Desert Church of Christ
Pahrump, NV
We welcome you to our assembly!
Our assemblies:
Sunday morning Bible study: 10:00 AM
Sunday morning worship: 11:00 AM
Sunday evening Bible study: 5:00 PM
Wednesday Bible Study: 6:00 PM
Evangelist: David F. Sims
God’s
Abundant
Grace
“abundant grace was upon them all” Acts 4:33
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
What God Wants From Us
(And What He Was Willing To Do To Get it!)
Please open your New Testament & follow along in
Acts 17:24-27
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• God wants a relationship with you (Acts 17:27)
– For you to know Him and seek Him
– There is something special about you to God!
– God has gone to great lengths to draw you to Himself
• God wants to be a Father to you (2 Cor. 6:16-18)
– To be with you, to call you His own
– To welcome you as His own son or daughter
• God wants a covenant with you (Heb. 8:8-12)
– Better than the covenant of the Law of Moses
– A covenant of real mercy and forgiveness
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• What kind of relationship?
– Not just “acquaintances”
– Not just intellectual knowledge about Him
– It is one thing to know about God, and an entirely
different thing to know God!
– God wants a relationship characterized by genuine,
personal, heart-felt love and understanding.
• Consider: which is the greatest commandment of
the Law of Moses? (Mark 12:28-30)
• “If anyone loves God, he is known by God” (1 Cor.
8:3)
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• 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!
• What does it mean to be like God?
• God is holy and wants us to be holy (pure).
– Israel was commanded to be holy (Lev. 11:44-45)
– Christians are called to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• 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.
• You must be really special and valuable to God!
• But we have three problems, corresponding to
these three things, that hinder us…
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Problem #1
– God wants us to know Him
– But God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and in heaven, while
we are in the flesh here on earth. God is invisible (1
Tim. 1:17).
– By our own power or doing, we have no way to know
about Him, to see Him, to reach Him, or to know Him!
– Agnosticism, which admits the possibility of a
Supreme Power, says this problem is insurmountable.
– Deism is the belief that God has no dealings with this
world at all.
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• 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 inadequate…vain worship.
– Love is manifested in obedience, yet we constantly
disobey even His simplest commandments.
– A dire strait: how to love when we don’t know how?
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Problem #3
– God wants us to be holy like Him
– But we all sin and fall short of His holiness!
– Nothing we can do to undo a single sin
– We are incapable, on our own, of achieving holiness
– We all stand guilty, condemned…UNgodly!
– A perilous plight: how can a sinner become sinless?
How can the unholy be holy?
• How can we ever hope to give God what He
wants when we have these obstacles?
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• God is aware of our predicament.
– Before God created the world, He foresaw and
planned accordingly to make it possible for us to
overcome those problems.
– God planned to do, and has done, for man, those
things that man is incapable of doing for himself.
– God didn’t 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. Let’s see how…
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Problem #1: that we cannot know the invisible God
• Grace’s solution: God has revealed Himself!
– Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, prophets
• God spoke to all of them!
– God reveals Himself in nature (Rom. 1:19-21)
– God revealed Himself through His Son
• Hebrews 1:1-3
• Col. 1:15
• 1 John 5:20
• Abundant grace: God makes Himself known &
knowable
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Problem #2: we know not how to love and obey
• Grace’s solution: God taught us how to love
– God demonstrated His love as an example
• John 3:16
• Rom. 5:8
• 1 John 4:9-12
– God directed us to express our love in two ways:
• By obeying His commandments (John 14:15,21)
• By loving other people (John 15:12; 1 John 4:20-21)
• Abundant grace: God taught us how to love
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Problem #3: we are unholy sinners
• Grace’s solution: a Savior
– Titus 3:3-7
– Ephesians 2:1-10
– John 1:29
• God makes godliness possible! (2 Peter 1:3-4)
• Abundant grace: God sacrificed His own Son to
take away our sins and make us holy
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• Summary
– He didn’t have to do any of this, but He did!
– 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!
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• God wants you to know Him, love Him, and be like Him.
But what God really wants is YOU!
• 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 can’t do for yourself. Not what you won’t do,
but what you can’t do.
• Choose for yourself whether or not to answer His call,
for the grace of God is available to you today…
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
• The few things God has left for you to do are not
difficult, not burdensome…certainly not
impossible! And He has given us instructions:
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, instructing us to deny
ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly,
righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus
2:11-12)
God’s Abundant Grace
Acts 4:33
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Would you like to receive God’s grace today?
To know Him, hear His Word.
To love Him, obey His commandments.
To be like Him, be washed in the blood of Jesus.
Believe His Word…that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who
died for our sins and was raised up.
Repent of your sins…commit yourself to holiness.
Confess your faith in God to save you.
Be baptized into Jesus for forgiveness of your sins.
Continue in the blessed relationship of His favor by
remaining faithful in holy conduct.
God’s
Abundant
Grace
“abundant grace was upon them all” Acts 4:33