The Need for Grace
Notes
Transcript
No one likes to talk about death
Big Idea: There is no hope for anyone outside of God’s grace.
Big Idea: There is no hope for anyone outside of God’s grace.
Prayer
Breakdown
The Death no one can escape
The Death no one can escape
The time we live in
Death 1 John 2:17
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The values we live by
Either nothing matters or we strive to stave off destruction by what we choose
Illustration - Breaking down cars
We live in this type of world because of our separation from God. He didn’t create it this way. Genesis 2:17
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Illustration - COVID is it a sickness that kills or does your body kill you because of it
The Death that rules us
The Death that rules us
The kingdom we are under
Illustration - Rights of US Citizens vs other countries
It’s an anti-kingdom
The disobedience it loves to encourage
Not that people are as bad as possible James 2:10
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
It likes lulling you to sleep in a kettle of water…asleep by comparison.
The Hobbit - a dragon vs. Thorin vs. Bilbo
All our righteousnesses....
Can you rescue yourself from this kingdom?
The Death we choose to enjoy
The Death we choose to enjoy
The desires we seek apart from God
The out of control desires of the flesh
“You should know better.”
Christmas
Never any consideration of God
Illustration: Bread vs Hoarding wheat kernels
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
The natural things we do to enjoy what we want
Our out of control desires never believe that they can be satisfied and at peace with God alone
This is our freedom and our slavery
So we want the things that bring us death, we live in a world that can’t imagine anything otherwise and we have a prince who’s actively encouraging us to die here. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. There is no hope from within…from ourselves…from our world. This is why we need grace.
This is why we need the Gospel. This is why we need people to go and tell others of the Gospel. This is why we need to tell others of the Gospel.
“Christ was sent not to mend wounded people or wake sleepy people or advise confused people or inspire bored people or spur on lazy people or educate ignorant people, but to raise dead people.”
― Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers
Have you received the grace of God? Are you telling anyone of the grace of God? Are you praying that others may receive the grace of God?
