God

1
Gods AbundantGrace

• abundant grace was upon them all Acts 433

2
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• What God Wants From Us
• (And What He Was Willing To Do To Get it!)
• Please open your New Testament follow along in
  Acts 1724-27

3
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• God wants a relationship with you (Acts 1727)
• seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if
  you search for Him with all your heart and all
  your soul (Deut. 429)
• He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb.
  116)
• God wants to be a Father to you (2 Cor. 616-18)
• I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons
  and daughters to Me
• God wants a covenant with you (Heb. 88-12)
• I will effect a new covenant
• I will be their God, And they shall be My people.
• all will know Me
• I will remember their sins no more

4
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• What kind of relationship?
• Not just acquaintances
• Not just intellectual knowledge about Him
• God wants a relationship characterized by
  genuine, personal, heart-felt love and
  understanding.
• Consider which was the greatest commandment of
  the Law of Moses? (Mark 1228-30)
• If anyone loves God, he is known by God (1 Cor.
  83)
• God wants you to love Him, to trust His love for
  you, and to obey Him.

5
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• God wants you to know Him, and God wants you to
  love Him. There is one more thing God wants from
  you
• God wants you to be like Him!
• God is holy and wants us to be holy (pure).
• Israel was commanded to be holy (Lev. 1144-45)
• 1 Peter 115-16 but like the Holy One who called
  you, be holy yourselves also in all your
  behavior because it is written, You shall be
  holy, for I am holy.

6
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• This sums up what God wants from us and for us
• To know Him. If we truly know Him, we will
  believe and trust Him.
• To love Him. If we love Him, we will obey Him.
• To be like Him. To be like God, we must be holy.
• But we have three problems, corresponding to
  these three things, that hinder us

7
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 1
• God wants us to know Him
• But God is a Spirit (John 424), invisible (1
  Tim. 117), and in heaven, while we are in the
  flesh here on earth.
• By our own power or doing, we have no way to know
  about Him, to see Him, to reach Him, or to know
  Him!
• How can we know someone whom we cannot see or
  communicate with?

8
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 2
• God wants us to love Him
• But we do not know how to love Him!
• Should we bake Him a cake? Build Him a monument?
• Even our sincerest expressions of love, when
  contrived by our own standards, are
  inadequatevain worship.
• How can we love God if we dont know how He wants
  to be loved?

9
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 3
• God wants us to be holy like Him
• But we all sin and fall short of His holiness!
• We are incapable, on our own, of achieving
  holiness
• How can a sinner become sinless? How can the
  unholy become holy?
• How can we ever hope to give God what He wants
  when we have these obstacles?

10
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• God is aware of our predicament.
• Before God created the world, He foresaw and
  planned accordingly.
• God has done for man those things that man is
  incapable of doing for himself.
• God didnt have to do those things, but because
  He loves us, He chose to do them. This is the
  very essence of grace!
• God has offered us abundant grace as a solution
  to make it possible for man to know Him, love
  Him, and be holy like Him. Lets see how

11
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 1 that we cannot know the invisible God
• Graces solution God has revealed Himself!
• Adam Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, prophets
• God spoke to all of them!
• God reveals Himself in nature (Rom. 119-21)
• God revealed Himself through His Son
• Hebrews 11-3
• Col. 115 He is the image of the invisible God
• God preserved knowledge in Scriptures (2 Tim.
  316)
• Abundant grace God makes Himself known
  knowable

12
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 2 we know not how to love God
• Graces solution God taught us how to love
• God demonstrated His love as an example
• Rom. 58  But God demonstrates His own love
  toward us, in that while we were yet
  sinners, Christ died for us
• 1 John 49-12
• God directed us to express our love in two ways
• By obeying His commandments (John 1415,21)
• By loving other people (John 1512 1 John
  420-21)
• Abundant grace God taught us how to love

13
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Problem 3 we are unholy sinners
• Graces solution a Savior (Titus 33-7)
• Christ died to make His bride holy and
  blameless (Eph. 525-26)
• 2 Peter 13 His divine power has granted to us
  everything pertaining to life and godliness
• God makes holiness possible!
• Abundant grace God sacrificed His own Son to
  take away our sins and make us holy

14
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Summary
• He wants a relationship with us, so He revealed
  Himself to the world.
• He wants us to love and obey Him, so He taught us
  how to love and sent His Son to demonstrate it.
• He wants us to be holy, so He sacrificed His Son
  to take away our sins.
• All of these are acts of grace, done to draw you
  to God.

15
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• There must be something really special about you
  for God to have gone through so much effort to
  draw you to Himself!
• You were created in His image. He made you, He
  put the spiritual you into a fleshly body, and He
  wants you back!
• God wants you so much, He has done for you
  everything that you cant do for yourself. (Not
  what you wont do, but what you cant do.)
• Choose for yourself whether or not to answer His
  call, for the grace of God is available to you
  today

16
Gods Abundant Grace
Acts 433

• Would you like to receive Gods grace today?
• To know Him, hear and believe His Word.
• To love Him, obey His commandments, including the
  command to be baptized (Acts 238 2216)
• To be like Him, walk in the light of His
  holiness.
• Continue in the blessed relationship of His favor
  by remaining faithful in holy conduct.
• The alternative 2 Thess. 17-9 Jesus will be
  revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in
  flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those
  who do not know God and to those who do not obey
  the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the
  penalty of eternal destruction.

17
Gods AbundantGrace

• abundant grace was upon them all Acts 433