{"id":94,"date":"2018-11-06T16:34:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=94"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:03","slug":"a-net-called-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/a-net-called-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"A Net Called Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"
A Net Called Grace<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Text:<\/strong>\u00a0For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith \u2013 and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God \u2013 not by works, so that no one can boast\u00a0<\/i>(Ephesians 2:8, 9).<\/em>Key Thought:\u00a0<\/strong>Christians need to have a clear understanding of the relationship between grace and faith.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Illustration:\u00a0<\/b>Athletes are expected to absolutely KNOW certain key skills. Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, once frustrated with his team after an inept losing effort, got onto the team bus and glared at his team. Holding aloft a football, he said slowly and distinctly: \u201cGentlemen,\u00a0this is a football!<\/i>\u201d As if to say: \u201cSome of you don\u2019t seem to understand that fact!\u201d<\/p>\n

Christians really need to know just one thing and it\u2019s found in John 3:16: Jesus died for our sins.\u00a0For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.<\/i><\/p>\n

For centuries Christian missionaries have taken that simple truth to far-flung corners of the world. Many people steeped in heathen superstitions have come to understand that one simple promise: God guarantees them a home in heaven because of Jesus\u2019 death on a cross.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0They don\u2019t go to seminary and get a degree
\n2.\u00a0They don\u2019t learn Greek
\n3.\u00a0They don\u2019t actually master all intricacies of Adventist prophecy
\n4.\u00a0They don\u2019t memorize key texts regarding all 28 fundamental beliefs<\/p>\n

But they have a saving understanding of Jesus sacrifice for them at Calvary.<\/p>\n

Disturbing Reality:<\/b>\u00a0Many Christians today embrace the twin ideas of GRACE and FAITH . . . without a clear understanding of those two terms.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:8, 9 says clearly that we are all saved\u00a0\u201cBy grace, through faith.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0One group of earliteens at an Adventist camp meeting was asked to define grace. No one could. After years in church and attending Adventist schools, no one could. The best answer was that it is \u201cthe prayer we say before meals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classic Definition:<\/b>\u00a0Grace means \u201cunmerited favor,\u201d God giving us an eternal life we do not deserve, a forgiveness we have not earned, a heavenly home we have no right to claim. Thus we are saved\u00a0by grace.<\/i><\/p>\n

Story:<\/b>\u00a0A man named John Newton made his living in the most sinful and heinous way possible; he was the captain of a slave ship. He would buy his human cargo, packing men and women into the hold of his ship under unbelievable inhuman condition . . . and crudely calculate that even if half of them died\u2014and were tossed overboard to the sharks\u2014he could still turn a profit.<\/p>\n

Then Newton became a Christian. Could God possibly forgive his sordid past? Could years of trafficking in bondage and flesh be wiped away? He learned that grace\u2014unmerited favor\u2014gave even him a new beginning. And if Adventists check their hymnals, #108 was written by none other than John Newton.\u00a0Amazing grace, How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, But now am found, Was blind but now I see.<\/i><\/p>\n

What is faith?<\/b>\u00a0Faith is to simply trust someone, to believe their promises. When we have faith, we count on a person to deliver what they have said.<\/p>\n

So a Christian who comes to Jesus is accepted\u00a0by grace<\/i>\u2014unmerited favor\u2014and they access that unmerited favor by believing Jesus\u2019 promise to save them.<\/p>\n

Illustration:<\/b>\u00a0On 9\/11, a horrifying reality is that many people in the World Trade Center buildings chose to leap to their deaths rather than burn alive. Think of men and women who had to place final cell-phone calls to loved ones, knowing they would soon be jumping to the deadly streets below and dying.<\/p>\n

Consider that you are on a sixth-story building that is in flames. There\u2019s no escape; the elevators are broken, the stairwells blocked with fire. But firemen gather at the bottom of the building with a sturdy net. \u201cJump!\u201d they cry out. \u201cWe\u2019ll catch you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps you aren\u2019t convinced the building is really in flames. Maybe you think you can still save yourself via the stairs. Maybe you don\u2019t think the firemen will keep their word. In those cases, you will die despite the presence of a net.<\/p>\n

But IF you jump, what saves you?\u00a0The net.<\/i>\u00a0The net is grace: \u201cunmerited favor.\u201d You are saved by the net.<\/p>\n

What is faith? The faith is\u00a0your jump<\/i>! Unless you jump, the net is useless. Equally, if there is no net, the jump is also useless. On 9\/11, many jumped to their deaths because there was no net below. Through the centuries, people have \u201cjumped\u201d into cults and false religions where there was no net.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/b>\u00a0We are saved\u00a0by grace (net) through faith (jump).\u00a0<\/i>It takes both of these saving tools for us to be rescued from our lost state.
\n______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2007. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Net Called Grace Key Text:\u00a0For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith \u2013 and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God \u2013 not …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}