Graceful Living
Grace In Our Lives
05/17/09 PM
Text: 2 Peter 1:2-3
Introduction
In our lesson this morning we examined the importance of Grace to the followers of Christ and reviewed how the Grace of God without (His free gift to us all) must become His Grace within as we live our lives in light of His unmerited favor.
The fact that grace is unearned and unmerited does not tell us everything about grace, because it does not tell us what grace does. We may build a more practical definition of grace from the writings of Peter:
2 Peter 1:2 - 3 (NASB) Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Seeing that the grace of God is more than salvation but also everything for life and godliness or definition of grace could be "God's life, power and righteousness given to us by unmerited favor.” It is through grace that God works effective change in our hearts and lives. The law was given to prove that laws in themselves do not have the power to make us what we should be. It takes God Himself, working in our lives by His grace, to make us what we ought to be. At every step, we are dependent on God's life and power to come to us and work within our hearts, if we want to be what God wants and do what He wants.
Grace gives us a new life which is not condemned by God. Through God's grace we are forgiven. Grace will transform our thinking, resulting in the renewal of the mind. Through grace we are sanctified and made holy.
Grace enables us to live the kind of generous, carefree life of service and joy that God would like every one of His children to experience. Let’s consider in more detail what the grace of God does for us and in us…
I. What Grace Does For Us
A.Grace saves us
1.As we said this morning, first and foremost we are saved by grace.
Ephesians 2:8 - 9 (NASB) For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
a.It is important to see here that by God's grace we have been saved. It is not by works.
2.Salvation is all that God does in taking a fallen man and making him into a son of God - righteous, holy and glorified.
3.All this is done strictly on the basis of God's grace. God's gift, not our works, made it all possible.
B.Grace justifies us
1.We may be considered to be right by God only because of His grace and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is available to us because Jesus willingly lay down His life for us - paying the price we deserved for our rebellion against God.
Romans 3:24 (NASB) being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
2.Our justification is not something we receive because of good works, but because of the payment Jesus paid for us at the cross when he suffered and died.
C.Grace sanctifies us
1.Indeed, not only our right standing with God, but also our right living depends on grace.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NASB) “…because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”
2.Sanctification is the process of being set aside, in our case being set aside for the purposes of God.
1 Corinthians 1:30 (NASB) But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
D.Grace empowers us to service.
1.Ephesians 4:7 (NASB) But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
This verse makes it clear that grace has been given to each one of us believers.
2.Romans 12:6a (NASB) Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly:
The receiving and operation of the gifts we have from God depends upon the grace that is given to us. Therefore it is through grace that we have certain gifts and are to use them in His service.
3.Ephesians 3:6 - 8 (NASB) to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
Paul makes it clear that the ability to be a minister, to preach the gospel among the peoples of the world came through the grace of God.
4.God would like us to be so full of His grace in our lives that we can say with Paul the apostle:
1 Corinthians 15:10 (NASB) 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 me.
a.The grace of God is not earned by works, but it produces work done in His service.
b.Grace, which is God's life, comes into us and works in us and through us so that we can be all and do all in His service.
Philippians 2:13 (NASB) for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
II. With Grace In Us
A.We must exercise our gifts in His service.
1.The ability to exercise a gift or ministry from God comes from God.
a.The early church recognized that the apostles needed God's grace to accomplish their work.
Acts 14:25 - 27 (NASB) When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
b.1 Corinthians 3:10 (NASB) According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
Paul was able to do his work of laying the foundation in the Corinthian church only by the grace of God. This grace was for Paul the ability to do his work as an apostle.
2.Every born-again Christian has received a spiritual gift, and should use it. We have all been given grace to serve somewhere. God's grace takes many forms. A steward or manager must use what has been entrusted to him and multiply it. Otherwise, he is not being a good and faithful steward.
1 Peter 4:10 (NASB) As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
3.This means that whatever gifts and abilities God has given us by His grace; we should use them for His glory. God's grace and blessings were not given simply for us to sit in church and feel good. Rather, they were given that we might not only be blessed, but also be a blessing.
B.We must continue in and spread His grace
1.Acts 13:43 (NASB) Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.
a.It is vitally important that all of us continue in the grace of God.
b.We need to allow God to keep guiding our hearts to the place where He can continue to work in us by His grace.
c.In the moment when we cease to allow God's grace to work in us, in the moment when we no longer abide in Christ through disobedience; in that moment we start to dry up as Christians and that life of God in us begins to lose its effectiveness.
d.God will not force us to remain in His grace. It is something He gives us the power to do, but we must choose to go on.
2.2 Corinthians 4:15 (NASB) For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.
a.Grace and peace will multiply as more and more people spread it. We can spread God's grace through giving, through preaching the gospel, and by speaking…
Ephesians 4:29b (NASB) only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
b. It is the privilege and responsibility of every true Christian, and not just of a special few, to spread God's grace to as many as possible. When we to this, more and more people will give thanks to God.
Conclusion
In the light of all that we have seen so far it is clear that it would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of God's grace as far as our lives are concerned.
Without grace we would not only be useless as Christians in God's sight - we would also be lost. There is no work that man can do to make him "good enough for God".
Everything that we do outside of God's grace is worthless. Everything good that comes in us and through us is only by the grace of God.
Grace saves us, justifies us, sanctifies us, and empowers us for His service.
By exercising the gifts that grace provides we can continue in His grace, His unmerited favor, and spread His light and world for His glory and Honor
Invitation
