Sermon Brief
Date Written: April 12, 2007
Date Preached: April 15, 2007
Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: The Doctrines of the Faith
Sermon Title: What is the Grace of God?
Sermon Text: Eph 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (NKJV)
Introduction:
During the middle part of the 20th century at a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a vigorous debate about what is so unique about Christianity.
There were those who suggested that Christianity was set apart from other religions by the concept of the incarnation, the idea that God took on human form in the person of Jesus. But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, there are other faiths that believe God appears in human form.”
There were others who suggested that it was the resurrection, that death is not the final word. But then someone slowly shook his head and said that there were other religions that have accounts of people returning from the dead.
It was at this time in the story that the great theologian C.S. Lewis, tweed jacket, pipe, arm full of papers, walked into the room. Lewis was a little early for his presentation so he sat down and joined the debate that was already in progress. He saw that things were getting a bit testy and during a lull, he spoke up ans asked, “What’s all the rumpus about?”
Everyone turned in his direction. Trying to explain themselves they said, “We’re debating what’s unique about Christianity.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis. “It’s grace.” And when he said that, the room fell silent. Lewis continued on in saying that Christianity has a unique claim that God’s love comes free of charge with no strings attached. Lewis cited that there was NO other religion on earth that could make this claim.
And after a moment of shocked silence, one of the scholars in the room commented that Lewis had a point. He stated that the Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment, theirs is NOT a free ride.
He also informed the crowd that had gathered that Hindus believe in karma. Which means that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you, and thus how God sees you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
Another scholar spoke up and observed that the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to Him and that in Islam God is a God of Judgment… that He is NOT a God of love. In Islam you live your life to appease His judgment!
At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point. And it is true, only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love for humanity is unconditional.
It is this unconditional love that we as Christians call grace. We Christians boldly proclaim that God’s Grace really has precious little to do with us, our inner resolve, or our lack of inner resolve.
BUT, grace is all about God and God freely giving to us the gifts of forgiveness, mercy, and love.
Contributed by: Martin Dale on SermonCentral.com and modified for effect by myself
But knowing that it is grace that separates Christianity from the rest of the world’s religions, it begs the question…
“Just what is grace?”
Well, the Greek word for grace is “charis” and it basically means that we (Christians) ‘are receiving something that we do NOT deserve.’
Now this is just the opposite of the Greek word for ‘mercy’ (eleeo - el-eh-eh’-o) which basically means that we (Christians) ‘NOT getting something that we DO deserve’ such as hell.
The North American Encarta Dictionary defines grace as noun in the following ways…
• A title used for addressing royalty or the clergy such as a duke, duchess or archbishop
• It is also defined as elegance, politeness, generosity of spirit, as a prayer at meal time, a pleasing quality
• The final two definitions for grace (the noun) were gift of God to humanity…A Christian concept meaning, the infinite love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown to humanity by God…
• It is also defined as freedom from sin… Another Christian concept, the condition of being free of sin, by way of repentance to God [for those sins]
The North American Encarta Dictionary defines grace as transitive verb in the following ways…
• It means to contribute pleasingly to an event by attending it… thus we get the phrase “grace us with your presence”
• It is also defined as adding elegance, beauty and charm to something…
• Musically speaking it is defined as adding an ornamental or decorative element or note to a piece of music…
• Defined as a positive action we see the phrase ‘good grace’ which means to be in a polite and willing way.
So, we can see that there are many nuances and definitions from the human perspective when it comes to this word, GRACE.
However this morning we are going NOT going to focus on the question of what is grace… but on the more specific and more germane question for this setting and that is, “What is God’s Grace?”
In the definition we just looked at from the North American Encarta dictionary we can see that God has His hand in ALL the definitions…
However, we must rule out what could be construed or mistaken for human grace and we must eliminate all but what could only be the Grace that comes from God.
When we do this we find 2 definitions that fit that particular pattern and they are…
• Grace… is a gift from God to all humanity, a gift of love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown
• Grace also brings about the condition of freedom from sin and Satan…
But this simple definition that grace is God’s great gift to humanity and it reveals His love, favor and goodwill to bring about our freedom from sin…this definition is good and all, but it really doesn’t share what Grace really means.
1. God’s Grace is a gift at His pleasure…(v.8)
“…it is the gift of God…”
So when we looking at the term or phrase, “The Grace of God” the 1st thing we have to understand is that God’s grace is NOT something we can manipulate or control!
It cannot be used for our own person desires or goals! But the grace of God can only come from God Himself… But more than that, the Grace of God is purely at HIS pleasure… and not ours!
There are many believers today who do not fully understand God’s grace… and so they misunderstand the whole concept of the Grace of God
So many believers today want to believe that they can call on God to supply them with His grace for THEIR own desires… OR we try to live our lives under our own power, not fully comprehending or realizing the wonderful nature of God’s grace.
I call this Christian self-sufficiency… and as a pastor of 10 yrs and believer for more than 24 yrs, I truly believe that this attitude of Christian self-sufficiency (PAUSE HERE) this belief that we have little or NO need for God’s grace (PAUSE HERE) that we can fix what is wrong in our lives (PAUSE HERE) this attitude is the bane of the church today! And I fully believe this could be the ultimate downfall of the local church, as we know it!
As believers, we can never forget that our sufficiency can only be found ONLY in the grace of God and what I mean is God’s grace at God’s pleasure…
The apostle Paul was a man who possibly could have relied on his own ability… because he was the smartest of the smart… he was on the fast track to becoming High Priest in Israel… but even though he had all the knowledge and teaching… he understood it meant NOTHING outside of God’s grace!
I fully believe that the current church’s desire for continual comfort and avoidance of any form of persecution or inconvenience is simply an excuse for us not trusting that God’s Grace can and will care for us, in all situations!
Ortberg, John. If you Want to Walk on Water, you’ve got to Get Out of the Boat
Far too often as believers, we settle for the quick, band-aid approach to serving God, because it is the way we are most comfortable and it is a way in which we are NOT inconvenienced at all…but mainly it is OUR way and NOT His way!
LISTEN UP CHURCH! We are saved BY God’s grace to serve God Him as He desires and pleases…we are not saved by HIS grace to live by OUR desires!
I fully believe that many believers in today’s church, even some sitting here this morning would much rather be comfortable in their pew and not serve God as they should! Rather than serve God as they KNOW He has called them to serve and rely on His grace and His provision of grace as He has promised!
So we have established that we have the gift of God’s Grace because of God’s pleasure. We are privy to God’s grace because of the love and compassion of God…
Next we can see that this grace that comes from God… it comes as a gift of goodwill and mercy to our sinful situation.
2. God’s Grace is a gift from God Himself not our actions…(v.8b-9a)
The most important thing about grace that the believer must understand is that God’s Grace is sufficient for you, and all of your life! We have to understand that there is NOTHING that God’s Grace cannot do… there is nothing we can do to add to His grace or nothing we can do to take away from His grace!
In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that our problem is in the nature of grace itself.
He says, “Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners.”
“Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the not-so-bad. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. “
“God’s grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in your salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.”
What does this mean? It means that God’s gift of grace means that no one is too bad to be saved. Did you know that God specializes in saving really bad people. Do you have some things in your background that you would be ashamed to talk about in public?
Do you know that Jeffry Dahlmer who was convicted of multiple murders and then cutting the bodies up and storing them in his freezer and actually eating some of the organs… came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in prison.
I was shocked at this claim thinking that there is NO way that Jeffery Dahlmer would be saved… but Jeffrey Dahlmer is who Christ came to die for…
If you do, there is NO reason to think that God would NOT save you… God knows all about what you have done, and it is His grace that is greater than ALL of your sin.
And just as there is no one too bad for God’s gift of grace… there is no one too good for God’s grace. We cannot do ANYTHING to garner the attention of God… in a way that would cause Him to save us based on what we do!
In 1988, the Houston School district nominated bus driver Lillie Baltrip for a safe-driving award. As she was driving a busload of her colleagues to the awards ceremony, she turned a corner too sharply and flipped the bus over sending herself and 16 others to the hospital.
Now, do you think she still got the award? No! Even though she was accident-free for a whole year, because of her actions that day, she ended up with an overall poor performance rating....
Today in the church we seem to believe that we are perpetuated in our Christian walk by our performance. Satan uses that same mentality to accuse the Christian. He tries to convince us that God will only award those who perform well and that heaven is reserved only for the upper-level saints. But God gives grace.
Many believe that if they live a life doing more good than bad that they will be able to enter into heaven, but that is not what God’s word tells us… it is NOT of our good works… but it is the gift of God’s grace that brings about faith… the faith we need to believe in Christ to accept Him as Lord and Savior.
It is NOT about us and what we do or do NOT do… it is all about Him and what He has already done for us!
3. God’s Grace is a gift of salvation so that we can serve Him and do His work! (v.10)
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God’s gift of grace that leads to salvation is a gift to create a masterpiece by God’s choosing and God’s design and God’s timing so that God’s work can be done!
God’s grace in our lives is so that He can be glorified. In Matt 5:16 Jesus taught His disciples (His followers) to do good works so that the world would look at them and glorify God…
The good works were NOT for their edification or for their ego or for their Christian standing… it was strictly for the glory of God!
Now I want us all to understand that good works and doing things for God are a part of the Christian walk…. They are the outgrowth of our obedience to Christ and they glorify Him.
Being under God’s grace does not give us license to sit around and say… it is by God’s grace that I can sit around… sitting around as a believer does NOT bring honor and glory to the Kingdom nor to Christ! We must be about the Kingdom business God has placed before us!
When we are called from death to life, we are blessed! When God’s grace is gifted to us for our salvation we are to be obedient in our walk out of love and devotion to Him, not compulsion.
Our obedience to His commands are NOT for us… but to glorify Him. Our obedience brings us closer to Him but that is NOT the ultimate purpose… the purpose is to glorify God… the benefit is that we grow closer to Him when we are obedient!
We are HIS workmanship… we are created to glorify HIM! And it is by the grace of God that we can be in this position.
Today are you still trying to live your Christian life outside of the grace of God? Are you trying to do things on your own? We have all we need by the grace of God… but so many times we try to do it on our own…
There was once a Logic professor who was known for extremely difficult tests, but in his introductory class he decided to give his students a break. He told them that they could bring as much information into the classroom as they could fit onto a piece of notebook paper.
The students gathered together and began to write in the smallest font on their papers all the answers and notes they had taken, but there was one student who showed up for the test with a blank piece of paper and an Advanced logic student (master’s level) and had him stand on the piece of paper. He was the only one to receive an A!
So often we think that we can do things on our own and we try to rationalize and DO things that will cause us to grown in Christ, when all we have to do is rely on the grace of God in Jesus Christ!
Where are you this morning? As Bro Jerry comes I you see the cross that is set up before you… it is here for a reason… this morning you have the opportunity to come to the Cross and lay your sin before God… come and nail it to the cross and give it to God and let Him remove it as far as the East is to the West…
