The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Sermon of the Day: Grace or Obedience?"
A preacher once commented, "If I announce that I will preach on grace in the next service, many will likely attend. On the other hand, if I mention my sermon topic will be obedience, fewer will show up."
The needn't be the case since grace and obedience serve as fruits of the same tree in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.
"By grace are ye saved through faith… Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Ephesians 2:8; Hebrew 12:28).
We no less require the freely given favor and working of God - grace - to walk with Him after salvation than we did to receive salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus. "The just shall live by faith," meaning we sprang to spiritual life in the new birth through the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Romans 1:17). We also sprint from the new birth through the same enlivening Holy Spirit working in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (I Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 2:12-13). The better we know this dynamic that both initiated and perpetuates our relationship with God, the better we will not only be a branch in God's living vine, the Lord Jesus. We will also bear fruit by the same enlivening grace.
"As we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him… being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ" (Colossians 2:6; Philippians 1:11).
Because our spiritual enemies cannot steal the presence of Christ from the hearts of believers, they tempt us to neglect "the grace of life" that leads to the faith and faithfulness of obedience (I Peter 3:7). If we succumb to their illusion and delusion, obedience will seem a burden and sacrifice often too heavy to bear. Conversely, if we follow the Apostle Peter's command, so filled with hope and promise - "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" - we will find God faithful to motivate, guide, and empower us for a life possible only by grace. The writer of Hebrews states the matter plainly: to "serve God acceptably," we must "have grace." In this blessed light of our Lord's freely given presence and working, sermons on obedience become as joyfully anticipated as sermons on grace. Because grace and obedience are inextricably, inseparably, wondrously, and forever united in the Lord Jesus, and in the hearts and lives of those who trust Him…
"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
(I John 5:3-4)
Weekly Memory Verse
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(I John 4:10)
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