- We're going to begin, or continue rather,
our series on Amazing Grace.
Tonight's lesson entitled "No Grace, No Gospel."
If you haven't got grace, you haven't got the gospel.
Best way to find out if you're preaching the gospel
is examine your message and see if there's grace there.
Because if you haven't got grace,
you haven't got the gospel.
Well, in order to explain what something is,
sometimes you have to begin by describing what it isn't.
So I'm going to start tonight talking about what grace is not,
some images, some popular images that people have put forth
to try to describe grace which have been incorrect.
So let's begin with what grace is not.
First of all, grace is not a dividing line.
A dividing line.
Some people think that grace is a kind of a point or a line
that just divides being safe from being lost.
If you're on this side, you're safe,
if you're on that side, you're lost.
If I'm on this side of the line, I'm under grace
because grace starts at the line,
and if I'm on the other side, I'm out of grace.
And a lot of people use this imagery to explain the meaning
of First John chapter one, verses five to 10.
So I'd encourage you to go to First John,
and I'll read verses five to 10.
John says, "This is the message we have heard from him
"and announce to you that God is light,
"and in him there is no darkness.
"If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk
"in the darkness, we lie and we 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, cleanses us from all sin.
"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 unrighteousness.
"If we say that we have not sinned,
"we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
And so from verse five to seven, some people say,
well then, that's walking in the light,
that's being on the grace side.
And then verse eight to 10, if we follow this idea,
then when we sin, we're on the wrong side of the line,
and we need to confess our sin to get back
on the right side of the line.
You see what I'm saying?
See the problem here, you see it?
The problem with this idea is that we worry
about being on the wrong side when death comes.
What if I slip over to the wrong side and then I die?
Oh, man, I'm on the wrong side, trouble.
The problem with this imagery is when we begin to see
how weak we are and how easily we sin, it's easy to see
how we could slip on to the wrong side,
even for a moment, when we die.
So we worry.
We're always worried, I can't slip over to the wrong side.
I want to be on the right side.
We would worry less if we realize that John here
is talking about hypocrisy and how God
will judge hypocrisy, not about lines.
In verse five to seven, he says if you profess to be
a Christian, your life, that's walking in the light,
the walking part, the Bible, when they talk about walking,
they're talking about your life, your lifestyle.
If you profess to be a Christian, then your life
will be evidence of this, and the sins you commit
while you are in fellowship with God
will be forgiven you, verse 7b.
Notice the two situations are simultaneous.
While you are walking in the light,
God forgives you your sins.
Whoa, wait a minute.
Walking in the light is not being sinless.
This expression refers to a relationship.
Walking, that's your lifestyle.
The light, that's an awareness.
Walking in the light is the conscious relationship
we have with God through our union with Jesus Christ,
expressed primarily in repentance and baptism,
and then of course in fidelity.
It is the ongoing awareness that because we are sinners,
we need Christ as our savior.
That's walking in the light.
When you say, oh, the light, the little light just went on.
Click.
Oh, I get it, the light, walking in the light.
You're walking in the light
when you realize you're a sinner.
That's walking in the light.
You're a sinner and you need Christ to wash away your sins.
Not every second Tuesday.
Not when you kind of, whoops, I slipped into the wrong side.
Not that.
You need Christ to wash away your sin
every waking moment of your life.
That's why he says that to deny that we are sinners
and consequently have any need for Christ
makes us fools and liars.
John reminds us that we are sinners
and always will be sinners while we are in this flesh,
but so long as we are aware of this, so long
as we acknowledge this truth and we trust in God
for our ongoing mercy, we will be saved.
We are walking in the light.
Walking in the light doesn't mean we're sinless.
It means we're enlightened about our sinfulness
and we know how we are being saved.
Not through our efforts, through the effort of Christ.
So there is one, this misconception,
grace is some kind of line.
Another misconception is that grace
is some kind of thermometer.
Grace is a thermometer, this is how that works.
I don't know where this idea comes from,
but it goes like this.
In the process of salvation, you supply so much.
Let's say the thermometer goes up to 100.
You supply 20% or 30%, whatever that is.
And grace is the part that God provides
to get you up to 100, to top it off, so you can make it.
100 is salvation, okay?
This imagery is based on the false premise
that there is actually something we can supply in exchange
for salvation, and God in his grace supplies the rest.
Like we give something and he gives the rest,
and that makes up for our sins.
We think that's grace.
But I'll tell you something, brothers, when it comes
to salvation, we don't provide anything.
Our role is to accept forgiveness through faith
expressed in repentance and baptism.
We do not exchange repentance and baptism for salvation.
We do not make restitution for our sins by exchanging
repentance and baptism to make up for our sins.
That's merely the way we express our faith
in a Biblical manner.
Let's go to First Corinthians, shall we?
Let's go to First Corinthians chapter one, verse 30,
a very interesting verse.
Paul says, "But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus,"
now watch, "who became to us wisdom from God
"and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."
So what's Paul saying?
He's saying that Jesus Christ, on our behalf,
becomes all that we need in order to be right with God.
And we become right with God
through our association with Jesus Christ.
And what happens at baptism, for example,
is that our association with Christ begins.
And so also our advantages because of it.
What is the advantage that I gain
because I am associated with, linked to, in,
whatever preposition you want to use there.
What's the advantage of being associated to Christ?
Well, I gain all the things that he has gained for me.
Eternal life, sanctification, perfection, holiness,
acceptability with God.
Jesus has all of this.
And in my association with him,
I come into all of those benefits.
That's what Paul is explaining
to us here in First Corinthians.
Let's go to First Peter this time.
First Peter chapter two, verse 24.
Peter says the same thing actually in a different way.
He says, "And he himself bore our sins in his body
"on the cross, so that we might die to sin
"and live to righteousness;
"for by his wounds you were healed."
You see, what happens is we confuse
repentance with restitution.
The restitutionary part meaning the payment part.
The restitutionary element in our salvation
was made by Jesus Christ.
That's why I say we don't give anything
towards our salvation.
We don't make any of the restitution part for our salvation.
Jesus has made 100% of the restitution
necessary to save our souls.
We contribute nothing towards it.
Whatever way we sin, either before becoming a Christian
or after Jesus, makes restitution to God,
or after, I put the accent in the wrong place,
let me say that again.
Whatever sins that we make, whether it is before
we become Christians or after, comma,
Jesus makes restitution for those sins on his cross.
Now, some people actually think that after baptism
we make restitution for our sins.
That's incorrect.
We may have to make restitution to the government.
If we steal, we go to jail.
If we cheat on our income tax, we'll get a fine.
We may have to make restitution to earthly institutions.
We may have to make restitution to a friend
if we had an argument and we said something nasty
or whatever, and we have to make an apology
to the friend or to a spouse.
But we don't make restitution to God.
Going to jail for stealing may make restitution to society
for stealing, but our jail term counts for nothing
as payment to God for our moral debt
because of the sin of stealing.
You see the difference?
Only Christ can make moral restitution to God for our sins,
and he has done that through the cross.
Repentance.
I've talked about restitution.
Repentance is a change of attitude about sin.
It is a change of attitude
about how we will conduct ourselves in the future.
It is a change of attitude about who and what we believe.
But it is not restitution.
Now, there is a restitution element in repentance.
But repentance isn't the thing that pays for our sins.
The cross is what pays for our sins.
So on that thermometer scale there,
Jesus supplies all of what we need to be saved.
He makes 100% of the restitution
necessary with God to save our souls.
So you stole something in the past,
he makes restitution.
You got an abortion, he makes restitution.
You failed at marriage, he makes restitution.
You abandon the church, and then you've returned
to the church, he makes restitution.
Brothers and sisters, this is the good part
about the Good News.
(chuckles)
Don't ask, why aren't people responding
to the gospel when we preach?
Maybe we're not preaching the Good News.
I want to tell you, when I heard this news
about all the junk that I did,
most of it I couldn't take back, fix,
repair, apologize for.
When somebody finally explained to me, yeah, you know,
you can't change the, but it's okay.
Jesus has paid,
has made the restitution for you, Mike.
I don't know about you, but man,
that was the best news I ever heard in my life.
And like Peter in many ways,
when I realized that Christianity would require of me
certain things in my new life
that I had to do away, with that were in my old life,
as much as my flesh didn't want to let go all those things
in my old life, like Peter, I found myself saying,
but where am I going to go?
What choice do I have?
You have the words of life, Lord,
you made restitution for me.
Who else has done that for me?
No one, only, only him.
One more, okay?
Image.
Grace is not a free ticket.
Some people think that grace is some kind
of special privilege to sin without consequences.
As if God is our buddy and he allows us to enjoy ourselves
in sin and have a kind of a lower standard of morality
or ethics because we're his children, and he,
like many earthly fathers, indulges us our weaknesses.
You know, oh, boys will be boys.
Maybe your dad was like that,
but the Father's not, the Father's not like that.
Let's go to Romans, shall we, chapter six, verse one.
What does Paul say?
Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Paul argues against a form of this kind of thinking
where some people believe that if grace always increases
to cover sin, then people shouldn't worry
about increasing sin because greater sin
only produced more grace.
It's all good, they were saying, it's all good.
And then in verse two he says, "May it never be.
"How shall we who die to sin still live in it?"
So Paul argues that those who enjoy grace
do so because they've died to sin,
not because they live for sin.
And then we go to First Peter chapter one, verse 14 to 16.
Peter says, "As obedient children, do not be conformed
"to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance,
"but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves
"also in all of your behavior;
"because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"
And we like to preach that.
We like to, yeah, you should be holy, for I am holy,
and we're a holy people.
But sometimes holiness demands something of us
that we don't want to give.
And it's not just always about sex.
It's about our attitude.
It's about our generosity.
It's about our violent natures.
It's about our selfishness.
It's about our self-centeredness.
It's about our impatience.
Holiness is about those things, too.
God calls us to be holy like he is holy.
And I come back to what I've said before.
Sometimes the demands of holiness brings us to our knees
and we end up saying, "Lord, I must be holy as much as
"my flesh fights against it, because where else will I go?
"Who else has made restitution for me?"
Peter reminds Christians that God has expectations
of his people, and their conduct and grace
is what motivates and produces this conduct.
I had an old girlfriend many, many years ago,
long before I was married.
And I happened to meet her,
because my wife frowns on my dating, but anyways.
(audience laughing)
You ever meet an old boyfriend or an old girlfriend,
someone you dated or went out with,
before you were married, obviously,
and then you bump into them somewhere or you meet them
somewhere again and they kind of see you in your new life?
And I met this person after I had been married.
Lise and I'd been married several years,
and I had become a Christian.
I was not a Christian when we went out.
And she gave me a compliment, but she didn't know
she gave me a compliment.
She says, "You're different."
I go, "Yeah."
"You're not as cool as you used to be."
(audience laughing)
Now, my male ego was not happy to hear that.
But my spirit in Christ was.
What she said was, "You're not as worldly
"as you used to be."
Yeah, I wasn't.
I had to shed that cool person in order
to be making the effort to be that holy person.
It's amazing the things that you will do.
It's amazing the things that you will shed.
It's amazing the things that you will try to put away
in order to be holy, in order to please God.
And the motivation for that desire
is the grace that we've received from God.
Again, he's the one that made restitution, his grace.
All right, so let's talk about grace.
Let's look at the word and its meaning very quickly,
a definition, and then maybe examine one or two examples
to see grace in action.
And then the lesson'll be yours.
A word meaning, in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, every instance where the word
grace is used, it comes from a root word that means to bend,
you know, to bend down, or to stoop down.
The application of this word is the bending down
in kindness, as the motivation to someone or something
that is inferior that results in blessings
for that inferior being or that inferior thing.
For example, in Genesis 6:8 it says Noah found favor,
grace, in the eyes of the Lord.
The Lord looked down, bent down,
stooped down to give grace to Noah.
In Psalm 84:11 it says for the Lord God
is the sun and a shield.
The Lord gives grace and glory.
Always the superior giving grace to the inferior.
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 in the New Testament, in the Greek,
means a cheerful attitude, having a cheerful attitude.
The application of the word is to express kindness,
a happy heart expressing itself in kindness
and favors and blessings.
For example, in Luke chapter two, verse 40,
it says of Jesus, the child continued to grow
and become strong, increasing in wisdom and the grace,
the favor of God, the cheerfulness,
the happiness of God was upon him.
In Acts 11:23 it says that Barnabas witnessed
the grace of God, the favor.
He saw God's favor happening.
In Galatians chapter five, verse four it says
you who are seeking to be justified by law,
you have fallen from grace.
You've gone away from the favor of God.
So the word always refers to a favor,
whether as an attitude or the result of an attitude.
Now, we've looked at what the actual word meant
briefly in the Old Testament, the New Testament.
Now, let's look at a definition of the word grace.
The word grace refers to two things.
First of all, it refers to God's character.
So among other things, he is gracious.
What kind of guy is God?
Well, God's not a guy, he's a spirit, he's a being.
Well, what kind of spirit or being is he?
What kind of, you know, what is that?
Well, he's gracious, we can say that about him.
We can say he's holy, he's just,
but we can also say he's gracious.
And that graciousness motivates him to create
and motivates him to bless.
The word grace also means the blessings
that he has given us, especially salvation by faith.
In Romans chapter three, verse 21 to 24,
Paul writes the following.
He says, "But now apart from the law the righteousness
"of God has been manifested, being witnessed
"by the law and the prophet," meaning how God is good.
How God is right.
Apart from the law and the prophets,
God has demonstrated this to everyone.
And says, "Even the righteousness of God through faith
"in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;
"for there is no distinction; for all have sinned
"and fall short," excuse me, "of the glory of God,
"being justified as a gift," as a gift,
"by his grace through the redemption
"which is in Christ Jesus."
Paul in essence is saying you want to know how wonderful
God is, how right he is, how righteous,
you want to know how he is?
The law talks about it, the prophets talk about it.
But if you really want to know how he is,
take a look at what he has done through Jesus Christ.
He has saved people based
on the process of faith through his grace.
If you really want to see how wonderful he is, observe this.
Observe what he has done for sinful man.
And God has not given us simply salvation.
He could've terminated us, he could've provided
salvation only through restitution.
You want to be saved, okay, here's a checklist.
But because he is kind and joyful, he provides salvation
based on our association with Christ.
You see how it works?
Jesus, he earns, he earns our salvation,
he earns righteousness, he earns perfection
by living a perfect life in a human form.
And then he transfers that to us through association
because of our faith.
And God did this so we wouldn't have to.
So grace is not a line, it's not a thermometer,
it's not a free ticket.
If you want to imagine something, it is a gift.
Imagine a box with a big bow.
It is a gift, it is a favor
that God in his kindness has done for us.
By associating ourselves with Jesus through faith,
and that faith properly expressed in repentance and baptism
and faithful living, we receive the same sin-free sonship,
eternal life status that Jesus Christ enjoys.
It's a favor because there is no other way
we could achieve it.
It has to come this way from God.
Well, let me give you one or two examples
of grace in action.
As I said, and the lesson will be yours.
The first example is David and Bathsheba.
I won't read the story because it's so familiar
to us in Second Samuel.
We know the sequence of events.
David the king, the army is out at war.
He's on the roof of his palace.
He observes a beautiful woman who is bathing.
He is drawn to her.
He brings her to his palace, he seduces her.
They commit adultery, she's a married woman.
He knows, this is not a mistake.
He knows she is the wife of Uriah, one of his captains,
one of his military leaders, and yet he seduces her anyways.
She becomes pregnant.
Then he commits premeditated murder
in order to hide the pregnancy.
He murders her husband.
He lies to the nation over whom God has made.
He didn't become king by votes.
God made him king, and he lies to this nation
in order to cover up the affair that he has had.
Now, by law, by law he should've been condemned to death,
never mind for the murder, for the adultery
he should've been condemned to death.
This would have been the proper restitution.
Okay?
And yet, we go to Second Samuel, in chapter 12.
Nathan the prophet speaks to him,
telling him of his sin, confronting him with his sin.
That we read in Second Samuel, it said,
"Then David said to Nathan," after he had been confronted
with his sin, he says, "I have sinned against the Lord."
Oh, what's the first passage of Scripture that I read today?
First John, if we confess our sins.
It's easy to confess, you know,
I was trying to quit smoking and I started smoking again,
but hey, to confess, oh, by the way
I committed adultery and premeditated murder.
That's a little tougher, you know what I'm saying?
David says, "I have sinned against the Lord."
And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has taken away
"your sin; you shall not die."
You shall not die.
A simple statement, repentance.
A simple reply, forgiveness.
Now, did David suffer because of his sin?
Absolutely, he suffered socially and emotionally.
The child we know died.
There was trouble in his family because of his sin.
But God in his grace forgave him, forgave him.
David could not give anything to God as restitution
for his terrible sins other than dying himself,
and even that would not have brought Uriah back,
would not have changed his adultery.
But because of his kindness, God allowed Christ
to make restitution for David's sins
so he would be saved spiritually,
and because of his kindness, he also allowed David
to continue as king.
God made a favor for David.
And what was it that,
and why was it, rather, that God did that?
Because of his grace.
Okay, one other example, again, a simple one.
Paul the Apostle.
First Corinthians chapter 15.
We know about Paul, in First Corinthians chapter 15,
he talks about the fact that he is a sinner.
Let me get to that passage here, First Corinthians 15,
verse nine and 10.
And he says what?
He says, "For I am the least of all Apostles and not fit
"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 toward me did not prove vain.
"But I labored even more than all of them, yet, not I,
"but the grace of God with be."
What was Paul's sin?
He persecuted Christians.
But what was the nature of his sin?
He broke up families.
He harmed and he jailed innocent people.
He participated in the death of Stephen,
an innocent and virtuous and faithful man.
Many people suffered at his hands and may have still
been in jail or separated when he was converted.
Certainly nothing could be given in compensation.
You didn't see Paul going around trying to get the people
he put in jail to try to get 'em out of jail.
They were in jail.
The families that were broken were broken.
Stephen was dead.
How many others were killed?
We don't know.
What could Paul give to God in exchange for his sins?
Not all of his mission work and suffering
could bring Stephen back from the dead.
Paul understood that he was saved and that he was useful
only because God did him the favor
of charging all of his sins to Jesus Christ
so that he, Paul, could go on living.
Brothers and sisters, that's what grace is.
When you don't have a chance, when you don't have an excuse,
when there's no way you can make payment,
God steps in and makes payment for you through Jesus Christ.
And what he asks you and I to do is to continue trusting
in that payment all the days of your life,
and not in yourselves, and not in your goodness,
but in his goodness.
In Colossians chapter two, verse 13 and 14,
Paul says the following.
He says, "When you were dead in your transgressions
"and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive
"together with him, having forgiven
"all of our transgression, having canceled out
"the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us,
"which was hostile to us; and he has taken it
"out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
Paul gives a vivid image of the working of grace
on our behalf when he describes how God nails our debts,
our sins to the cross so that Christ
can make restitution for them by his death.
So when we are worried about our salvation,
because through the influence of Satan,
certainly not of Christ, because through the influence
of Satan we are dwelling on the past sins
and we are dwelling on past failure or we are focused
on our present weaknesses and situations,
or we're thinking and worrying about future temptations
and our ability or inability to deal with these things,
remember the image of the cross
with our perfect Lord on it
and all of our debts for sin securely nailed to that cross,
and feel the relief that comes with that assurance.
While I close out this lesson, and I'll do so with a prayer,
not something I normally do, but I think it's apropos here,
I want you to think of your worst sin.
I mean, your worst one, and only you know with that is.
The one that causes you the greatest worry,
the greatest pain, the greatest fear.
And I want you to picture in your mind's eye,
I want you to picture that sin as a bill or an invoice.
And I want you to go in your mind's eye to the cross
of Christ and take a hammer and a nail.
And I want you to nail it to the cross, and I want you
to leave it there for Jesus to make restitution for you.
Whatever that sin is, allow him to make the restitution
for you once and for all,
and then walk away.
Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, we recognize that only you are God.
There is no other.
How foolish are those who seek after and worship
gods that are no God at all.
We thank you for revealing yourself to us
through Jesus Christ.
We are grateful that you have revealed the great gift
that you've given to us through him and through his cross.
At this time, Father, as each of us goes to that cross
and nails to it our worst sin, fear, failure,
Father, we offer thanksgiving that the blood of Christ,
that sacrifice given long ago makes restitution,
makes payment for us, once and for all.
And help us, Heavenly Father, to walk away
from that sin never to repeat it.
And Father, also never to worry about it ever again.
Such is the power of the cross.
Please hear our prayer as we offer it in Jesus' name, amen.
For those who need God's grace right now
because you have not yet expressed your faith in repentance
and baptism, the water awaits.
The church is gathered to witness your confession.
Please don't hesitate to come for ministry
should you need it, as we stand
and as we sing our song of encouragement.