His Grace

Hebrews 10, 29 it says that his spirit is the spirit of grace. What does that mean that our God is a gracious God? Tonight, we want to look at that and understand, first of all, the identity of his grace.

From there, we'll move to see the ministry of his grace, then the availability of that grace in our lives, the receptivity of that grace, and then finally, what is our responsibility?

to understanding the grace of God. First of all, the identity of His grace. Two things I want you to grasp. One is this, it's unearnable. And number two, it's unrepayable.

If you understand that about the grace of God, you're on your road to understanding God. First of all, it is something that is un.

God in Exodus 34 was explaining what he was like. In fact, if you read on in Exodus 34, verse number 7, it says this. About our God, who keeps loving kind for thousands, who forgives iniquity, trans, and s. To understand the specifics of the grace of God, our God is one who forgives sin. Who forgives iniquity and transgressions? It was Donald Barnhouse in his volume on Romans, a great pastor and Bible teacher, who said this: that love that goes upward is worship. Love that goes outward is affection.

Love that stoops is grace. This is a very important point. Because a lot of us today in 20th century Christianity have a hard time understanding God's grace because we really do believe that we can merit something from God. We really do believe that if we go to church and we read our Bible and we pray, that God is going to look down with favor upon us and bless our life more than He blesses somebody else's life. Wrong again. Doesn work that way. God is a God of grace. I like what one author said.

When he said this, Dr. C. Samuel Storms, he said, the first and possibly most fundamental characteristic of divine grace is that it presupposes sin and guilt.

Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath. Grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving, but as ill-deserving. It is not simply that we do not deserve grace. We do deserve hell. That's the point. What we do deserve is hell. The reason we don't receive hell is not because of what we do or don't do. The reason we don't receive hell is because of the grace of God. This is a marvelous truth. To help you understand that the saving work of God is all of God and not of man.

And that goes against our nature. We have a hard time with that. We really want to be a part of this salvation thing. And we're going look at it in a moment, but we really want to be a part of this service thing and this work thing, thinking that we can do enough in our work system.

Were saved to obtain favor from God, and again, that is not true. In fact, Dr. Storms goes on to say this. Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merits. Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. Grace is treating a person without the slightest reference to dessert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God. That is grace. God does not withdraw it because of what we don't do, and God does not give it because of what we do do.

It would then cease to be grace, because grace is bestowed upon those who deserve nothing. But hell you're looking at me like I just stepped off another planet. But as we go through this thing, hopefully you'll understand that grace is unearnable. You cannot earn it. It's unearnable. Number two, it's unrepayable.

It's unrepayable. God gives, listen very carefully, and demands nothing in return. God gives and demands nothing in return. He gives without obligation. He gives without ulterior motives. Now, be honest, we don't understand that. We give because there's an ulterior motive. For example, we give money to the church. Because it's a good tax write-off. See that? We bring flowers home for our wife. We buy her chocolates. We take her to a nice resort so that we can have an intimate time with our wife. We do these things for what we can get.

See? None of us really truly gives. And never wants to be repaid. Human nature wants to pay back. Human nature wants to receive something for all my effort and from all my work. That's not grace. God's grace is unrepayable. God expects nothing in return. God is totally sufficient. Believe it or not, this is going to be hard for some of you to understand. God needs nothing from you. Nothing. He doesn't even need you. Sorry to burst your bubble, but he doesn't need you. I wonder if you received that grace.

I wonder if you know anything about it. M point number two, look with me at the ministry of his grace.

Turn with me over to John chapter 1. The ministry of his grace was portrayed in the inc. It says in verse number 14, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace. Truth. The eternal word became flesh. It would bow down, it would stoop down, it would condescend to undeserving sinners. And Christ's ministry was marked by a favor freely extended to guilty people. Undeserved people whose best efforts would never make them worthy of his kindness.

Does not the Bible say that everything that we do good is filthy rags in the eyes of God? And then it says in verse number 16, these words. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that there was nothing wrong with the law. God had given it to reveal man's lost condition. And to foreshadow man's deliverance from his sin. But the law did not supply grace so that those who had transgressed the law could be pardoned.

So when Christ came, he was full of grace. And we would receive grace upon grace. We would be able to tap into the inexhaustible measure of God's grace. It's like the waves on the ocean when they keep pounding up against the shore. One would come, another would come, and they keep coming in unending succession. That's how God freely bestows his grace upon mankind. You see, we forget that we are involved in some kind of common grace. We have all received a common grace. That is, we all breathe the same air, right?

Oxygen isn't reserved for the children of God. God has given air to everybody so that man can breathe and stay alive. That's the grace of God. The Bible says in Matthew 5:4, that the sun rises on the just and the unjust.

It rains on the just and the unjust. That's the grace of God for man to receive rain for his crops, to receive sun from God. That's what the Bible calls common grace. And God has bestowed that upon man overabundantly. The law was given, but grace and truth came through the person and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The ministry of his grace was portrayed in the inc and provided for through redemption. Turn with me over to Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians chapter 1 it says this in verse number 7 in whom excuse me in him we have redemption Through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. We have redemption. We've been redeemed. We have been purchased back out of the marketplace of sin. We have been sold. And purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. The way God is always affects what God does. And so his grace caused him to seek undeserving subjects to whom he can freely bestow acts of kindness.

That's our God. When he came to earth, he came to earth seeking out undeserving people, that he might freely bestow acts of kindness upon them and save them from their desperate state. That's the way God is. That's the God we serve. That's the God we worship. Main point number three: the availability of his grace.

How does God make His grace available? We know He makes His grace available to all men through common grace. We talked about that. But there's a special grace. A special grace is the irresistible work of God that frees men from the penalty and power of sin, changing the inner man through the generation of the Holy Spirit. There's a special grace. It's an irresistible grace that God bestows upon his people. It's seen in four areas, many more, but I'm going give you four this evening. First of all, in salvation.

Over in Titus 2:11, it says this. For the grace of God appeared, bringing salvation to all men. The grace of God appeared. How did that grace appear? It appeared in the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. 2 Corinthians 8, verse number 9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might become rich. R. C. Sproll has said this about receiving the grace of God. He says, Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform.

is to rely on God's grace and God's grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people, for beggars. We don't want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there. Isn that true? Talk to people. Those who are of the Roman Catholic persuasion, they got a hard time with this. Just can't be grace alone. It's got to be grace in Christ plus this.

I got to do something. God can't expect me to sit back and do nothing. I got to perform some way. And yet the Bible is very clear. It's not by works. No performance, no deeds. It's solely by the grace of God. And that grace was determined in eternity past. And if it was determined in eternity past, Then what makes you think that in the present you can do something to earn it when it's already been determined in the eternity past? You can't. It's a grace that's freely given. So we need to understand the availability of his grace in salvation.

That's how a man is saved. That's how a man comes to faith in Christ. By the grace of Almighty God. But it moves on into sanctification. We need to be strengthened by His grace in our hearts. Paul would say to the Ephesian elders over in Acts 20, verse number 32: I commend you to God and the word of his grace. God's word is called the word of his grace. It says in 2 Peter 3:18 that we are to grow. In the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our L. God 's grace describes how God graciously provides.

For us, the necessary means to live His life. Sanctification Is laying hold of God's gracious assistance to become more like Christ for His glory and praise. Number three, not only do we need God's grace in salvation and in sanctification, but we need it in service as well.

We need it in service as well. Paul would say this over in Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 7. I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his p. Paul says, I was made a minister because of the grace of God. Now, listen to what he says over in 1 Corinthians. Chapter 15 in verse number 10. 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 me.

Paul says, I am what I am for one reason and one reason only, the grace of God. That's it. Nothing I did, nothing I am, just the g of God. If you leave with one thing tonight, leave with that. God never blesses because of you. He blesses in spite of you. Because it's all about him. It's all about his glory. It's all about his praise. It's all about his exaltation. And fourthly, the availability of his grace in suffering. This is so good. M of you know that verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. About Paul is thorn in the flesh.

I want to read it to you, then I want to put out something to you very significant. It says in verse number 7, and because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me. to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. O one thing I want you to see. God's grace was sufficient for Paul, wasn't it? But he never prayed for God's grace. He prayed that the thorn would be removed. And what did God give him? Grace. We'll pray in the midst of our suffering for whatever it is to be removed, to be taken away.

We don't want the hardship. God says, I got something better. I got my grace. And Paul realized that when he was weakest, The power of God was manifested. And that was more important to him than being well. He wanted God to be put on display. God says, I answer the prayer.

Of the one that wants grace and faith. Because that's what I give. So that you know that all you need is in me. The availability of his grace. Have you tapped into it? It leads us to main point number four: the receptivity of his grace. You say, man, I've gone through difficulties. I don't know the grace of God. I haven't experienced the grace of God. There's a mandate. It's 1 Peter 5, verse number 6. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at proper time. It says in verse number five of 1 Peter: Clothe with humility.

Toward one another. Be subject to your elders. For God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Listen very carefully to what I'm going to say. The reason we don't have the grace that's sufficient in time of suffering is because we are arrogant people. God opposes the prideful. He sets him up against them. They are his enemies. God does not want to deal with prideful people. And give them his grace. Peter knew that. He was an arrogant man. He was one arrogant buffoon. Boy, God did a work in his life, and he realized, humble yourself.

Under the mighty hand of God, and you know what? He gives grace and h. Peter says, I receive that grace. And he will exalt you in due time. Isaiah 66, verse number 2. God says, Who would I look at?

I'll look at the one who's contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. Christ said in Matthew 5:3, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the ones who humble themselves before God. That's the mandate. What's the means? The means is by faith. For by grace are you saved through faith. Faith is God's gracious gift, and faith is the means by which we obtain the grace we need in time of need. Romans 5:2 says that because of God's grace, we now stand justified before the Almighty God. And this has happened because of faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

And lastly, what's our responsibility to His grace? Two things. Number one, apply His teaching. And number two, approach his throne.

Apply his teaching. What's our responsibility? It says over in the book of Titus, 2nd chapter, 11th verse: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the pres. Age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us. that he might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify for him a people for his own possession, zealous for good deed.

Our responsibility is to apply the teaching of grace. What does God's grace teach us? It teaches us to deny certain things. You see the woman who was caught in adultery when Christ said, go and sin no more. She was going to learn how to follow the grace of God. Grace would teach her to be faithful. Grace would teach her to love. Grace would teach her To be what God wanted her to be. God's grace teaches us many things. Are you learning? Are you following? And number two, approach the throne of grace.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse number 15, says this. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. Our response to the grace of God is to approach the throne of grace because that's where we receive what we need to accomplish all that God wants us. To accomplish, turn with me to the book of Revelation, real quick.

We'll close here. Revelation chapter 1. As I was studying this today, I was amazed. There's a benediction at the beginning of the book of Revelation, and there's one at the end. They both say the same thing. Revelation chapter 1, verse number 4. John to the seven churches that are in Asia. What's it say? Grace to you. This is a book about the judgment of God upon the world. This is a book that destroys man. This is a book that talks about the fury of the wrath of God and how he pours it out against man.

Why? Because man deserves it. But at the very beginning of the book, which describes what man deserves, is an opportunity for man to receive what he doesn't deserve. And that's the grace of God. And then when you close out the book of Revelation, chapter 22, what does it say? It says this, verse number 21. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. Be with you all. That's how God closes out the New Testament. My prayer for you is that the grace of God would be with every one of you. As you set your heart and mind at exploring his essence.