And this morning I'm interested in speaking a
little bit about grace, the subject of grace.
So we're going to notice a number of
verses in the Bible and I guess the
first aspect that I want to really think
about is really defining grace and one of
the things that I was kind of startled
to discover when I started doing this study
was that very often when the word grace
is introduced, it's introduced with a but.
And so that shows that grace comes into
a context and it's a contrasting context.
So we're going to notice, first of all,
in Genesis chapter six and we have the
first mention, I think, of grace in the
Bible.
Genesis chapter six and verse five.
And God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
And it repented the Lord that he had
made man on the earth and it grieved
him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man
whom I have created from the face of
the earth, both man and beast and creeping
thing and fowl of the air, for it
repenteth me that I have made them.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations.
And Noah walked with God.
Now, when we think of grace, the word
itself suggests loving kindness, goodwill that is arising
from the heart of the one showing grace.
And we nearly always use the definition undeserved
kindness.
That seems to be a character of grace
that is very, very prominent.
It's something that flows out of the goodness
of God rather than our deserving of his
kindness or favor.
So it's kind of startling when looking at
it and seeing that the very first reference
to grace is in an almost opposite meaning
in the sense that it's not just that
God had pity on Noah, but that Noah
found grace in his eyes.
And this is actually almost an opposite idea
in the sense that it is that God
saw something good, something that brought favor in
his eyes.
So really the emphasis that I want to
notice here is divine favor.
And I don't think there's any question in
our minds today that we are in a
very parallel set of circumstances to Noah's day.
God must be pretty well fed up.
He sees wickedness overflowing today.
No restraint.
There is such an overflowing of evil and
it's evil continually, nonstop.
And so I want to just encourage you,
if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus
this morning, to realize that you could be
and can be, and I trust you are,
for God a bright spot.
And that you might be one of the
reasons why God hasn't blotted out man from
the face of the earth in our day.
Because God in his character is long-suffering
and he wants to manifest his grace.
And sometimes he looks for an excuse to
be able to show it.
And Noah was for God this reason to
show mercy.
And through Noah and his righteousness and his
walking with God, God spared a little, little
remnant of humanity and has endured how many
thousands of years more of human sin.
He spared the world from absolute judgment, although
he brought almost total judgment upon the earth.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of
the Lord.
And so I want you to think of
another couple of examples.
And I'm just going to refer to this
one in Exodus where Moses, in a somewhat
similar context, when Israel had failed and they
had worshiped the golden calf at the bottom
of the mountain.
And in Exodus 33, you have Moses interceding
with God for the people.
And Moses says, you have said that you
have found favor in my sight.
And the Lord responds and he says, yes,
you have found favor in my sight.
And I will spare the people for your
sake.
I will bring them to the land of
promise.
So again, you have, you might say, the
fate of a nation hanging on the favor
that one man has with God.
Now, let's go to Ephesians chapter one, where
we we see where we fit in in
the place of favor that we have graciously
received through the Lord Jesus.
And of course, he's the ultimate example of
this, of God showing favor to others because
of one man.
Ephesians chapter one, we have the wonderful expression
of God's blessing to us.
Verse three, blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love, having predestinated us unto
adoption of children or sonship by Jesus Christ
to himself.
You notice how it's all in Christ, by
Christ, according to the good pleasure of his
will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he has made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace.
Now, when we look at this expression, to
the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he has made us accepted in the
beloved, this again is that idea of favor.
In fact, the word or the expression made
us accepted is actually the word grace as
a verb.
He has graced us in the beloved.
The very same word, I believe, is found
in Luke chapter one in reference to Mary
when the angel Gabriel comes with the message
and he says, Fear not, thou art highly
favored.
So here we have the idea of being
highly favored of God, brought into a place
of love and nearness, and we can readily
appreciate that we come into this blessing because
of the Lord Jesus and that he has
brought such pleasure to God.
It's in him that we have a place
of favor.
And of course, it is forgiveness, it is
being made as sons of God, it is
inheriting everything that God has, and all of
that is in the beloved one.
So do we appreciate that we actually hold
the favor of God today, but not just
on our own goodness, but upon what Christ
is for God.
And so divine favor and acceptance is the
first emphasis that I enjoy in thinking about
the reality of God's grace.
Coming over to John chapter one, and I'm
just going to be looking at these and
making a few comments on each one as
we go through it.
John chapter one, we have another interesting connection
back to that incident with Moses.
But in John one, and we'll start at
verse 16, John the Baptist is born witness
of him.
In verse 15, and then we have this
testimony concerning Christ and of his fullness, have
all we received and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten son who is in the
bosom of the father, he has declared him.
So what we have here is what we
call what I would label as divine fullness
revealed.
He's placing a contrast.
The law was given by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ.
And this is the fullness of God being
made known to us.
God's fullness.
Thinking back to Moses, I've already referred to
him as one who actually became a beautiful
foreshadowing of Christ in that incident at Mount
Sinai.
God was going to blot out the nation.
And God said, I'll make of you a
great nation.
But Moses, instead of accepting that honor of
God starting all over with him as being
the foundation stone of it, he says, Oh
no, Lord, you can't do that.
He says, Lord, you made a promise.
You made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob.
And now you're fulfilling that promise by bringing
the people of Israel into their inheritance.
You've got to keep your word to them.
And so he appeals to God's faithfulness, to
his promise.
And then he presents himself as one willing
to accept the judgment of God.
He says, please forgive them.
But if not, blot me, I pray thee,
out of thy book.
And so Moses becomes a wonderful foreshadowing of
what the Lord Jesus would actually accomplish in
intervening between us and God and giving his
life, bearing the curse of God in judgment.
And God blessed Moses.
And God revealed himself in grace to Moses
personally up on the mount.
But when Moses came down from the mountain
the second time, he still brought the same
set of laws, the same covenant.
He was not able, even though he rose,
you might say, morally to that character of
being the mediator and the redeemer.
He couldn't be that because he himself was
yet a sinner.
So we have that God in all his
greatness longs to make himself known to us.
And now he has a perfect channel through
which he can reveal himself to us.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
And that is in the character of being
God's son.
As eternally in the bosom of the Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ, coming from the presence
of God, is able to tell us in
completeness, in fullness, what God is like.
And so grace and truth then is the
complete revelation of the character of God and
the bestowal of blessing to us.
Now I'm going to take a little glimpse
in Romans chapter 5 where we have the
emphasis on the undeserved gift.
And that's what we so often associate with
the idea of grace, the undeserved gift.
Romans 5 and 15 says, But not as
the offense, so also is the free gift.
For if through the offense of one many
be dead, much more the grace of God
and the gift by grace which is by
one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many.
And then at the end of the chapter,
verse 20 says, Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound.
That as sin has reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we are introduced to this reality that
there is sin against God, there is offenses
that abound in their rebelliousness and wickedness before
the face of God.
And yet his grace flows out and overflows
all of that wickedness and he still shows
his love, his goodness, instead of dealing with
humanity according to sin.
So we have grace reigning, an undeserved gift.
Now in Ephesians chapter 2, I'm just going
to make a very brief reference to this
because the focus of this is again more
in the gospel and I want to show
that the grace of God means salvation to
the sinner, but then it also means strength
to the saint.
We have the grace of God, God moving
toward us in his power and his love.
And that's what is emphasized at this point
in Ephesians.
At the end of chapter 1, it has
made reference to the exceeding greatness of his
power in verse 19.
To usward who believe according to the working
of his mighty power which he wrought in
Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand.
And then in chapter 2, it's related to
us.
And in God reaching us to save us,
it says in you, verse 1, has he
quickened, made alive who were dead in trespasses
and sins wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience.
Among whom also we all had our conversation
or behavior in times past in the lust
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind and whereby nature,
children of wrath, even as others, but God.
As I mentioned, I'm sort of giving you
a very, very extended definition of grace by
covering these different expressions.
This might be the best definition that there
is for grace, but God, you have a
portrayal of an abject hopelessness of condition.
People whose lives are alienated from God and
they can't come to God and make the
connection on their own.
They can't overcome the condition that they are
in.
They are dominated by a spirit power that
is just leading them down to destruction.
They're following the course of life that the
rest of the world is going.
And we've already made reference to that course.
It's like a flood of wickedness and it
carries people along a pathway towards more and
more disobedience.
And what are we doing?
Well, within ourselves defiled, following our own desires,
our own independence, our own disobedience.
It looks pretty hopeless.
But God.
And this is the wonder of God's salvation
and the wonder of the grace of God
in his moving toward us.
We have God in his power doing what
is needed for us to come into blessing.
God in his love, in his mercy, overcoming
all the enmity, the hatred that is within
us.
And it says, but God, who is rich
in mercy because of his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, has made us alive together with
Christ.
And then the little phrase that explains it
all, by grace you are saved.
And you go further to the rest of
those verses, you have God's intent is that
it might be in the ages to come
that he will pour out upon us the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through or in Christ Jesus.
So, so far we've been looking at really
the grace of God moving towards mankind despite
what we are.
But now we want to focus on the
idea of his grace that has entered into
our beings, his power within us, his life
within us, the grace of God at work
in the saint.
Now let's notice Galatians chapter 1 and there's
several references I want to draw attention to
of the divine sovereignty and strength.
Paul refers to his own behavior, his life
before from verse 13 and 14, about being
a zealous Pharisee and persecuting the church of
God and wasting it.
Verse 15 says, but when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his
son in me that I might preach him
among the heathen.
It has been acknowledged that the conversion of
Saul of Tarsus is one of the most
powerful evidences for Christianity.
For the supernatural aspect of life that there
is in the message of Christ.
Because here is a man who was absolutely
determined to blot out the name of Christ,
to oppose, to destroy that which represented Christ.
And yet God, when it pleased God, God
moved.
And so you have the sovereign working of
God intervening in a life.
Every one of us who are saved have
experienced God sovereignly moving.
Ours may have been very undramatic, but it
was still a work of divine sovereign grace.
Working towards us in the circumstances of our
life until there was that connection made when
he revealed Christ to us.
And then you notice that it is also
not only to reveal his son to me,
but to reveal his son in me.
This is the purpose of our life.
That the Lord Jesus Christ might not only
be revealed to us and that we would
embrace him as our Savior, but that he
would be revealed in us.
And the very life of the Lord Jesus
would be reproduced in our lives.
And that we would become gospel messengers by
life as well as by testimony.
Now over in 2 Timothy chapter 1, you
have a similar idea where Paul is emphasizing
to Timothy to not be ashamed.
Verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me
his prisoner.
That's 2 Timothy 1 and 8.
And then 9, Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of
the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our
Savior Jesus Christ and so on.
Again, we have the emphasis of the sovereign
call of God, the sovereign purpose of God,
which was from before the world began, according
to his own purpose and grace.
Now, maybe we can take a quick look
at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul refers
to that grace working in his life.
1 Corinthians 15, he speaks about the testimony
of the resurrection of Christ.
And he speaks about the fact that the
Lord Jesus was seen by different ones who
were witnesses of the Lord Jesus risen from
the dead.
And so in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 8,
Paul says, And last of all he was
seen of me also, as of one born
out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles,
and am not meet or not worthy to
be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God, but by the grace of
God I am what I am.
And his grace which was bestowed upon me
was not in vain, but I labored more
abundantly than they all, yet not I, but
the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore, whether it were I or they, so
we preach, and so you believed.
What is Paul getting at here?
He's talking about the reality that the gospel
that he preached included the resurrection of Christ,
and that it was an essential part of
the gospel message and its power.
Christ died for our sins, he was buried,
he was raised again the third day according
to the scriptures.
As he speaks about the grace of God
which was bestowed upon him who had been
a hater of Christ, a persecutor of the
church, but the grace of God was shown
to him.
And now he's referring to the reality of
that grace having worked in his life as
a Christian.
And he says his grace was not in
vain.
Now notice what it says in verse 10,
but by the grace of God I am
what I am.
Now could you say today that you are
what you are by the grace of God?
That what you are in your life today
is the fruit of, the product of the
grace of God at work.
And what I gather from this is that
even though it's good to be able to
understand the character of grace and to know
to be able to define grace in some
fashion, it's an even better thing to be
defined by grace.
That what you are in your life is
the grace of God at work.
Because there's a day coming when every Christian
is going to be perfect, is going to
be in the presence of God in the
ages upon ages to come in the mercy
of God.
And what we are going to be then
is not what our mother or father made
us, or the influence of those around us,
or even what we tried to do in
our individual lives, but rather what God has
accomplished, the workmanship of God.
Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing even now
to be able to say, as Paul did,
by the grace of God I am what
I am.
That my life would be defined and would
be a definition of grace.
And you notice then he talks about the
fact that he labored more than the rest
of the apostles.
He gave his life to serve God fully.
But he won't even take credit for that
as arising from his own goodness, but by
the grace of God.
He says, yet not I, but the grace
of God which was with me.
Now turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 1.
And again, this would express what I call
divine simplicity and sincerity in the grace of
God.
2 Corinthians 1 and verse 12, he says,
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of
our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we have had our conversation, and
of course that's Old English for our behavior,
our way of life.
By the grace of God, we have had
our behavior in the world and more abundantly
to you, Lord.
Here's Paul as an older Christian who has
served God and preached the gospel to these
people at a previous time.
And now he's writing to these Christians and
he is saying that the testimony of my
own conscience is that I have lived according
to the grace of God.
And so this gives us another element of
the character of the grace of God.
And that is what we could call transparency
in goodness.
God is good.
God is all good.
There is no corruptedness.
There is no evil contaminating the purity of
the goodness of God.
And it's a beautiful thing when the life
of a Christian expresses that transparency, that simplicity,
as he says here.
You know, if you're honest and you live
your life honestly, transparently, you don't have to
worry about the stories you tell.
And you don't have to remember if what
you said to this person is the same
as what you say to that person.
But if you're trying to create impressions and
you're trying to manipulate people and trying to
use people and so on, well then you're
always trying to cover up and you've got
hidden motivations that you keep hidden from other
people.
He says, that's not the way I have
lived.
I have lived in absolute genuineness and transparency
in the grace of God.
In other words, my love for you has
been genuine.
It's been sincere.
It's been true.
And if you know the context of the
letter, it's because some of these believers who
should have had such an appreciation for all
the goodness and all the care that Paul
the Apostle had had for them, some of
them were disdaining him.
Some of them were questioning his motivations.
And his heart is broken as he thinks
of these people that he has so cared
about and loved.
But here he is trying to open up
his heart to them and help them to
understand that the very character of God in
the grace of God is what has ruled
in his life.
Not with fleshly wisdom, but in the grace
of God.
We've had our behavior in the world and
more abundantly to you.
Now, my time is gone, so I'll close
in prayer.
Our Father, we thank Thee for the wonders
of Thy grace.
That love that has flowed out toward us
in such mercy, despite our sinfulness.
We thank Thee that Thy grace is abundant.
That it overflows our greatest evil and our
greatest need.
And we would look to Thee today that
Thou would bless both in the preaching of
the Gospel and in the encouraging of Thy
people that we might rejoice in the grace
of God.
And we thank Thee that it comes to
us through the Lord Jesus, who has manifested
Thy love in such a complete way by
giving His very life for us at the
cross.
And we thank Thee that there is for
us the gift of eternal life through Him.
And we acknowledge Him in Thy presence and
bless Thee for Him in His worthy and
precious name.
Amen.