These are notes on the sermon, Goodness and Grace Beyond Compare, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, November 17, 2024, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Child of God, our heavenly Father loves us so deeply and dearly that despite all of man’s disobedience, rebellion, blasphemy, and imperfection, He chose to spare not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32).
It is so important for us as believers to understand this truth about our Father’s heart for us so that we can see the world and our being in it from His perspective. For example, in the natural, we can be so quick to seize upon and address overt sins such as an act of anger, theft, murder, or adultery, but we often fail to recognize our own inner fallibility in the form of covert sins such as pride, selfishness, and self-righteousness.
Following on from that, we tend to match the severity of punishment to the gravity of that particular sin, thinking that that is what God expects of us and how we can be right with Him. But such a belief is completely wrong and untrue, as we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and will only limit us from receiving the fullness of our Father’s love toward us.
The truth of the matter is this: God sent His Son for one singular purpose—to become the final, ultimate sacrifice for all our sins—be they small or big, past, present, or future. This speaks of the lavish grace and love of our heavenly Father, that while we were still sinners, and like sheep that had gone astray (Isa. 53:6), He already had a plan for our redemption (Rom. 5:8).
Our Lord Jesus Himself revealed the Father’s purpose and will to restore and lavish the fullness of His goodness and grace on us in His first and final words captured in the Gospels. In Luke 2:49, the 12-year-old Jesus told His earthly parents, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” when they sought Him in the temple in Jerusalem.
Then, on the cross when our Lord had exhausted all of God’s wrath against man’s sin and disobedience, He cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), marking the completion of His “Father’s business.” Because of our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary, today, our Father can freely give us all the good things He has for us (Rom. 8:32), and we can walk boldly in the fullness of the victory that He died to give us.
Hallelujah!
But, my friend, have you ever wondered why God chose specifically to give up His own Son instead of one of His mighty archangels? We catch a glimpse of our Father’s heart for us in Genesis 22 where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And just as God said to Abraham, “For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Gen. 22:12), today, we can also say the same of God, that we know He loves us because He has not withheld His Son, His only Son, from going to the cross for us. In essence, God gave us His very best!
In our relationship with our heavenly Father, we often cannot fathom how deep, wide, and far-reaching His love for us really is. Our understanding of Him is limited and colored by our natural human thought processes. Isaiah 55:9 reminds us that God’s ways and thoughts are far higher than ours. So even when we think we have finally grasped His grace and goodness, His love goes far beyond anything we can ever imagine.
The truth is that God has so much more and so much better for us than we can or will ever know. He knows us more intimately than we know ourselves, and it is only through the glimpses of heaven in Scripture that we can better understand His original intent for us. In heaven, our bodies will be transformed into glorified ones that will never fall sick and cannot die, reflecting His heart for us to always be healthy and whole. He’s even prepared magnificent mansions for us to live in, a reflection of His generous heart that desires to provide for all that we need.
God’s care extends even to the smallest details, like our ability to taste and enjoy food. Instead of limiting us to just one taste, God gave us the ability to enjoy a variety of flavors, revealing His heart for us to savor and enjoy the life that He has freely given us. In every area of our lives, there is still so much more of His goodness and grace for us to discover!
Even in the way our Father addresses sin and corrects His people is full of grace and He does not condemn or reject believers who have fallen. Instead, He reminds us of the better He has for us. This can be seen when Apostle Paul addressed the church in Corinth. Though a number of believers there were involved in immoral practices, Paul did not frighten nor condemn them with the loss of their salvation. Instead, he lovingly reminded them of their identity and worth in God:
Here, the term “temple” that Paul used refers to the Holy of Holies in Greek—the very dwelling place of God. In other words, Paul’s rebuke didn’t condemn the believers who had sinned, but served to remind them about their identity as beloved children of God, whose bodies were redeemed and sanctified by the priceless blood of Jesus.
And when members of the Corinthian church became divided, creating factions and competing with one another, Paul again corrected them—not with judgment, but by reminding them that in Christ, all things are theirs!
These words of Paul, a man who represents the heart of our risen Lord, reveal the depths of God’s goodness and grace toward us that is beyond measure and far greater than we realize. His goodness and grace do not make light of sin, but show us a way out of sin, failure, and temptation. Whenever we fall short, God’s response is to draw us back to His side with His love, grace, and goodness (Rom. 2:4), as well as a reminder of the better path He has set before us.
My friend, the reason you and I can get to freely receive the goodness and grace of God is only because of our Lord Jesus, and what He has done for you and me at the cross.
Jesus is the only one who can redeem us because He is perfect, without any trace of sin or blemish (2 Cor. 5:21). Our Lord is the second person of the Trinity (Matt. 28:19), and when He came to earth, the Bible described Him as “altogether lovely” and the “fairest of ten thousand.” He is the most beautiful and perfect man who ever lived, down to His demeanor. He is also said to be as excellent and stately as the strong stable cedar trees in Lebanon (Song of Sol. 5:15). Yet at the cross, this perfect, beautiful One allowed His appearance to be utterly marred and disfigured beyond that of any man. His body was so brutally scourged that His bones were exposed (Ps. 22:17), and there was no sliver of skin left intact on His back.
Why? He allowed that to happen to Himself because of how much He loves you and me! Our Lord, in His perfection, bore all our sins, shame, and ugliness so that we can receive His righteousness, glory, and beauty. This divine exchange at the cross demonstrates the depths of His love for us and His immeasurable grace as we now get to freely receive what we did not deserve because of His sacrifice.
Like a mother who would be woken up by the cries of her young child, our Lord Jesus hears your cries when you call on Him. Take a look at the account of the disciples in the boat with Jesus amidst the storm:
Our Lord was completely unaffected by the roaring winds and towering waves (Mark 4:37), and could even sleep amidst them! Yet, the moment He heard the cries of His disciples, He immediately arose to rebuke the storm, demonstrating how His heart is incredibly tender and responsive to our needs. Even when the disciples’ were arrested by fear and their faith was weak, Jesus didn’t hesitate to calm both the storm around them as well as the storm within their hearts. This same Jesus is with us today. No matter how fierce the storms in our lives may be, as long as He is in our boat, we will not sink! His presence brings a peace and security, even in the midst of chaos, and His desire is that we live a life without fear as we place our trust and faith in Him.
What about when we struggle with unbelief? Even then, Jesus meets us with His grace. Consider Thomas, a prime example of an “unbelieving believer” who doubted the Lord and His resurrection. Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas but graciously appeared to him and allowed him to touch His wounds (John 20:24–29). In the case of the two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus, our Lord personally drew near to them, expounded to them from the Scriptures to raise their faith, and brought them back from their unbelief (Luke 24:15–32).
These instances reveal the Lord’s goodness and tenderness toward His own. Even in our moments of doubt or weak faith, He does not distance Himself from us. Instead, He draws closer, extending His grace to bring us back to Him. His heart is to meet us exactly where we are, no matter our condition, and minister His love and truth to us. In like manner, when you are fearful, low on faith, or made a mistake, don’t condemn yourself or feel guilty. Instead, turn your focus onto the Lord, step boldly into His presence, and receive more of His grace.
And the best thing is, this grace of God does not come with any strings attached! There is no price tag on God’s grace. When Jesus raised the only son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11–15), He didn’t demand anything in return, but simply “presented him to his mother” after resurrecting him. It is the same with any healing miracle or resurrection that our Lord did in the Gospels—He never demanded any repayment or reciprocity.
God’s grace is given freely, motivated only by His unconditional love and compassion. Whatever you are going through, be it unbelief, fear, a physical condition, a broken heart, or financial lack, our Lord’s desire is to invade every area of death in our lives and overwhelm it with His resurrection life.
My friend, to truly know how much God loves you is to see and understand the quality, the value, and the fullness of the estimation that God has of His Son, Jesus Christ—the One who so pleased the Father even in His earthly life. Today, He has made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6), and this means that the same position our Lord has in the Father’s eyes, He has given to us also! You are deeply loved, fully accepted, and highly favored by your heavenly Father, all because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Will you start walking in this truth today?
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2024
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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