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“Grace: How Will I Respond”

Tim Smith
12/08/24 - Sun AM

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If you will, turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2.

Reading the 1st 10 verses of that chapter also be available up on the screen.

We're reading out of the English standard version this morning.

Here, uh, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians is getting to, it's one of the first central points of his message about how we've been saved by grace through faith.

Again, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

And you were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even though we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For 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 man may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Good morning.

I want to extend.

Or reinforce the welcome that Gary gave at the beginning.

Uh, we're glad that you're here.

And we've come to, to worship our God and to consider a message from his word at this point in time.

I decided To leave the clicker at, at where I was sitting.

What happens when you take your vest off at the last minute and have stuck the clicker in your vest.

When Mike and I were uh teaching the Ephesians and Colossians class, uh, we were In, in looking at the, the first chapter of both Ephesians and, and first chapter of Colossians.

It occurred to me the magnitude.

Of God's grace I've preached probably.

Somewhere anywhere from 1 to 73 to 5 times a year for the last 45 years.

And went back through the lessons that I have preached over those years.

Now, my filing system is not that good.

But I don't know that I've ever preached a lesson entitled grace.

One that's focused solely on on God's grace.

I scrolled the website uh for lessons that have been taught here over the last year and didn't see grace in any of the titles.

Uh, now, John may have some kind of program that will, that will uh invalidate my point there, uh, but I didn't see it, so if, if there is one, please forgive my oversight.

But lest I be misunderstood.

The fact that there haven't been less lessons entitled Grace is not intended to imply that we don't talk about grace or teaching.

When we trumpet the love of God and marvel at His mercy.

We're talking about grace.

As Craig led us this morning, when we focus on the sacrifice of Jesus, as we commune, as we protect the Lord's supper, we are emphasizing God's grace.

When we preach on forgiveness, We're emphasizing God's grace because he's the only one that can forgive.

Forgiveness is granted by God.

When we speak about God's eternal plan, as, as Craig alluded to it this morning, we're preaching about God's grace.

Craig inadvertently uh introduced uh one of, one of my introductory points when he read Ephesians 1 and verse 2, when it talks about the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, in all of his letters begins and ends with grace.

Peter in his two letters begins and ends with grace.

John in the revelation begins and ends with grace.

They're in the beginning and, and ending verses of those books.

When the apostles described the message that they preached in Acts, Peter in Acts 15, as he was uh talking to the council there in Jerusalem, he said, Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

That's in verse 8, but in, in, down in verse 11, it says, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, just as they will.

He said, both Jew and Gentile are gonna be saved by grace.

Paul, when he had the, the elders from the church at Ephesus come and meet him and Melis.

Described his message this this way in Acts 2024.

He says, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself.

If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Grace is a term.

Or a concept.

That lights up the pages of the New Testament.

Ironically, Jesus never used the word grace in his teaching.

Uh The only, only times that grace is used in, in the Gospels describes Jesus, and especially in John the first chapter.

But I would assert to you that the message of the gospels is grace.

And I would further tell you that it's spelled Jesus.

What is grace?

Did it even give my title up there?

OK, I've, I've animated it somehow but it, it uh confused me there.

Uh, what is grace?

Here's some quotes that I, I found useful.

Grace is love that cures and stoops and rescues.

Grace is God's free and unmerited favor shown to guilty sinners who deserve only judgment.

It is the love of God shown to the unlovely.

It is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against him.

The shorthand for what grace is.

Mercy, not merit.

Grace is the opposite of karma, which is about getting what you deserve.

Grace is getting what you don't deserve and not getting what you do deserve.

Christianity teaches that what we deserve is death as the price of sin, which separates us from God, who is life.

Grace is God's best idea.

His decision to ravage a people by love, to rescue passionately, and to restore justly.

What rivals it?

Of all his wondrous works, grace in my estimation, is the magnum opus.

Now, I had to look up Magnum opus.

Uh Magnum opus is the best or most important work of some, of an artist.

And Max Cato here says that grace is God's most magnificent work.

Now, this is what some men have said about God's grace.

And I think these snippets.

Uh, really reflect what, what the message of, of the, of the New Testament is they agree with what scriptures tell us, but I'm not gonna give you quote after quote after quote from, from men from here on out.

I wanna show you what the scriptures teach.

In Romans the 3rd chapter.

Uh I've broken into the, to the middle of, of the, of the passage here, uh, the paragraph.

Beginning in verse 173, however, says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3, beginning in verse 21, the reading that I made.

After concluding That all men are sinners, both Jew and Gentile.

That there is none righteous.

Paul pointed to the only way for people to be made righteous, to be justified.

God's grace.

As a gift This gift was manifested in the propitiation or the appeasement that Jesus made through his sacrifice.

Worked out the enmity between God and man.

This is not based on the merit of the ones that have been redeemed, the ones whose sins are being remitted.

But it is in, in fact, it's in spite of the merit or whatever merit that we have.

If you flip over a couple of uh chapters into Romans 5, Lest we think that, you know, God owed this to us.

This is the state that man was in.

While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

Much more now that we are reconciled, we should be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Look at, look at where we were.

We were weak, we were without strength.

We were ungodly.

We were, in fact, we were enemies of God.

We were sinners.

What did Grace do?

Christ died for the ungodly.

God demonstrates he shows his love for us.

Once again, it says that Christ died, we have been justified by His blood.

We've been made right.

We were, we were in the wrong.

We were, we were without hope, and God uses the death of Jesus to justify, to make us right.

We have been saved from wrath that which has been reserved for those that are ungodly.

We've been saved by his life.

We have received reconciliation.

We've been, we've been brought back into a right relationship with God.

One more quote.

The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners.

Contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit.

It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.

It is surely clear that once a man is convinced that his state and need are as described, the New Testament cannot but sweep him off his feet with wonder and joy.

For it tells us how our judge.

has become our savior.

The one who is Has The capability to Condemn us desires that we be saved.

Our judge has become our savior.

Can we get this in our heads?

God's grace is undeserved.

It is his unearned gift to mankind.

We do not, and we cannot earn his grace.

It is freely given It is what it is him reaching out.

I want to address one more aspect of God's grace.

And then make some applications for us.

I thought, I thought Craig was, when he said Ephesians 1, I thought he's gonna read the whole chapter and I don't know about to say anything here, but, but you, you went over to the second chapter so I got the stuff in between to talk about.

This is in the The passage where we see God's eternal plan.

Beginning in verse 3, and this, this shows beginning at the end of verse 4.

So I'm gonna read beginning in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

According to the purpose of his will.

To the praise of His glorious grace.

With which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood.

The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.

Which he lavished upon us in our wisdom and insight.

God's not stingy with his grace.

The word there and lavished is the idea of abundantly supplying.

Uh, I, I get the, I get the idea of something just sort of overflowing is what it, what it represents.

And that message is emphasized in the second half of Romans 5.

If you want to turn there out, I'm gonna read a few verses.

And this is where We, we see When Adam did and what God what Christ has done and the Sin being brought into the world and grace coming through Jesus.

I'm picking up in verse 15.

But the free gift is not like the trespass.

For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Can I, I forgot to tell you as, as we read through this, look at the ideas of much more are bounding.

And the free gift is not like the result of that one man sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, if one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.

Whereas by the one man's disobedient, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So then, So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin was present, but grace overwhelms.

It's bounding yet the free gift.

It was more than adequate to deal with our sin.

Now, the, the question that Paul raises after that is, should, should we continue in sin that grace may abound even more and that's not the message that he's saying, but he's, he's saying that when you, when sin and, and, and grace Locked up in combat, Grace one.

Grace overwhelms sin.

reminded Of the psalmist who said in Psalm 73 12 as far as the east is from the west.

So far does he remove our transgressions from us.

I just said this grace overwhelms sin.

It doesn't just even the score, it results in overwhelming victory.

Those of you who've been in mine and Mike's class, in any classes I've taught recently.

So what?

What, what does this mean for me?

This is all, all good academic stuff.

This is, this is good information.

What, what does this mean to me?

What is, what is grace gonna mean in my life?

It's going to cause us to be thankful.

It's going to cause us to offer praise, uh.

The idea of to the praise of God's grace in in Ephesians 1 and verse 6, but here what the Psalmist says, I will give thanks to the Lord, the thanks, I will give to the Lord, the thanks due to his righteousness.

I will sing to praise the name of the Lord, the Most High.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

In God, we have boasted continually and we will give thanks to your name forever.

We give thanks to you, oh God, we give thanks for your name is near.

We recount your wondrous deeds.

Note the number of verses that that this next one is, uh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever.

You think the Psalmist wanted us to, to know that?

Uh, I bow down to your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

The theme continues in the New Testament.

This first First in Luke 27 is talking about the Samaritan.

There were 250 lepers who were healed, and 250 came back.

And he was a Samaritan.

He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

Now he was a Samaritan.

There were 2100 people that were healed of leprosy.

And one came back to give thanks.

Jesus Provided grace to 27 people and only 217 came back to thank him.

Just a little beyond the, the context of, of what we've been talking about in Romans 73 and 27 at the end of Romans 270.

We see, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard teaching to which you were committed.

We have gone from slavery.

To sonship And that should, should elicit thanksgiving and praise.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amazing Grace How sweet the sound that saved.

A wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I found.

was blind but now I see.

We've been there 21,000 years, bright shining as the sun.

We've no less.

Days to sing God's praise is what I have here.

I thought it's a grace there.

I, I misread it.

than when we first begun.

Those words should mean something to us.

And God's grace.

should be reciprocated our Thanksgiving and praise.

I would suggest to you that a second thing.

That God's grace causes us to do.

is to respond in faith.

Uh Ethan read to you from Ephesians the 2nd chapter.

And he read beginning in verse one.

I want to begin with uh With Kevin's favorite verse, verse 4.

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 raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works.

So that no 1 may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We're justified by faith.

I want to bring back the Romans the 5th chapter, just a couple of verses at the beginning of the chapter.

Which amplify on this message.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So our faith based on the, the sacrifice of Jesus.

What our response in faith brings about peace with God, which, which Craig talked about, uh, we didn't collaborate at all, but we probably should have.

Uh, through him, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace or into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So faith causes us to access the grace of God.

And it is in that grace that we stand.

Faith is the idea of whatever God requires of or whatever I'm requesting in trust, I'm going to do what he says.

What God, whatever God requires.

I'm going to trust him And do it.

And finally, God's grace is gonna cause me to forgive.

We're familiar with the The parable of the unforgiving servant.

In Matthew 18.

That That parable was introduced.

When Peter came up to Jesus and said, Lord, How often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him.

As many as 703 times.

Jesus said to him, I do not say to you 7 times, but this is the English Standard version 77 times or 70 times 7 in the King James and New King James.

The message is not count up to this number, and after that, don't forgive.

Messages, it's unlimited forgiveness.

And then he tells the parable of the of the trusted.

servant who blew through more money than we can ever imagine.

And he is dragged before the king and begs mercy and says, uh, I, I've forgotten the exact, exact terms because uh.

Says have patience with me and I'll pay you everything.

Yeah, right.

You got the The The debt of the United States plus some, and you're gonna go off and you're gonna, you know make that right.

Give me, give me time and I'll pay everything.

Uh, but, but the king said, I forgive you.

And then he goes off after receiving this forgiveness.

And find somebody who owes him 50, 50 days' worth of or 100 days' worth of wages.

And he begins to choke him and say, Give me, give me what you owe me.

And Be the man begs him.

Same way, have patience with me.

I'll pay everything.

He had this other guy had an opportunity, had had a chance of actually paying it off.

And yet He, he was unmerciful and had him thrown into prison.

The King heard about this.

His master summoned him, the man who had been forgiven and then not forgiving.

And said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Let me say this very clearly.

We desire Forgiveness and mercy and grace.

Measured B Olympic swimming pool volumes.

We, we won't And And then what we want to do.

is we want to dispense it.

In small syringes.

To others, And we really want to make certain that the needle's on there too.

We desire grace.

For ourselves.

But we're going to administer justice for everybody else.

That shouldn't be That's not what God has provided His grace for us to go off and do to others.

Jesus concluded his model prayer by saying, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you not, do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

That scares me to death.

When I Puff up and, and say I'm not gonna forgive.

You know, they can, they can do whatever they want.

I'll never forgive them.

I'll never forget that.

I hope you can remember it for eternity.

Because that will send you to hell.

That attitude I'm not saying it's easy.

In fact, Peter May have gotten his 7 times from this statement.

Luke 17 Pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him.

And if he sins against you 7 times in the day, And turns to you 7 times saying I repent.

Think about it.

Think about forgiving him.

Now it says you must forgive him.

Understandably, The the disciples, the apostles said, Lord, increase our faith.

When we have been wronged.

And we've been wronged by the same person.

We've been wronged by the same person doing the same thing, and they come back and say, Please forgive You say well uh first time shame on you, second time shame on me.

We're afraid of being taken advantage of.

We're afraid of being, I'm gonna use a 70s term, we're afraid of being considered a chump because we willingly have released someone of the debt that they owe us or the debt of their sin against us by forgiving them.

And we We are Quick to to count.

We're quick to Uh be Make certain that That, that, that injustice, that, that sin against us doesn't outweigh the, you know, the, the good against good that they've done.

What I'm telling you I be willing To be taken advantage of.

Be willing to be vulnerable.

I'm not saying forgive people who, who've not repented.

It says here that if he repents, forgive him.

But when they've repented, Don't up the ante and, and ask, tell them they have to do beyond what, what repentance requires.

Well I came to the conclusion of In Teaching Colossians 1.

Are these These thoughts here.

I was trapped and imprisoned in sin.

It was my own fault.

I couldn't do anything on my own that would get me out of that predicament.

None of my peers could help me.

Only God could do it.

And he did.

It costs more than words can describe.

It was a gift.

I owe him everything.

Now the question this morning is how will you, how will I respond to God's grace?

On their Pentecost When the crowd was cut to the heart.

They asked what they needed to do and what was the answer.

Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

Access to the grace of God.

was not Was, was based on God forgiving people who had killed his son.

Peter though didn't say God's grace You don't have to do anything.

God's heart, God's handled it.

He said, repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, but, but the thing is, Who's doing the remitting of sins?

Who is forgiving sins?

It's not the act that we that we do.

It is God.

Taking the faith that we are demonstrating.

And applying the blood of Jesus.

To forgive us from our sin forgive us our sins.

And this morning I ask you, if you have not taken advantage, if you have not availed yourself.

Of the grace of God.

There's no better time to do it than this morning.

If you've never obeyed the gospel, you know what you need to do, as Peter said, repent and be baptized.

Uh, or if you have sinned in a way that, uh, That is public and needs to be confessed in a public way.

Please avail yourself of God's grace.

Uh, repent.

Pray to God.

We ask you to do that as we stand and as we sing.