Sermon Central
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Grafted In By Grace
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Mar 27, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: Aposte Paul shows us by example the wonderful power and mercy of the grace of God. He also shows us the sterness and how imoortasnt it is to be obedient to God Word.
Grafted in by grace
Romans chapter 11:11-11:24
Introduction-
Thank God for Grace! Mike Nordai thanks God for Grace every day.
Really, grace is God giving us something that we cannot obtain for ourselves.
G.R.A.C.E. God’s riches at Christ expense
The key being that God gave us mercy at Christ’s expense.
You take Jesus out of grace and you have the holy and justness of God which brings wrath for our sins.
We will look at for the next few weeks at God’s grace and leading up to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning.
What person do you want to hear those messages enough that you will personally invite them to be here Easter morning and make sure that they get here?
Romans chapter 11- God is talking about a remnant of believers.
Remember Elijah feeling the pressure of persecution, feeling like he was the only one serving God. Crying out to God! “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me.
” What was God’s answer, suck it up cry baby! No, that would be my answer- His was, “I have reserved myself 7000 who have not bowed and worship other gods.”
By my grace, there is a remnant of those who will serve me.
Illustration-
During the building of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, construction fell badly behind schedule because several workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffolding to their deaths. Engineers and administrators could find no solution to the costly delays. Finally, someone suggested a gigantic net be hung under the bridge to catch any who fell. Finally in spite of the enormous cost, the engineers opted for the net. After it was installed, progress was hardly interrupted. A worker or two fell into the net but were saved. Ultimately, all the time lost to fear was regained by replacing fear with faith in the net.
God is saying that He has a safety net to His remnant and will not allow them to fall.
God has mercy upon us because He is a gracious God.
There is a biblical definition of grace-
if we could be saved (salvation) by works it would not be grace.
Grace is of God and works in of man.
If grace (God) is removed from the picture, it would be left to works (man) for salvation.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boost.”
God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ is how we are saved and redeemed by God.
It is a gift from God and cannot be earned or bought by our works.
Disgrace- or what I call greasy grace is thinking that it is something you have done or earned.
Disgrace is accepting Jesus as savior and then living your life as you want to and not obeying God’s Word.
Now keeping all this in mind, let’s look at our text and what God is saying to the remnant of Israel and what He is saying to us this morning who are on the other side of the cross of Christ.
Romans chapter 11:11-11:24
The Jews rejection of the gospel opened up salvation to the Gentiles who was anyone who was not Jewish. The temporary hardening of the Jews allowed us to have the availability to be grafted into God’s grace and mercy.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Thank God for Grace and Mercy that saves men/women today.
There has always been unbelief, God tells us we must believe through faith in Christ.
There has always been persecution of some sort, in places at times worse than others, but God tells us that He will always have a remnant of believers that will not bow down to idols and will serve God.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Cor. 4:3-4
You cannot come to Christ without the power of Christ working in your life.
That is why it is so important to respond when He is speaking to us.
I love people that say they got saved. They found Christ! You didn’t find Christ, Christ found you, and you responded to Him and accepted the gift of God which is Jesus Christ, The redeemer of mankind.
God offers His love and salvation to a man/women, but a man/women has to accept His offer and respond to God.
