SERMON OUTLINE FOR WEEK OF SPIRITUAL EMPHASIS 2025

SERMON THEME: MARVELOUS GRACE (Key text: Ephesians 2:8-10)

Theme Song: Amazing Grace: CAMPUS MELODIES, NO. 5; SDAH No. 108

Day 1: Grace defined

 Grace is God's nature, God's character; (Exodus 34:6-7)
 It is God's unmerited favor extended to sinners
 It is God's loving disposition to the wicked and the lost;
 It is God treating us better than we deserve;
 Sinners deserve punishment and separation from God; they deserve death (Romans 6:23)
 But God gave Himself in Christ to die and save us sinners. (John 3:16)
 Grace is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us, as our sin deserves. It is His benevolence
(kindness) to the undeserving.
 God is the instigator of grace, and it is from Him that all other grace flows.
 God shows both mercy and grace. these are related:
i. Mercy withholds a punishment we deserve; grace gives a blessing we don’t deserve.
ii. In mercy, God chose to cancel our sin debt by sacrificing His perfect Son in our place (Titus
3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21). But He goes even further than mercy and extends grace to His
enemies (Romans 5:10).
 Praise be to God for His unspeakable grace through which we have found favor.

Day 2: Why grace? The Reason for Grace

 Grace comes on the background of sin, wickedness, disobedience and condemnation;
 Without sin, grace is irrelevant, it's for the unworthy and the undeserving that grace is applied; (2
Tim 1:9,10; Titus 3:3-5)
 Grace is God's response to human predicament: the sin problem and its consequences.
 God created a perfect world, Adam and Eve were created in God's image and likeness; No spot.
They were created with a free will, to choose loyalty to God or disobedience.
 Through temptation, they choose disobedience. Their choice affected all human beings negatively
(Romans 5:12)
 So sin became a universal problem. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans
3:23).
 The consequences of sin include:
i. Spiritual deadness: man became spiritually dead since the Spirit of God left him. (Eph. 2:1)
ii. Slavery to sin: man became a slave to sin. (Romans 3:9; 7:14)
iii. Condemnation: man came under the sentence of death, he was under a curse and
condemnation. (Romans 5:18, Galatians 3:13)
iv. Captive to Satan. Man became a slave to Satan (2 Cor 4:4; 1John 5:19)
v. Enmity: man was separated from God thus becoming hostile to Him and His holy law.
(Roman 5:10, 8:7)
 This ruined life is the life we have all received from our parents. (1 Peter 1:18)
 Were it not for God’s grace and abundant mercy (Eph. 2:4), man would have been wiped away. All
would have been lost.
 Man became totally useless and too powerless to save himself. He needed a Savior (Romans 3:9-
20).
 Illustration: the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11)

Day 3: The Function of the Law (Romans 3:20;7:7)

 The law was given by God not to solve the sin problem, not to save people, but to magnify it so
man could be conscious that he is lost without Christ.
 The law defines and points out sin; that sin is disobedience, rebellion against God.
 Sin is deceitful, and without the lenses of the law, we would think that we are better off, without
a Saviour
 The law is holy, just and good. It's spiritual. (Romans 7:12,14)
 The law exposes the sinfulness of human beings, that we are not just sinful but exceedingly or
utterly sinful. (Romans 7:13)
 The law made the coming of the Messiah meaningful. Why? Because, being sinners, the law
would not justify us but rather condemn us, put us in prison cell.
 "Before this faith (Christ ) came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should
be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by
faith." (Rom 3:19; Galatians 3:23,24)
 When the law has done its work perfectly, showing us how impossible it is for us to save
ourselves, then we're silenced. "O wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death?" Our pride drops down as filthy rags. We long for something better, the righteousness of
God, only found in a Saviour, Jesus Christ.
 Then we hear, in a small still voice the divine response, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world." "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Jn 1:29, 36;
Rom. 7:25)

Day 4: The Manifestation of God's grace in the Old Testament (Genesis 3:15, 21)
 As soon as there was sin, there was grace;
 Grace began right in the Garden of Eden when God promised a Saviour who would crush the
serpent's head; (Genesis 3:15); then killed an animal to cover their nakedness (the sin) of Adam
and Eve (Genesis 3:21).
 He could have destroyed the first humans right then for their disobedience. But rather than
destroy them, He chose to make a way for them to be right with Him. That is grace.
 That pattern of grace continued throughout the Old Testament when God instituted blood
sacrifices as a means to atone for sinful men. It was not the physical blood of those sacrifices,
per se, that cleansed sinners; it was the grace of God that forgave those who trusted in Him
(Hebrews 10:4; Genesis 15:6).
 Sinful men showed their faith by offering the sacrifices that God required.
 They deserved, wrath and destruction. God treated them as though he never saw. He purposed
to take up their sin burden; the whole of it to it's extreme end. That's grace, favor.
 Illustration of grace: the story of Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9)

Day 5: The supreme sacrifice, the divine demonstration of grace (Romans 5:8)

 The cross is the supreme manifestation of God’s agape love;

  It is where the just demand of the law on behalf of the human race was met;
 It demonstrated the power of God in Christ Jesus that defeated the devil and sin.
 Satan does not want the truth of the cross made available to us;
 The physical sufferings of Christ did not save us; these came from the devil and God allowed
this to expose Satan's hatred of God. (John 8:44)
 Sin is something that has separated us from God (Isa. 59:2) and made us His enemies (Romans
5:10). Hence, in order for sinful man to be saved, he needs to be reconciled to God.
 According to Scripture, Christ has reconciled us to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Hebrews 2:17)
and this reconciliation was realized at the cross (Ephesians 2:16; Romans 5:10).
 Sin is also “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). And God has made it absolutely clear
that “the wages of sin is death” (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezk. 18:4, 20; Romans 6:23).
 Christ’s death on the cross was “died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:10). Christ experienced the
death referred to as ‘the wages of sin’, or as Hebrews 2:9 puts it, He “by the grace of God he
might taste death for everyone.”
 God has placed the iniquity of the whole world on Christ (Isaiah 53:6). He then let His wrath
for sin on Christ; his curse was on Him, the equivalent of the second death (Isa. 53:6, 10).
 God “ ... spared not His own Son but delivered Him up [to the full wages of sin] for us all.”
 Hence, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is
written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13).
 Christ became our sin-bearer as He hung on the cross. For this reason the Bible declares that
God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all (Isa. 53:4, 10; Romans 4:25; 8:32).
 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
 This was the supreme sacrifice that Christ had to make in order that He might save us. Christ
the good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep; not for three days, but for eternity (John
10:11, 15). Thus, “For God so loved the world that he gave [not lent] his one and only Son”
(John 3:16).
 Thank God for the unspeakable gift of His Son.
 Can you reject such a Saviour as Christ who laid down His life for you? Accept Him today for a
new life. Amen

Prepared by elder Samuel Osaso: SDA Sunshine Ogembo church