Beauty and Danger of Being Graceful — Donny Coulter

You could hear me in here, but you couldn't hear me online. Started the day off with technical difficulties. My pen that I usually use to write with is not working, and it just decided to do that this morning.

So there's some of the stuff that I planned that's not going to get done. I want to remind you of kind of where we've been, and first of all, some of the power of the songs that we just sang. I know that they're not traditional hymns, but if you actually pay attention to the words that are written and that you are singing, we are going to be talking about the grace of God and how amazing and incredible is the grace of God.

The Beauty and Danger of Grace

I hope today that as we walk through this, you will maybe get a sense of the beauty of grace, because we want to talk about how wonderful grace is, but we also want to talk about how dangerous our attitudes towards grace can be.

So we've been looking at this picture of our lives. The intention of God, the purpose of God for you and me is not to stay in our positional salvation and just stay there, but God has a plan for our lives to take us from that place of salvation all the way to a place where we are glorified, where we will be just like Jesus, and in between that is our maturity as a believer.

God wants us to grow up as His kids. He wants us to mature as His children. I do not believe that God is satisfied with mediocre children, and we gave the warnings last week that if we find ourselves having that crisis of belief, moving towards God and His purpose in our life, but falling back into and living in the old life, that there are three things that we must consider about that.

Number one, if that's who you are, and there is no desire to be any different, then it might be time to find out whether you are actually a believer or not, whether you have actually came to a place of faith in Christ.

Secondly, we said that if you are in that place as a believer, that God does not want you there, that God's purpose is not for you to live on the white line, so to speak, but God's purpose for you is to follow the yellow line of maturity.

And God is not satisfied with you being on the white line. And therefore, our Heavenly Father, loving Heavenly Father, brings discipline in our lives, Hebrews chapter 12. He does so out of a heart of love for your good, according to His purpose.

If you refuse to pay attention to the discipline of God, you might find yourself in the position of the prodigal son. And the warning there in the story of the prodigal was that if you stay there, your diet will consist of pig slop.

And I remember Mike Warnke says, pig slop is pig slop, whether you eat it out of a golden spoon or not. Pig slop is pig slop. If you find yourself in the midst of pig slop, then I'm telling you, it only takes a turning back to the one who saved you.

And he is more than willing to do that. As the father in the illustration was waiting daily for his son to return. So is our Heavenly Father. Would you pray with me today as we begin to talk about the beauty and the danger of being graceful.

Father, thank you for grace. Oh, my. I'm overwhelmed when I think of it, just as we sing that song, how your grace has taken a sinner and made us holy. Praise the Lord that we have received grace, that we have done nothing that could ever deserve it, and we could never do anything that would put us in a place to deserve it.

And yet you freely offer it, thank you. I pray, Father, that we would all get a proper picture of your beautiful grace today in your word. And then, Father, I pray that you would keep us from the danger of being comfortable in your grace.

God, I pray that you would heighten within us as your children, that you would heightened our sensitivity to sin. God, may we bend and submit to the will of the Father as we move forward in our lives.

I pray for that one God who has never had a crisis of faith. I pray that you would touch them today. May you say something to them that will change their heart and mind, change their eternity. I pray for the Christian Lord who is living, as we've illustrated on the white line, who has found themselves consistently and constantly tripped up by the same sins over and over and over again.

I pray that you would help them not to be comfortable there. God, that you would help them to see what grace is all about and what it should lead us to. Father, I pray for myself that you would help me as I speak your words.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would lead every moment, every word, every thought, God, every emotion that would come. I pray that it would come because of your spirit. We ask these things now in Jesus' holy name.

Amen. The beauty and the danger of grace. I came up with a saying. It's been years ago. I can't remember, 2015, 2016, when we were at Heartland Church. And I said that we are so graceful that we are repent less.

So we are so full of grace. And grace is such a wonderful thing that we have become insensitive to the sin in our lives as the children of God. And then we put off this idea of repentance. And I hope that by the end of the day that you will see that repentance is an important part of your life and my life as believers.

Sin, the Law, and Justification by Grace

Turn with me to Romans chapter 6. Actually, we're going to begin with Romans 5, Romans chapter 5, verse 18. Therefore, as through one man, he's speaking specifically about Adam, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men.

There's the first thing that happens because of sin. Judgment has come to all men because of sin. OK. That judgment then resulting in condemnation. So there is judgment and the judgment is condemnation.

Switches gears in, even so through one man's righteous act. Now we're speaking of Jesus. Through the righteous act of Jesus, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life, or justification and life.

See the difference between judgment and condemnation and justification and life? Verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That's you and me. Would you agree that that's us? Many were made sinners.

So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. That's us now. I was a sinner and now I have been made righteous as a believer. Verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.

Skip over to Romans 7 real quick so that we can understand the responsibility, the reason for the law. Look at what verse 7. There's so much to say about this, but I just want to touch on it so we catch it.

Romans 7 and verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Well, no, the law is not sin. He says, certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known of my own sinfulness had the law not been there, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet.

So the law had a purpose, and the purpose of the law was to expose my sinfulness. And when we see the law for what it is, just take the basic 10 commandments. You shall not bear false witness. Do not covet.

I mean, there are some simple rules there that we have a difficult time achieving. So the law was there to expose my sinfulness so that I could see how much of a sinner I really am or I really was. Now, I think that we have to understand that part of it, that we were sinners, that we can do nothing, absolutely nothing that will allow us a standing before God, that we needed the righteous act of Jesus for justification, that is the declaration of my righteousness through Christ so that I have the ability to stand before God.

Without that, I am a sinner and I can do nothing, absolutely zero, that will help me to stand before a holy God. You've heard us preach this over and over and over again. But that is my state apart from grace.

And we've been singing songs about grace today. I hope you caught on that, that there were songs about grace and the beauty of grace. Look what he says. Moreover, now, the law entered that the offense might abound, that sin might abound.

The law entered to show me how sinful I really am. And grace, look what it says, but where sin did abound, I'm going back to my old King James, but where sin abounded, where sin did abound, I'm going to do it anyway, where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.

Now, look at the picture. Grasp the picture of grace, okay? So you can see the beauty and the wonderfulness of grace, okay? Here's this big, fat, ugly, stinky lump of sin, and that's me, all of my sin amassed.

And just think of it now as a big, ugly, fat, stinky lump, okay? How big is your lump? How big is your pile? Pretty big. If you're anything like me, it's pretty big. But look what he says. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Where sin did abound, grace abounded much more. So look at that fat, ugly, stinky pile of sin, and the beauty of grace is that there's so much more of grace than there is of sin. There's more of grace to cover it.

And so you look at this big, huge, beautiful, wonderful grace that covers all of that sin. Do you see the picture? For when sin did abound, grace did much more abound. I thank God for His grace, don't you?

His grace towards me, His grace towards you. Isn't grace beautiful? Man, this is another one of those times where I wished I had some Baptist Coastal people that could jump up and say something about it.

Because grace is so beautiful, and wonderful, and amazing, and we sing about it, and it's so powerful, life-changing grace. Isn't it? Look what he says about this grace. So that sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Grace is a beautiful thing, isn't it? Covers everything. And I didn't do anything to deserve it. I was given to me freely without price. At least without a cost coming from me, all the cost was on Him.

The Danger of Continuing in Sin

Here's my fear. It was also Paul's fear in his day. My fear is, is that oftentimes you and I love grace, we love to have grace, because grace sets us free. Grace has, it's beautiful, and wonderful, and huge.

Huger than my, is huger a word? More huge than my sin. I don't know if that's the proper way. But that's grace, right? And my fear is, is that we get so full of grace that we lose a sensitivity to our own sinfulness in this life as a believer, as one who has been called righteous.

We allow the power of grace to come in, and it overwhelms everything else, and it should. But the problem is, is that we become comfortable in that grace. We become so full of grace that we become insensitive to the sin that we have as believers.

And I want to say that I do not believe for one second that God is happy, that He has sinning children. Do you? Do you think He's satisfied with sinning children? And here's my problem with that is, is way too often, when we lose a sensitivity to sin, we lose the opportunity and the need for repenting and turning away from sin.

And because grace is so good and so big, we continue on in our sin. Paul had the same problem. Look at chapter 6, in verse 1 and 2. What should we say then? Shall we continue on in our sin? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Do you get the picture? Shall we keep on sinning? Since grace abounds more than the sin, why don't we just keep on sinning so we can keep getting more grace? But that's not the way grace works. You've got all the grace that God could give you in terms of your sin.

The moment that you had that crisis of belief, you received the grace of God. You will never get any more or less of the grace of God in terms of your forgiveness and your justification. You follow me?

So you're not going to get more grace. You've got all the grace that God can give you. He covered all of your sin, past, present, and future, we learned. And so there's this temptation then to accept sin and get more grace.

Come easy with it. Look what he says. What should we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And then he uses this Greek word. You've heard me talk about it often. Certainly not. It is a Meganoitai.

You notice it has an exclamation point, and it has an exclamation point in the Greek. It is Meganoitai. It's certainly not, absolutely not, he's shouting to the top of his lungs as he's writing. I can see Paul, he's probably animated like me, and he's probably writing this.

Absolutely not. Well, he would have been saying, Meganoitai. How shall we who have died to sin, that's what happened at that crisis of faith, you and I died to sin, how shall we who have died to sin live any longer in its power, in its sway, doing what it tells us to do?

How shall we do that? The idea is that we shall not do that. That's what Paul is saying. You are dead to sin. Don't live like that. Yes, grace is beautiful, and it's wonderful, and it's more than our sin.

But don't sin so you can receive more grace because you've received all the grace you need from Jesus. So then how in the world do we avoid this repentless, graceful life? How do we avoid that? Let's talk about repentance for a second.

Repentance as a Change of Mind, Will, and Action

Repentance means, in Christendom, it means a change of the mind and the will. Now, in its original word, as it was used in the Greek language, it just meant an afterthought. So it was an afterthought.

Paul and the Holy Spirit uses that, so think it through, why he's using that word repentance. An afterthought is after sin, I have a thought of not sin. So the idea that we have taken now, we've taken, developed that word as a Christian through the experience of Scripture, we have taken that word and have given it the meaning of it is a change of the mind.

It is an afterthought. After I have sinned, I have a different thought. I am now, I have a change of the mind. I don't want to pursue sin. And the change of the will says, I am turning away from the sin and turning to God.

We went through that not too long ago. That is repentance. We have to understand that repentance is a change of the mind and the will. It is a change of the mind and the action. If you find yourself repeatedly controlled by a sin over and over and over again, it may mean that we have not found a place of repentance.

We may feel, as we'll find in a moment, we may feel sorry for our sin, but we do not repent from our sin because we are not turning away from the sin and turning to God. Repentance, there is, there's a repentance to salvation.

Now, I have read all of the articles, I've read the books. There are some that believe that repentance, if we say that repentance is a part of salvation, then that is, that becomes a work. It has to be by faith and faith alone.

And I believe it 100%. In Jesus Christ, by faith and faith alone. But they rule out repentance, a change of the mind, as if it is some kind of work that we do to achieve salvation. And I believe with all of my heart that it is a part of our salvation.

It is a part of our faith that we are called as sinners to turn away from sin and turn to a holy Christ. That is repentance. Salvation, repentance. If we present salvation apart from sin, which separates us from God, then we are presenting a wrong salvation.

Jesus did not come to save us from anything but sin. And when we come to Christ, we must come to him as sinners, turning away from sin and to Christ, to receive Christ. I do not believe that to be a work.

I believe that to be part of faith. That is repentance to salvation. But there is also this idea of repentance to relationship. Once I have, as a sinner, have turned from my sin and turned to the work of Christ, I also now am in relationship with the Father.

And when I am in relationship with the Father, if I continue to sin and do not turn away from the sin, then it has an effect on my relationship with the Father, my experience of relationship with the Father.

Men, let me ask you, if you ever tick your wife off, often, yes, make your wife mad, and you do thing after thing after thing to make her even madder and madder and madder, and you come home from work and, hey, baby, how you doing?

Want to come sit down on the couch with me, hang out for a bit? How well did that work out for you? And I think I don't want to diminish the relationship that we have with God, OK, with that kind of illustration.

But I want us to understand that our unconfessed and unrepentant sin does not take away your relationship with the Father, but it can affect your relationship with the Father. I've always looked at it like this, a pipeline.

I've got a pipeline going straight to heaven. And my unrepented, unconfessed, unrepented sin will clog up the pipeline between me and God. The connection is never lost, but it's the free flow of the activity and the relationship that is affected.

Do you follow me? And so there is this repentance to relationship. And I believe that to thrust upon us, you and me as God's children, to thrust upon us the need of repentance, even as a believer, I believe that we have to keep a good view of the stark reality of our own humanity and our own tendency to dip towards the white line.

Do you understand what I'm saying? That we have to make sure that we are always reminding ourselves that apart from the grace of God, I would pursue the white line. How so? Well, look at some of the things that we do.

We oftentimes are thinking more highly of ourselves than we are of others. I think these are in your notes. We have a self-will, a self-will in the heart that is completely contrary to the will of God.

We have the lust of the flesh, of the desires of the flesh, that is, I want her. I want that. And then we have the desires of the eyes or the lust of the eyes. What I see. I want. We're going to see that next week in Psalm 51 as we look at sin and a proper attitude towards sin.

David saw and in the seeing it created a lust inside to fulfill that desire, the lust of the flesh. And we'll see the pride as well. But the pride. How about attitudes? Our attitudes that are completely contrary to what we call love.

OK, think about the words that were that are mentioned here. Jealousy. Well, we say we're jealous because we do love, but we're talking about a bad jealousy, not a good jealousy. God is jealous of us.

Envy. Oh, boy, Donnie, don't say words like this, undue criticism, critical. Hatred. Anger, bitterness, resentment, revenge, covetousness. All of those things are relational things, aren't they? And they are completely contrary to the love of God.

As you read through those words, how many of us experience those? Often and yet we do not find ourselves repenting of those things. How about our words, cursing, I'm not talking about there's a difference in cursing and swearing, I hate you, I wish you had never been born, I wish you would die, cursing.

How about swearing? The words of our mouth that sound no different than the rest of the world, crude jokes that we should not participate in. Let alone tell. Backbiting, gossip, lies, how many of us have become so easy with some of this stuff?

That it's almost like it's not even sin anymore, and then there's the sins of omission, you know, to do good, you know, to do something, you've been led by the spirit to do something and you reject and you don't do it.

And yet we just accept grace, oh, thank you for grace. I don't have to repent of that, and these may not be the words. And see, if this is the case, if that's the case, then the intimacy of your relationship with God is absolutely affected when there is no repentance.

You know what? There are going to be times in my life where I'm going to be jealous. There's going to be times in my life when I'm going to experience envy or covetousness. And there's going to be times in my life when I say things I probably shouldn't say.

That's where we all are. But if we continue doing those things and continue doing those things and accept those things as it's just covered by grace, it's covered by grace without any repentance, then it has to affect our relationship.

Consistent and persistent unrepentant sin hinders the experience of our relationship with Jesus. Don't believe me? Just try it. Let's look at repentance in the scripture for believers, not for salvation, but for believers.

Christ's Calls to the Churches to Repent

Look at Revelations, chapter two and three. Well, just I'm going to quickly go through these and say what I need to say and move. Revelations, chapter two, verse five. There's that clock again. Look at that.

Man, I like that clock. Revelations two, the church at Ephesus, the message was repent unless you repent. Chapter two, verse 16, the church at Pergamos, repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Do you see God taking it easy? Oh, no, not when it comes to sin in the church and in his children. Look at chapter two and verse 21, the Thyatira, and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent.

You see the grace of God, I gave her time. Look at chapter three and verse three, the church at Sardis, remember, therefore, how you have how you have received and heard, hold fast and repent. Now we're talking about the church.

And the church is commanded by God to repent. Why would why would God command the church to repent? I believe because it affects our relationship and experience of our relationship with the Father. Look, when you read these in their context, please know that God takes this seriously.

He does. He takes their unrepentance, move towards sin as a serious thing, serious offense. And so should we. Don't you think? Look at 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, chapter six. We'll start at chapter six, verse 16, and read through.

Holiness, Separation, and the Seriousness of Sin

And what agreement has the temple of God with the idols? I want you to get the picture that Paul is drawing, OK? You've got to get your mind wrapped around what the picture that Paul is trying to draw for us as Christians, as as followers of Jesus.

And I want to see if you can pick it out as we read through together real slow. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? By the way, he's about to tell you that you are the temple of God. For you are the temple of the living God.

As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God. And they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate. Do you hear what God's saying? What he's at the expectation of his children?

It's pretty clear, isn't it? Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. And I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord God Almighty.

The Lord Almighty, verse 7. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us continue sinning and doing what we like to do because grace is so good. Wrong reading, isn't it? Look what Paul says. And how appropriate is this in this series of holiness?

Let us cleanse ourselves from, well, just the things that are easy to get rid of. Did I read it right? No, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Be holy. For I am holy, he says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Skip down to verse 6. Nevertheless. God. Who comforts the downcast, aren't you glad for that? Don't you appreciate that? God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with that with which he was comforted in you when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me so that I rejoiced even more.

Stop for a second. Give a little context. This is a letter to the Corinthian church. This is quite possibly at least the third letter that Paul has written to the Corinthian church. We have the first letter and he told them about a sin that was among them that needed to be taken care of.

You remember that? There's a man in there, he's committing incest in the family. You put him out. And then in the second book, he's saying now he's repented. Now bring him back in. But here it's almost like this is a different letter that he's referring to as we move on.

Paul has written most likely a different letter concerning something else that they are having trouble with. And so Paul has written a letter and it's a very stern, very hard letter. OK, it's very difficult letter that he wrote.

We don't have record of it, but we can only assume that it is true. Look at verse eight. For even if I made you sorry, look at that word, even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it. Do you see what he's saying?

I wrote this letter that was stern, that was harsh, that was full of a stern rebuke. And I knew that it was going to make you sorry or make you run. And I do not regret having written that letter. Here's stop for a second teaching moment.

It is OK when it comes to sin, it is OK to hurt people sometimes, it is not OK to harm them. Do you understand what I'm saying? That that as a husband, as a wife, as a father, as a friend, as a as a elder of a church, we are called to sometimes confront sin.

And when we confront sin in our fellow believer. It can cause hurt. It can it can bring a sorrow and a pain that they have to deal with, but we are called to do that. We are. You and I have a responsibility when we join this church.

We are submitting to that very thing with one another. That if you see something in my life that is taking me down a road and a path away from God, I desire for you to tell me. Even if it hurts me, tell me, but it is not OK to harm.

You understand that it's not OK to beat people down. And. Until the point that they respond by running away back to the lesson, sorry, side note, we even covered that last week. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11, chastening is not good when it's happening.

But it but it yields the the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and that's the intention of hurt when it comes to sin. That's the intention of calling sin, sin is that it would yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

Godly Sorrow Produces Repentance

OK, look what he says. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. In other words, he sent the letter out and it was really stern and he started feeling bad about sending it out.

But he knew that he had to send it out. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now, I rejoice that you were made sorry that your sorrow, but that you're sorry. Let me read that again.

Now, I rejoice not that you were made sorry, not that I made you feel bad, but that your sorrow led to what? Repentance, it led to a change of the mind and the will, that's what it led to. It wasn't just a you bad Corinthians, you guys are so bad and ungodly.

Repent. He says, I made you sorry and you were only sorry for a little while because your sorrow that you felt. Turn away from the sin that put you in that place in the first place, for you were made you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

Verse 10, for godly sorrow, what's this? Godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation. Let me say that I agree with most who do not believe that this is saying that it leads to your salvation again.

That is leading to the salvation that you have already have and that you are told to live out, work out your own salvation. In fear and trembling, for godly sorrow, in the case of the believer, produces repentance, leading to your working out your salvation.

Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death for observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner. Oh, look at these things. We're going to talk about them real quick. I promise real quick what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear.

What viminent desire, what zeal, what vindication in all things you have proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Now, let's let's look at this for just a moment. Did you know that you can be sorry for sin and never repent?

Do you know that? That's where I find most people that are caught in a consistent sin that has a real stranglehold on them. They feel sorry for their sin and they use the words repent, but they never turn away from the sin.

That's why it continually comes and grabs a hold of them. We can be sorry for our sins and never repent because sorry is a feeling of pain and repentance is an action. Sorry is a feeling and repentance is an action.

John Trapp has a great remark concerning sorrow and repentance. In sin, the pleasure passes, the sorrow remains, but in repentance, sorrow passes. I'm sorry, let me read that again. In sin, the pleasure passes.

I read it completely wrong. In sin, the pleasure passes, the sorrow remains. But in repentance. The sorrow passes. And the pleasure abides forever. God soon pours the oil of gladness. Into the broken heart, worldly sorrow is a sorrow that is produced by pride and self-pity, worldly sorrow, which leads to death or separation.

Worldly sorrow is because I got caught. Worldly sorrow is I don't like what my sin has done to me or is doing to me. I don't like how my sin makes me feel. Worldly sorrow is it comes because you have been humiliated or you are being punished.

And so you say, oh, I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I'm sorry, I won't do it anymore. I promise I won't do it again. We hear that from our children all the time. I won't do it anymore. I promise I won't do it anymore.

That's a worldly sorrow that that says I can't do this. I feel bad for me. But here's the difference between a worldly sorrow and a godly sorrow, a worldly sorrow that focuses on God himself. The focus is off me and what my sin has done to me.

The focus is gone from there and it's placed on God and what my sin has done to God. We see the cross. So that's that's godly sorrow. And and when it's when when sorrow is God focused, not self-focused, when it's God focused, then there's a turning away from the sin.

And turning to God. That is true repentance. One important point to remember. Is that true repentance is easily recognized by those who are around you. Here's why. Because when we truly repent, there is a complete reorientation of our thoughts, an afterthought, a change of the mind.

There is a complete reorientation of our attitudes and our actions that result in a turning away from the sin and a turning towards God. And when we do that, when we've been going this way for so long away from God and we turn away from that, too, it's recognizable among your children and your wife.

It's recognizable among your church and your co-workers. They see it. True repentance can be seen. Look what it says real quick. Seven things. The what's. Of. Repentance. Number one, earnestness towards righteousness.

The Seven Evidences of True Repentance

I'm going to go through them quickly. You can study them. An earnestness towards righteousness. That means a diligent, eager actions towards the right things. When you are earnest towards righteousness, you are earnest towards what pleases God.

You are diligent towards those things. The second thing is vindication. It is a clearing of the mind. It is a clearing of the guilt and the shame. You see it? That. When there's a repentance, there is a clearing of the guilt and the shame that happens.

And then it produces in me the desire to make it right. Did you know most oftentimes your sin does not only affect you, but it affects those that are around you? And more often than not, you should make it right.

Indignation. Let me just say that. And concerning indignation towards sin. We must not only abstain from sin, but we must abhor sin. You must hate it. It produces, number four, a reverent fear of God.

A reverent fear of God. It's a longing, a desire in us not to offend God. Because sin offends him first and foremost. You get that? That sin is offensive to God, even when it comes from his children. It's offensive to God.

And I also should understand in terms of the fear of God that he is a disciplining father. Fifthly, it's a viminent desire. This is a longing to restore relationship. When my sin has hindered and hurt relationship, there is a viminent desire to restore the relationship, whether that be with others or with God himself.

Number six, there is a zeal against sin and towards God. Do you get that? There is this zeal against what has displeased God and a zeal for what pleases him. And then lastly, there is a vindication, that is, that we are seeing that justice is carried out.

Responding to the Immensity of Grace

Now, what is your response? Here's our response to a message like this. Number one, a recognition of the immensity. Have a recognition of the immensity of the grace of God that you're saying about today.

Do you know how big grace is for you? Do you know how big your pile is and how big grace is? Recognize that. And when you recognize how big and beautiful grace is, then it will put in us a desire to live in such a way that honors the grace of God.

Rather than requires the grace of God. The second thing is, you recognize that immensity of the grace and then we need to be consistently practicing a true heart of repentance. That's you and me as Christians.