All right, beginning this series
on the fundamentals of the grace of God. Now, there's hardly a
subject in the scriptures that is more important because it
is the most fundamental characteristic of the relationship between God
and his people. Every good thing that men and
women receive from God comes to them because of his grace. Not only that, there's a great
deal of ignorance on the subject. And that's to be expected because
the truth of grace is not natural to man. We are not naturally
gracious. Therefore, to think that God
is gracious is not natural to man's thinking. Even if he uses
the word grace in his religion, he will redefine it to fit his
natural view of works. And grace, as the scriptures
teach it, is not often taught because it's not a popular doctrine. You'll not likely get a worldwide
ministry preaching this message. You'll hardly get a citywide
ministry or even a townwide ministry preaching this message because
it's not attractive to man. So I decided to undertake a series
of lessons in both written and preached form. I'll be teaching
this but there will be a written version of it made available.
Now before we can study any subject we must define just what it is
we are studying. So let's begin by defining grace. Grace in its most basic sense
is favor. In fact sometimes In the scriptures,
the Greek word normally translated grace is instead translated favor. Now the prime example of one
who experienced the grace of God is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to quote scriptures
for you. I'll tell you what they are. And if you want to try to
race there before I start quoting, you can. But in order to save
time, I'm just going to read them. And I'll tell you, some
of the times I used a different translation. As I've prepared
these studies, I've looked through the various translations. And
I'll use one that most clearly brings out the point that I'm
trying to make. And sometimes I even just alter
them a little bit so you wouldn't find the version I quote anywhere.
But in Luke chapter two, verse 40, it says, and the child, and
that's Jesus, he grew and became strong. He was filled with wisdom
and the grace of God was upon him. And then later in verse
52 of the same chapter, Luke two, it says, and Jesus grew
in wisdom and stature and in favor, same word, He grew in
grace with God and man. John describes our Lord Jesus
as being full of grace and truth. You'll find that in John 1, verse
14-15. Now the favor of God, actually
just the bare concept of favor or grace, consists of two things. and pleasure or love and delight. If you are graciously disposed
towards someone, it means that you like what they are and your
love for them flows. So it's this combination of love
and delight. Now, God speaks of our Lord Jesus
through the prophet Isaiah this way, and this is found in Isaiah
42 verse one. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen in whom my soul delights. You see that aspect of delight
or pleasure whenever God looks upon the Lord Jesus Christ, what
he sees pleases him. And God described his gracious
attitude toward his son in the same way in the Gospels. At Christ's baptism and his transfiguration,
God said this, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. So there you see it, love and
pleasure mixed together. Now, to get a sense of what grace
is, imagine how you feel about your children, especially when
they follow what you consider to be good. And as they mature
into the sort of person you want them to be, the kind of person
that you think really everyone should be, as you see that happen,
they grow in your grace, just as the Lord Jesus Christ grew
in the grace of his father. Even as our Lord grew, he matured
into the perfect man that pleases God. And therefore God's grace
was upon him. Now among believers, grace is often defined as unmerited
favor. But as God's grace towards his
son demonstrates, grace is earned. would say that the grace of God
on the Lord Jesus Christ was not merited by Christ? He fully
merited every grace, every bit of grace that God showed towards
Him. God's grace flowed towards Him
because when God looked upon Him He said, look at Him my soul
delights in Him. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
said, I do always those things which please My Father. And that's why God's grace was
upon him. God's favor was on Christ precisely
because Christ was exactly what his father delighted in, what
he took pleasure in. How then did it become common
for gospel believers to define grace as unmerited favor? comes to us beginning in Romans
chapter 3 verse 22. The last few words of verse 22
actually should have been in verse 23. And speaking of Jews
and Gentiles Paul wrote, there is no difference for all sin
and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely
in grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Now, the word that's translated
freely, and that's a fine translation, but we can get a little more
technical about it and apply it to our study here, it actually
means without a cause. Without a cause. In John chapter
15, Verse 25, speaking of the fact that people hated Christ
and hated what he had to say, it says that this came about
to fulfill what was written, they hated me without a cause. Now that's a quote from Psalm
69. Way back in David's day, God
spoke David in a psalm prophesying the reception our Lord would
receive and it was this, they hated me without a cause. Now, you who know the Lord Jesus
can you think of any reason for someone to hate Him? Is there
any good reason? We know the reasons that they
hated Him. But is there any just cause for hatred towards the
Lord Jesus Christ? Of course not. Well, is there
any just cause for God to be gracious to you and me? Well,
there's no just cause to be found in us. Paul wrote that we are
justified by grace and that that justifying grace was given to
us without a cause. It was unmerited. Now that's
how the word unmerited got attached to the word favor as a definition
of grace. Now that's just among religious
believers, Christian believers. So then how can grace be described
as merited, yet when it's given to us, it's considered unmerited? The answer is simple. The grace
given to believers comes to them, and even though there is no cause
for that grace to be found in them, there was a cause for that
grace to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The cause or the
reason for the grace that you and I receive is Christ Himself. We partake of that grace that
was upon Him, a grace that was most certainly bestowed on Him
for good reason, because in every way He was pleasing to His Father. Now look at how this is developed
in John chapter 1, beginning in verse 14. And the Word, the eternal Word,
who was with the Father before the world, who created the world,
and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen
His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and truth. Now John the Baptist bore witness
about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who
comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. And from his fullness, we have
all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ. Now you look
at that passage there and it says that the Word became flesh.
That's our Lord Jesus. The Word made flesh. And He was
full of grace. And then it says that from His
fullness we have received grace upon grace. You see, the grace
we receive, even grace upon grace, more and more grace, more and
more manifestations of it throughout our lives, the grace that we
receive is a grace He most certainly earned. We did not earn it, so
it's unmerited by us, but He did earn it. And from this passage,
we see that we're not given grace merely because of Jesus Christ,
It's something even more amazing than this. We are given the grace
that was given to him and was rightfully his. But such was
the greatness of the grace given to him that from its abundance,
its overflow, we receive a never-ending supply of grace poured out on
us. So the grace we receive is not
unmerited, it's just unmerited by us. It was merited by the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Roman Catholics
have a doctrine. And it's one reason that they believe that
it is valuable to pray to the, quote, saints. You know, the
more notable. at least in their opinion that
have gone before. They believe that some people
live lives so good that they earn more grace than they need. And so they have a surplus of
grace and you can call on them to give out of their abundance.
Now you talk about an anti-Christian doctrine. Remember anti-Christ
means in place of Christ. Brethren there is one saint in
Heaven. Saint means the Holy One. And
Jesus Christ is called the Holy One of God, and He has more grace
than He needs. He earned more grace than necessary
to provide eternal blessings for Himself. He earned God's
grace by the way He lived as a man in this world, and then
there's abundant grace, overflowing grace, because He willingly submitted
Himself to the wrath of God and performed the will of God far
above and beyond what any person's required to do. He and he alone
had grace sufficient to, or excuse me, conduct sufficient to earn
himself grace to get into heaven. And he's certainly the only one
who was good enough to earn more grace than was necessary. And
it's that grace and that grace alone, which is given to us. Don't call on any saints except
the one saint. holy one of God. Now it is in
this sense that grace believers refer to grace as unmerited favor. It was merited by Christ, but
we receive it without a cause as it is written in love. Now this is an Ephesians chapter
one in love. God predestined us to the adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his
grace, which he freely, there's that word again, which he freely
bestowed on us in the beloved. So the grace that you and I receive
is grace that is in the Beloved One and it is bestowed on us. Now as with all words, grace
has its definition, but the writers of scripture put it to various
uses, describing various things. let's take note of how the Bible
uses the word grace. There are four or five things
I have written down here and we could probably find more if
we wanted to get more detail but I think this fairly well
covers at least basically the way the scriptures use the word
grace. All from the, let's say the word
grace as it is translated from the Greek word charis. First
of all is God's love and favor toward us. Now the first occasion
of the word grace is found in Genesis chapter 6 verse 8. Now that's of course a translation
from the Hebrew but it means the same thing. And there we
find these words, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, grace is something that
God has toward us of his own will. We don't draw grace out
from him. He, as it were, pushes it towards
us. It is his work. It is his, I actually struggled
to find a word for this because you don't, you know, we don't
talk about God as feeling this or that. But we have to speak
of him in human terms. But God's feeling of grace toward
us, his love toward us, his pleasure in us, is entirely from him,
motivated by him. As has often been pointed out,
Noah's character wasn't described until after it is written, Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. After that it says, now
Noah was a righteous man, perfect in all his generations. But that
was because of grace. It was not the cause of grace,
it was the result of the grace given to him. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 we read this,
God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which
was granted us in Christ from all eternity. but now has been
revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Now if there's anything that proves that the grace of God
toward us begins in God, And is about his attitude, his feelings
toward us without regard to what we have done. It's very simply
this, this grace was bestowed on us before the world began. If you ever experienced the grace
of God in this life, that grace was given to you before the world,
before the universe existed. We experience grace in this life,
but whatever grace we experience in our lives was bestowed on
us before God spoke the universe into existence. Second, the word
grace is used to describe the principle upon which all of our
relationship with God is governed. Now, I love this concept, and
so does everyone who truly understands and believes the grace of God,
because everything about us and everything about our conduct
would argue against God doing us any act of kindness, wouldn't
it? But when we realize that all
of God's dealings with us are governed by His grace, His eternal
grace, then what does that say about
our persons and our conduct? They got nothing to do with God's
grace toward us, do they? It is written, for it is by grace
you are saved. All of God's dealings with people
with his people come under the category of salvation. There is nothing that happens
to them that is not in some way used by God to bring them to
a state of full salvation from their sins. Now we get this from
Romans 8 28 and we know that all things work together for
good to them who love God who are the called according to his
purpose. So that means everything that's going on is being woven
together by God. He ordained all these things.
He weaved them into the fabric of the salvation of his people.
And every bit of that is grace. You can say, if you are a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can say whatever is happening
to you, has happened, whatever will happen. It is the outworking
of God's grace toward you to bring about your everlasting
salvation. That's why Paul said, in everything
give thanks. Why? Because everything is grace. Believer there is nothing happening
to you, not the minutest detail of your life. that is not a work
of the grace of God to bring about your eternal salvation. You might say, well then why
am I so miserable? Because somehow or another, your misery works
into your salvation. Your affliction, God uses that
for your eternal benefit. Everything God does and everything
he ordains is an expression of his grace towards his people
from election in eternity past to glorification when this reality
disappears. Every work of God and every work
of God and every relationship to his people and every work establish comes
under the category of grace. One could quite literally say,
for it is by grace, and put any act of God toward His people
after those words and it would be true. For it is by grace that
I was born. For it is by grace that I was
born in Key West, Florida. For it is by grace I was born
to the parents I was born to. For it is by grace that I was
learned the scriptures, was taught the scriptures as a child. It
is by grace that I learned or gained a better understanding
of them. It's by grace, every little thing,
it's by grace. Even the things that I consider
setbacks. No, they weren't setbacks. As
someone once says, you did not step back, you simply stepped
forward into a valley. All these things are grace. There's
nothing that God does toward his people, no blessing they
receive, no trial they experience, nor is there any event in all
of history that does not happen as an act flowing from the principle
of the grace that God bears toward them. And brethren, if we can
ever lay hold of that truth, we can rest easy in this world. Third, Grace is used to contrast
God's blessings in the gospel as opposed to God's blessings
received by any scheme of salvation involving our works. Now this
is how we most often see the concept of grace developed in
doctrine. Grace is set in distinction works
of righteousness. Peter said it's not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy, which
is a Siamese twin of grace. By mercy He saved us. In Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 8, for it is by grace you have been saved
through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God, not by works so that no one can boast. Now, how do
we identify works? What kind of things do men use
that would be counted as works they are doing in hope of salvation? Anything that men boast in. That's
what a work is. And I'll tell you people are
boasting almost anything. Remember one person saying, and
this person was saying it actually in judgment of what he perceived
to be self-righteous people. He said, well, at least I know
I'm a sinner. Sounded really humble, didn't it? He was boasting
in the fact he knew he was a sinner. Now we all do that, but from
our hearts, if we've been born again, we don't do that from
the heart. And when we do it, we recognize it immediately and
we repent of what we did. Whatever men might boast in,
that's a work. And since men will boast in anything they do,
that means that nothing that men do has anything to do with
whether or not they are saved. The beginning of our salvation
is election, an event that occurred before time began. Concerning
election, Paul wrote this in Romans 11 verse 5, so too at
the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace,
then it cannot be based on works. If it were, grace would no longer
be grace. You insert our work, anything
we can boast in, anywhere in this scheme of salvation, then
you just kick grace out of the picture. Fourth, grace is used
to describe the privilege of serving God and His kingdom.
In Ephesians 3, verses 8 and 9, Paul wrote, although I am
less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was
given to me to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches
of grace and to make plain to everyone the administration of
this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God,
who created all things. People, there are some. who go
out and preach and they talk about the burdens they bear and
they act as though they're doing God some great favor by supposedly
answering his call to preach the gospel. Paul didn't look
at his preaching of the gospel as a favor to God. He looked
at the privilege of preaching it as God's favor to him. Sometimes I do tremble at the
thought that I take his name upon these lips, because I know
what else these lips say. I fear I'd pollute the name of
Christ by speaking it. And were it not that the privilege of ministering in the
gospel was by God's grace, I could not do it. been unable to do
much for the Kingdom of God, because that would make him liable
to pride. God gave him a thorn in the flesh.
God crippled him with some weakness that frustrated any natural abilities
he might have. We don't know what that thorn
was. But we do know that God thought, excuse me, Paul thought
he could do a better job of of being a gospel preacher if he
didn't have that thorn. And that's exactly why God gave
it to him. Despite Paul's fervent prayers, God left that thorn
in him, presumably for the remainder of his life. His answer to Paul's
prayer for the removal of the thorn was, my grace is sufficient
for you. You see, and this is the fifth
use of grace, it describes God's spiritual gifts that enable his people to do
profitable works within his kingdom. God's grace exhibits itself in
the ability to do things supernaturally. That doesn't mean we feel supernatural. Paul didn't. God made him feel
horribly weak and then did miraculous things through him. My grace is sufficient for you. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ was brought into existence by
grace. It is called by grace, it is
given life by grace, and it's given power by grace in order
to minister in the gospel of grace. The answer to Paul's weakness
was not to remove his weakness, but to empower him with grace. So you might think to yourself,
I can't do anything in the kingdom of God. I'd like to run into
some people that don't think they can do anything to the kingdom
of God, because God might accomplish something through them. But somebody
that thinks they got something to offer God, I'd say, well,
you just sit down and listen for a while. You sit down and listen
till you can't do anything, and then maybe. will grant you the
gracious privilege and power to do something useful in His
Kingdom. Alright, next week we'll speak
of the God of Grace. You are dismissed.