Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Introduction*
A Buddhist Monk strode into a Zen pizza parlor (do we have those in Eaton?
I don’t think I’ve seen one.
Probably only in LA).
Anyway, this Buddhist Monk strode into a Zen pizza parlor and said, “Make me one with everything on it.”
When he got his order, he gave the proprietor a $20 bill, which the guy pocketed.
“Hey,” asked the monk, “where’s my change?”
“Change,” replied the owner inscrutably, “must come from within.”
Okay – for the last three weeks, we’ve been examining God’s perspective of man outside of Christ.
Man in his unregenerate state.
And I think you would conclude, he’s in an absolutely helpless and hopeless condition, would you not?
Now, suppose that someone comes along, as many do, and says authoritatively, “Change must come from within.”
You must find your inner zen! Yea, I’ve been looking for that guy for years.
Find the power within.
Find that inner you who will give you the power to change.
Well, isn’t he the guy or gal that has created this mess in the first place.
“Change must come from within?” Forgive me, folks, but that’s like asking the Roto Rooter guy to clean up your house.
Man, he doesn’t clean up messes; he makes messes.
“Change must come from within”?
Good luck!
That’s where the problem is to begin with.
The Bible takes a different point of view – that “within” must be changed, but through changes brought about by God.
So what are we to do – as those who are dead in trespasses and sins, disobedient to God and ultimately doomed?
What are we to do? Glad you asked and glad you are here because beginning in verse 4 we get the wonderful, glorious, one-and-only solution.
We’re looking at verses 1-10 of Ephesians 2 under the title “Amazing Grace”.
It divides into three parts.
Verses 1-3 – “Dead Men Walking”.
It speaks of our sin and the absolute impossibility of our helping ourselves.
Verses 4-9 – “But God . .
.”
We will see in this section what God has done given that we could not help ourselves.
Then verse 10 – “New Men Walking” -- life after salvation.
Another way to look at these verses is man without God, but God and man with God.
Or you could title them, our sin, our Savior and our service.
It is clearly one of the great passages in all of Scripture and I hope that you are beginning to get the drift.
Now, we have left mankind in a sad condition – dead men walking, enslaved to sin, without God and without even wanting God.
It is dire straits and tough messages to preach.
But now we come to verse 4 and those wonderful words, “But God . .
.”
Without question this is my favorite transition in all of Scripture.
Those two little words still send shivers up and down my spine every time I hear them.
“But God . . .
“ What we could never do for ourselves, He has been willing to do for us, and from here on out it is a wonderful message.
But there is still one little catch.
A defendant stands up and says, “Your Honor, I want to change my plea to Guilty.”
The judge says, “Why didn’t you do so at the start of the trial?”
The defendant says, “Well, until I heard the D.A, I didn’t know I was guilty.”
You see, in order to take advantage of all the things we are about to study – in order to have God’s salvation applied to your heart, you must be willing to stand up and plead guilty.
You must accept the Lord’s verdict in verses 1-3.
Then and only then can you be the beneficiary of amazing grace.
I pray that you already are and that this will be a wonderful lesson in exactly what you already have in Christ.
But if not, I trust that you will be drawn to Him and find it impossible to ever turn Him down.
Let’s look at God’s solution to the sin problem in four parts – His Passion; His Power; His Process and His Purpose.
You’re gonna love this.
Here we go.
*I.
His Passion*
Look with me at verse 4: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.
Here we see the passion of our God.
And it is this that separates Him from every other God that people talk about.
We often hear it said, “God helps those who help themselves.”
Actually, just the opposite is true.
God helps those who are absolutely incapable of helping themselves and therein lies the differentiation between this God of the Bible and other gods.
He loves sinners.
He has mercy on sinners.
He gives grace to sinners.
And He acts with kindness toward sinners.
He is a God whose is passionately involved with His creation and in that He is like no other.
I want you to underscore that comment.
We serve a God like no other.
That is a very important phrase.
We live in an age of relativism when even some of our very good Christian friends are trying to find the good in other religions.
But listen, whatever good you may find – whatever positive human instincts they may appeal to, there is one fundamental difference that is critical and it is this.
Every other place you look you will find a God who demands.
In Christianity, you find a God who gives.
Do you see that that is a fundamental and fatal difference?
Every other religion says, “Do this to get to God.”
The Bible says, “Here is what God has done for you to bring you to Himself.”
Good works and all the rest should and will follow.
But they are not ever, never the way we get to Him in the first place.
Mark it down.
Fundamental difference.
So as we look at these two aspects of God’s passion, understand and appreciate that these are characteristics of the God of the Bible and not found in any other representation of God.
*A.
He is Rich in Mercy*
The first thing we see is that He is rich in mercy.
He is rich in mercy.
So, what is mercy?
Well, let me give you a very easy insight that perhaps many of you have heard.
Justice would be God giving us as sinners what we deserve.
Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve and grace is God giving us what we do not deserve.
Let me repeat that.
Justice Would be God giving me as a sinner what I deserve (which will happen, by the way, to those who refuse his gift of salvation).
Mercy is God not giving me what I deserve and grace is God giving me what I don’t deserve.
Obviously mercy and grace come as a package deal.
Apart from Christ and His death on the cross, God could only give us justice.
But because of Christ’s death and resurrection, God can show us both mercy and grace – but we have to choose it.
The story has been told of a mother who sought from Napoleon the pardon of her son.
The emperor said it was the man’s second offense, and justice demanded his death.
“I don’t ask for justice,” said the mother.
“I plead for mercy.”
“But,” said the emperor, “he does not deserve mercy.”
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