ESV

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Jesus is Full of Grace & Truth

John 1:14–17 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

We Need the Grace of God To Believe

Acts 18:27 ESV

27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,

Continue In The Grace Of God

Acts 13:43 ESV

43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Testify to the Gospel of the Grace of God

Acts 20:24 ESV

24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

So Grace Is A Gift We Receive Through Redemption

Romans 3:23–24 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

A Grace Not To Be Taken For Granted

Romans 6:1 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Receiving Grace In Vain

2 Corinthians 6:1 ESV

1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Understanding the Grace Of God In Truth

Colossians 1:6 ESV

6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

Grace To Be Faithful

1 Timothy 6:21 ESV

21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Grace In the Book of Hebrews

By The Grace Of God Jesus Tasted Death For Everyone

Hebrews 2:9 ESV

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Mercy & Grace Through Our Sympathetic High Priest To Help in Time of Need

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Bitterness Prevents Us From Obtaining the Grace of God

Hebrews 12:15 ESV

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Grace Strengthens Our Hearts To Our Benefit

Hebrews 13:9 ESV

9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

(But We Can Knowingly Dishonor God’s Grace)

Body- When We Dishonor God’s Spirit of Grace

Our Sinful Stubbornness Brings Anticipated Suffering

Genuine Gospel Acceptance Produces Spiritual Conversion

Hebrews 10:26–27 NET

26 For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us,27 but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies.

After Receiving Knowledge of the Truth

Deliberately Sinning

Problem?

No longer remains a sacrifice for sins

Adversary = opposed, contrary, hostile

Scripture Testifies Of God’s Righteous Justice

Hebrews 10:28 NET

28 Someone who rejected the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

set = to declare invalid, refuse to recognize

Numbers 15:30 ESV

30 But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people.

Deuteronomy 17:2–6 ESV

2 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Despising Jesus’ Sacrifice Deserves Divine Punishment

Hebrews 10:29 NET

29 How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for the Son of God, and profanes the blood of the covenant that made him holy, and insults the Spirit of grace?

Psalm 2:11–12 ESV

11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Profaning the blood of the covenant (by which he was sanctified)

profane= pertaining of being of little value, in view of being ordinary & common

Outraged the Spirit of Grace

outraged = insult, to peak against someone in an insolent & arrogant way

grace= to show kindness to someone, with the implication of graciousness on the part of the one showing such kindness.

Transition To Close: Falling Into The Hands of the Living God

1 Corinthians 1:28–31 ESV

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

God is the one who will judge

Hebrews 10:30 NET

30 For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

Close

Illustration: Rev. Dr. Tony Evans once said WHEN a person truly understands that oxygen is a gift, they will not smoke. If a person comprehends that good health is a gift, they are not going to abuse drugs. When a Christian understands that grace is a gift of God, they will make the choice to say no to wrong and yes to right. If a Christian loses sight of grace, then they become irresponsible with the life given to them by God.

Hebrews 10:31 NET

31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

To stand in judgement with no counsel or lawyer

To stand in judgement with no advocate

To stand in judgement with no mediator

But, there is some Good News For you today....

But It Was David who said to God

2 Samuel 24:14 ESV

14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

So We Work Our Own Salvation With Fear & Trembling

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said it this way...

Ephesians 2:4–10 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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 coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.