Much Needed Grace, Part 2

If you have your Bible, turn me to Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews chapter 4, this is part 2 on the title, Much Needed Grace Yes, there will be a part three and yes, there will probably be a part four Okay, and these last six verses of Hebrews chapter four Looking at what the Bible says concerning how God dec Dispenses his grace to his people We all need grace We talked about that last week And God is the God of all grace. 1 Peter 5, verse number 10 Jesus, when he came, was full of grace and truth

Not just when he came, he's just full of grace and truth, but he was described as being full of grace and truth John chapter 1, and has lavished grace upon grace on those who believe in him Hebrews 10:2 says that the Spirit is called the Spirit Grace And God has given to us His word, which is called in Acts 20:3, the wor of His grace And so as we anticipate how God dispenses His grace, the writer of Hebrews is compelling His Jewish listeners to come to the place of re in the Son of God This is what he says He says in verse 11, Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest

Why? Not because you work to enter it, because it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, it's by the washing of the Spirit of God, the renewing The was of the Word of God and the renewing of the Spirit of God in the life of an individual It 's a gift of grace But yet, Jesus said, str to enter, for many will seek and be unable to enter the kingdom of God So, the right of Hebrews picks up on the words of Christ as He would compel people to come into the kingdom We talked about that last week So that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience

Don't be like your forefathers Don't be like those in the wilderness Who dis and rebelled against the truth and would not enter into God's rest because of disbelief, because they would not be persuaded of that which is true And then he says these words in a verse of scripture that probably all of you, to some degree, have memorized at one time or another in your life

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. ab joints and morrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and there is no creature hidden from his sight But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do This verse, Hebrews 4:12, gives us four unique qualities That describes for us the power of the word of God and how God uses His Word as a persuading element in our lives Israel would not be persuaded

Even though they had all the miracles and the message, they would not be persuaded They would not enter into rest So, the writer of Hebrews is going to use very descriptive words to describe for us the uniqueness and the power of God's word And he begins by telling us that the Word of God is li and active, living and effectual We hold in our hands the li word of God It 's alive It's not a dead word In fact, Stephen, before he was martyred, took the Jewish people back to the time of Moses To tell them about how God gave to them His living orac This is what he says Acts chapter 7

He says these words This Moses, whom they disowned, saying, Who made you a ruler and judge? is the one whom God sent to both a ruler and deliverer Deliverer With the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren This is the one

Who was in the congregation of the wilderness, together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers And he re living oracles to pass on to you Stephen would refer Israel back to the fact that this man, Moses, would speak of someone who would come who was greater than he was, and that was the prophet Christ him, who would be a prophet But he helps them understand that what Moses received from God was the living word The living word In other words, what you hold in your hand is God's Breathed words

Second Timothy 3:1 and 17 talks about how God's word is inspired It 's God-breathed And so we hold in our hands a living word, not a dead word, because we serve a living God, right? We have a living God, not a dead God, a living God That's what Psalm 42 says Psalm 8 says In fact, the right of Hebrews in Hebrews 3 speaks to the fact that this God we serve is a living God And this is very important You have in your hand a living word This is how Peter describes it in 1 Peter chapter 1

He says, Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love for their brethren, fervently love one another from the heart For you have been born again not of a seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, to the living and enduring word of God For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures Forever, and this is the word which we preach to you This is the living word It's living because it's the God-breathed word, and our God is a living God Now, know this

The Bible says in Philippians 2, you hold in your hand the word of life or the word that gives life Romans 8 says that the Spirit is called the S of life Jesus Is the way, the truth, and the life Acts 3 calls him the prince of life So, like we said last week, you hold in your hand the word of grace Given to us by the God of grace The Spirit is called the Spirit of grace, Hebrews 10:2, and Christ is full of grace Well, now it's all about life The life that God gives because He's the living God Now, His word is called living because it's the Word of life

The Spirit is the Spirit of life, and Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, because He's the Prince of life In other words, the Word of God Is the manifestation of how God describes Himself So you understand Him So important for us to grasp Because if the word is living, right if you say it's living and active, that means it dispenses Life to those who are dead because you're dead in your trespasses and sin

So the right of Hebrews is going to Help these Jewish listeners to understand the power of the Word of God because you need to be diligent to enter into that rest, lest you fall into the same Disobedience as your forefathers did, but know that this is a living word, not a dead word It speaks The truth It gives life But as he speaks to a Jewish audience, some had life Others didn't For instance, in John chapter 6 In John chapter 6, Christ is speaking He is speaking to The people in Israel in a synagogue in Capernaum about how he is the bread of life

Remember what Jesus said: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Why? Because the word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is a living word It's a God-breathed word So Man lives not by bread, physical bread, but by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God And so Jesus is speaking to the Jewish people about how he is the bread of life that's come down out of heaven because they need to have life, right? They don't have life They exist, but they don't have life So he's trying to explain to them how they now can obtain life

He says these words are verse 56: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him As the living Father sent me, He's not a dead Father, he's the living Father And I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me Now, the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood is just symbolic for taking all of Christ into you, embracing all that He is That's all that means And so he said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you won't live You'll die So he says, This is the bread which came down out of heaven Not as a fathers ate and died

He who eats this bread will live forever In other words, Man have came down out of heaven and have fed your forefathers, but they ate and died You will eat of this bread, me All right, that's why he said On the evening before his crucifixion, this bread is my body, which is given for you because he's the bread of life And so it became symbolic of his life And so there he says these words These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Caper Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a difficult statement

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? What then, if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life The flesh profits nothing The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit End our life In other words, my word is life Not bios, which is physical life, but zoe, quality of life There's a uniqueness about the life that I give But there are some of you who do not belie

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him And he was saying, for this reason, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore So Jesus said to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Then Simon Peter answered him, saying, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life We have believed and have come to know you You are the Holy One of God

And Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil? Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him Christ is talking to his men about true life, true quality of life But not every one of his disciples had that life Judas did not have that life Judas did not believe

So the question comes: if God's Word is living, and He is the living God, and the Spirit gives life, and Christ is the Prince of life, What kind of life do we have? Do we have the life that God gives? Through his Son, whose words are spirit and life And so I want to talk to you about that this morning in the time that we have together To help you understand the life of God The life that comes through the Word of God, which is the Word of life Granted to us by the Spirit of life because Jesus is the Prince of life We talk a lot about life, but very few people understand the life that God gives

And so I want to give it to you in a unique way. I'm going to call this the ABCs of life The ABCs of life to help you understand the quality of light that God gives Remember, it's Zoe, it not bias, it's Zoe It talks about the quality of light that God gives to His people Because he is the bread of life And you can match your life against this and ask yourself: is this my life? And so as we look at this, we want you to understand that God's Word is living and active because God is living

There, he gives his living word, and that living word gives life to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins And the life that he gives is as simple as A You with me? Let 's see how you're with me First of all, the life that he gives is the abundant life Right? John 10, verse number 10. I came that they might have life And that life might be an ab life In other words, the life that I give is not a normal life The light that I give is not a bor life The light that I give is an abundant life That's the life that God gives But not only is it an abundant life, it is a blessed life

It is the blessed life Listen to what the Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 17 Thus says the Lord Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord, for he will be like a bush in the desert. and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord

For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green and it will not be Anxious in the year drought, nor cease to yield fruit Why? Because the blessed man is the man who's obtained the life of God He has the life of God, so he doesn't wilt in the heat He stands strong amidst the heat He's able to grow and to flourish That is truly the blessed life You think God wants to give you a life without blessing? No Because the life of God truly is the blessed life The life of God is the abundant life

It's the blessed life The life of God is the cleans life John 15, verse number 3 You have now been cleansed through the word which I have spoken unto you If Christ is life, His Word is the Word of life, then His Word grants to us the cleansing power to give us not just the abundant life But the blessed life because it's the cleansed life So important We're with all you men Cleanse his life by taking heed to the word of the Lord, right? How does a man keep his way pure? By following what God's word says God's word is a cleansing agent because it's life-giving

So not only is it the abundant life that the Prince of Life gives, Through the living word, which is the word of life It's the blessed life It's the cleanse life It's the directed life Remember, these are the AB of the life that God gives It is the directed life Do you know that the believer has direction? The unbeliever Has no direction Oh, they might be able to plan their day, plan their vacation, plan their finances But none of that matters Because they really have no direction when it comes to the things that truly matter, life and de The believer has that direction

The Bible says these words in the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 32 It says this: I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go, and I will counsel you with my eye upon you Wow God, how does God direct us and teach us in the way that we should go? Well, He's given us the manual to give us that direction, the life-giving word Which breathes into us those things that truly matter So now we have direction We have direction as to the will of God because we know what God's will is for our lives Because the word is very explicit about that

We have direction when it comes to the things that matter when it comes to life and death We have direction when it comes to what matters when it comes to raising our family, to loving our wives and loving our children The way God has designed it to be, God has told us those things We have the directed life, the life-giving word Is a life that comes from the Prince of life, Christ him Because Christ is the living God Who grants to us Zoe, a quality of life, an abundant life, a blessed life. A cleansed life, a directed life He grants to us, you can guess this one, everlasting life, eternal life

Right? What does John 17:3 say? Say, say, This is eternal life that you know the true and living God That's eternal life Eternal life is not living forever Everybody lives forever Come on Everybody lives forever Even the unbeliever lives forever They're going to live forever away from God, but they're going to live forever, right? So eternal life is more than just living forever It's living forever in the presence of God, but it's knowing God See? That's eternal life And that's the life that God grants to us because the living God wants us to live with Him and know Him

So he grants to us his life He is the eternal God So he grants to us his eternal life that we might live forever with him That's the life that God gives Next, He grants to us the quality of life that is the forgiven life as well as the forgiving life Right? The forgiven life We have been forgiven in Christ Jesus, Ephesians: Right? We had been forgiven all of our sins, past, present, and future, right? So when Christ would take the cup, he would say, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, right? Speaking to us about the forgiveness of sins We have been forgiven

That's why our lives are cleansed But because we've been forgiven, we are now forgiving That's the quality life That's the life that God grants to those He gives life to Don't think that the life that God gives is some kind of life that doesn't matter Oh, it matters, it's everything It's abundant, it's blessed, it's cleansed, it's directed, it is eternal, it is forgiven and Forgiving Remember, in the book of Colossians, the third chapter, these words were spoken by the Apostle Paul Colossians chapter 3

He says this: So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you? That's the light that God gives It's the forgiven life as well as the forgiving life It's the graced life If you're following along and you're doing your ABCs and you know your ABCs, it is the graced life, right? For by grace have you been saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God

That grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live righteously and soberly in this present age Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and following That is the graced life God grants us grace to save us God grants us grace to strengthen us God grants us grace to sanctify us, to sustain us, to st Stabil us so that he might send us to Give and dispense that grace to others What a great ministry It's the graced life Have you ever listened to Tom Mason pray? Tom's one of our elders He always opens his prayers the same way

He thanks God for his great grace toward us. I've heard Tom pray thousands of times over the years That's how he begins his prayers Because he, and it's not something that he just says to say it, it's something that he truly means about how God has granted to us his great grace Because he has Because we don't make it without that grace, right? Much-needed grace Well, we have the graced life, and that life that's been graced Is full of grace upon grace And that's why the right of Hebrews says he wants us to approach the throne of grace

That the Lord might dispense His grace to those in their need That's the grace life And then, if you're following along, it's the holy life, or you can say it's the hope-filled life It's a holy life God's granted us a holy life That's why the command comes: be holy as your Father in heaven is holy, right? 1 Peter 1:15 and 16 Take it from the book of Leviticus We live a holy life, a sanctified life, a life that represents the holiness of our God And that is grant to us by a God who is holy and living and gives us a li Hope. 1 Peter 1, verse number 3 We've been born again to a living hope

That's why it's not just the holy life, it is the hope life Who is our hope? Christ He is our blessed hope, right? It's not a dead hope It's a living hope We have a living God who grants life, and the life that He gives grants a living hope Everything about God is alive Nothing having to do with God is dead It's all active It's all vibrant And that's why the light that we receive is not just abundant and blessed and cleansed and directed It is a light that's eternal It's a light that's forgiven and forg

Giving, it's a life that's graced, it's a great life that's holy and hope-filled because He is the God Of all hope Not only that, the light that God grants to us is the ind life The ind life First Corinthians 6, verses 19 and following, it talks about how your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit And Christ li in you This is the whole point of Christmas, right? The ind life It's not that God was above them, they knew that That God was around them They understood that That's why the guys wear yarmukus, because it's all about how the God is all around them So the Jews knew that

But the very fact that God was going to be with them was their hope because Isaiah talked about the God who was going to be with them, Emman God with us But Paul talks about in the book of Colossians the mystery that was concealed in the old, now revealed in the new Christ in you, the hope of glory That's the life God gives Why is his life so alive in us is because he lives in us That's just so amazing It's the ind life You're sharing the gospel with people

And as you share with them, you're talking to them about how it is that when you give your life to Christ, Christ ind you, Christ lives in you Wow, just think about that as you think about the Christmas season and the reason he dwelt among us And died for our sins simply because he wanted to be not just above us and around us and with us He wanted to be in us that we might live his life That's the indwelt life Not only that, the light that he gives is the justif life Romans 5:1 Having been justified by faith We have peace with God

That's the life that the living God gives to us through the living and active word of God It is the justified life On top of that, it is the joyous life, right? Not only is it, if I've been justified by faith, okay, I am declared right before God Now I have the joyous life because the kingdom Of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy, right? Romans 14: in the Holy Spirit It's a joy that he gives That's why I love what it says over in John's Gospel, in John chapter 15 The Lord says these words, so rich, so grand John chapter 14. I'm sorry, John 16 Sorry

He says, Until now, you have asked for nothing In my name, ask, and you shall receive, so that your joy may be made full Then he says in chapter 17, But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in them. I speak these things so that my joy will be made full in those who give their life to me Wow. I bring you good news of great joy Good news of great joy Not just joy, great joy Overabundant joy Incredible joy And what's the joy? God has become man God now has dwelt among us God has come down to die for our sins

God now has come down to indwell His people That is great joy That's why it's called the joyous life The justified life is a joyous life An unjustified life has no joy It might be happy every once in a while But it has no joy Because the joy that Christ gives is that inner contentment, that I'm at peace with the living God And that I know that one day I will spend eternity in his pres That 's the joyous life If you're following me along, What's the next letter? K See, now you're back in kindergarten. K What's K for? It's the kept life. 1 Peter 1:5 We are kept by the power of God That's so cool

That is so amazing When you're kept by the power of God, that's why you can't lose your salvation Because it's the power of God that keeps you You don't keep yourself You don't keep yourself in His presence He keeps you by His power We have the kept life, mixed the loving life God is love We have to love the brethren, 1 John 4:7 How do we know that God's in us? Because we love God and we love his brethren We have the loving life We can't truly love without God, for God is love And those who know God know love Those who don't know God don't know love

They might know a semblance of some kind of kindness and generosity, but They don't know God's love Only those who know God know His love Therefore, we can extend that to others It's called the loving life If you have living The living God, who is the God of all love, ind you, then you can live His love Because Romans 5:5 says, the love of God is what? Shed abroad in our hearts It's all over the place How can the love of God be shed abroad all over our hearts? Because God Himself is in there And if God is in there and He's the God of love, the love of God is shed everywhere

So, why is it we can't extend love to the brethren and love to those in need? Because the love of God indwells us See, it's the loving life That's the abundant life That's the blessed life That's the cleans life That 's the directed life You go on down through the list as you begin to understand the life that God gives And we're just touching the tip of the iceberg We're just trying to make it simple for you so you understand it So you can go back and repeat it to somebody else So you have to go looking for words to say that are going to come as simple as the A Next, it's the meaningful life

John 20, verse number 21 As the Father has sent me, so send I you Can there be anything more meaningful than that? That the God of this world has made us his ambassadors His representative of his kingdom That's meaning That's why the life he gives is a meaningful life In it's the new life If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new It is a new life that God gives Oh, it's the ordained life Psalm 139 All of our days are numbered They've all been laid out before us Now, we know that because of the sovereignty of God

We understand that because we understand how God operates, but that's because we have the life of God in us That nothing happens by ch It all happens by divine decree We live an ordained life, a life ordained by the living God And we rest in His sovereignty, rest in His promises. P is the purchased life You can say it's the peaceful life because the purchased life is a peaceful life. 1 Peter 1, we've been purchased by the bl of the spotless, blameless Lamb of God So we have been purchased We've been bought back We are now owned by God We have a purchased life

We are own by the living God and that ownership Allows us to experience his peace It's a peaceful life John 14:2, My peace I give unto them, not as the world gives, give I unto them, but my peace I give unto them That 's the peaceful life And that's why we have the God of peace who ind us, right? Because He's the God of all peace, like He's the God of all grace, like He's the God of all love, so we can be pea Loving and graceful Because of what God has given to us What's He given to us? His life It's the living God. Q We take a guess what Q is? It's a quiet life Isaiah 30, verse number 15

In quietness and tr shall be your strength It 's a quiet life Matthew 11, 20 and 2 Come unto me, all you that labor heavy laden, I will give you what? Rest. I'll give you rest He calls us to Lie down beside still waters simply because it's the quiet life It's the resurrected life, John 11:2 Right now, we know that the unbeliever will be resurrected too, but he'll be resurrected at the judgment We're resurrected unto life, right? So John 11:2 is the resurrected life. S is the separated life Okay? Come out from among them and be ye separate, the Bible says. 2 Corinthians chapter 6

Because of Christ who ind us, we are to be separate from the things of the world Ephesians 4:1 and following We don't walk As the Gentiles of this world walk, we walk uniquely and distinctly, separate and differently than they do, and we can only do that because of the life of God in us It's a separate life. T is the tried life Tried life James 1, verses 2 to 4 Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various trials Knowing that the trying of your faith produces patience And God is doing something in you that will perfect you

So the life of God is the life that is truly moving you toward perfection How does God do that? Through trials, through struggles, through difficulties. E is the upright life Just for your own good, do a study of the word upright in the book of the Psalms, the book of Proverbs Oh, it's a great study The upright life It's the life that's straight No good thing, Psalm 8:11, does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly, who walk straight And the only one who can walk uprightly is the one who has experienced God's righteousness

He knew no sin, became sin us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him So now that we have. been declared righteous, we can walk uprightly, we can walk straight, can walk as God walked So therefore, our life is the upright life. V is the victorious life Victorious life. 1 John:, Romans 8:3 speaks of the victory Revelation 2 and 3, letters to the seven churches speak of the overcomer, the victorious warrior We are not losers Winners, we are always victorious In fact, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, Romans 8 tells us

We live a victorious life, we don't live a defeated life Why? We're children of the living God It's the victorious life. W is the wounded life John chapter 15, verses 18 and 20: Christ says, If they persecuted me, They will persecute you It's the wounded life. X Christos life It's the Christoph's life It's Christ in you, the hope of glory, right? So when you look at the Greek alphabet, it's that letter at the end of the alphabet, looks like an X, Chi Christos, the Christos life People get all accept when you say Ex They shouldn 't Because the X in Greek is representative of Christ It's Christ

See? It's the Christ life And all the promises are yes in Christ Right? 2 Corinthians 1:2? That 's the life He gives All the promises He gives are yes in Him He ind us We live for Him Why is the yielded life? Right? Zach 4:6, it's not by power, not by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord And Z is a zealous life Titus 2, verses 13 and 14, he's declared us his children And made us zealous unto good works That's just a sampling Of the life that the Prince of Life, through the Spirit of Life Through the word of life, grants to those who are children of the living God

Now, having known that, Having heard that, why is it we would not want to tell others about the life that God wants to give them? Why would that motivate us to tell others about the Prince of Life? I mean, isn't Christmas all about life? The birth Of the eternal living God Well, how can the eternal living God be born? He's the everlasting Father He is the mighty God, he is the Prince of Peace, right? So, how can He be born unless, of course, He becomes man and dwells among us? The enfleshment The enfles of life That's what it is God enfles the living God

Comes to life for you and me so we can experience his life. I ask you today, do you have that life? Do you have a cleans life, an abundant life, a blessed life? Do you have a cleansed life or a cursed life? A blessed life or a bad life? An abundant life or an awful life, right? When you go through and just take the opposite of those words, and that's the life of the unbeliever See? And so we need to understand that God has granted us His life And that should be the motivating factor for us this Christmas season to tell others about Jesus Christ, who is the true and living God Let's pray to God

Father, we thank you for today Oh Lord, so much to cover, so much to say, so little time to say it But when we get to heaven, we'll have all eternity to understand Life, eternal life, with the living God, who has a name written on him that no one knows Wow, how could that be? But you do And we will spend all of our lives getting to know The God of life Our prayer, Father, is that there not be anybody among us today who's not experienced life in Christ If there is, may today be the day of their salvation May they give their life, exchange their life for your life

That they might experience true Zoe, true quality of life Not today only, but forever Pray in Jesus' name Amen.