Sermon Tone Analysis

* Covenant of Grace*

Selected Scripture: Gen. 15: 1 – 21

*Introduction*: Gas price is going up and up and all petroleum based products follow suite.

The cost of living is getting higher and higher and I wonder sometime; where does this end?

Oil is the key to the global economy and the future is very uncertain.

There are so many wars and rumor of war.

Iran seems developing the nuclear bomb.

Israel, the United States and European Union are getting very nervous.

I believe the coming of the Lord is very near.

We know, at least, in our mind, Jesus will come at any moment and we are encouraged to live accordingly.

*2 Peter 3**: 10**, 11* say,

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.”

The middle-aged man was visibly shaken when his Doctor advised that he had only 6 month’s to live because of the terminal disease that was detected during a recent physical check-up.

The Doctor suggested that he should get his “house in order,” make sure his will was current and ensure all final arrangements were in place for the funeral.

He should then make plans to enjoy what might be left of his life, to the fullest.

“What will you do for the last six months?

Asked the Doctor.

His patient thought for a few minutes then replied, “I think I’ll go and live with my mother-in-law.”

Surprised by the answer, the doctor asked, “of all people, why in the world would you want to live with your mother-in-law?”

“Because it’ll be the longest six months of my life!”

What would you do if the Lord returns tomorrow?

*Martin Luther* said, “If the Lord comes tomorrow, I shall still plant a tree.”

Care of the world tends to skew our outlook.

We are pressed with different world views and so easy to lose track of what the true Gospel is.

The truth is on trial now a-days.

*Col.

1:10*,

“so that you may walk in a manner *worthy* of the Lord, to please Him in all respect, *bearing* fruit in every good work and *increasing* in the *knowledge* of God” 

*Manner worthy:**        a**ξίως** *(/axiōs/) * **=  equal weight*

* *

*Illustration*: You heard a story of a farmer and a baker:  Kg of butter for the Kg of bread.

But the bread a farmer getting was smaller and smaller.

How could we live a life that is the same weight with the Lord?

We must know God.

Proper knowledge of God is the key to the life of Christians in order to walk manner worthy of the Gospel.

In other word, *theology is very important*.

*R.

C. Sproul* in his book “Following Christ” says,

The goal of theology is not to confuse but to clarify.

Doctrine is intended to sharpen our understanding of faith, not to dull it.

The assumption of classical theology is that, the more we understand Jesus, the more we will love him.

Knowledge should fuel zeal.

It is like the genetic code that programs the growth of all living things.

The knowledge of God shapes our Christian development.

The more we know, the more we should grow.

Unless we know who Christ is, we cannot become more Christ-like.

Now-a-days, there is a notion that the theology divides the people therefore, theology is something to avoid with all cost.

Consequentially, clear teaching of the Scripture became so fuzzy.

*William* *Wilberforce* (1759 – 1833) contemporary of John Newton:

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrine insensibly gained strength.

Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment.

This is very true when clear teaching of the Scripture goes, so goes the morality.

In Christian world view, doctrine must dictate the life style but this kind of perspective is now gone out of the window and the life style now dictates the teaching of the Scripture.

*Richard Niebuhr**    *“The Kingdom of God in America” describes *liberal theology* this way,

“a God without wrath, who brought men without sin into a  kingdom without judgment, through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

H.

Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper, 1959), p. 193.

If we are not careful, we call this liberal theology as the grace of God.  

*2 Pet.

1: 2** says*, “may grace and peace be yours in abundance /in the *knowledge* of God and of Jesus our Lord/.”

*2 Pet.

3**: 18*  also says, “*grow* in the *grace* and *knowledge* of our lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

*Proper understanding of Grace of God is very important to grow in Christian maturity.*

Grace and knowledge of God go hand in hand.

Someone said, “The will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.”

A good saying!

But it made me thinking.

It somehow gives an impression that God is *obligated* to exercise grace when we obey, what we think of grace that is.

If this saying reads like this, would you agree?   “The will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you *except, Martyrdom, hardships and persecutions**.”

Is this true?

Do you agree?

No!  *

It something like this; when I was in Bible School.

A missionary who led me to Christ found a person to support me financially: $5 US a month.

He was very faithful, it continued for 3 years, but sometimes it got behind.

When a *couple months* I did not receive this support, I started to wonder where is “*MY Money?*”  Isn’t it how we feel about God’s grace sometime?

We are now under grace and God is somehow different from 2000 years ago and God is getting older and becoming more understanding, gentler and mellower.

A little girl sitting on grandpa’s lap listening to the story but somehow this little girl is oblivious to the story and rubbing grandpa’s wrinkled face and then rubs her own face.

She does that a few times then asks grandpa,

“Grandpa, did God make you?”

To this grandpa answers

“Yes, a long long time ago, my dear.”

“Grandpa, did God make me?”  “Yes, of course”

“Whomm, God got better at it!”

We know God is the same yesterday and today and forever.

But deep in the corner of our hearts, we feel that God’s grace is different now from 2000 years ago.

*We feel we deserve what we don’t deserve**.

*

How then should we live as the ones who profess to know the grace of God?

Today I would like us to see the Grace from God’s perspective so that we would have a deeper understanding of God’s Grace.

*Let’s Pray*.

In order to understand the grace of God.

We must understand the covenants.

*Eph.

2: 12* says,

/remember /that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the *covenants* of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Also in *2 Cor.

3**: 6*  

who also made us adequate /as /*servants* *of a new covenant*, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We are transformed from “strangers to the covenants” to the “servants of a new covenant.”

*This is grace*.

Covenants reveal how the grace of God reached us.

So this morning we shall look at a covenant.