Summary: 1.) Grace Exists Prior to Our Knowledge; 2.) Grace Shows us Salvation; 3.) Grace Provokes Our Faith

January 6th, 2013

Marshall Road First Church of God

“Fundamentals of the Christian Faith”

“Grace”

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

This one segment of scripture really encapsulates what it means for us to be Christian. I have always enjoyed how Paul takes the opportunity to explain the aspects of being Christian. He never confuses his audience, but is rather plain spoken. Paul couldn’t have said it any better for people to understand how salvation is obtained through Jesus Christ.

Over the next several weeks I want to discuss some of the basic fundamentals of Christian living. For some it’s just a refresher course, to others 7you may gain a different perspective, but for some it might lead to a reaffirmation or salvation experience. Whatever the case might be, I believe that it is God’s sincere desire for us to grow in our salvation@! So that you an I can be who God called us to be, His bride, His church, His people!

The word fundamental sometimes brings on mixed feelings espically when the secular media puts its spin on it identifying Christianity as being fundamentalist. But the word fundamental means to serve as a basis supporting existence or determining essential structure or function. But there are some fundamental things that Christians need to have a distinct grasp on to endure the Christian life and be prepared to given an account for the cause of our relationship with Christ.

What things are essential to the Christian faith?

Grace

Faith

Salvation

Sanctification

Now most of these are going to constantly intertwine in revealing each other but this morning I want to tackle the subject of: Grace!

Ephesians 2:8a

For by grace……

In reality we could stop right there if we are to summarize what it takes to become a Christian. But what do you think of when you hear the word grace?

Grace is unearned or unmerited love given freely by God to man in order to be free of sin.

In the Christian community we are surrounded by the word Grace. I mean it is used in a church name, it is a young ladies name, Bible colleges are named after it, and we all have sung songs such as Amazing Grace. We are constantly surrounded by this word, but do we truly understand the magnitude of grace?

This morning we are going to look at Grace. It is an incredibly critical and important doctrine to our Christian faith. We are going to look at his notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, absolutely unconditional.

How does God’s grace work in our life?

1.) Grace Exists Prior to Our Knowledge

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The words love and grace could literally be interchanged in this passage of scripture. So lets reprhrase this: But God demonstrates His own grace toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That takes on a different tone now doesn’t it?

God’s grace is Prevenia in Nature. The United Methodist Book of Discipline (2004) defines prevenient grace as "...the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God's will, and our 'first slight transient conviction' of having sinned against God.

I believe that when we are born, that once our spirit exits the habitation of heaven, that God withdraws himself from us that leaves behind a God shaped hole in our lives that we throughout life experiment in filling.

Folks will try anything and everything to fulfill the missing piece

They will try to build any relationship to gain acceptance

They will use any drug or alcohol in order to fill the void

BUT NOTHING WILL SATISFY YOU!

When a baby is born into the world medical studies say that the endorphin levels in a newborns body react the same way a person does when a loved one passes away. That baby leaves the confront and presence of God, and it distraughts them.

Church, there is only One who can fill that void in your life.

Only One who has the ability to accept you the way you are, only One who can fill the void in your Spirit and His Name is Jesus and He is the only ONE that can make you complete@!

The Grace of God exists prior to our Knowledge of it. God's grace also awakens in us an earnest longing for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward repentance and faith."

John 6:44:

"No man can come unto me, unless the Father who hath sent me, draw him..."

Now let me be clear about something. God will not force Himself upon us, not in his nature to do so. Just the same way I cannot force someone to get saved. I can pray for them, but once they deliberately shut the door and say No to God, their fate is sealed. Nothing else that I can do, nothing else that you can do.

Prevenient grace is that still small voice that your soul hears before you are saved. It’s the feeling that you get when an invitation or an opportunity is presented for you to come to Christ. It is the knocking you hear on your hearts door that beckons you to come to Christ@!

How does God’s grace work in our life?

2.) Grace Shows us Salvation

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved

Paul is assuming that the hearers and readers of this passage have already experienced a salvation experience. So to some of us it may sound redundant, but regardless you need to hear and understand that you cannot be a good person your whole life and just believe in God and expect to make heaven your home@!

Peter said it plainly in

Acts 4:12

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The name that Peter is referring to is Jesus. You can only be saved from your sins by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior. Now I am going to get to salvation in the a couple of weeks, like I said these things intertwine. But Grace leads us to the point of decision. We either can chose to be saved, because of the revelation of our sinful condition through previenial grace or we chose not to be saved it is as simple as that!

See, the Love of God pulls us, it beckons us to come to Him. Grace is the same thing. When John Newton penned the second stanza of the Hymn Amazing Grace listen to what He says here:

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.

And Grace, my fears relieved.

How precious did that Grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Newton isn’t saying that Grace comes at the point of salvation. He is saying that Grace teaches us, reveals to us, acknowledges within us, our desperate attempts to be fulfilled apart from God, but these feeble attempts graps nothing, rather it is grace that teaches us that the only thing that reaches us is the Love of God in Grace.

The moment we understand the existence of the Love of God, allows us to sense our division from God. It is in grace that we experience old time Holy Ghost Heaven sent conviction! It is in Grace that we discover who were are and where God is and how far apart we are from Him. It is in Grace that we discover that there is Salvation in Jesus Christ @!

How does God’s grace work in our life?

3.) Grace Provokes Our Faith

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

There are a lot of good people who go to church. But there are many whose faith remain unprovoked. The word provoke means to stir to action or feeling.

When I was 8 or 9 years old there was a mangy mutt that lived down the street from my mammaw and papaws house. And when we would walk down to the park on Lafayette street in Middletown that mangy mutt would bark and snarl trying to nip at your ankles, but he was tied . I used to take a stick and I’d rattled it across the chain link just to tick him off. One day I came down on my bike and that old mangy mutt came after me, I just didn’t notice he was off his rope, that dog jumped and climbed that fence and chased me down the street, grabbed my pant leg and knocked me off my bike.

The dog wasn’t amused by my gracious rattling of his fence. I provoked him to climb a fence to get me! That dog made me a believer that I deserved what I got. But have we been provoked with our faith.

Grace generates a feeling inside of us that is in many cases a preemptive strike by God to make us aware that he is real and desires to have a relationship with us. It has nothing to do with what think or believe that we have done to earn God’s love through grace. That totally goes against every human idea because we live in a country that is based on earnings and rewards. You get this because you’ve done that, we are engrained with that idea.

Church, when God shows you the miraculous works of His Son and His sacririce on the Cross it should provoke our hearts to believe that there is something greater than ourselves, and it is only through Grace that we can achieve Faith in Jesus Christ.

You cannot earn God’s Love, His salvation, His Sanctification…His love is free, it is pure, it is open and willing to be all that you could ever want or imagine. You will never be able to measure up to God,

Being a good person doesn’t make you right

It is by Grace@!

In closing…..

Church, the only way to our salvation is by grace which is offered at the Cross. Chuck Swindoll said it best, “knowing grace is one thing, living it is another.”

Church, we have been given this grace by God; and it should be our privilege as Christians to show this grace to others. Inv