LIVESTREAM

This past Sunday, we gathered again. It was not our normal gathering, but as Chris Prichett said on Sunday, “The voices of Trinity Grace are scattered around McMinn County belting praises to the Lord.”

For the life of our church, a Sunday gathering is one of the most important times of the week.

We treasure the times we can meet together. But when we can’t, we make every effort to have a real service.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

During the message, we again looked at the life of Moses and what he discovered about the Lord.

Many have said that the Old Testament shows God to be cruel, and the New Testament shows him to be loving. However, in Exodus 34:6, the Lord says about himself that He is, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

As we finished the Long Story of the Coming of Jesus, Walt shares that it is in God’s character to show us love. He does not need to be provoked to love us!

Click here to listen to the full sermon, and we have shared Walt’s notes below.

INTRODUCTION

“In one sense, of course, Jesus is the reason for the season. But in another fundamental sense, sin is the reason for the season.” Doug Wilson

Main point: Do not fear, the Lord is quick to forgive & gives more grace than you can imagine.

1. THE REQUEST.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:16

“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless, and sovereign.” J. Gresham Machen

2. THE REVELATION.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

“Think how he has borne with you, and still bears with you, when so much in your life is unworthy of him and you have so richly deserved his rejection.” J.I. Packer

“When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them." Dane Ortlund

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Psalm 103:8

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 25:6

They refused to obey . . . they stiffened their neck . . . But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. Nehemiah 9:17

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 4:2

3. THE IMAGE.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. John 1:14,17-18

“The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand [the cradle at Bethlehem] till we see it in this context.” J.I. Packer