Transforming Grace

Q: What does the Bible say about grace?

Grace in the Bible is the unmerited favor of God that brings salvation and transformation to those who believe. The Bible teaches that grace is a sovereign gift from God, illustrated in Ephesians 2:8-9, where it states that we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. This grace is not merely an offer or opportunity, but it actively brings salvation upon those to whom it is given. Romans 5:1-2 emphasizes that being justified by faith allows us access to this grace, wherein we stand securely. Moreover, grace transforms lives; it creates new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), changing not only our relationship with God but also with others and the world around us.

Q: How do we know that salvation is a gift of grace?

Salvation is confirmed as a gift of grace through scripture, notably Ephesians 2:8-9, highlighting that it is not a result of works. We know that salvation is a gift of grace because Scripture explicitly states that we cannot earn it through our own efforts. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly articulates that we are saved by grace through faith, emphasizing that it is not from ourselves nor the result of our works, so that no one can boast. Romans 5:6-8 further demonstrates this truth by showing that Christ died for the ungodly, affirming that grace operates in our inability and unworthiness. It is Christ’s redemptive work alone that secures our salvation, and grace is the means by which we receive it.

Q: Why is being justified by faith important for Christians?

Justification by faith is crucial as it establishes peace with God and confirms our status as His children. Being justified by faith is foundational to the Christian faith because it signifies the believer's declaration of righteousness before God. Romans 5:1 states, 'Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' This peace solidifies our relationship with God, indicating that we are no longer enemies but now children of God. It also assures us of our salvation from God’s wrath. Through faith, we trust in Christ’s finished work for our righteousness, which transforms how we live and engage with both God and the world. Consequently, this doctrine removes any basis for boasting about our own deeds, directing all glory to God.

Q: How does grace change our relationship with sin?

Grace liberates believers from the dominion of sin, ensuring that it no longer has power over them. Grace fundamentally alters the believer's relationship with sin by providing a new standing under God's redemptive authority. Romans 6:14 states, 'For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.' This means that while sin previously governed our lives, grace enables us to live in freedom from its power. It reveals the depth of our sinfulness and leads us to experience true righteousness through Christ. The liberation from the condemnation of sin allows the believer to pursue holiness, not to earn God's favor, but as a response to the grace already received. Thus, believers can live victoriously over sin, setting them apart in their conduct and relationships.

Q: What does Romans 5 teach about hope in tribulations?

Romans 5 teaches that tribulations produce patience, experience, and ultimately hope, rooted in God’s love. Romans 5 verses 3-5 elucidate that Christians can find joy in tribulations, as they bring about patience and character. The process outlined includes suffering leading to perseverance, which in turn shapes our character and generates hope. This hope is not superficial; it is grounded in the certainty of God's love as demonstrated in Christ. The love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reassures believers that even trials serve a divine purpose, leading toward ultimate glory. Thus, Christians can endure life’s challenges with the assurance that they are being refined and prepared for eternal joy and communion with God.

Therefore, Romans 5.1, therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, for whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope. and hope maketh
not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we
were yet without strength in due time, according to time,
God's time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life." Now notice there's a little thing, and I mentioned
this the other day. There in verse 2, it says, "...by whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand."
I want to talk about grace, standing in grace, and what grace does. Grace, where grace comes, and
God gives His grace, His sovereign, free grace. Where the grace of
God comes, it brings salvation. It brings salvation, and it brings
transformation. You know, you keep this and look
in Colossians chapter one just a moment. You remember that Titus
says, when the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
unto all men. Now, how did the grace of God
come? Christ brought grace. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Grace just didn't appear out
of the ether. Grace just didn't This is something that we conjured
up. Grace came and it comes in power and God, and it appeared
through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the Old Testament, it appeared
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when grace appeared, it
appeared by Christ. And when grace comes, Christ
and the Holy Spirit's the one that brings it. And wherever
it is, it brings salvation. Don't try to bring salvation.
It don't offer salvation. It doesn't give you an opportunity
to accept it or reject it. It doesn't make it to be an offer.
It doesn't make it to be an opportunity for you to have a chance to be
saved. Where grace comes, it actually brings salvation with
it. The grace of God that brings
salvation brings it. Here in Colossians 1.12, it says
this, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us delivered us, that word delivered means saved us,
from the power of darkness and hath translated us, actually
took us from one place to another, took us from one kingdom to another,
from one power to another power, and who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom
of the Son of His love. Now, when the grace of God appears
back over in Romans 5, it transforms a person's character.
Where grace comes, it transforms a person's character. I mean,
it changes his character. It changes, it transforms all
their relationships. Their relationships change. And
the scriptures are plain, the scriptures are clear, and the
scriptures are emphatic about us being, where the grace of
God comes, being new creatures. and being new creatures not just
anyway, but in Christ we're made new creatures. It's plain and
clear and emphatic about us being partakers of the divine nature,
that Christ in us is the hope of glory, and we're made partakers,
the nature of God comes in us. And that's how in the world,
how could you have fellowship and communion and desire God
and call on God and enjoy God without having the nature of
God in you? Because there was a time we were enemies of God.
When we were enemies, we were reconciled by the death of Christ. And so you see, beloved, that
we cease, and we find out this by the grace of God, that we
cease to be our own. But that we've been bought, we've
been bought with a price. And as we look at this statement
here in Romans 5, 2, it says this grace wherein we stand.
And I want to look at how this grace that comes to us, that
transforms us, how it changes our relationships with so many
people and so many things. And the first relationship it
changed when grace appeared and comes to us and brought to us,
it changes our relationship with God the Father. Look what it
says there in verse 1. Therefore being justified by
faith we have peace, peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. And before
we were enemies in our mind by which it works. We're aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants
of promise without God and without hope in this world. And Romans
8, 7 says the carnal mind is enmity against God. And it is
enmity against God. I mean, beloved, when the gospel
starts coming and the grace of God starts appearing to us, the
first thing that we understand is that this God is not the God
we thought He was, not like we believed He was, and certainly
wasn't the God we first accepted when we got converted. And so
our carnal mind was enmity against Him. But now we have peace with
God. We didn't make the peace. We
didn't establish the peace. Christ made peace through the
blood of his cross. And because of that, we're no
longer under the wrath of God. God can never, ever be angry
with us ever again. Because Christ made peace by
the blood of his cross. We're no longer strangers, but
we're now sons of God. And beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ
is peace. And everybody wants peace. You
know, you ask, on all these beauty pageants and all that, they'll
say, what would you like, what would be your, if you could do
anything, what would it be? Have world peace. There ain't
gonna never be world peace. Our Lord said, as long as the
world stands, there'll be wars and rumors of wars. Ain't that
right? But the thing is that we got
peace with the one that can destroy both body and soul and send it
to hell. And we didn't make it. Christ made it. And he brought
it to us. And when we see Christ, who was
delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification, and we
believe that, we have peace with God. And you know, you all remember
this. Let me ask if you remember this. Back when you were just
in religion, every time something went wrong, you thought, oh my,
what have I done? God's displeased with me. I've
done something wrong. Something's wrong, you know.
When you all started out on your trip, you had a flat tire, you
could feel a bit still in religion, you said, oh Lord, we done messed
up. We just started out on this trip. God, we've done something
wrong for sure. That's what we ought to do. But
no longer look at it that way. We no longer even think in terms
like that. We have peace with God. God's
not angry. And we are not angry. We don't
have no more enmity in our heart. We don't have no more, we're
not enemies in our minds anymore. Our minds, we have the mind of
Christ. We have the peace of God in our
heart. And then it not only changes our relationship with God the
Father, but it changes our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
down here in verse 12. It changes our relationship with
our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, "...Wherefore, as by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men. For all have sinned." Well, how
in the world, if that's the condition, what's going to happen? Well,
look at verse 19. This is what I like. For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners. Now watch this. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Oh my. I read it to you here.
When we were without strength, when we were without strength,
when we were ungodly, do you know what Christ did? He died
for us. And I was, you know, when Christ
died on that cross, I wasn't born yet. But I was without strength
to save myself, without strength to do anything, and ungodly,
without God, without Christ in this world. And when we were
like that, what did our Lord Jesus Christ do? He died for
us. And when we were sinners, what did God do? He commended
His love toward us, and Christ died for us. And, oh, beloved,
his blood justified us and cleansed us. In verse 9, look what it
says there. Much more than being justified
by blood. That's what saved us from the
wrath of God. And, oh, look what it says here
in verse 10. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. If He did this while
we were enemies, how much more can He the right hand of God
and we're reconciled, shall we be saved? Oh, beloved, His death and His
righteousness, His death has put away our sins and His righteousness
is imputed to us. Look what it says back up here
in 1st Romans 4.23. For Abraham, which says, therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. It says, now it wasn't written
for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to him. God never
put that in the Scriptures, you know, that Abraham believed God
and it was imputed to him for righteousness. It wasn't put
in there just for Abraham's sake. Because it was like he was the
only one. But for us also. God put that for us also. To
whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up
our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. See, His righteousness
is imputed to Him. And back there in verse 2. Now,
I love this. Look at this. By whom also? We have this grace. We stand
in this grace. By whom also? We have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand. By whom? By the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, what would we do
without Him? What will we do without our Lord
Jesus Christ? Our standing is in Him and Him
alone. You see, beloved, we believe
God's record of His Son. We believe what God said about
His Son. And we believe what our Lord
Jesus Christ says, says, No man comes unto the Father but by
me. We believe what God says, you know, he that believeth on
the Son has life, he that believeth not the wrath of God abides on
him. We believe that record that God gave that life is in his
Son, and he that hath the Son has this life, and I believe
that. And now we know that boasting is excluded, and we can conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
So I'll tell you, grace changed our relationship with our Lord
Jesus Christ. I mean, beloved, the only righteousness
we have is Him. Our only standard is Him. Our
access is by Him. And then it changes our relationship
to the Holy Spirit. Look what it said down here in
verse 5, Romans 5, 5. And hope maketh not ashamed.
Why? Because the love of God, He, the Holy Spirit, shed abroad
in our hearts the love of God by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. Oh, God, we wouldn't have any
strength, we wouldn't have any knowledge of Christ, we wouldn't
have any... God's love in our hearts had
not the Holy Spirit put it in there. And then it says he was
given unto us. Well, look, do you keep Romans
5? Listen to me in John 14, just
a moment. John 14. He was given unto us.
You remember when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, and
he says, this is the promise. This is the promise that we've
received. And what promise was that? The promise of the Holy
Spirit that He would come. And the Holy Spirit, you know,
He was promised to give. And our Lord promised that He
would come to us. And that He would come to us,
He would do certain things. He would do certain things for
us, do certain things in us, and teach us certain things.
And our Lord Jesus said here in John 14 and 16, He said, I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter, capitalized, that
He may abide with you forever. That's the title of the Holy
Spirit, a Comforter. Christ is a Comforter. God is
the God of all comfort. And I tell you, Christ comforts
us in all our afflictions. And so He said, I'll give you
another Comforter. And I'll pray the Father, and
He'll do it. And He said, who is this Comforter? Even the Spirit
of Truth. Whom the world cannot receive,
this world cannot receive the truth. It can't receive the Spirit
of the truth. Why not? Because it sees Him
not. And it don't know Him, but you
know Him. How come you know Him? Because He dwells in you. He
came and took up His abode in you. He came and revealed Christ
to you. He came and brought grace to
you. He came and taught you about your sin. He came and taught
you about the Son of God. He came and taught you about
the blood of Christ and all beloved. And He shall be in you. And I
might leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And how am
I going to come to you? By the Holy Ghost. I shall have
brought God's love in your heart by the Holy Spirit. Yet a little
while, the world seeth me no more, but you'll see me. How come we'll see you? By the
Holy Ghost. Because I live, you shall live
also. And all He was given unto us
by promise to teach us, to guide us, to comfort us. And I'll tell
you something else. He's the one who witnesses to
us. How in the world do we know that
we're children of God? How do we know we're God's children?
The Scripture says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God. We wouldn't know we were
the children of God without the Holy Ghost. And then it changes
our relationship. This grace that comes changes
our relationship to the law. Look down here at verse 20 of
Romans chapter 5. It changes our relationship to
the law. And oh, before we were condemned,
before we were guilty, whether we felt it or not. You know,
when you break the law, whether you feel guilty or not, you know,
you break it, you are guilty, and you've got to pay for it.
And then condemned, and we were guilty, whether we felt it or
not, we were undiscouraged. And look what it says here in
verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the office might abound. When the law came to us, it made
our sin much more sinful. It made our sin appear to be
what it really is. Offensive to God. And when the
law comes, it makes us see our inability and impotence to do
anything about it and to change it. And sin finds its strength
by the law. But all who love him, look what
he says, but we're sin about it. What grace do? Sin about it, he'd cite more. It's super about it. And you
know sin finds its strength in the law. And I've told you this
so many times. You lay down the law to somebody,
and you'll see just what I mean. Sin finds its strength in the
law. You lay down the law to your wife, to your husband, to
your children, and very, very few can see what happens. You'll
start watching the sparks fly. Very, very few people can bear
Someone having authority over them. Very few people can bear
that. And whenever that, they come
bringing that heavy hand of the law down on them. Demanding obedience. Demanding subjection. Demanding
things to be my way. And beloved, when you start bearing
and bringing down that law on them, their hatred, their resistance,
their struggle, their murmuring is proof of their sin. And when God starts bringing
down that law on us, we find ourselves, oh, I just can't. Until He breaks that wheel. He
breaks that wheel. And I tell you, you know, it's
like that little boy. I told you to sit down. I don't
want to sit down. I said sit down. I don't want to sit down.
If you don't sit down, He sat down and he said, I may be sitting
down on the outside, but I'm still standing up on the inside.
That's the way the law works. We may sit down, but we're still
standing up on the inside. And whenever you try to lay the
law down, that's the difference between grace and law. The law
works right in the person that the law is bearing down on. And
the law works wrath also to that person. The law brings wrath
to that person and works wrath back in that person. And beloved,
what Christ comes, He comes and He destroys. The grace came and
brought us out from under His condemnation and His guilt and
His power. I mean, you're just this very
few people, very, very few people, To embarrass someone having authority
over them. And then that's why it says we're
not under law, but under grace. We've dealt with this back here
in Romans 6.14. We dealt with this Wednesday
night. It says here in Romans 6.14, for sin shall not have
dominion over you. That word dominion means authority,
power, rule. And why won't it have power over
you? Because you're not under the law, but you're under grace.
You're under grace. We're under not a law, but we're
under grace. Grace is covenant. We're not
under the law as a covenant. We're not under its curse. We're
not under its condemning power. We're under the reign of grace,
the power of life, the power of love, the power of liberty.
And because of that, we will continue in sin. And because
of this grace wherein we stand, it changes our relationship with
the power of sin. It says, sin shall not have dominion
over you. And oh beloved our Lord, blood
cleanses us from the guilt. Where the guilt is, when the
guilt's gone, there's freedom from the power of sin. Anybody
here feel the guilt and condemnation of their sin before God right
now? Do you know why you don't? Because
you're not under law. to grace. Christ brought you
out from under His guilt, and if the guilt's gone, there's freedom from its power.
And sin, oh my soul, it's manifested in so many ways. It is deceitful
and it's deceiving. It's hard and it's heartening.
But grace brings us out from under its power. Huh? And then
look with me over in Galatians chapter 1 verse 4. Let me show
you where grace, talking about grace changing our relationships,
transforming us in our relationships with things in this world. First
it changed and transformed our relationship with God the Father,
with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, and to the law. And watch what
else it says here. Galatians chapter 1 verse 3,
watch what it says. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch it. Who gave himself for our sins
that he might deliver us, save us from this present evil world. right now, according to the will
of God our Father. Now, anybody that lives in this
world knows it's an evil world. I mean, it's evil wherever you
look. I mean, you look political world, it's evil. Social world,
it's evil. Religious world's evil. Evil everywhere. Everywhere. And we once walked according
to the course of this world, walked in all of its evilness.
But Christ chose us out of it, called us out of it, redeemed
us from it, and yet we're in it, but we're not of it. And
how many times we say this world is upside down. This world is
just, it's all the things away from the things. I don't think
the world's ever been any worse. But that's what they said in
the first century. That's why Paul, he wrote that. He wrote
that when he was probably about 55 years old, somewhere in that
neck of the woods. And I mean, 1900 years ago, he
wrote down here that Christ had delivered us from this present
evil world. That world was evil right then. It was evil 100 years
later, it's evil 100 years later, and it'll be evil when you and
I are gone. But he saved us from it. Didn't leave us in it. Didn't leave us in the course
of it. Didn't leave us in our love of it. He saved us from
it. And we're in it, but we're not of it. And oh, thank God
for that. And how did He do it? According
to the will of God our Father. Oh my. And then it changes our
relationship to good works back over in Romans chapter 5. Let
me show you this. It changes our relationship.
transforms us to this relationship to good works. You see, you hear
about people say all the time, well, he's a good fellow, he's
an awful good man. Well, we find out where grace
comes in, we're not good men. Look what it says down there
in verse 7. We weren't good men, we certainly weren't righteous
men. Just scarcely, scarcely for a righteous man who wouldn't
die. What he's saying by that is that You know, if a righteous
man is put in a position to die scarcely, somebody, somebody
might take that righteous man's place. Said, I'm not righteous,
but he is, so take me in his place. And then, you know, maybe,
maybe even some would die for a good man. Somebody would say,
well, I'll die for that good man. And we come to find out
we weren't righteous or we weren't good. And until grace came, we
trusted in our good works. We trusted in our goodness for
salvation. We trusted in our good works
for our blessings. And when grace came, it showed
us that our best was just nothing but filthy rags. Our righteousnesses
were nothing but filthy rags. And now we understand by the
grace of God that our good works did not contribute to our salvation. Our bad works never kept us from
salvation. And our bad works still don't
keep us from blessings, and our good works don't earn us a blessing. And that our good works, if we
have them at all, is because God in grace ordained them to
us and us in them before the world ever began. We don't do
them to get. We do them because we've already
got. Ain't that right? And let me
tell you something, anybody, and if you do a good work, mark
her down, you don't know you've done it, and if you know you've
done it, you've done the story. You've made it a bad one. That's
a mysterious thing. That's a mysterious thing. That's
why the Lord says, you know, you've done this, you've done
that, and they said, Lord, when did we do that? When did we do that? When did we do that? And, oh,
beloved, you know, we've not been saved by our good works,
but I will say this, but because we're saved, and where Paul wrote,
you know, he told to Griffin, then he said, I preach that repentance
is for God and do works need for repentance. And that means
if you have repented and you have been saved by the grace
of God, it'll be evidence. evidenced by your character,
be evidenced by your spirit, be evidenced by how you treat
other people, evidenced by how you act in this world. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourself. It's the
gift of God, not of words, lest any man should boast. But now
the next thing says, we're His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Now, how in the world are you
going to get around that? I don't know. I don't want to get around any
of it. Do you? You don't want to believe it. And let me show
you something else here in Romans 5. And I think this is a change
in our relationship, changing and transforming our relationship
with so many things. Look what it says here in verse
3 of Romans 5. We stand in this grace, and we
rejoice in the hope of God's blessed glory that He gave us
in Christ. And not only do we glory in God, but we glory in
our tribulations. And that means, beloved, that
we don't resist them, we don't fight them, we don't get mad
about them, we don't get angry about them, we don't blame anybody
for them. And this word, tribulation, means our trials. Because we
know this, that tribulation works patience, and patience means
that we just wait on God. That this thing will pass. This thing will have its end. And patience, when we have this
patience, and patience means, beloved, just enduring, just
wait. It means Not just sitting down
twiddling your thumb, well, since we get this over with, it means
that you're actually going on with your life, but you're waiting,
and you're enduring, and you're knowing that things is going
to come to an end. And when we go through this,
this tribulation that works this patience, and we wait on God,
it gives us experience as we see that God helps us and carries
us through these trials, and experience gives us hope. And
then hope don't make us ashamed. We're not ashamed of our trials.
We're not ashamed of our afflictions. We're not ashamed of God, of
the experiences that God's given us. Because the love of God's
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And I'll tell
you, if you just, you know, look at the people we've known over
the years. Ruby, right now, with the affliction she has. Said
this morning, I said, how you finish this? I'm still off a
week. Said, it's my heart, I'll never get any better. And she
rejoices in this, that this may be the trial that takes her home. This morning I said, wouldn't
it be wonderful if you were sitting there and I was preaching to
you, and right through as I got through preaching, you just closed
your eyes and went on to be with the Lord. She said, you ever
reckon that's ever happened? It happened to Mr. Spurgeon one
time. He was preaching. He was preaching to a woman.
She was amening him. And she said, now just rejoicing in the
truth. And he watched her go. She said, watch the light go
out of her eyes. Just close your eyes and go. And he's preaching. And he says, the Lord's taking
that dear sister home. He just kept on preaching and said, I'll
look that up for you and put it in the bulletin. Wouldn't
that be something? And that's what, you know, when Floyd was
sick, he kept talking about, oh, I don't get to go home. I
get to go home. Oh, when we were unconverted,
all our trials was considered our enemies. Man, this is against me. Why's
God treating me so tough? Why's God treating me this way?
I'm a good person. But oh, beloved, Maybe we consider
them our enemies, now we consider them for our good, and he read
it tonight, we know that all things, that means everything,
work, they're working. God said, I guess you're drossed
and consumed and you're going to revive. Say goodbye to you,
your deepest distress. And look in the show, you keep
Romans 5, and let me show you something over here. 1 Peter
1. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, the older we get, I know this from experience and from
about so many other people I've seen as went through in their
lives, the older you get, the greater the trials, the deeper
the waters, the hotter the fire. Abraham was tried his worst in
his older years. Scott Richardson was tried. Henry
Mahan, and the older he got, the worse his afflictions got. And that's the way God meets
Christians. You know, He don't put little old bitty canoes in
the middle of the ocean. And we just started with this
little old bitty box. But buddy, as we grow in grace
and God teaches us and instructs us, and if He's got His, He'll
take you more in the water, just get deeper and deeper and deeper. And the fire gets hotter and
hotter. And the weight sometimes gets heavier. And He only does
His people that way. He don't, if you don't, if you
don't, if He don't never try you, if He don't never send afflictions
to you, If he don't never send great words to you, it's a dead
giveaway that you're not going to hear. And look what he said
here in 1 Peter 1.6. We're in your greatly rejoiced,
though now for a season, just a season now. If need be, if
it's necessary, if need be, who decides what needs to be? We
certainly don't. The church don't. The preacher
don't. Well, who does? God does. For a season, if need
be, you're in a heaviness. It's heavy. And it's a heaviness. It weighs on your heart. It weighs
on your mind. It weighs on your soul. Weighs on your faith. Weighs
on your love. Weighs on your grace. Weighs
on your patience. You be in heaven is through a
whole bunch of temptations at one time. But here's the need
be, here's what, here's the result of it. That the trying of your
faith, your faith being much more precious than of gold. And
I'll tell you, they go every day, say, gold reached a new
high today! Gold's always been up above 60.
I've got this going on and on. Gotta buy gold, gotta buy gold.
God said that your faith, your faith. He said, how you got much,
preacher? He said it's more precious than
gold. And all that gold, all it'll
do is perish. It'll only be tied with fire.
But your faith will be found under praise and honor and glory. at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom, having not seen, you love Him, and whom, though you see
Him not now, yet you believe, you rejoice with joy that you
know Christ, that He's your Savior and your Redeemer, and you'll
see Him someday with joy unspeakable and full of glory. You see, we're
more than conquerors through Him. And these are a lot of fictions,
and they're just for a moment. And let me show you. I'll tell
you something else that grace transforms for us. It transforms
our relationship to death. Our relationship to death. And
I'm going to show you that over here in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Oh, my, my. I know this is so. I know this is so. I've seen
it happen too many times, and I certainly hope it'll be that
way with me when the time comes. You know, before grace came,
death is called the grim reaper. He comes with that old dark coat
on, you know, and the hood over it, you know, and a big old barge
hide. But oh, look what it says here
in 1 Corinthians 15, 55. Oh, how grace changed our relationship,
transformed our relationship to death. Oh, death! Where's
your sting? The stingers that take it out
of you. O grave, where's your victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, who gives
us the victory over death, over the law, over sin, through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you see, beloved? Before
grace came, death was just a grim reaper. Now He's conquered foe.
Now you know what He is. He's our friend to come to get
us and usher us into the presence of our glorious and blessed Lord
Jesus Christ. He's going to come Come on, I'm
going to take you to the Master. I'm going to take you to the
Lord. I'm going to take you to the Lord. And then it changes
our relationship to judgment. Bill read it tonight. There is
therefore now... Grace changes our relationship
to judgment. There is therefore now no condemnation,
no judgment to them which are in Christ Jesus. When you get
up tomorrow, it'll still say, now. A year from now, it'll still
say, you're not under any condemnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, I
came, I came that they might have life. And He said, He, the
hour is coming in nine years when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and he that hear it shall have life
and shall not come, shall not come into condemnation, but pass
from death. of the life. I mean, right now,
right now, no judgment, no fear of it, no dread of it, no danger
of it, now or ever. That's what grace does, and that's
the kind of grace we stand in right now. Oh, bless your holy name, our
blessed Savior. How wonderfully, wonderfully,
wonderfully gracious, kind, and merciful. In your word, what
power, what strength, what encouragement, what light, what life it brings
to us. Oh, and thank you for the grace.
Oh, for this blessed, blessed, eternal grace given us in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray for Peggy,
for Ruby, for others among us who are sick, their bodies are
weak, their bodies are frail. Ask Lord Jesus that he please
you to give them strength in their body. Encourage them in
their heart, in their soul, in their spirit. And Father, I pray
for these dear saints here tonight, that we would always, always
look unto You. Be found looking unto our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in His name we bless you.
Amen. Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound.

Transforming Grace

What does the Bible say about grace?

How do we know that salvation is a gift of grace?

Why is being justified by faith important for Christians?

How does grace change our relationship with sin?

What does Romans 5 teach about hope in tribulations?

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Transforming Grace

What does the Bible say about grace?

How do we know that salvation is a gift of grace?

Why is being justified by faith important for Christians?

How does grace change our relationship with sin?

What does Romans 5 teach about hope in tribulations?

Sermon Transcript

About Donnie Bell

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