Cornerstone Church October 30, 2005
“THE POWER OF GOD’S KEEPING GRACE.”
Hebrews 13:20-21
“Remember the good ol’ days when credit cards were imprinted by hand? The clerk would take your plastic and place it in the imprint machine, and rrack-rrack, the numbers would be registered and the purchase would be made.
Max Lucado worked in a gasoline station when he was fourteen years old. He goes on to say, My favorite task, however, was imprinting credit cards. There is nothing like the surge of power you feel when you run the imprinter over the plastic. I’d always steal a glance at the customer to watch him wince as I rrack-rracked his card.
Credit-card purchases today aren’t nearly as dramatic. Nowadays the magnetic strip is swiped through the slot, or the numbers are entered on the keyboard. No noise. No drama. No pain. Bring back the rrack-rrack days when the purchase was announced to for all to hear.
You buy gas, rrack-rrack.
You charge some clothes, rrack-rrack.
You pay for dinner, rrack-rrack.
If the noise didn’t get you, the statement at the end of the month would. Thirty days is ample time to rrack up enough purchases to rrack your budget.
And a lifetime is enough to rrack up some major debt in heaven.
You yell at your kids, rrack-rrack.
You covet a friend’s car, rrack-rrack.
You envy your neighbor’s success, rrack-rrack.
You break a promise, rrack-rrack.
You lie, rrack-rrack.
You lose control, rrack-rrack.
Further and further into debt.
Initially, we attempt to repay what we owe. Every prayer is a check written, and each good deed is a payment made. If we can do one good act for every bad act, then won’t our account balance out in the end? If I counter my cussing with compliments, my lusts with loyalties, my complaints with contributions, my vices with victories – then won’t my account be justified?”
CAN YOU IDENTIFY WITH THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE STORY?
You are a Christian, but somehow you left the pathway of grace for a works type of system.
Maybe you came from a performance oriented family where love, mercy and grace were given or withheld based on your merit. You were loved only when you did it right.
Maybe you came from a legalistic church that had rules for everything. Those who kept the rules received love from the others. If someone, however, deviated from the standard, love was withheld. Now I’m not talking about violating Scriptural teaching. I’m talking about the man made rules.
Legalistic people are concerned more with keeping the rules that all “good Christians” keep, instead developing their relationship with Christ. Resting in HIS love for them!
All of this is compounded by the fact that we know that God sees all and God knows all.
He knows our sinful thoughts.
He knows our sinful attitudes.
He knows the secret and private sins that we hide from others.
He knows the real me and the real you (you know, the one living behind the mask)
Since our Conversion
We know that God wants us to mature in Christ.
We know that God wants us to take off our old sinful nature and put on Christlikeness.
We seem to work harder and harder at either trying to earn our salvation or trying to keep our salvation.
We are like a hamster in a cage turning that wheel over and over again trying to merit God’s love or favor.
Then we sin! We know inside how much sin displeases the Father. It is at this time that the merit system now kicks into high gear.
Here is the simple route:
1 John 1:9 NIV If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Instead of understanding that the Father loves us, that He desires the best for us, and He simply wants us to confess our sin, we try to impress Him with how good we are!
ILLUSTRATION:
Watch Father – I did my quiet time today. Did you mark that on my list?
Are you still watching? I prayed twice as long today to make up some points! I prayed for a whole ten minutes instead of five minutes!
Did you see that I was nice to the Elders and the Deacons?
Oh Father, I really sinned big time this week and have a lot of points to make up.
I promise, Scouts honor, to help out at the Family Fall Festival, to give a bigger offering next week (two dollars instead of one dollar), and oh, yes, even memorize some verses!
DOES THAT ABOUT COVER IT LORD?
Please understand that the items I mentioned are important! They should, however, come from a heart of love for the Lord not to make up for wrongs committed!
Be encouraged, Peter was a lists type of guy!
Matt. 19:27 NIV Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
Lord, not that I want to know what is in this for me, but,
“What is in this for me?”
Many Christians live with the same tension that a young adult lives with when thinking about their first love!
“He loves me! He loves me, not!
He loves me! He loves me, not!
He loves me!”
The vicious circle goes around and around like the game of: tic tac toe!
I’m saved today! I’m not saved tomorrow!
I’m saved today! I’m not saved tomorrow.
It is time to STOP the Insanity!
We need to understand that even on our best days, when we measure ourselves next to the Holiness of God, our works done to merit God’s favor are a foul stench!
Isa. 64:6 NIV All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
KEY POINT:
Here is a truth that I want you to grasp this morning.
This truth is based on the character of God.
This truth is from HIS Word
Not only do I want you to grasp it with your mind, but I want you to believe it in your heart!
If you hold on to this truth and believe it with your whole heart, it will change your life!
God loves you,
because He loves you!
Let me repeat that!
God loves you,
because He loves you!
HIS Love isn’t based on how others have loved us / or not loved us
How a spouse has shown their love for you
How a child has shown their love for you
How a parent has shown their love for you
“The source of this loving disposition is in God, not in the object. We don’t provoke, trick, convince, earn, or win God’s love. He doesn’t love us because of who we are but because of who HE is.”
Page 181 God As He Longs for you to See Him by Chip Ingraham
“God is affectionate and gracious when we are good, and He is affectionate and gracious when we are evil.”
Page 182 God As He Longs for you to See Him by Chip Ingraham
I think that truth deserves at least one Amen, doesn’t it?!
He died for you when you were at your worst! JESUS PAID IT ALL!
He paid it all for your salvation.
He paid it all for your forgiveness.
He paid it all for every blessing you will receive.
He paid it all for the supply and strength you’ll need to go through every trial.
He paid it all for the answer to every prayer you pray!
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT GOD’S MARVELOUS GRACE!
Just listen to how many aspects of Grace are listed in the Trinity Hymnal as headings: converting grace, efficacious grace, the fullness of grace, magnified grace, refreshing grace, regenerating grace, sanctifying grace, saving grace, and sovereign grace.
WE ARE SURROUNDED BY GOD’S GRACE!
It is grace that keeps us alive each day.
It is grace that saved us.
It is grace that sanctifies and purifies us.
It is grace that enables us and empowers us to serve the Lord.
It is grace that keeps us saved eternally.
It is grace that transforms us!
2 Cor. 5:17 NIV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
WHY IS SALVATION BY GRACE AND ALL OF GOD?
So that He alone might receive all of the glory!
Our God is Holy!
Our God is Righteous!
Our God is perfect in all of His attributes!
Next to Him we could never, ever, measure up! Remember the Angels are bowing in His presence saying (they see HIS Glory and have to bow down):
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
BOASTING MUST BE ELIMINATED!
Eph. 2:8-10 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Exod. 20:5 NIV You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
God will not share worship with you! There is nothing more repulsive than a self-righteous Christian thinking somehow that they merit God’s favor on their performance!
The aspect of Grace that I want us to see this morning is God’s transforming and keeping Grace. Once Christ redeemed us, He keep us until the end!
God’s Grace in Sanctification! Sanctification has three aspects:
Have been Sanctified (past tense: conversion, set free from sin’s power)
Are being Sanctified (present tense: daily living, overcoming sin)
Will be Sanctified (future tense: glorification, totally free from sin)
HERE ARE ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT SANCTIFICATION:
1) It is the Work of God.
2) It is a lifetime process.
3) It is never completed in this life.
4) God will not stop until the job is done.
5) God uses everything that happens to us – good or bad – to make us like Jesus.
These ideas above and basic outline which follows are from
Dr. Ray Pritchard, Calvary Memorial Church, Series: The God You Can Trust, June 20, 1999.
GOD STARTS THE WORK OF GRACE IN US
Philippians 1:6
“…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Phil. 1:6 NIV
God is the active, causal agent of our salvation!
“The story of the Bible isn’t primarily about the
desire of people to be with God;
it’s the desire of God to be with people.”
Pg. 14 God is Closer than you Think by John Ortberg
Michelangelo tried to capture this on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He painted God making every effort to reach out to Adam!
What does the Word of God teach?
1 John 4:10 NIV This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Eph. 1:4-8a NIV For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
“…will carry it on to completion
until the day of Christ Jesus.”
God’s grace guarantees the outcome of the work which He began! His good will is observed in the following:
Rom. 8:29-30 NIV For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
“What is incomplete will be made complete. What is unfinished will be finished. What is lacking will be made full. What is partial will be made whole. What is less than enough will be more than adequate. What is broken will be fixed. What is hurt will be healed. What is weak will be made strong. What is temporary will be made permanent.”
Dr. Ray Pritchard, Calvary Memorial Church, Series: THE GOD YOU CAN TRUST, June 20, 1999.
GOD’S GRACE KEEPS US FROM FALLING
Jude 24&25
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Jude 24-25 NIV
Dr. Ray Pritchard made these observations:
A. The Power of God
“To him who is able to keep you from falling…”
B. The Purpose of God
“…and to present you before his glorious presence…”
C. The Promise of God
“…presence without fault and with great joy.”
GOD’S GRACE EQUIPS US TO DO HIS WILL
Hebrews 13:20-21
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV
equip you (kataritidzo) =
Doctor – “to set a broken bone.”
Fisherman – “to mend a broken net.”
Sailor – “to outfit a ship.”
Soldier – “to equip an army for battle.”
The Lord wants to equip us (mend what is broken in our lives) to do His will!
HOW DOES HE ACCOMPLISH THIS?
Study of His Word
Prayer
Fellowship with other believers
Suffering
The faithful rebukes of believers who love you!
GOD’S GRACE PROMISES THAT HE WILL
COMPLETE HIS WORK IN US.
I Thess. 5:23-24
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
1 Thess. 5:23-24 NIV
I have all sorts of unfinished projects around my house!
Painting that needs to be done!
Boxes that need to be unpacked
Junk that needs to be sold or thrown away
It is my guess you do as well!
God never starts
what HE cannot finish!
Examples:
God promised Abram he would make a mighty nation and He did!
God promised a future Redeemer to Adam and Eve and One was Sent!
Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies at His birth and death on the Cross with precision!
Jesus rose from the dead – Resurrected by His own power just as He said!
The one who calls you is faithful
and he will do it.
Two Key Verses:
2 Cor. 3:18 NIV And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Rom. 12:2 NIV Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Transformed (metamorphosis)
Present tense = a continuous action
Passive = What is being done to us not what we are doing.
Imperative = be transformed!
1 Pet. 5:10 NIV And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Jesus transformed us on the inside. Those who are in Christ are now wired differently!
Ezek. 36:26-27 NIV I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
No more trying to keep the Law! No more serving the Lord out of a debtor’s ethic!
“Because you did something good for me,
I feel indebted to do something good for you.”
John Piper, FUTURE GRACE, pg. 32
Salvation is by Grace
Rom. 11:6 NIV And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
If you want to work for it God says He has to pay you wages. It is only fair! What are His wages?
Rom. 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“The central promise in the Bible is not ‘I will forgive you,’ although of course that promise is there. It is not the promise of life after death, although we are offered that as well. The most frequent promise in the Bible is, ‘I will be with you.’”
Pg. 16 God is Closer than you Think by John Ortberg
Let’s see if that is true? Romans 8:28- 39 NIV
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“Guilty, vile and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full Atonement! Can it Be? Hallelujah, What a Savior!
