Scripture for February 5th: Romans 3:9-25

Sermon Title: The Compassionate Plan of Grace

“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”

“I’m not that bad.” Many people have told me this in the past when I mention that they are in need of God’s forgiveness. Certainly they are not perfect, they reason, but they are not as bad as some other people. Because they are generally good, why would they need forgiveness or a Savior?

Dr. David Jeremiah writes about this as he describes the experience of the author of the great hymn, “Amazing Grace”:

“John Newton wrote in his now-famous song that grace had saved a “wretch” like him. That word is so offensive to our modern sensibilities that many people replace it with another, less negative, term when they sing “Amazing Grace.”
But Newton knew from his own experience that he was a wretch when God saved him. Indeed, all men are wretches in that they are lost in sin. That is the biblical truth. But Newton knew that truth first-hand. A dictionary definition of “wretch” includes these words: “a miserable person … profoundly unhappy … sunk in vice or degradation … a vile person.” John Newton would have said, “That was me, to the letter!”

On one of his lonely stints at sea Newton was so depressed and full of anger that he considered taking his life; was so angry at his captain he considered killing him as well! In a letter he wrote in 1754 he said that, before he reached the age of twenty, he was never in another person’s company more than an hour “without attempting to corrupt them.” He once said of himself, “My daily life was a course of the most terrible blasphemy and profaneness. I don’t believe that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer as myself .… I not only sinned with a high hand myself but made it my study to tempt and seduce others upon every occasion.”

The truth is, all people are sinners and need God’s forgiveness. It doesn’t matter if a person is “good” or “bad” – before the eyes of God, we are “wretched” and lost. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote in our text, “there is none righteous, no, not one.” But the good news is that God makes available His grace. Through His grace, He provides forgiveness available through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, nor can we earn it – it is made available freely and fully through His grace. Praise the Lord!

Starting this coming Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series entitled, “Captured By Grace” based on a book Dr. David Jeremiah wrote by the same title. Throughout the series, we will be examining various aspects of God’s grace and showing how it impacts not only our salvation, but how we live our lives. I hope to see you then!

Scripture for Jan. 29th: Jonah 4

Sermon Title: A Heartless Prophet

“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

“But they are not like us!” This is a common objection that many Christians will use to argue against helping and caring for those who live very different lifestyles from most Christians. As Christians, we strive to live a lifestyle pleasing to God. But that same lifestyle causes many Christians to avoid others. Dr. David Jeremiah writes the following about this paradox:

A strange paradox sometimes exists with religious people. Religious groups have a code, or standard, through which they view the world, and normally that code contains high moral standards like love, kindness, justice, and acceptance. One would expect that, because of the moral base of their code, all religious groups would extend love, kindness, justice, and acceptance to all other people. But therein lies the paradox—most religious groups struggle to do that. Why? Because the same high standards which bind the members of the group together tend to exclude those outside the group. Ranchers will tell you that fences not only keep cattle in, they keep predators out.

Jonah obviously wanted to keep Nineveh outside of the forgiveness of God. He wanted them to experience the judgment of God – they had it coming to them, he thought, and in fact, he was right. They did deserve God’s judgment. But when they repented, they received God’s mercy though they were undeserving of it (just like we receive His mercy today). How could have Jonah been more accepting of God’s forgiveness towards those who were his enemies? And how can we today develop an attitude towards those that have hurt us that is more Christ-like? We will talk more about this on Sunday as we conclude our sermon series entitled, “Returning to God: Lessons in Jonah.” Hope you see then!

Scripture for January 22nd: Jonah 3

Sermon Title: A Second Chance With God

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

“Boy, did I mess up!” I’ve heard that many times from people throughout my years of ministry, and I have said it a few times, especially when I look back at the events of my own life. The honest hard truth: we all “mess up.” We do things we should not do, we say things that should not be said and we live with the regrets and consequences of those poor decisions that we have made. Thankfully, we have a God Who is in the business of forgiving, restoring and blessing those who have made mistakes or just down-right rebelled against God. Dr. David Jeremiah writes the following concerning God’s ability to restore those who have “messed up”:

“Sometimes when I talk with Christian people I get the impression that they believe if you ever make a mistake, it is over—that God can never use you again. Now if anyone should have thought in his own heart that God was through with him, it ought to have been the man Jonah. And yet, “… the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time …” (Jonah 3:1). Not only was Jonah restored to fellowship with God, but he went on to preach perhaps the greatest revival that the world has ever known. God specializes in reaching out to us in the midst of our failure, for He knows that we are dust, and He knows that we are frail. And while He never condones our disobedience and rebellion, throughout the Bible we see God giving His saints a second chance.”

Have you ever received a “second chance” from God? Or do you need one now? This coming Sunday we will discuss how and when God gives people “second chances” as we continue our sermon series, “Returning to God: Lessons from Jonah.” Hope you will join us!

Scripture for January 15th: Jonah 2

Sermon Title: Confinement, Communion and Confession

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’” And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Daniel Henderson, a true modern-day prayer warrior who has written many books about prayer, wrote this concerning the goal of prayer:

God’s goal at every stage of creation and salvation is to magnify His glory. You can magnify with a microscope or with a telescope. A microscope magnifies by making tiny things look bigger than they are. A telescope magnifies by making gigantic things (like stars), look tiny, appear more as they really are.God designed the universe to magnify the glory of His grace the way a telescope magnifies the stars. Everything He does in our salvation is designed to magnify the glory of his grace like this.

He further writes:

I wonder if sometimes our worry about our requests and problems is not more like the microscope that takes tiny things and magnifies them out of proportion. We need the telescope to take God’s glory and make it the delight and fabric of our praying and living. We pray, perhaps sincerely, but dramatically out of context; like applying suntan lotion in a snowstorm, wearing a heavy down jacket on a tropical cruise, or singing “The Star Spangled Banner” on a busy street corner in Tehran, Iran. Our prayers often are a misfit in light of the real purpose and context of prayer. We may be genuine but we risk being genuinely misguided.


Misguided when we pray? Jonah certainly wasn't; he prayed with passion and power, and his prayer was answered through God's grace and mercy. What about our prayers - when we pray, do we miss the mark? This coming Sunday we will talk about this subject more as we continue the series of messages entitled, "Returning to God: Lessons from Jonah." Hope to see you then! - Pastor Victor

Scripture for Jan 8th: Jonah 1:17; 2:1-5; 2:8-10

Sermon Title: God Wants You Back

Jonah 1:17 “ Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

Jonah 2:1-5 “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

Jonah 2:8-10 “Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.’” And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

No pain, no gain. It’s a popular motto on the sports field, but it’s also true in the spiritual realm – God often uses the pain of discipline to grow our faith. Jonah certainly experienced the discipline of God through the pain of being thrown overboard from a ship and swallowed by a whale. It was not a pleasant experience to say the least! But it caused him to come back to God and ask for His forgiveness for his disobedience.

Without the pain of discipline from God, we would never change and grow. Dr. David Jeremiah writes the following about discipline and spiritual growth:

There is a real case made in the New Testament that without discipline there is no growth, no real maturity. In fact, one of the reasons for God’s discipline is that we might share in His holiness: “… but He [chastens us] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). I find that one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. He disciplines us for our profit or benefit. And what is the benefit? Sharing in His holiness! Now, turn that concept around and ask yourself, Would I share in His holiness if He didn’t discipline me? Well, we don’t have a verse that answers that question, but the implication is pretty strong that we would not.

When we experience the tough times of life, God often uses those times to grow us in our faith. His ultimate desire is that we might become like Him, “holy” and bringing glory to Him in our thoughts, words and actions. This coming Sunday we will talk more about the “blessing” of God’s discipline as we continue our sermon series, “Returning to God: Lessons from Jonah.” Hope to see you then!