Grace - The Favor of God

Leave this overhead on here. Give it a bit of a workout this morning because in my lesson, I will be using some overheads. Don't usually, but this morning, let me get some images across. You know, one of the saddest situations in the church is when Christians become worried about their salvation. It's one thing if a sinner starts to worry about, or an unbeliever starts to worry about going to hell.

But it's another thing when a believer, when a Christian actually worries about salvation. I did a test once, a survey in a congregation, and I asked them on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 meaning, I feel utterly lost, and 10 being, I feel so saved, I'm so sure that I'm saved, I just can't wait till Jesus arrives. You know, 0 to 10. And I said, Put on that scale how you feel personally about your salvation. And I collected the cards and I went through it.

This was a large, very large class. And you know what the average score was on that? These were all Christians. Every single of these people were Christians. And according to the survey, most of them had been Christians, like, 10, 20, 30 years.

Not new Christians here. The average score of all the cards was 5. 5. You know, kind of, I don't know, maybe. I think I'm going to heaven.

I think I feel saved. That's what a 5 says. You know, one of Satan's most powerful weapons is to make God's children doubt whether or not they're really gonna make it. And I found that Christians who are anxious about their personal salvation, usually what's wrong, usually if you're gonna diagnose, what's wrong is that they do not have a firm grasp of what the concept of grace is in their lives. What the concept of grace is in the Bible.

This is why we're studying the topic of grace in our, Sunday morning Bible class here in the auditorium. And so in today's lesson, I'd like to give you an overview of the subject so that the entire congregation will be up to speed on this very important biblical teaching. Now some of you who are in my class may hear some ideas that we've already talked about. Please bear with us. We want the entire church to be up to date on the subject of grace.

Well, I guess the approach I'd like to take is to, first of all, tell you what grace is not, what it isn't. That's what I'm using a little overheads for. 1st thing, grace is not a dividing line. Grace is not a dividing line. Some think that grace is a point that divides being safe from being lost, and grace is that line right in the middle there.

In other words, if I'm on this side of the line, then I'm under grace. You know, grace starts at this line, if I'm on the right side of the line, then I'm under grace. And if I'm on the other side, then I'm out of grace. A lot of people use this imagery to explain 1 John chapter 1, verse 6-nine. And if you have your Bibles, please, if you don't, there's some in the few in front of you, take out your Bibles and let's look at 1 John.

Let's get this scripture straight once and for all, 1st John chapter 1, verse 7 to 9, actually, verse 6 to 9. In verse 6, John says, 6 and 7, he says, If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Some people think, using this imagery, that walking in the light means you're on the grace side. I'm walking in the light, I'm on the grace side.

And then in verse 8 and 9 he says, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all righteousness. Now, if we follow this line idea about grace, then when we sin, we are on the wrong side of the line, and we need to confess sin in order to be restored to be on the right side again. And we keep kinda going from one side to the other all the time. Now the problem with this idea, and I've heard people tell me this, is that we worry about being on the wrong side when death comes.

What if when I die, I'm driving along and I'm in the middle of cursing the guy that cuts me off? Do I all of a sudden, you know, go to the wrong side of grace? Now I'm on the wrong side of the line and I crash, I die, where do I go? Or if I haven't yet, you know, taken care of that sin thing in my life, that secret sin or that bad habit, and death comes, I'm on the wrong side of grace. You see, when we see how weak we are and how easily we sin, it's easy to see how we can kind of slip on to the wrong side, even for a moment, when we die.

And so what do we do? We worry. We live in this state of worry and fear. Brothers and sisters, Jesus did not come so that we would worry. That's not why he came.

Now, we'd worry less, I think, if we realize that John is talking in this passage about hypocrisy and how God judges hypocrisy. He's not talking about lying. Basically, he is repeating what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. You know when Jesus says, No one can serve 2 masters? And what James is saying in chapter 2 of his, epistle, verse 18, he says, But someone may well say, you have faith, and I have works.

Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Let's go back to these two lines again, these two or this passage again. Verses 6 and 7, I'll read it again, If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If you profess to be a Christian, your life, in other words, the things you do in faith.

In other words, walking in the light will be evident of this. And the sins that you commit while you are in fellowship with God will be forgiven you. You notice that the 2 are simultaneous? While you are walking with God, the sins that you commit will be forgiven. Wait a minute, that's not a line.

They're simultaneous. Walking in the light is not being sinless. How How many times have I heard that before? Are you walking in the light? Meaning, are you perfect?

Have you done everything right? Are there no sins in your life? Walking in the light doesn't mean being sinless. Only Jesus was sinless. This expression refers to a relationship.

Walking, biblically, walking with the Lord means a relationship with the Lord, and light means an awareness. Walking in the light is the conscious relationship we have with God through our union with Jesus Christ expressed in repentance, and baptism, and fidelity. It's an ongoing awareness that because we are sinners, we need Christ as our Savior, we need His blood to wash away our sins every single day. That's what walking in the light is recognizing that without Christ I'm totally lost. And that I'm totally lost without Christ every single day.

It's not as if one day I'm in the light because I'm having a good day, and then another day I'm not in the light because because I'm having a bad day. That's why he says that to deny that we are sinners. He doesn't say, If you sin, he says, If you deny that you are a sinner, and consequently have no need for Christ, that makes you a fool and a liar. Verse 8 and 9. And so John reminds us that we are sinners, and we're always going to be sinners, but so long as we are aware of this, so long as we acknowledge this, and so long as we trust God for ongoing mercy, we will be saved.

And we are walking in the light. Another thing that grace is not, you might be more familiar with this, how about the old thermometer? You like that? The old thermometer. Grace is not a thermometer.

I don't know where this idea comes from but it goes something like this. I mean, I remember sitting in the pew and having the preacher actually have a thermometer up on the overhead explaining grace. Here's how it goes. You supply this much over here, and the rest is what God supplies, and that's His grace. That sounds pretty good.

Grace, in other words, is the part that God supplies. If you supply 2%, He supplies 98%, if you supply 1%, He supplies 99%. Isn't that graceful? Now, this imagery is based on a false premise. And the false premise is this, the premise that there is something that we supply in exchange for salvation, and God supplies the rest.

Brothers and sisters, I'm here to tell you that when it comes to salvation, we don't provide a thing. 0. I know what some of you are thinking, and just hold on to that thought, I'll get there in a minute. Our role in the process of salvation is to accept forgiveness through faith. That's what we do, if you want to do something.

We accept. We don't give God something, we accept something. And the way that we accept is through faith. And that faith, how is it expressed? It is expressed through repentance and baptism.

The bible is very clear on that. But I want us to get away from the idea that we exchange, you know, God gives us grace, we give Him repentance and There's no exchange going on here folks. God gives freely and graciously 100% of our salvation, and we accept it. We receive it through faith. Now we can express our faith a lot of different ways.

We can clap our hands, raise our hands, stomp our feet, snap our fingers, cross ourselves. We can say, I accept Jesus as my personal Savior. We could, you know, we could do all those things. But if we look at the Bible, we'll see that whenever someone accepted God's grace, the way that they did it was they repented of their sins, They were immersed in the water in the name of Christ for forgiveness of sins and they followed Jesus. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30.

Flip over there please. I want you to read these scriptures. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. Listen to what he says, But by his doing, speaking of God. He says, By his doing you are in Christ Jesus.

Who did that? He did that. By his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Christ becomes on our behalf everything that we need to be in order to be right with God. And we become right with God through our association with Christ Jesus.

You see, what happens at baptism is that our association with Christ begins and so too, all of the blessings that flow from that association. Now, go to 1st Peter chapter 2. 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 24. Listen to what Peter says, how he explains the same idea. Peter says, And Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness.

For by his wounds you were healed. See, a lot of times we confuse repentance with restitution. The restitutionary, in other words, the payback element in our salvation was made totally by Jesus Christ. It's not that we paid a bit and God paid the rest. He paid it all, like the song said.

We contribute nothing towards it. Whatever way we sin, either before becoming a Christian or after becoming a Christian, Jesus makes restitution to God with his cross. Some of us think that after baptism, somehow as Christians, we have to make restitution for our sins. Where do we get that idea? It's not a biblical idea.

Where's the good news in that? Try to understand the idea of restitution. You steal something, you go to jail in order to pay the price to society for having stolen. And you can say, legally, I've paid my debt to society. But you've also broken God's law when you stole.

You broke the commandment. And going to jail does not pay God back for breaking His commandment, only society. There's nothing we can do to make restitution to God for all the things we've done wrong. We can pay back society, we can pay back our brothers, we can pay back our friends, our businesses if we embezzle. We can pay back our ex wives and ex husbands through child support and all kinds of legal We can pay everybody back.

But we can't pay God back. We can't pay God back. All those things that we do to pay everybody else back, counts for nothing with God. The only one who can pay God back is Jesus Christ. That's the idea of grace.

So, on the thermometer scale here, Jesus supplies all of what we need to be saved. He provides 100% of the restitution necessary to save our souls. Okay, a third idea, what grace is not. It's not a free ticket. It's not a free ticket.

Some people think that grace is a special privilege to sin without consequence. Many think that grace means that God is our buddy, my buddy God. God is my friend. And because of grace, somehow we're allowed to enjoy ourselves in a worldly way. In other words, we can enjoy sin, and we can have lower standards of morality or ethics because somehow we're God's children and he's some kind of benevolent old man that says, Oh well, boys will be boys.

Grace doesn't mean that God indulges us our weaknesses and our sins. In Romans, take a look at that. Go to Romans chapter 6 verse 1. Paul says, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin, that grace might increase?

You see, Paul argues against the form of thinking where some believe that if grace always increases to cover sin, then people should just not worry about increasing sin because grace is always there to cover sin. But then in verse 2 he says, May it never be! How shall we, who died to sin, still live in it? You see, he argues that those who enjoy grace do so because they've died to sin, not because they live for sin. Look at 1st Peter chapter 1.

Got you working this morning, 1st Peter chapter 1, verse 14. Peter says, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.' Peter reminds Christians that God has expectations of his people and their conduct. And grace is the thing that motivates conduct. We do what we do because of grace.

We try what we try because of grace. We seek after the Lord to do what is right and good and pure because of grace. Grace is not an excuse for being lukewarm. You know, I don't have to try as hard because, well, I'm under grace. If that's what you think, you're not under grace.

You don't even understand what grace is. It hasn't even touched your heart yet, if that's what you think. Grace isn't an excuse for worldliness or an indifference to sin. It's not an excuse for unscriptural practices in worship or church organization or doctrinal matters. Oh, I'm under grace.

I can do whatever I want. What is that? Where did we get that idea? Grace is never an excuse. On the contrary, grace is a reason to be more fervent.

Grace is a reason to be more zealous. Grace is a reason to be more careful. Why are we careful to do the communion the way the scripture tells us? Because we love the Lord. Because grace tells us.

Why are we careful not to go beyond the scripture or not to twist the scripture? Because grace impels us to do only what the Lord gives us to do. We want to obey. That's what grace does. Law can't do that.

Law can just condemn you. Law can just send you to hell. Law can just tell you how you're no good. Only grace can motivate you to try hard, to seek after the Lord, and to do away with sin in your life. Alright.

My time is running out. I need to kinda If I told you what it is, then maybe how about if I tell you what it is? Then a lesson to yours, give you a few ideas of what it is and 1 or 2 examples and then a lesson to yours. Let's look at the word, first of all, very basically. In the Old Testament, the word grace or whatever it was used in context actually meant to stoop down.

You know, to stoop down to help somebody up or a king who would kind of lower himself to do a favor for an underling, if you wish. That was the concept of grace in the Old Testament, to bend or to stoop. Genesis 6:8, Psalm 8411. In the New Testament, the word translated as grace begins at a different place but it ends up meaning the same thing. The root word refers to a cheerful attitude, a generous spirit, beautiful.

And the application of the word is to express kindness. A happy, joyful heart expressing itself in kindness, in favors, and blessings. In Luke chapter 2, and in Acts chapter 11, verse 23, you know, Barnabas gives graciously his land cheerfully to the church. And so the word itself always refers to a favor, whether it's an attitude, like a favorable attitude, or a favor done for someone else. Now, definition refers to 2 things then.

1st of all, in the New Testament, grace refers, 1st of all, to God's character. You wanna God is holy, God is pure, God is all powerful, God is all knowing, God is eternal. God is gracious. Just another aspect of his character. He's kind.

He's joyful. He's beautiful. He's generous. The word grace also refers to all the blessings that he's given to us, all the favors he's done for us, especially the favor of salvation. And not just the favor of salvation, the real favor of salvation is that he has saved us by faith through grace.

You see what I'm saying? Now God could have terminated us. I told you, you sin, you die. You sin, good. You're dead.

You're out of here. Goodbye. Let's just fold up this creation business and, you know, we'll go on as before. He could've done that. Or he could've said, You wanna be saved?

Okay. Salvation through law. How about that? You know, Don't sin anymore. Be perfect.

Do exactly what I tell you. I'll save you. He could've done that. But he didn't. Because he is kind, because he is joyful, because he is generous, he provides salvation based on our association with Jesus Christ.

That's how he did it. Why is that a favor? Because everybody here and everybody in the whole world can do this. It's not out of reach for anyone To believe in Jesus Christ is within reach. To be saved by law, that's out of reach.

But to be saved by faith in Christ, that's within reach. I can do that. I can believe. I wanna believe. And the reason I can be saved by faith is because Jesus Christ, he earned my salvation.

He paid the price on the cross. So, grace is not a lion. It's not a thermometer. It's not a free ticket. If I had a picture here, I didn't get a picture of this.

I didn't know how to picture this. Grace is a favor, the favor of God, the kindness that God has done for us, by associating ourselves with Jesus Christ through faith, expressed in repentance and baptism, we receive a sin free life. We receive sonship. We receive eternal status that Jesus enjoys. Well, that's a favor because we could not have had this in any other way.

Okay, two examples, just to drive it home. Grace in action. In the Old Testament, I believe the best example of grace in action is the story of David and Bathsheba. I'm not gonna read it because you all know it. David is the king of Israel.

Bathsheba is a beautiful woman but she happens to be married to one of his captains. And while the woman's husband is away fighting David's war, David sees her, desires her, seduces her, and she becomes pregnant. In order to hide the pregnancy, what does he do? Well, he plans to have her husband killed in action, murdered, and then take her as his wife and pretend that it's his baby. And he does all of this.

He commits adultery. He plots murder. He lies to the nation. And this is the king that God has set over his people. You know what the law said about everything that David did?

The law said he should be condemned to death. I mean, just adultery alone was punishable by stoning according to the law. Never mind murder, never mind lying to the nation, never mind covering it up. By law he should've been executed. Bingo!

That's it. But what happens in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 13? The prophet goes to him, explains to him that God knows about his sin. And what does David do? He repents.

He says, I'm guilty. I did this. I sinned against God. And what does God do? Big long rigmarole?

No. He says, I forgive you. Just like that? Yep. Just like that.

Now, did David suffer because of all his evil? Sure, he suffered. I mean, because the evil bounced back on him. I mean, the child eventually died socially and emotionally. He suffered because of these sins.

But God saved his life through forgiveness, especially his eternal life. I I mean, this guy was as far across the line as you can get. David could not give anything to God as restitution for his terrible sin. But because of God's kindness, because God allowed Christ to make restitution for David's sin, so he could be saved spiritually. And because of his bottomless kindness and love and mercy, he allowed David to continue as king.

God gave David a favor. That's what grace is about. One more example. How about Paul the Apostle? 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 9 to 10, he explains, he says, I'm the worst of sinners because I persecuted Christians.

I don't just mean quote badly against them. He dragged them off to jail. He'd go into a house and he'd rip the guy out like the Jewish persecution in the 2nd World War. He dragged the guy out, put the guy in jail, and separate parents from children. And he tried to get a death certificate against these people, these Christians to kill them.

We don't know how many he's responsible for having jailed and executed. And after he was converted, after he was baptized, I ask you something. Is there something he could have done to bring these people back? Have you ever realized that while Paul was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, there were still people in jail that he had put there? He never made any attempt to get him out of jail.

There's nothing he could do. What could he give God in exchange for his sin? Not all of his mission work, not all of his suffering could bring Stephen back from the dead. Paul understood that he was saved and he was useful only because God did him the favor of charging all of his sins to the cross of Jesus Christ. So that he could just go on living.

Brothers and sisters and friends, that's what grace is all about. In Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 and 14, Paul gives us a vivid image of the working of grace. One last image. One last image, one last scripture. Turn over to that and that's, if you haven't read any of them, read this one.

Chapter 2 verse 13. He says, And when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of death consisting of decrees against us, and which was hostile to us and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. What a vivid image, the working of grace on our behalf. When Paul describes how God takes our sins as if they were invoices, debts, bills, whatever they were, adultery, lying, stealing, cheating, pride, greed, laziness, impurity, whatever. He's given me all those things.

And he takes them over and he nails them to the cross of Jesus Christ. They're your sins, he said. Don't look in your heart for your sins. Don't look in the past for your sins. Don't look in the future for your sins.

Look at the cross for your sins because that's where they are. And that's where they'll always be forever and ever and ever. Praise God. And we're worried about our salvation because we dwell on the past and we dwell on our failures or we see how weak we are. We worry about future temptations and our ability to deal with them.

Remember this image here of the cross with our perfect Lord on it and all of our debts for sins securely nailed to that cross and feel the relief that comes with this kind of assurance. There's no reason why any one of us here who confess Christ, who've repented of our sins, been baptized, and who each and every day realize that we need the blood of Christ, should not score a 10 on that test when it comes to us. Do I feel saved? 10. 10.

Absolutely, I feel saved. Not because I feel that way, because my sins are nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. Well, I close this lesson out with a prayer. Think of your worst sin, the worst one you have, the one that causes you the greatest worry and pain and fear and picture it as a bill or an invoice and go to the cross in your mind's eye and take a hammer, and take a nail, and nail it to the cross, and leave it there for Jesus to make restitution for you once and for all, and walk away, and never go back. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, we thank you for your word that reveals the marvelous grace that is ours through Jesus Christ and his cross. Lord in heaven, help us to plumb the depths of our consciences in our hearts and find those sins which continually surround us and threaten us and make us afraid and help us at this very moment to nail them to the cross with confidence, knowing that the blood of Christ will wash us and keep us clean until you return for us and we can live with you in heaven in all security and joy forever and ever and ever. Amen. In Jesus' name. For those who may need God's grace this morning.

Do you have a song that you've got? Okay. Vince has got a song that he'll put up here that we'll sing in a moment. If you need this grace, we encourage you to come for it now as we stand and as we sing Marvelous song of invitation, please make up your mind and come now if you need the grace of God on your behalf, of God on your behalf, of God on your behalf, of God on your behalf.