Matthew 5:43-48, Titus 3:4-7, Romans 3:21-26, Ephesians 2:1-10 
November 15, 2020
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“It has been said that in the New Testament doctrine is grace, and ethics is gratitude; and something is wrong with any form of Christianity in which, experimentally and practically, this saying is not being verified… For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure. And the revealed will of God is that those who have received grace should henceforth give themselves to ‘good works’ (Eph 2:10; Tit 2:11-12); and gratitude will move anyone who has truly received grace to do as God requires.”

~J.I. Packer, Knowing God

“A dog says: ‘You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, and you love me… you must be God.

A cat says: ‘You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, and you love me…I must be God.’”

~Bob Sjogren, Cat and Dog Theology

“When we think his mercy is clean gone, and that we ourselves are free among the dead, and we think of the number that he remembers no more, then he can reach us, and cause that again we stand before him. He can reach you, even then, when you think your way is hid from the Lord, and your judgment passed over from your God. O the length of the saving arm of God! As yet you are within the reach of his reach; do not go about to measure arms with God, as some good men are apt to do: I mean, do not conclude, that because you cannot reach God by your short stump, therefore he cannot reach you with his long arm. Look again, ‘Have you an arm like God’ (Job 40:9), an arm like his for length and strength? It becomes you, when you cannot perceive that God is within the reach of your arm, then to believe that you are within the reach of his; for it is long, and none knows how long.”

~John Bunyan, Sermon on Ephesians 3:18,19

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

~Timothy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God

Sermon Passage

Matthew 5:43-48, Titus 3:4-7, Romans 3:21-26, Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)

Matthew 5

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Titus 3

⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Romans 3

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 2

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.