Gods Amazing Grace Pastor John Kane

Let's continue in prayer praying for our church as we continue to look at options and as you know, as Victor shared last week, we postponed our vote, our meeting, we're going to keep pushing that down the road a little bit as things arise and and for us to consider so God is working in his way and so just remember that and uphold the church in your prayers for that.

So before we begin our service today, I'd like to let's let's open in prayer. Pray with me, please.

Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you have brought us here together. Father, you have blessed each one,

Lord, in a special way. Father, I pray the word would penetrate hearts today that we would hear your truth in a way that would would grow us, would sanctify us,

Lord, that would bring some to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Father, because that is why we gather is because of your son and the hope that is in trusting him,

Father, and committing our lives to him. So we thank you, Lord, for for the work that you're doing in us.

Father, we pray this morning that you would bless Janet and the Kane family and her extended family and siblings,

Father, that you would make your presence known that you would show the goodness and the grace that comes through trusting in Jesus.

Father, so we pray for them. We pray for Pastor John today that you would the spirit would empower him and enable his words to go forward in a way that he cannot in a material, in a human way.

Father, but Lord, by the spirit, you would change lives in that message today. And and we're just blessed to to be here together.

Father, Lord, we commit our service to you, that we would honor you, that you would be glorified in all that we do.

Father, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. And as we gather to worship together,

I think it's a good idea to reflect on on exactly what that means. Warren Wiersbe says that it's like this.

Worship is the believers response of all that they are. Mind, emotions, will, body to what

God is and says and does. So to put it another way, we're actually engaging

God in our worship. It's not a static thing. This is something that we have within ourselves to put forward and to honor and to worship him and to put a word picture in your mind.

Also, before we raise our voices in song, John in Revelation talks about his experience of approaching the throne.

And I wanted to read a few verses here in chapter four. Immediately, I was in the spirit and behold, a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne.

And he who sat there was like a Jasper and a Sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald around the throne were 24 thrones.

And on the thrones, I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. And then later in the in the verse 10 and 11, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying,

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.

Amen. Please stand with me as we sing all hail the power of Jesus name.

So next, we're going to sing all creatures of our God and King. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, praise Him, Alleluia, Alleluia, Oh, praise

Him, Oh, praise

Him, Alleluia, Alleluia, Praise God and on, past your care,

Oh, praise Him, Oh, praise Him, Alleluia, ♪

All things that are great or less ♪ And worship

Him ♪

Praise Him ♪ Praise, praise the

Father ♪ Praise the Son ♪ And praise the

Father ♪ Three in one ♪ Oh, praise

Him ♪ Oh, praise Him ♪ Alleluia Please be seated.

Good morning. The script you're reading today is Romans 3, 20 -28.

Romans chapter 3, verse 20 -28. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show

God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show

His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works?

No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

And all of God's people said. Amen. Well, I think we have at least one first -time visitor, maybe two, so welcome to Faith Bible Church.

At this time, it's our custom and our practice because of all that's going on in our country and also because of the scripture that tells us we're to pray for kings and governors and princes and rulers and authorities over us.

And as Christians, that's one of the things we do. We pray for those over us. It's great to see

Wayne back in church for the first time in months, many months, and that's wonderful to have you here in Venera.

So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we're so humbled and overwhelmed when we think about it, that because of your love for us, because of your only begotten son coming to this earth, living a sinless life, going to the cross of Calvary, dying a horrible and cruel death, shedding his blood as the payment and propitiation for our sin and the sins of the world, and that he was buried and that he rose again after three days, and that right now at this very moment, he sits at your right hand making intercession for us, that because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can come before thy throne of grace boldly.

Lord, not ashamed because of Jesus Christ, not embarrassed of anything that we've ever done in our lives, because of Jesus Christ, we stand before you perfectly righteous, perfectly holy despite our sin.

Because of Christ, you see him, not us. And God, for that, we're thankful.

And we do join all creatures of our God and king. We do rejoice and lift up our voice and sing praises to you,

God. You deserve all of our praise. You deserve all of our love.

In fact, you tell us to love you with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength,

God. We confess, Father, that so often in our lives in the busyness, Father, of work and all of these things,

God, that we fall short. We are distracted by the things of the world,

Father. Lord, we do pray for our country. You know,

Lord, what's going on. You know the beginning and the end. We confess the sins of this nation,

God. We confess them. This is a wicked, sinful country that has turned its back on a holy

God. Not just unbelievers in this country, but even the church that has brought

God down, brought you down, a holy, righteous God, down to some friend that they can turn to like a bud and not high and lifted up, as Harold read earlier.

And your train fills the temple. And John fell on his face as a dead man.

Isaiah, woe is me. So thank you that we can pray for the

President, the Senate, the Congress, God. We can pray for your will in this

Supreme Court nomination. We can pray, God, for your will in the state of California as we head into an election,

God. And we know, Father, from Scripture that we as Christians need to vote, we need to pray.

But God, most of all, we understand from Daniel, many passages throughout

Scripture that you put kings in their place and you pull them down. May your will be done in this country,

God. We pray for the church, specifically for our church,

God, that we would respond to the things that are going on in this country. With humility and with reverence of you,

God. We pray, God, that you might open doors for us. I mean, there's not a one of us here,

Father God, that would not, when we stand before that great throne one day, know that we failed,

Father, in sharing the gospel the way we could have. Father, this week, there might be divine appointments that you set before us.

Somebody, Father, that you have chosen before the foundation of the world to come to Jesus Christ that we need to share the gospel with,

God. The good news of Jesus Christ. We pray that you might open those doors for us and that we would be obedient when that door is opened,

God. We pray for those that are hurting in our church.

We pray for those who have lost recently loved ones for your continued comfort and grace,

Father. We pray, God, that we might indeed hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And, Lord, we give you all the praise and all the glory. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen?

Second Timothy 112, it reads, for this reason

I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom

I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day, and that day being eternity.

Let's stand as we sing, I know whom I have believed. ♪

I am persuaded that it's that day ♪

Next we are gonna sing a hymn that's been around a long time, It Is Well With My Soul. In spite of all the things that are happening around us in our personal lives and the lives of this country, everything, it should be within our soul that it is well, those that know

Christ. So let's sing It Is Well With My Soul. ♪ It is well my soul, my soul, my soul ♪ ♪

My sin o 'er the heavens all, it is well my soul ♪ ♪

It is well my soul, it is well my soul to me, now be thine ♪

Thank you. Please be seated. Pastor John. Just when you think we're going to do another book of the

Bible or finish what we started last week, I turn the tables on you, right? So forgive me in advance.

You know, it's interesting. I know there's some younger Christians here in terms of when you've gotten saved, but the church today is in the

United States of America is not anything like what the church was 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago.

The holiness, the sinfulness, adulterous pastors, pastors taking the church's money, the kinds of things that are going on in the church today, you know, obviously since the fall of man had been going on for, you know, a thousand years.

But to give you a good idea of, of what's going on in the church and get a pulse on that, all you have to do is look at the music.

Some of you that are younger Christians, not younger in age, but younger Christians. You may not understand this, but for example, that song we just sung, it is well with my soul.

That was written by Horatio Stafford. And when you read about what brought about some of these great hymns of faith, like it is well with my soul.

Here was a man who was a multi -millionaire, and he was a

Christian. He owned real estate all over the city of Chicago.

And maybe some of you have heard of the great fire of Chicago, where I believe, because I didn't study for this, this is impromptu, okay?

So if I'm a little wrong about something, will you forgive me in advance? I think about a third of the city was burned to the ground.

And this man had planned a trip across the Atlantic Ocean to support the ministry of a very famous evangelist by the name of D .L.

Moody. So Stafford and his family were, had tickets on an ocean liner.

This was before airplanes. So you got on a, on an ocean liner and you cross the

Atlantic and it would take five, six, seven days, depending on the speed of the ship. Remember the Titanic?

Anyway, the Chicago fire occurred, and in order for him to resolve some of the business issues of losing all this property and real estate being burned to the ground, and tenants basically without a home, he sent his wife and family, daughters, across on that ship, and he was going to come later.

And they were going to England to, to be with D .L. Moody as he did these evangelistic meetings in Great Britain.

As the ship was crossing the ocean that his wife and daughters was on, it struck another vessel and sank.

And he got a telegram from England, all saved,

I mean all lost but one, and I, my mind's blank at the moment. Was it one daughter?

No daughters. Only his, only his wife survived that catastrophic collision at sea.

Right? Does that ring a bell? You guys are looking at me blank. Okay. Anyway, he took the next available ship across the ocean and he asked the captain to let him know when the ship was near the area where the collision occurred.

And the captain let him know. He went down to his stateroom and he penned the words, it is well with my soul.

And that's where the line where sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say.

It is well, it is well with my soul. If you ever have an opportunity to look it up,

I encourage you to do that. Now compare the history of much of church music from the 1500s,

A Mighty Fortress is Our God written by Martin Luther, A Bulwark Never Failing, and Isaac Watts, who wrote hundreds of hymns.

And this hymn that we just sang, It Is Well With My Soul, and compare that with the history of some of the music being sung in the church today.

And you hear the interviews of some of these musicians. Well, I got the idea for the song, I was watching my dog play with a ball.

And I just thought, you know, God's in my dog. And so I wrote this song.

And I could go on and on with examples like that. And for those of you that are younger

Christians, what I encourage you to do, younger in the faith, is as we sing in church, biblical hymns.

In the 15 and 1600s, when 85, 90, 90 percent of the people were illiterate and couldn't read, you know where they learned about God?

In church, singing hymns. So when we sing those hymns, look at it as a classroom and learn about God.

Amen? Learn about His nature and His attributes. Think about the music,

All Creatures of Our God and King, Let Us of Our God and King. Oh, wait a minute. You mean He's King?

Yeah, He's King. And just go through the words. Don't just sing them mindlessly. Learn about God through the music that we sing in church.

Okay? I encourage you. Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for this day, this time in Your Word.

We give You praise. We give You honor. We give You glory. We know that the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Father. We ask that He might indeed give us grace to understand the words of Your holy

Scriptures that You've given to us, God, this morning. That You might be glorified. That Christ might be exalted.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen? So again, forgive me for not finishing up 1

Samuel. God willing, next week I'll do that. A lot of things have been happening at Faith Bible Church the past few weeks, even months.

Victor and Barb getting COVID and recovering.

Amen? God's grace. Harold's mother recently passed away.

Richard's brother just passed away. I spoke with him about that, how close they are.

Emptiness that he told me, you know, I just don't even know what to think because I talked to him and I can't talk to him.

And then, of course, Friday morning, my wife's, early Friday morning, my wife's dad that we took care of in our home for two and a half years.

And the first thing that a couple of friends, one friend in particular, first thing he texted me after I, because I said,

I'll handle the friends. She had so much on her plate. The first thing he said was, did he ever get saved?

Well, only God knows that. Okay. He sat at our dinner table for two, over two years.

He came to our church every Sunday. This is a Roman Catholic, came to our church every single

Sunday. He heard the gospel. One day I got so frustrated at dinner, I turned the whole conversation and made it a gospel conversation, trying to see, can

I get this man to admit that he's a sinner and pray a sinner's prayer, right?

And I didn't force the issue. So, only God knows his heart. Amen? You know,

God only can judge whether somebody is truly saved. We see the fruit of it. You know, in his case, he came to church every

Sunday. What's another fruit? We'd walk by his room and he'd be singing Amazing Grace.

Well, another time we'd walk by his room and he'd be praying the Mary prayer. So, only

God knows, right? But, you know, I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but as I look at this year and I look at what's been going on in the life of Faith Bible Church and so many people's lives across this country,

I couldn't help but look ahead and realize how much more of 2020 is left.

And as I was studying to finish up 1 Samuel, I just could not get out of my mind.

And then, of course, Friday morning, you know, my wife is asleep. There's a whole story behind how we found out that her dad passed that morning of a heart attack, by the way.

I could not stop thinking about God's Amazing Grace. If you have your notes, you'll see the sermon title is

Amazing Grace. Now, most of us know the song and can sing it, but I want to ask a question, and really ask this of yourself.

How familiar am I, how well do

I understand what the Bible teaches about God's Amazing Grace?

In the midst of trials and heartache and personal loss, do our minds, are we able to dwell on the wonderful truth of God's grace rather than the situation?

Now, some 300 years ago in England, there was a young boy, and he was brought up in a

Christian home, and he was taught the Bible and about God by his

Christian mother. She took him to church every Sunday. Sadly, his mother died when he was just 7 years old.

At the age of 11, he went to work for his father, listen carefully, who was the captain of a slave trading ship.

Learning the ways of his fellow sailors, the young man became vulgar and sinful. He learned to love rum and beer.

His teen years became those filled with rebellion and immorality.

In time, this young man brought up by a Christian mother for 7 years, by his

Christian mother, before she died. This young man came to actually hate

God. He blamed God for his many troubles. And believe it or not, things got so bad that one day he took his

Bible, imagine this, he took his Bible and tore it to shreds.

I've got every Bible I've ever owned. I can't imagine throwing them away.

I've got my first Bible with the wet, when

I got saved, and the pages all wet from the tears that flowed down. He was involved in a profession that was despicable, the slave trade.

If you know anything about the history of slavery in the 1800s, only the hardest of men could turn a blind eye to the incredible pain and suffering that the slave trade caused so many.

Eventually, this man earned the command of his own slave ship. After a number of years as captain, surviving many storms and events at sea, a horrible storm came upon his ship.

And for the first time that he could remember, he was afraid of dying. The masts were broken, sails shredded, the ship floundering.

The last resort of many, of anybody that sailed, I sailed for many years, so I know a little bit about this, was to throw, in those days, before engines and so on and so forth, was to throw a sea anchor out, which was a kind of bag that would keep the ship pointed into the wind and into the waves.

He was scared. He was more scared than he had ever been in his life. And in the midst of this storm, he cried out to God for mercy.

And he said, God, if you would only save me from this certain death,

I will turn back to you. Save me.

The ship survived the storm. In the weeks and months that followed this miraculous deliverance, the man began to understand the reality of God's grace and love.

He began to understand that no matter how bad a life he had lived, no matter how far down, even to the point of ripping a

Bible and ripping God's Word to shreds and throwing it away, he realized that God still loved him.

And a short time later, he became a Christian. He soon became an outspoken opponent of slavery.

In time, he became a pastor. And it was while serving as a pastor that John Newton, once a denier of the reality of God's grace and love, wrote the words to the hymn,

Amazing Grace. He wrote the words of that hymn to tell the story of his life.

Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now

I see. See, some people would say that the word grace means undeserved favor.

What did John Newton deserve? How real is

God's grace and God's love? It saved a wretch like John Newton.

Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. It saved a wretch like John Newton.

It saved a wretch like me. It saved a wretch like anybody here that is truly born again.

The second verse says, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.'"

How real is God's grace and love? The moment that John Newton believed—listen, the moment, the instant that John Newton believed, his fear of death was relieved.

I had to say that to somebody in a text this week. They're scared to death of COVID.

I said, I'm a Christian. Hey, do

I need to be concerned and be cautious? Yeah, come on, right? When I get in the car, do you drive like an idiot and drive down the wrong side?

Come on. I'm washing my hands. I'm careful, but I'm not afraid.

My daughter, because we joked about it when it first came out, right? Everybody was very afraid, but now we understand it better.

But anyway, the point is, Webster's Dictionary defines amaze as being filled with wonder to astound, to show or cause astonishment.

Astonishment! Amazing, astonishing grace.

God's grace. And that's what I want to speak with you about today. Amazing grace, and the amazing gospel that guarantees entrance to an amazing place called heaven.

Heaven! God demonstrates and manifests

His grace and His incredible love, and in so many different ways. So, this morning, as we think about and pray for what's going on in the lives of people in our church, what's going on in our country, what

I want to do today is to dig deeper, to put on some waders, wade into this topic of God's amazing grace.

And I want to answer, really, a simple question. I put it in your notes. How does

God demonstrate and manifest His amazing grace?

And first of all, by means of His amazing love. How does

God demonstrate and manifest His amazing grace? One way that God demonstrates and manifests

His amazing grace is by means of His love towards mankind.

Romans, chapter 5, verse 8. God demonstrates

His own love toward us. I'll be in John in a minute. Just hang on.

You're all looking, why is he in Romans? We'll go to Romans in a minute. We're in John, chapter 3, but just hang on.

Romans 5, 8. God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. Now, I want to wade a little deeper into this.

Number one, God's love can be seen and understood more fully by considering the depth of His love.

Look at John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He gave

His only begotten Son. That would be better translated, one and only.

That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So, John 3, 16 demonstrates the reality of God's love by revealing to us the depth of that love.

Now, what do I mean by the depth of God's love? God's love is so deep that no matter what the condition of mankind,

God still loves us. No matter what we've done, God still loves us.

No matter how deep our sin and how far down we have slid,

God still loves us. In that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. We'll see in a moment how Romans 3 says there's not righteous, not a single purchase righteous.

All of us like sheep have gone astray. But see, none of this matters to God. God so loved the world means that God so greatly loved us, and His love is so deep that none of it matters to Him.

There is not enough strikes on the negative side of the ledger to negate the positive of God's love.

You can fill up pages on the negative side of the ledger sheet, and it will not negate

God's love. God's love is so great and it's so deep that we can measure the depth by looking at what

He gave. What did He give? His one and only begotten

Son. Now, I don't know about anybody else, but I cannot imagine.

It is literally beyond my ability to comprehend or to conceive ever sacrificing one of my children's lives for the life of some stranger that I have never met.

And listen to me, much less for a drunk driver that kills somebody during a

DUI, or a murderer, or a rapist, or some other horrible kind of criminal.

To me, one of the most gripping accounts in all of Scripture is when

Abraham took his son, Isaac, up to that mountain and literally, literally tied that young man to that pile of rocks and lifted that knife.

He was so obedient and so trusted God that he literally lifted the knife over that young man before God gave the sacrifice.

I can't imagine giving one of my beautiful, precious daughters to pay the penalty of some rapist's sin, but God loves any and all of them.

And He gave His Son to die a cruel and horrible death. And as hard as it is for us to understand and wrap our minds around this,

Jesus Christ died for the sins of the drunk that killed people with a

DUI. He died for the cold -blooded murderer. He died for the adulterer, the fornicator, the liar, the thief, the homosexual.

Jesus died for the sins of every single person ever born and will ever be born until Jesus comes again.

That's how deep His love is. The second way that God's love is demonstrated here in John 3, 16 is by the width of His love.

Will you look at the verse? It is amazing. Think about how wide God's love is. It says,

Whoever believes in Him. Look at that.

Just that little phrase. And this is amazing if you just begin to think about this.

Whoever believes in Him. Jesus is saying here, this is the words of Jesus.

God's love is not limited to white Anglo -Saxon males between the ages of 55 and 85.

It is not limited to somebody that drives a Tesla, or a

Toyota Corolla, or a 76 Impala. It is not limited to somebody who has not stolen someone.

And it's not limited to somebody who has stolen something. It is for everyone.

It is so wide it applies to whoever believes in Him. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ is no respecter of persons.

He says in Matthew 11, Matthew 11,

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

This is amazing. Listen. Nowhere in the Gospels will you find

Jesus saying, Come unto me, some of you. Come unto me, those of you born in a wealthy family.

Come unto me, those of you that have a million in your 401k. Come unto me. Come unto me, those of you who are

Spanish, or French, or Chinese. Come unto me, those of you who are good and don't think you've ever told a lie.

Come unto me, all of you. God's love is deep and it's wide.

Back at John 3 .16. I hope you see this as clearly as I do.

God's love is demonstrated and manifested by its height.

Now, I'm 6 '4". How high is God's love?

Do you see it? It reaches all the way to heaven. See the phrase, should not perish, but have everlasting life?

That's sometimes used as a synonym for heaven. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us exactly where heaven is, but I'll tell you one thing for sure.

Are you ready for this? It's higher than where we are now. And can

I tell you what else? There's no place more wonderful than heaven. I mean, the happiest place on earth is not

Disneyland. Well, maybe it is Disneyland, because it says on earth, right?

Beloved, no place on earth, no experience on earth can ever come even close to what heaven is like.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has prepared a mansion in heaven for those who receive him. And the

Bible tells us that the mansion is done. It's finished. It's not a work in progress. The permits were pilled.

The plumbing, the electrical, everything is ready. It is complete. We don't have to add any rooms to it.

It's finished. How high is God's love? It's higher and more glorious than anything we could ever imagine.

I had the privilege of going to New York City and standing at the bottom of the

World Trade Center towers before they were so horribly destroyed on 9 -11.

And if you've ever done that, when you stand at the bottom, they're so tall you can't see the top.

They tell you to do that. You can see the top of the

Empire State Building, by the way, right? You can see that needle. But at the bottom of the Trade Center, you couldn't.

They're just too high. And the amazing thing about God's love is that it is infinitely higher than the World Trade Center towers ever were.

His love gives us eternal life in heaven. So how does God demonstrate and manifest his amazing grace?

For one, it's by his amazing love. Now, secondly, this is the best, well, maybe the best one.

He demonstrates it by means of the gospel. How does

God demonstrate and manifest his amazing grace? For one, by means of his amazing love.

And second, by means of the good news of the gospel. John Newton wrote, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found. And the question is, how does this happen?

How does someone who is lost like that get found? It happens only by means of the gospel.

Now, the word gospel simply means what? Exactly, good news.

And there's really four parts to a biblical gospel. Let me tell you, when a television evangelist sits there and looks in the camera and says, you can be a

Christian right now. Just pray this with me, Jesus. I love you.

I want to be a child of yours. Amen. That is not the gospel.

There's four parts to a biblical gospel. First of all, a biblical gospel that Jesus preached and died for involves two persons.

Listen, there's two people in the gospel drama. One is God, and another is every sinner, okay?

God and individual human beings. Now, here's interesting. If you go online and Google this, how many

Americans believe in God? You'll be surprised. Most do. But the question you want to ask is, what

God do they believe in? Is it the God of the Bible? Or is it the

God of the Koran? Is it the God of the Bible? Or is it the God of the Book of Mormon? Is it the

God of the Bible? Or is it the God that they created themselves? Yeah, there's a God. I have a family member that believes in God.

But it's certainly not the God of the Bible. See, the

Bible is clear. There's only one God. And that God is revealed to us in the

Bible. And let me tell you about this God. This God is holy and righteous.

He is 100 % pure white. Whiter than the driven snow.

No sin. No faults. Nothing. Pure. So, when it comes to the reasons that Jesus Christ came to the earth, it's vital to understand, listen, that because God is holy and righteous and pure,

He cannot dwell with sin. And because of His holiness,

He is set apart from sin. God is righteous and holy and man isn't.

And as a result, man is separated from God by his sin.

Romans 3. Maybe you've been in the old days when you would go to a gas station and they didn't have a mini mart.

There was actually the garage stalls. You ever been to one of those? And the guy's been working on cars for 35 or 40 years.

And he listens to your car. He knows exactly what's going on. But the place is a mess.

He's covered head to toe in grease. He's got a rag. And he's going like this. He's got tools.

They're all dirty. No computer monitors or anything else. And you're there in a brand new beige suit.

And you walk up to that garage door and he comes up to you and you kind of go like this, right?

You're not going to touch that grease, are you? In your beautiful light beige suit?

With your white going to church shoes? You're not even going to step in, right?

Sorry, Jackie. She's like, camera. The other player in the gospel drama is mankind.

There is a God and his condition is one of absolute holiness. But man's condition is anything but holy.

Romans 3 verse 10. There is none righteous.

No, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

There is no one who does good. No, not one.

Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit.

The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. And you see, the average person reads that and says,

I'm not that bad. I've been a good person.

And you know, people may say, I've been, I grew up in church. I've met people like that.

Oh, yeah, I've always been a Christian. You know, maybe they've never killed somebody.

Maybe they feel like they've never lied or stolen. And you know, that's a good thing. And maybe every time they drive by the homeless guy that says, you know, need money, stranded, they give money to them.

Maybe they've never cheated on their wife. They've always treated their kids great. But you understand, that's our perspective, right?

There are good people in the world. But here's how God looks at us.

We've got to understand that. Everyone is guilty.

All it takes is one lie. One. Get a speeding ticket sometime.

All it takes is one. Oops, that was a mistake. Romans 3 .23.

For all have sinned. Guilty. Fall short of the glory of God.

All men have sinned and fall short of God's glory. There's no middle ground. There's no, but I've never killed anybody.

I've never stolen anything. I've never cheated. There's two players in the gospel. One is a true, loving, holy

God. And the other is sinful man separated from God by their sin. Now, what has God done about this issue?

And again, this is so amazing and astounding, because when it comes to the gospel, God does it all.

When it comes to the gospel, when it comes to what God does for a sinner, the

Bible is clear that God alone saves and redeems and forgives. Chapter 5, verse 6 says, while we were still without strength, in due time,

Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8, God demonstrates

His own love toward us in that while we were yet weak, Christ died for the weak. While we were yet sinners, while we were still helpless, while we were still blind, while we were still

His enemy, Christ died for us. What has

God in His amazing grace and infinite love done for mankind? He sent His only begotten Son to die a cruel and horrible death on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin, to satisfy

God's justice. Now, there's a third aspect of the gospel.

There's the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man. There's God's love.

How does somebody get this? Answer, by simple faith. Salvation is all of God and it's a free gift.

And what does man have to do to receive this gift? Nothing. What do

I have to do to get this envelope? Give me an envelope with money in it. What do I have to do to get it? I don't have to do anything except what?

What? Receive it. There it is.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. Well, I reached out and got it.

The moment you say that, you're doing something. It's either all

God or not. There's no middle ground. Now, not of yourselves is a gift of God.

Not of works, not of what I do, lest anyone should boast. That is the breaking heart issue.

What a wonderful thing Christ has for sin atonement made. What a wonderful Savior.

And we just reach out and take that gift. Now, there's a fourth part to this gospel drama.

And it's this. What happens to anyone that is genuinely and sincerely by grace through faith in Christ alone?

What happens if it's sincere and it's real?

Answer, the person is different. They're changed.

That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. You're different.

You're a different person. You know, I can't get into all this because every time I do, my kids say, oh, tell us more.

What else are you going to tell us that we don't know about you, Dad? I was an alcoholic.

You go, you? Yeah. And there's all kinds of other things I was into that I'm not going to tell you.

And I'm not going to tell you on the way home either. You see, when I or anyone understands they're a sinner separated from God and they receive

Jesus Christ by faith, they're born again. God's amazing grace. They pass from death to life.

God's amazing grace. I once was blind, but now I see God's amazing grace.

I once lived a life of sin. Now I don't. Doesn't mean

I'm perfect. OK. Right. But we grow.

Their love for God grows, their love for their fellow man grows. Faith without works is dead. It's not real saving faith that there isn't true change.

And the Bible never talks about perfection. The Bible does not talk about perfection.

It talks about growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When someone is genuinely born again, they are a different person.

And the overall flow and direction of their life is towards more and more Christlike.

And I'm going to tell you, if you know anything at all about living the Christian life, sometimes it's two steps forward. Sometimes it's three steps back.

Sometimes it's one step forward. Sometimes it's four steps back. But the overall direction is to more and more

Christless. You know, there's so much

I could say about this. I have to move on to my third point. But, you know, things happen in life, don't they?

Just last year, there was a young couple, just got married, driving to their honeymoon after the reception.

The wife was driving. She fell asleep.

The truck they were in rolled, and they were both killed. The year before that, a surgeon, skilled, trained, just gifted on the operating table, made a mistake.

The patient dies. Wife and children are in the waiting room. He had to come out and tell them, your dad, your husband is gone.

The nurse puts a wrong dose of medicine. The patient reacts and dies. You see, it's appointed unto men once to die.

After this, the judgment. God pours out His amazing grace so people can be saved from the eternal penalty of sin in and by the means of the good news of the gospel for all eternity.

And that's to our final point, to an amazing place called heaven.

Let's consider heaven. How does God demonstrate and manifest

His amazing grace? The third way is by means of a place called heaven. You know, the

Bible tells us that when a Christian breathes their last, they are immediately present with the

Lord. The Bible tells us that this world is not the Christian's home. The Bible tells us that Christians are not citizens of this earth.

They're just pilgrims passing through. Philippians 3 .20 says a

Christian's citizenship is in heaven. Jesus Christ promised in John 14 .3, I go and prepare a place for you, and I will come again, and I will take you to Myself, that where I am, there you will be also.

And see, one of the reasons why heaven is such an amazing place is because the

Bible tells us that when a Christian dies, they are immediately in the presence of Almighty God.

2 Corinthians 5 .8, we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home with the

Lord. I'm not afraid of COVID. Really? I was concerned, yeah.

Do I want to be around for my kids? I mean, they often say, Dad, you going to live long enough to walk us down the aisle?

Right? I mean, I'm a little bit on the older side when

I got married. I can't run with them like I did when

I was 40. But I ride my bike, and it's not a three -wheeler.

See, God's amazing grace is demonstrated and manifests by means of heaven. Because being absent from this body is to be present with the

Lord. One moment a true believer is here, and literally the next moment, faster than a microsecond, or whatever that hectosecond, that really fast one, but faster than the twinkling of an eye, a believer is present with the

Lord. One moment a true believer can be lying in a hospital bed in their earthly tent, and the next moment their earthly body is empty, and they're home.

One reason why God's amazing grace is demonstrated and manifested in what the Bible teaches about heaven is because one moment a

Christian is here, the next moment they're present with the Lord. And listen, God's amazing grace is manifested by means of heaven because at that very moment, and I was talking to one of my students last week,

I can't remember when. Well, when do we get to heaven, Mr.

Cain? I mean, like, is there a break?

I was like, I don't know. I just know to be absent from the body.

I mean, eighth graders, they're kind of cool. I mean, they're thinking about things. Maybe you guys, like, whatever.

But they're like, wait a minute. I said, well, it says to be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. Well, Mr. Cain, what about like the body? I said, well, the body's empty.

And they're like, and you know, when they look at you with the furrowed brow, the teacher in you, anybody that's taught, right?

You want them to understand, right, Carolyn? You want them to know, right?

And you try to say, well, isn't that enough? Absent from the body, present with the

Lord. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cain. But see, at that moment, when a

Christian breathes their last, in an instant, in a twinkling of an eye, Wayne, health problems are gone.

Their pain, the sorrows, the tears, the worries, they're gone.

Revelation 21 .3, God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, nor wheelchairs, nor canes, no walkers.

The former things have passed away. Dear friends, in heaven, there's no more crying.

There's no more tears. God even wipes away those tears one last time. In heaven, there's no mourning or sorrow, no pain.

In heaven, there's no physical affirmations, colds, arthritis, COVID. In heaven, there's no more death. There's no more dying.

There's only joy, unspeakable joy for all eternity. God's amazing grace is demonstrated by means of a place called heaven.

Just think of stepping ashore and finding it heaven.

Of touching a hand and finding it God. Of breathing new air and finding it celestial.

Of waking up in glory and calling it home.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

God's amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Paul was grateful for God's abundant grace.

John writes, of his fullness we have all received in grace upon grace. Some of our favorite hymns, amazing grace, marvelous grace of our loving

Lord, wonderful grace of Jesus. Wonderful grace of Jesus, deeper than all my sin.

How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall my praise begin?

Did I mess it up? Wow, that wasn't even in my notes. Hallelujah.

Grace is simply God's free, undeserved, unearned favor. It is a gift given by God.

We're not worthy of it, but because of God, out of His great love, He wants to give it. Grace in a

Christian's life enables and sustains them. We didn't just receive grace to be saved.

We now live in grace. It is a grace of God that enables us to live the Christian life.

That's why Paul says in Galatians 2 .20, I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but the life

I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Christmas is coming, right?

The greatest glory and mercy of God appears in our redemption by Jesus Christ simply by faith.

The foundation of which is Christ's incarnation,

His coming in the flesh. For God so loved the world that He sent,

He gave His only begotten Son. I'll close with Richard Sibbes.

He lived from the late 1500s to the early 1600s, and he said this.

God became a man to enrich us with all grace and goodness, to free us from the hands of Satan, and bring us to an eternal state of communion with Himself in heaven.

There's the outline of that message, or this message. For all the old heaven and the old earth shall pass away, and the old condition of creatures and a new life shall be given them.

Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. God's amazing grace is seen in His love, in the gospel, and in heaven.

Amen. Before we come, before we sing our closing song, would you take a moment or two and join me in prayer?

Would you please bow your head and just quietly look at those sermon notes, look at those verses in Romans or John 3, 16, and go to the

Lord in prayer. Make sure, are you truly born again?

Do I know for sure that I'm a Christian? Do I know for sure that if I died today,

I would go to heaven? Am I living a changed life? Would you pray with me?

Just quietly, privately, God knows every heart, every thought here.

Join me together in just quiet prayer before Harold comes to lead us in our closing song.

Father God, thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for this great, amazing thing that's so hard to wrap our minds around, your amazing grace.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't think we need an introduction to this hymn now.

We have an entire sermon to think about as we're singing these songs, reading these words, and truly maybe bringing some new meaning to them as you sing them.

So let's all stand together as we sing amazing grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I see.

T 'was grace that taught my heart to fear.

Grace, my fears relieved.

Justice good to me secure.

He was sheer, and as life endures, through mist, storms, and snares, grace hath re -saved a thousand years.

Bright shining as the sun, we lift our eyes to singing

God's praise. Praise God.

Let us go out and sing God's praises now. You're dismissed. Thank you.