Understanding Grace
What is Grace
Unmerited favor
By God’s Grace, you are saved(Ephesians 2:8-9)
By God’s Grace, you are sanctified(Acts 13:43;
By God’s Grace, you are to Serve (Ephesians 4
By God’s Grace, you are sustained (2 Corinthians 13:10
Intro
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Good evening/Morning.
How is everyone doing? Are you keeping up in your readings? If you are following the reading plan you will have read through the gospel of Matthew and are nearing half way through the book of Acts.
The plan is in order except for the gospels which are spread out at different points in the reading plan so you are not reading the same accounts of Jesus ministry right at the beginning.
Anyway, in the messages we are talking about some of the main themes that we find in the New Testament and this week we are going to talk about Grace.
Jeffrey Dahmer illustration
And to help us do that I want to start out by reading an excerpt from Max Lucado’s book, “In the Grip of Grace” that he writes about Jeffrey Dahmer.
For those of you who don’t know about Jeffrey Dahmer, he was a serial killer who preyed on young boys, molesting them and killing them, during most of the 1980’s.
And to start out Chapter 4, Max Lucado writes:
You know what disturbs me most about Jeffrey Dahmer?
What disturbs me most are not his acts, though they are disgusting. Dahmer was convicted of seventeen murders. Eleven corpses were found in his apartment. He cut off arms. He ate body parts. My thesaurus has 204 synonyms for vile, but each falls short of describing a man who kept skulls in his refrigerator and hoarded a human heart. He redefined the boundary for brutality. The Milwaukee monster dangled from the lowest rung of human conduct and then dropped. But that’s not what troubles me most.
Can I tell you what troubles me most about Jeffrey Dahmer?
Not his trial, as disturbing as it was, with all those pictures of him sitting serenely in court, face frozen, motionless. No sign of remorse, no hint of regret. Remember his steely eyes and impassive face? But I don’t speak of him because of his trial. There is another reason.
Can I tell you what really troubles me about Jeffrey Dahmer?
Not his punishment, though life without parole is hardly an exchange for his actions. How many years would satisfy justice? A lifetime in jail for every life he took? But that’s another matter, and that’s not what troubles me most about Jeffrey Dahmer.
May I tell you what does?
His conversion.
Months before an inmate murdered him, Jeffrey Dahmer became a Christian. Said he repented. Was sorry for what he did. Profoundly sorry. Said he put his faith in Christ. Was baptized. Started life over. Began reading Christian books and attending chapel.
Sins washed. Soul cleansed. Past forgiven.
That troubles me. It shouldn’t, but it does. Grace for a cannibal?
Lucado, Max – In the Grip of Grace, ch. 4 p, 35-36.
Grace. We all want grace for ourselves, but
giving grace can sometimes be another matter or
even witnessing someone receiving grace that we feel so doesn’t deserve it.
As we saw from the story I just read, grace for a cannibal, a murderer, a child molester, seems inappropriate, unjust, immoral almost.
I think we believe that because we fail to truly understand grace.
Today, as we continue on in our New Testament Challenge series, we are going to seek to understand grace and see what grace actually is and what it does in our lives when we have a proper and growing understanding of it.
So what is grace?
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The definition of Grace would be the “free and unmerited favor” especially from God.
Great. What does that mean?
Grace is the giving of favor that is undeserved.
Now we can understand the definition. But we struggle with the application.
We can understand giving of grace to those that aren’t really that bad. That is ok.
But to those who really don’t deserve it, we shouldn’t give grace.
Do you see where our understanding of grace is flawed?
We think it is ok to give unmerited favor, as long is it is not really unmerited, like for Jeffrey Dahmer.
In cases like that, we often feel that it is not ok to give grace, because he really didn’t deserve it. This is why we struggle. Because we truly fail to understand Grace for ourselves.
Paul tells us in
Ephesians 1:7-8
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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
He has lavished his free and completely unmerited favor upon us who absolutely did not deserve it and He wants us to truly realize the magnitude of His grace.
He goes on in Ephesians 2:1-7
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1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…3 gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. … we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, … 6 God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
We often think it is someone else who really needs God’s grace. The fact of the matter is it is you and me.
It is you and me who were dead, and deserving death.
It is you and me who were disobedient, living in ways that gratified the cravings of our sinful nature, not in ways that glorified the Lord.
It is you and me who were objects of wrath, fully deserving the just penalty for our disobedience.
We can’t look at the Jeffrey Dahmer’s of the world and say they don’t deserve God’s grace without squarely looking at ourselves and realizing that we don’t deserve God’s grace. And that is the point. Grace is undeserved!
But the God who is rich in mercy, has lavished on us the incomparable riches of His grace, giving us not what we deserve, but instead giving us His incredible grace and all the blessings that come along with it.
If we are going to truly be able to live this Christian life, we have got to understand grace and understand that our only hope is the grace of God in our lives.
Transition
Now, even as we understand this grace from a theological perspective, I think it is imperative we understand it from a practical perspective so we grow in our understanding of not only God’s grace, but in understanding our real need for it in all things.
So practically speaking what does this grace do for us?
By God’s grace we are saved
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Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
I am not going to spend a lot of time here, because I know that we know this.
Many of you can probably quote Ephesians 2:8-9 by heart.
But many times we are so busy looking at those who “really don’t deserve God’s grace” that we miss the reality that we actually desperately in need His grace.
Like I said at the beginning of this message, we don’t think we are a Jeffrey Dahmer. We aren’t so bad, we aren’t a serial killer. We only need a little grace to be saved.
False.
You and I need the incomparable riches of his grace to be saved, or we will be eternally lost. Don’t focus on what other people need or deserve.
The Workers in the Vineyard Parable
This was the problem in the parable Jesus told of “The workers in the Vineyard” that you would have read last week in Matthew 20.
Let me read that to you again
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Matthew 20:1-15
20 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went.
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"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
7 "'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
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8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
9 "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
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11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
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13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
God is generous. Without God being generous with grace, you would be lost. The fact that he is, from our perspective more generous to some than others, does not for a second make it that God has not been good to you.
It is who He is. Generous and gracious.
Do not be like the workers who were upset that he was, from your perspective, more generous and gracious than He was to you.
Instead realize that because of his generosity and graciousness, you have eternal life that you would never have otherwise!
Be thankful that by His grace He saved you!
Transition
But God not only saves us by His grace, but
By God’s Grace, we are Sanctified
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When Paul was on one of his missionary journeys, we was preaching to the crowd the message of salvation and many believed. And it says
Acts 13:43
43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
How do you continue in the grace of God and receive this progressive sanctification, this continual changing that God does in our life through His grace?
Through His word!
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In John 17:17, Jesus prays to the Father that He would
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
It is by God’s grace that as we read His word that He illuminates it to us and continually transforms us by His grace as we grow in our knowledge of Him.
Peter says in
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2 Peter 3:18
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
It is by God’s grace that He continues to sanctify us, to grow us more into the likeness of his Son.
And that sanctification process happens through reading His word, which is the word of his grace.
Paul speaking to the Elders from the church at Ephesus says
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Acts 20:32
"Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Reading the word of his grace is the means of his grace to build us up and sanctify us.
Transition – Confused by Grace
Now sometimes people get confused regarding grace. They think since they are receiving God’s grace, that they can do whatever they want.
But that is not true. God’s grace changes them. That is the sanctification process.
Paul combatted this flawed thinking with the church in Rome. There were those that were thinking Paul was teaching that we could do anything we want, even sin, if we have been saved by grace.
But Paul corrects their thinking in
Romans 6:1-2, 14
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6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?...14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Because we have received grace to save us, and as we grow in our understanding of the grace of God, He sanctifies us and enables us to overcome the desires and power of sin by His grace! We are sanctified through the incredible grace of God!
And as God continues to sanctify and transform us,
By God’s Grace, we are to Serve
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God doesn’t grow us and pour out his grace for us to sit around, but he gives us grace to transform us and use us!
In our men’s study on Saturday morning, we were going over Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and he said “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15)
God saves us by his grace and sanctifies us by his grace to leave us here so we can serve by his grace.
And it is by God’s grace that he gives us abilities, gifts, to serve with.
When Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, and talking about the way that God has gifted them, he says
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“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” (Ephesians 4:7)
God’s grace gives us each gifts so we can serve.
Peter tells us
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1 Peter 4:10
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
God’s grace is poured out on us so we can be used by Him to serve others. When we do not let ourselves be an outlet for God’s grace through our service, we do not mature and that sanctification process is stifled.
Let God’s grace flow through you in your service to others so that you will continue to see your life transformed, sanctified by the incomparable riches of His grace that He has lavished on us!
Apply
Ask where you can serve. What Gift has God given me, what has God impassioned me about, so that I can help others hear about and experience the wonderful grace of God!
Transition
So the Lord saves us, sanctifies us, empowers us to serve and also
By God’s Grace, we are Sustained
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Paul tells of the unbelievable visions that God showed him and talked about how God was using Paul mightily, but so that Paul would not think that he was not in need of God’s continual grace he writes in
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I don’t know about you, but there are times, when I am using the gifts God has given me by His grace to serve, that I feel like I am completely spent and that I can’t do this anymore.
I can’t serve anymore, I can’t lead anymore, I can’t forgive anymore, I can’t take another problem, I am afraid to answer my phone or open my email or even go into my office!
But that is when I realize that I have stopped relying on God and I have been relying on myself.
I rely on my abilities, my personality, my effort, my intellect, my hard work and my goodness.
It is in those times that I cannot take it anymore.
And when I can’t take it or do another things, it is by God’s grace that my eyes are opened to my sinful pride of trying to do things myself, and I repent and seek God’s forgiveness and He strengthens me and empowers me to continue on, and sustains my by His grace. His power really is displayed in our weakness.
When we find ourselves in those times of weakness and need, the author of Hebrews says,
Hebrews 4:16
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16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
In those times of weakness, as we turn to the Lord, he strengthens us to endure and sustains us by his grace.
Paul, when talking about the ministry of the gospel and the transforming work of the Lord in us and through us, says in
2 Corinthians 4:7-9
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we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
In those times we are weak in ourselves and can’t take it, Christ becomes the bones in our legs that makes us stand.
During those moments when we are worrying and anxious and fretting about the circumstances beyond our control, He becomes the peace that surpasses understanding.
During those days when it seems our enemies are ganging up and attacking and we can’t take it, He is our refuge.
Not feeling sustained
Maybe you are not feeling sustained right now, but nearly unable to stand, no peace in your life, like there is no refuge.
It is in those moments that we need to realize what Paul realized.
While we may be
hard pressed on every side, we may be
perplexed by all the circumstances, we may be
persecuted and
struck down,
but because of God’s grace,
we are not crushed,
we are not in despair,
we are not abandoned and
we are not destroyed!
Just still being here, right here, in this service, right now, shows that God is the one that is strengthening you even if you don’t feel it. You are still upright!
It may seem cliché, but the poem, the Footprints in the Sand holds much truth.
I want to take a moment and read that for some here who may have never heard it.
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One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.
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This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.
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So I said to the Lord,
‘You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?’
Slide
The Lord replied,
‘The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.’
The Lord sustains us by his grace.
Conclusion
Have you been trying to live this life apart from God and His mighty grace!
You can’t do it.
His grace is our only hope. That He is willing to give us His completely unmerited favor that we don’t deserve in the least, is absolutely incredible when we begin to fully understand His grace.
And we grow in that grace as we respond to His grace.
To grow in that, respond to his free gift of salvation.
I read earlier Ephesians 2:8-9,
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Last week we talked about faith and taking steps of faith.
Take a step of faith and receive God’s free gift of salvation by His grace.
Confess your belief in Him and be saved by God’s grace.
Then grow in the grace of God, being sanctified as you read his word, experiencing his grace through you as you serve, and seeing his mighty sustaining power during those times you are weak.
It is all by God’s grace.
Let’s” approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us” (Hebrews 4:16) in whatever need we have today.
Let’s pray.
