OPEN: A very distinguished preacher and 2 of the leaders from his congregation had attended an out of town meeting that didn’t finish until late that night. As they headed home, they were hungry and decided to have something to eat before going home but the only place open was a seedy bar and grill. They went inside, sat at a table and placed their order. After being served, one of the men asked the minister to say grace. The preacher looked at him and said: “I'd rather not. I don't want Him to know where I’m at.”
That preacher didn’t want to say “GRACE” because of where he WAS. By contrast, Ephesians says we GET GRACE in SPITE of where we WAS. According to our text today God tells us that, before we became Christians, we were dead in our transgressions and sins, we lived in the wrong place, followed the wrong leader, and as a result, we were “by nature objects of wrath.” That was NOT a place where you say “Grace”, but it was the place where we GOT grace.
After pointing out how dark our past had been, Paul wrote: “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.” Ephesians 2:4-5
Paul was telling the Ephesians: you WERE in a bad place, but while you were in that bad place God saved you by His grace. He offered you his forgiveness even though you didn’t deserve it. And that’s the beauty of God’s Amazing Grace - you didn’t deserve it... but you got it anyway.
The first verse of the song Amazing Grace describes that Grace. Sing it with me: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see.”
I was wretched, I was lost and I was blind - and it was then that God gave His amazing grace.
Someone once noted that the song “Amazing Grace” has been recorded more often by more musicians than any other song. When sung at even the most secular event or pagan concert, a hush seems to fall over the audience. And eyes tear up. And not just the eyes of Christians. Grace is what people long for, even those who don’t know Jesus. Especially those who don’t know Jesus. (Randy Alcorn)
It’s like there’s a part of so many people that’s uncomfortable with WHO they are and WHAT they’ve done.
ILLUS: A clinical psychologist and a professor named Dr. Jordan Peterson noted that most people don’t often think of themselves as valuable. “They certainly don’t think that - when they’re depressed. They certainly don’t think that - when they’re suicidal. They really don’t think that - when they’re ashamed, or guilty, or frustrated, or disappointed or angry or waking up at 3 in the morning and tormenting themselves with their consciences. They don’t necessarily think that - when they’re fighting with their family or when they’re upset at work or, you know, when things go wrong in life.” (https://www.facebook.com/drjordanpeterson/videos/2322886067950271/?sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e)
Peterson’s observation was – that many people are often disappointed and uncomfortable with who they are. They are people in need of grace.
So, some feel the need for grace, but (PAUSE) there are others who don’t unless there’s a heavy weight of shame in their lives or a fear of facing judgment lots of folks just ignore God. That’s why the 2nd verse of Amazing Grace says what it says. Sing it with me: “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.”
Grace taught his heart to fear. Grace STARTS with fear – the fear of judgment or shame. And there are many people who reject God’s grace for that very reason. They don’t like the idea that the are wrong and that they might be condemned for their choices in life.
ILLUS: For example, several years ago Ted Turner (the man who founded TBS and CNN) spoke at the National Press Club. “Heaven is going to be a mighty slender place. And most of the people I know in life aren't going to be there. Remember, heaven is going to be perfect. And I don't really want to be there... Those of us that go to hell, which will be most of us in this room (the National Press Corp) when we get there we'll have a chance to make things… better, because hell is supposed to be a mess. And heaven is perfect. Who want to go to a place that is perfect? Boring, boring.” AFA Journal Nov/Dec 1994 p.14
Ephesians describes men like Turner as “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Ephesians 4:18) So you’d expect folks like Turner to reject God’s grace.
But what’s really surprising is when regular church folks don’t see the need. You see, what happens for too many church goers, is that they tend to believe that they’re OK just as they are. They don’t NEED God’s forgiveness/ they don’t NEED God’s grace, because they’re nice people – just ask them! They believe they deserve heaven just as they are because they’re nice people, they’ve done nice things. In fact, they believe they’ve done more GOOD than BAD in life, and so they’ve bought their ticket to heaven. They’ve banked so many “righteous deeds” that God has to let them into heaven because they’ve earned it. In fact, He couldn’t keep them out if He wanted to. They deserve Heaven.
ILLUS: At funerals for Godly Christian people I’ll talk about this topic. For example, I preached the funeral for Ethel (a former member her and one of the sweetest women you’ll ever meet) and she was so loved that the Funeral Home was packed with friends and family. And they all smiled as I told of all the nice things Ethel had done. Then I said “If anybody deserves to get into heaven… Ethel does” and everybody smiled and nodded their heads.
Then I said “BUT if Ethel were here she’d tell you she didn’t deserve to go to heaven.” The smiles turned to frowns as you could literally hear the audience… gasp. How dare I say that!
How COULD I say that? Well, I could say that because it was true. It was true for Ethel, and it’s true for you and for me! None of us deserves to go to heaven. The only way we’re getting into heaven is by the GRACE of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us “by GRACE you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Without God’s Grace… none of us getting into heaven!
A preacher named Tim Keller observed “The universal religion of humankind is: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then HE OWES US. (we do enough good works and God can’t keep us out of heaven) The gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then WE OWE HIM”
That’s what Grace is all about – receiving God’s “good record” and owing Him for the privilege of going to heaven.
But how do we get hold of that grace? How do we lay hold of God’s good record?
Oddly I discovered the answer to that question as I was studying for today’s sermon and I saw a couple things I’d never seen before.
1st – I have a huge collection of several thousand illustrations. And the beauty of computers is that I can use the search function to find any word in any of those files in my collection. All I have to type in a word like “grace” and every Word document that has that word pops: grace… grace… grace… grace. As I was searching through my files for grace, that’s exactly what happened. I type in “grace,” and documents with that word showed “grace… grace… grace… (pause) dis…grace”
Disgrace! I saw that word “disgrace” and it got me to thinking. Disgrace is when a person is made to feel ashamed. They’ve lost their reputation… and their position of trust. They got caught doing something they ought not to do. And so – they’re disgraced. And the worst part of disgrace is losing your OWN self-respect. If you TRULY feel disgrace you can’t bear to look at yourself in the mirror. Your sin, my sin - is our disgrace.
Then I realized: When Jesus died on the cross, He died to take away our disgrace. And in the place of our disgrace He gave us His grace. Do you know why He did that? He did it because He LOVED us.
Ephesians 2:4-5 tells us “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.”
And that led me to the 2nd thing I’d never thought about before - someone observed that Genesis never talks about God loving Adam & Eve. I looked it up… and he was right. God did plenty of things that showed love to Adam and Eve, but it never says He “loved” them. And that got me to thinking, and I did a search… and you know what I found? In the Old Testament, God never told anyone He loved them (except Jacob before he was born and Solomon when he was born)
BUT, the Old Testament speaks of God loving the nation of Israel, and of God loving someone who has obeyed Him. God loved the people who belonged to him, and he loved those who obeyed him. And that’s pretty much it!
But here in Ephesians we’re told that God loved SINNERS. The first few verses of Ephesians 2 tells us – before we became Christians we were objects of wrath, but “because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses” and He saved us by His grace.
Did you catch that? We were sinners - we were bound for hell - but He loved us! He loved you, and HE loved me even though we didn’t Belong to Him, and we didn’t Obey Him.
Why is that important? Well, many people won’t bother to become Christians because they’ve … sinned. They believe they need to clean themselves up before they come to God. They believe God will ONLY love them if they get their act together. But Ephesians 2 says… that’s not true. God loved you when you were an object of wrath. He loved you BEFORE you cleaned up your act.
ILLUS: My sister Barbranne drifted away from God for years and did a lot of things that I’d not want to talk about. But, in her 50s she called out for help. She had ruined her life and needed someone to come get her. So I drove down to Texas, packed up her meager possessions and brought her to live with me. And she began to put her life back together. She read her Bible, regularly attended church and gave herself totally to God. There was a time she and I got into a discussion about the forgiveness of God, and I told her she probably appreciated God’s forgiveness more than others did because she had “really sinned.” Probably not the smartest thing I’d ever said to her… but it was true. She lived with sin and had reason for guilt and shame… but because of God’s grace, she also knew the cleansing power of God’s forgiveness.
Someone once described God’s grace this way: GRACE is God loving us just as we are, but loving us too much to let us stay that way.
CLOSE: The man who wrote Amazing Grace is an example of someone who understood that kind of grace. His name was John Newton… and he was not a nice man. Newton was such a nasty/immoral man, even other pagans weren’t comfortable with him. One time, in a terrible storm, the captain of the ship he was in said they needed to throw John overboard to save the ship… just as Jonah had been thrown overboard in the Bible.
He got drunk, got in fights, went to the red-light districts. And he cursed like a sailor… in fact, he was a sailor. And he was a slaver - he kidnapped and sold human flesh for price. Years before, he’d turned his back on God… but a vicious storm at sea changed his mind.
Someone described the fearfulness of that storm: Waves crashed over the boat, ripping away whole timbers. Clothes and bedding were stuffed into holes and boards nailed over them. Newton joined those who worked at pumping water out of the ship, and eventually (when he was too weary to pump any longer) he was lashed to the wheel to try and steer it thru the storm.
One writer noted that “In his heart Newton believed Christianity to be true. But this brought him no consolation because (as John Newton later wrote) “I concluded my sins were too great to be forgiven. I waited with fear and impatience to receive my doom.” But as soon he heard the glad news that the ship was freed of water, "I began to pray... to think of that Jesus that I had so often derided; I recollected his death: a death for sins not his own, but, as I remembered, for the sake of those who should put their trust in him."
Did you catch that? He stayed away from Christ because he concluded his sins were too great to be forgiven. He didn’t think God could love him as he was. But that storm brought him face to face with judgment/ death, and it forced him to turn his eyes upon Jesus. AND THAT CHANGED HIS LIFE FOREVER
INVITATION… so how do you lay hold of the grace of God?
1. BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Acts 16:31)
2. REPENT of your sins. Admit your sin is too great for you to pay off (Acts 3:19)
3. CONFESS Jesus as your Lord and Master (Romans 10:9)
4. Be BURIED in the waters of Baptism for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38)
5. And LIVE for Christ (Revelation 2:10-11)
