Outline
I. Introduction
II. Transition
a. CIT: Grace is the gift of God.
b. CIS: All that we have, shall hereafter receive, is the fruit of grace.
III. Exposition
a. Grace Defined
i. Three stages of God’s volition in salvation.
ii. Foundational Grace – free love of God.
iii. Free gifts of Grace
1. Common Grace
2. Special Grace
b. Gift of Grace Explained
c. God’s gifting and the World’s gifting juxtaposed
d. The excellency of the gifts of Christ above the gifts of the world gives.
IV. Conclusion
a. Do not be troubled for want of lesser gifts.
“The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,” Part-2, Ephesians 3:8
Introduction
Careless drivers often push their automobiles beyond their designated capabilities, and the poor vehicle chugs and chugs until the motor finally dies.
I recall one such example from my teenage years. I was living in Montana at the time. A close cousin and I had decided that we needed an early spring break from school and while my cousin picked me up from my home and we drove to school together that day, we never made it to school. In fact, we took his mother’s small Chevy Cavalier, two wheel drive, car high into the Rocky Mountains that day. We drove that car over nearly impassable mountain dirt roads laden with rocks and snares. We had a great day and had even commented on the strength of the small vehicle and our amazement that it had not overheated or otherwise become distressed while driving these mountain passes. That is until we began our journey home at just the right interval to make it home at about the same time we usually got home from school. We realized that the oil pressure was dropping and we had punctured a hole in the oil pan. We raced home in order to keep oil circulating. We made it home with the car intact but it was much the worse for our having pushed the car well beyond its capabilities.
We attempted to force a great deal more power from that little car than it could provide. But our Master guarantees that tasks shall be balanced with the precise strength we possess. He knows our frame: He remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:14). He will not be less merciful to us than the merciful man is to his beast. He knows the exact pressure we can stand, for He has made us; He knows the utmost load we can lift, and will not suffer us to be tried, tested, above what we are able (1 Cor. 10:13). He is a Faithful Creator, because He is an abiding Sustainer.
Transition
His grace is sufficient for us in all things. We are called by grace! We are saved by grace! We are sustained by grace! We are supplied by grace!
CIT: Grace is the gift of God.
CIS: All that we have or shall hereafter receive is the fruit of grace.
This morning we will define that grace by which we are saved and sustained.
Exposition
Grace Defined: There is perhaps not a more misunderstood doctrine in all of Christendom than that of the doctrine of God’s grace. What is grace? When one considers a simple dictionary entry for the word it isn’t difficult to grasp why the word can conjure so vast an array of potential meanings. According got Webster’s dictionary of the English Language It can mean:
1. Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification: a virtue coming from God: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace. (That’s what we are talking about here)
Its meaning can range from that more biblical understanding all the way to any one of the following: approval, favor, mercy, pardon, a special favor, privilege, disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency, a temporary exemption: reprieve, a charming or attractive trait or characteristic, a pleasing appearance or effect: charm, ease and suppleness of movement or bearing. It can be used as a title of address or reference for a duke, a duchess, or an archbishop. It can refer to a short prayer at a meal asking a blessing or giving thanks, a musical trill or turn, a sense of propriety or right.
Friends, couple that with the fact that the word gets tossed around in Churches so commonly that the likelihood of its meaning even being questioned becomes dulled by common usage and it is easy to see why so great and important a doctrine as the grace of God becomes misunderstood.
Biblically speaking there are three stages of God’s volition in salvation. In other words, there are three stairs to climb for salvation to become available and actual to the children of God. I recall once when Sebastian was barely 2 years old. We were living in a massive parsonage in Cheboygan, Michigan where I was Pastor of First Congregational Church of Cheboygan. The house was immense with a front and back stair case, formal entry ways, formal dining room, as many as 6 bedrooms, depending on how the rooms were used. I was teaching Sebastian to go up and down the front stair case which was very steep and quite high. Christina was convinced that he still needed help going up and down while his obstinate father was convinced otherwise. One afternoon he tumbled down nearly the entire flight of stairs right in front of my eyes! He was not hurt or injured but that experience cured me and him of being obstinate about the stairs!
A discussion of the doctrine of grace is a high stair case to climb. Don’t tumble down because of its height. While the doctrine of grace is high and lofty, at the top is a treasure of free grace, salvation, and joy!
Grace is not mercy or love. These three concepts are given individual definition in Ephesians 2:4-5. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” (ESV)
“Speaking first of mercy, it is defined as that compassion in God which moved Him to provide a Savior for the lost.” Mercy is the first step on the stair way to salvation as it relates to the work of God in salvation. The Lord takes compassion upon His creation. Though fallen and sinful He is not without compassion.
Here is the key. Because God is righteous, holy, just, and because He is consistent within Himself, He cannot save based purely upon mercy or compassion. If He could there would be no need for Christ to suffer and die for sin.
This is the key distinction that so much of the modern Church misses and it is why the Church is rampant with teachings of cheap grace. When we confuse mercy with grace we nullify the need for the suffering and death of Jesus. We make of Jesus a genie in a bottle that exists primarily to fulfill our desires. How can any pure and true worship of God proceed from there?
The second step is the love of God. God’s love is mighty and powerful like a 10,000 rushing winds and yet, because the gravity and dastardly nature of sin, even the love of God does not save anyone. God’s love for His creation is the motivating force behind salvation but sin must be accounted for…
When God’s love meets us at the Cross grace erupts! When the earth shook, when the ground trembled, when the veil was torn in two in the Temple when Jesus died at the Cross, the grace of God was exploding into the world!
Grace is the consequence of the love of God mingled with the blood of His holy and divine Son, both flowing from a crown of thorns that, were it not for sin, would have been made of the finest gold; adorned with the most precious jewels.
The mercy of God compels His love to move toward His children. When compelled by compassion the love of God meets us at the Cross salvation is made available to those who receive the upward call of God in Christ!
The righteousness and holiness of God must first be satisfied at the Cross before any sinner can receive the fruit of the empty tomb of Jesus. New life is born from the crushing weight of the Cross, which crushes sin and the shackles with which it enslaves the children of God.
God’s heart is moved with mercy, His actions in salvation are born of love, but salvation is the consequence of the grace which is born at the Cross. Don’t cheapen salvation by going to Pentecost without first going to Calvary!
Don’t diminish the pain and shame and anguish of the Cross by seeking the resurrected Christ, the giver of all graces, while hiding your eyes from the cruelty of the Cross, from which salvation flows according to God’s sovereign grace.
Come to Christ in His fullness! Receive the depth and fullness of the grace of God.
Salvation is the gift of God according to grace but so is every gift that you and I have in our life. While there is that grace which God extends to all of creation, the truth is that the Lord gives His best gifts to His children.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:44-45 ESV) Were it not for the common graces of God there would be no good thing in all of creation. As a result of the sinfulness of man God would be fully justified in cutting off all graces from all of His creation.
God makes the sun to shine on all creation but He gives particularly good and fine gifts and treasures to His covenant people; the elect; the Church.
He gives light to His beloved ones. He opens our eyes to the truth and awakens us from spiritual slumber. He gives us the grace toward repentance. He gives us His Spirit. He pardons our sins. He gives is the promise of the return of Christ. He gives us peace. He gives us the gift of Himself.
In fact, it is on the basis of that most excellent gift of the very presence of God dwelling within us that we know that God does not give gifts the way the world does. God not only gives more excellent gifts than those of the world, their excellence is surpassingly excellent because God’s gifts are without end.
The world gives but it gives grudgingly. In the world a man or woman must struggle to attain even a scrap of peace. Jesus gives peace in abundance freely.
The world gives poorly, in small quantity. Christ gives richly, plenteously.
When the world gives they give tauntingly. Thomas Brooks says that “they hit men in the teeth with the gifts they give.” The gifts of the world ensnare men in the giving. Wealth is a rabbit trap which traps men in the getting of it. Pleasure is bait for the hunter of this world to slay men. Christ gives liberally in love.
When the world gives it gives the worst and keeps the best but Christ gives the best of the best. When the world gives it gives a little but Christ gave all.
Conclusion
Friends, the gift of God’s saving grace and all of the subsequent gifts that God gives to His children of sustaining and supplying grace are far richer than any gift that the world may give. Do not be troubled for want of lesser gifts. Do not be troubled from a desire for the passing things of this world.
The late missionary to Ecuador, Jim Elliot, famously wrote that “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” His grace is enough! His grace is sufficient! His grace saves and sustains His people! Amen.
