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IT’S ABOUT GOD AND HIS
MATCHLESS GRACE!
(Matchless grace means that
no one can outdo God in giving.)
Grace: Grace means favor [or concern], kindness, and mercy [forgiveness].
God is able to show concern, kindness, and mercy to us because of
the Lord Jesus Christ’s saving work on the cross. Grace is all
that God is free to do for mankind without giving up any part of
His divine nature. It is free, unmerited love and favor from God
alone. IT’S NOT ABOUT US! Isn’t that a relief?
2
Peter 3:18 “…but grow by means of the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Psalm 19:7 “The doctrine of the Lord is perfect, restoring the
soul…”
Psalm 40:11 “They lovingkindness and Thy truth will continually
preserve me.”
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Grace is
the plan of God the Father, the work of God the Son, and the
enabling power of the Holy Spirit. It required God the Father to
bring about a plan. It took an amazing, unique [one of a kind],
action called the Cross of Jesus Christ to set it up. It takes
ongoing, unlimited power coming from the Holy Spirit to mankind to
keep it in action. Isn’t that awesome?
IT’S ALL
ABOUT GOD!
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2 Peter 1:2 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord.
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Grace is the freedom that God has to show
His love to all mankind. He showers us with gifts. We don’t earn
them or deserve them. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross is one of God’s biggest grace gifts. All we have to do is to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we have salvation forever. We
never lose it! It doesn’t wear out! What a gift!
IT IS FOR US! |
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John
3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish [be destroyed]
but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
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Since salvation is a gift, we don’t have
to pay for it. God doesn’t say, “Here is the key to heaven,
but you have to work for it!” God, in His wisdom, knew that we
would be bragging all over the place if we worked for our
salvation. We cannot take the credit for salvation, and that is
good. God gets the credit.
IT’S ABOUT
GOD! |
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Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith – and this[is] not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –
not of works, so that no one can boast [brag].”
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The more we learn about God, the more the
Holy Spirit changes our way of thinking. Then we have the thinking
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the capacity or ability to do things
God’s way. That is grace working. God changes us! He does it His
way!
IT’S NOT
ABOUT OUR WAY! |
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Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing motivated by contentiousness
[arguments] or ambitious pride, but with humility of mind [by
means of grace orientation] let each of you keep on considering
one another as more important than himself…”
Philippians 2:4-5 “Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others. Keep on thinking
this [doctrine] within yourselves which was also resident in
Christ Jesus, …”
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God gives through His grace to us. He
gives us time, talents and treasures. The more we know about Him
through studying His Word, the more capacity we have to use the
time, talents and treasures He gave us. God gives us opportunities
to help others so that we can express our love and devotion to
Him. We give of our time, talents and treasures. However, we are
not paying God back! We are sharing our gifts so that others can
be blessed. God isn’t stingy and He doesn’t want us to be stingy.
IT’S NOT
ABOUT US! |
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Romans 12:6 “We have different gifts, according to the grace given
us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion
to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching,
let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is
contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if
it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing
mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
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Grace is not held back or withdrawn
because of failure. God does not take His gift back. It stops
being grace if God has to take it away when we fail or sin. What
God does with grace in our life may be different when we fail or
sin because God wants to get us back on the right track. God
doesn’t even lesson grace when we fail or sin. We get the same
amount, but again just in a different way. That should make us sit
back, relax and realize that . . .
IT’S NOT
ABOUT US AND ALL ABOUT GOD!
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REBOUND
1
John 1:9
When we sin, we lose the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Then we need to privately tell God the Father our sins, or REBOUND.
When we do that, our sins are forgiven, we are filled with
the Holy Spirit, and back on the right path.
Thats' GRACE! |
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Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities
[wickedness], and I will remember their sins no more.”
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God never blesses us because of human
works but because we have His righteousness as born-again
believers. When we made the non-meritorious decision to believe in
Jesus Christ, God gave us at least 40 grace gifts. One of them was
His righteousness. Because of His righteousness, He can grace us
out or bless us for the rest of our lives!!!
IT’S ALL
ABOUT GOD! |
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Titus
3:5-7 “He saves us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done
in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life.”
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Legalism is a big word that means that
man is trying to gain salvation. It also means that he continues
to work in God’s plan by way of some system of dos and don’ts. He
tries to help God along. But grace rejects human plans, games and
viewpoint.
IT’S NOT
ABOUT US!!
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Romans
11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of
works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”
Psalm 26:3 “For Thy lovingkindness [grace] is before my eyes, and
I have walked in Thy doctrine.”
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Satan hates the grace system because God
does all the work and gets all of the credit. Satan wants us to
work in the cosmic system, not in the grace system. He wants
creatures, him being #1, to get the credit for doing human good.
He wants us to do works and more works in his cosmic system to
make this world, his domain, a better place. Satan wants to get all
the glory but he doesn’t have the ability to make that happen.
Only God has that ability. Only God gets the glory!
IT’S NOT
ABOUT YOU OR ME! |
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Isaiah
14:14 “I will make myself [Satan] like the Most High.”
2 Corinthians 2:11 “…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For
we are not unaware of his schemes.”
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GOD IS WAITING TO BE GRACIOUS TO
US, TO GIVE US GIFTS! He is waiting for our cup of capacity to be
ready so that He can fill it. This cup is our very own soul and
its capacity is built from Bible doctrine. What are we waiting
for???
IT’S ABOUT
GOD AND HIS MATCHLESS GRACE!! |
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Isaiah
30:18 “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show
you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all
who wait for Him!”
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If you are printing out this booklet
(this web page), cut out these doors and glue them over the
picture of heaven and the treasure chest above so that the doors
can be opened. Then you can open the doors to the treasure
God has waiting for us!
IT’S NOT
ABOUT YOU OR ME! |
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References used:
Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries
www.gbible.org
Bible Lesson on:
10-11-02, 5-12-04, 5-13-04,5-14-04, 5-15-04,
5-20-04, 6-30-04, 11-18-04
Tree of Life: 5-9-04,
5-16-04
Jr. Tree of Life: 6-13-04
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