Sermon Central
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God's Response To Our Sinfulness
Contributed by Ken Mowery on Dec 22, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: Explores the work of salvation accomplished by God in contrast to the sinfulness of mankind.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Last Sunday we completed our look at the difficult news that we are all sinners.
Foolish
Disobedient
Deceived
Enslaved To Various Lusts And Pleasures
Spending Our Life In Malice
Envy
Hateful - Hating One Another
God Meets Our Sinfulness With Kindness And Love
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
(ILL) Dennis The Mennace cartoon -- Dennis and Joey are walking away from the Wilson’s house and both of them have their hands full of cookies - Joey says " I wonder what we did to deserve this? -- Dennis answers back -- Mrs. Wilson doesn’t give us cookies because we are nice. She gives us cookies because she is nice.
God saves us not because we are nice but because he is.
And because he is a loving God.
The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
But demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
God Meets Our Sinfulness With His Mercy
Mercy = God NOT giving us what we deserve
Mercy must be understood in the context of the list from Titus 3:3
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God
the wages of sin is death
We all deserve - and have earned death
(ILL) A glass of pure water. One dropper of raw sewage. One tiny drop of sewage is not noticable to our eyes but we are still repulsed by it.
God Meets Our Sinfulness With Regeneration And Renewing
I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away and behold new things have come
16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
God accomplishes this work of regeneration - renewing by His Spirit
5Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
God Meets Our Sinfulness With Jesus Christ Our Savior
God did all of these things to accomplish our salvation and it is comes to us through faith in His Son.
and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
