Our Riches because of the Grace of God- Introduction

Today we are going to start something called the Riches of God's Grace. Actually we have taught this at Holly Hills here a bunch of different times, and many different names sometimes. Sometimes we have called it Who You Are in Christ. It is actually a compilation by Dr. Louis Barry Chafer. And he has it in several of his publications. So we're going to cover different topics in that. So hopefully I'll give you an overview today and you'll see how the rest of the topics fit in.

And just a reminder, Mike and I kind of decided, and we did this historically, even though it's not quite that close to Christmas, the Sunday before Christmas and the Sunday before New Year's, we are having no Sunday school those. It just makes it easier on us. Oh, now here let me turn this. I can hear you. And I came in, so I think it's on. Is it on now? It was on. Because I could hear you out in the lobby. People were like broadcasting.

Okay, that's different. This is in the wrong place. I'll check on that. Actually, Bill came in and said, I left this on and I did blah blah blah, so I don't know. It'll be in if it isn't right. Okay, that's good. No Sunday School in the last two Sundays of the year.

Let's get into this. from Chafer's Systematic Theology. It's also the paper that I have. He was around back to the early 1900s. So he wrote parts of this in 1912 or something like that. Anyway, it's been around a long time. Just a wonderful list of blessings that the believer has.

And he calls it the riches of God's grace, which is certainly apropos. So basically, and I borrowed heavily Most of the words in this presentation or in this lesson are from him. If you had to read any theologian, I would say he is certainly the man to read. Because he doesn't state it from a snooty perspective, like I know all this stuff. He states it from a person who loves Christ. Really incredible.

So he basically says in the beginning of his paper here, that the riches of God's grace includes those which are done for the individual at the instant he believes. We teach this pretty well here at Holly Hills. When a person becomes a believer, he receives a tremendous amount of blessings, which he may not understand, and we don't many times, but he has all that he needs to live the Christian life at the start. He gets it all in his Christian life, and in some ways discovering what he has in Christ. So, Chafer says, instantaneously and simultaneously by God at the instant an individual exercises saving faith. So I think what he's trying to do here, he's trying to exclude the body of believers that say, well, you know, you've been saved, but you know, there's just a little bit more, you need this extra little blessing.

And if you do XYZ, you'll get that. And Schaefer's saying, no, if you carefully look at God's Word, you have it all. You have everything that you need. He has positions and possessions. He goes to great lengths to show that this is something that God has done for the believer, independent of the believer's effort, other than simple faith in our Savior.

Here I have one of my favorite pictures. I borrowed it from Hal. Once again, we teach this very well. is who we are in Christ and it's eternal it's unchangeable and that's what we're going to be talking about today all those wonderful blessings and you know they're they're in the heavenlies in the sense that there are there are things that we have in Christ that are and it says we have in Ephesians we have the riches you know in heavenly places so they're in Christ in the heavenlies and then we're to count upon those positions and possessions in our earthly walk, our moment by moment walk in our Christian life and here on this earth things change we sometimes rest and trust in our Savior sometimes we don't but it never changes the heavenly position that we have that is ours for all eternity and will never change so the Christian life is to count upon what we have in Christ for our entire Christian life.

So now let's start into his... So he has basically lists six characteristics, if you will, of these divine riches. They're not experienced. And we're going to delve into each one individually. So this isn't an experience. It's a fact. It's something that you have. It's not progressive. You don't Let's try to think of an example. I'll give you more examples. You aren't progressing from A to B to C. And then you get to C. Oh, I'm now a solid Christian. No, you're a solid Christian to start with. You may not feel like a solid Christian. You may not act like a solid Christian. Or whatever you want to call that characteristic. They're in no way related to human effort. Human merit, rather.

And we're going to delve into each of these. They're eternal in their character. Think about it. God is eternal. So everything that God touches has an eternal character. Sadly, even the lost will eternally be separated from God. It's a scary thing. And we will eternally be with Him. So He's an eternal God. And He deals in the realm of eternity. But we're in this non-eternal time period right now. If you have questions or thoughts, don't be afraid to jump in.

They're known only through the Word of God. You'll see a lot of times people say, why? I learned this by experience. And there is experience to be learned. We learn things about where to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. But these truths, if God didn't state that, you wouldn't know that fact. Like you're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. First of all, when I say that, to some people they say, huh? What are you talking about?

They don't see that. If you're familiar with it, it makes sense. It makes total sense. Yay, Marilyn's here! That's one of the prayer requests. That's okay, that's fine. And then sixth, they are not produced by man, but by God alone. You know, if you think about it, we have nothing, absolutely zero, to offer to God other than our faith. And that's fine. I mean, that's not a negative. That's a positive because all our hope, all our desires, everything that we have are in our Creator. And that's the way it should be, right? He created us in love and we can't produce something that will add to what He's created in us. In our walk, yes, there is an aspect of that, but we are talking about our position, our eternal character.

So those are the six descriptions. And out of these six things, we are going to delve into, and then he actually develops these 33 riches, and we will look at those too. We are not going to have time to go through all of them, but okay, they are not experience. These are the facts of the newly created life of which experience may grow.

Here's an example. For example, justification. What's the definition of justification? For declared righteous. Good, good. And justice if we never sin. Okay, I like that. That's good. That's all good. All right. Justification is never experience. I mean, how would you... God tells that you're justified, you're declared righteous. That's not a feeling.

That's a fact, right? We deal with many facts in our lives, right? We deal with the fact that if we take a hammer and hit a nail, most likely that nail will go into the... after a couple of times, it will eventually go into that piece of wood. Now sometimes, as we know, and I'm sure Bill can tell this better than anybody, the wood is super hard and takes a lot, or maybe the nail breaks, but, you know, justification is a fact about us. It's a fact about our... an eternal fact of our divine life.

And so, In Romans 5.1, could someone read Romans 5.1? Actually, can we state part of it right here?

Romans 5.1. That's not the whole. That's a bit of... Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. OK, actually, I did have it all. Thank you. Sorry. I know you did. Good job. Good job. OK. I thought I only had part. OK. All right.

So first of all, therefore, having been justified, so we have that as a possession by faith and it tells us a mechanism how we receive justification, but there is a result of that. We have peace. Because God is declared as righteous, there is no longer this enmity. There is no longer enmity between God and man. He is based upon through our Lord Jesus Christ. So being justified is something that is not experienced, but we do have a blessing. We have peace with God.

Another example, can someone read 2 Corinthians 5.21? God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. that Christ was made sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. And again, righteousness is something that we can't feel. We're told by God in His Word that we are righteous based upon Christ's work on the cross. So all these facts that we take in as we study God's Word are things we're to accumulate to live our Christian life. So that's the first one. They are not experienced. Number two, they're not progressive. They don't grow or develop from a small beginning. Now this is not to say there isn't growth in the Christian life, but let's see what he's talking about here.

They are as perfect and complete the instant they are possessed as they will ever be in the ages to come. So if God has declared you righteous, you don't get more righteous later on. You know, I say, well, Lonnie's righteous, but in 10 years from now she'll be more righteous. No, she's just righteous now and she believes that she ever will be. And that's actually wonderful news, because we don't have to worry about, once we take that in, we don't have to worry about, well, if I was just a little more righteous, I could be a better Christian.

You can put that aside. No, we're to know our Savior better. That's who we're to know. We're to know Him. He's a person. Just like I said, I want to know any one of you. Coming to know you is a lifelong task, really. Here's an example. A son doesn't grow into fuller sonship.

Let's look at Galatians 3.26. Can someone read that?

For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. So that tells us how we become sons and we see it's a simple act of faith. So his point is An old man is no more the son of his earthly father at the day of his death than he was at the day of his birth. You are his son because of your birth, right? We are God's children because of our spiritual birth in Him.

So we don't change that fact. There is no progression in that fact. I had another verse there talking about the fact that we are a child of God or a child in the Lord. They are not related to human merit. We can't earn them. We can't earn these riches. These are grace gifts that are given to us.

In Romans 5 it says, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. we ever exercised faith, he died for the ungodly. These riches and greats are built solely on the merits of Christ. The believer is made to stand on the unchanging person of the Son of God.

Can someone read Romans 4.14? I'm sorry. Thank you. That's good. Have you ever done that? There's actually a name for that. Getting old and dyslexia. That's good.

I like that. I think this is just a tremendous verse. The believer is made to stand on the unchanging person of Christ. God, based on the believer's faith, he will stand righteous in Christ. And what I like in here is the fact, and I find myself guilty of this, I say, well this brother or sister, boy, they should come along faster. They should be learning faster. They should be progressing in my mind.

And this verse says, well no, He is accountable. Every believer is accountable. Not to you and not to each other. There is some accountability there. But they are ultimately accountable to the Lord. And He will make them stand. So it is a very positive statement. Yes, the believer may have issues. But if he's a believer, God will make him stand. He will be safe in him for all eternity.

So it's pretty cool. I find I do that, and I'm sure it goes both ways. This person, you know, and you make judgments. And the Lord says, stop making judgments. He's going to stand before me based upon his faith in my Son. Period. Not to say that we can't improve. The Christian is accepted now and forever in the Beloved. And that verse says, I have, just as Christ also accepted us to God's glory, we are to accept one another.

I kind of flipped that around. Actually, could someone read that? I'm sorry, I'm kind of mumbling here. Romans 5, 7. There we go. See? I know what you're saying. Roger could just get that problem. He would be a good teacher, right? Must be the weather. Yeah, I guess so.

Go ahead, Tom. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly unto you in some sort as putting it in line because of the grace that is given me of God. That's 15-7? 15-7, Tom. OK, well, hey, hey, somebody else. Sorry, Tom. OK, all right. So basically...

We are to accept one another because God has accepted us. And that is the pattern almost always. We are gracious because God was gracious to us. We love because He first loved us. All these characteristics that we have in our Savior, we are to exercise that toward one another, to our brothers and sisters and to the world. Okay, that is three and four.

They are eternal in character. The imparted life of God is as eternal in its character as Christ himself. Hence the word of God, since the word of His grace says, I give unto you eternal life and they shall never perish. Could someone read John 10.28? I got it right this time. And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. I like that last part. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. God is the author of salvation. We receive it by faith. And He is faithful to carry out salvation through all eternity. We're saved and that is unchangeable.

So people get worried that somehow they'll do something or something will happen. Maybe they have an illness or whatever it might be and they say, well I've lost my faith. Well, you may feel you lost your faith, but God is the one that's holding you. He's the one that's keeping you. He's the one that's maintaining you. He won't lose His hold on you. You can't be taken out of His hand. That's really comforting. Because sometimes you feel, well, maybe I'm, you know... Anyway, it can get... It can get sticky. Yes, go ahead. And you mentioned that all these are outside of that time.

Exactly. They're in eternal with God. So, you know, if we take our eyes off of Him, then that's when we start saying, well, I'm not sure I'm saved or something like that, I think. Wrong source. Yep, yep. I know. And I've heard people say, and even people we love very dearly, you know, I don't believe anymore. And I'm pretty sure they're believers, but it's sad to hear them say that. But they'll make statements like that. And you say, wow, I knew you. I know you're a believer. But I said, I don't believe anymore. And anyway, it's a sad situation when a believer comes to that point where he feels he doesn't believe.

And that can happen. Situations can be awful tough. Really can be. Go ahead. The truth is, the truth you want to hold on to is that God is holding you. If you think you're holding yourself, then you are. Because you can get weak, you can get discouraged. But if He's holding you and you hang on to that truth, then, hey, He's holding me. And that's wonderful. Okay. The realization of such a relationship to God And this may vary in his daily walk. That's kind of what I was talking to. The facts of the new life are never subject to change in time or eternity.

How about someone reading John 6.40. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. There are so many wonderful promises like that. I will raise him up in light. He will have eternal life.

It's not like you might, or if you do this, you do that. It's sad when you see a body of believers thinking they have to do a certain this or that, or a certain regime they have to follow. Otherwise, they are going to lose their salvation or become whatever. Number five. They are known only through the Word of God. This is one I like. They defy human imagination since they cannot be experienced. Their reality can be entered into only by believing the Word of God.

Mike talks a lot about this. This is one of his favorite topics. Just think about the fact that positionally we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And, you know, you just can't get your... You say, well, I'm not seated. I'm right here. But we are. And we're joined heirs with Christ. We're in Christ and Christ is in us. Well, that statement seems like a... How am I in Christ and He in me?

You know, it's just... You can't, you know... The human imagination can't get hold of these many times. These eternal riches of grace are for everyone who believes. Let me read this one. 1 Thessalonians 2.13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." So God's word is independent. He has many people who deliver God's word. I often think some may deliver God's word with the wrong motives. but it's still God's Word.

And it's going to accomplish what He has planned for His Word to bring salvation, to enlighten the person, and so on. Paul kind of talked about that. He didn't care how the person got the message, as long as he got the message. Number six. They are not produced by man, but by God alone. An unbeliever can take no step other than faith in what God has done for him. in the direction of his own salvation.

Well, there are certain groups of folks, believers, that would have... Or a larger... Unfortunately, yeah. A larger would say, well, wait a minute, you've got to do this and that and that. They have a whole list of things. And, you know, it's interesting.

In some ways, the relationship with God is a humbling experience because you can bring nothing. You can bring nothing along. these good things I did. I did some really good things here, God. Can I bring these along and show you what I did? No, you can't bring those. All you can bring is simple trust and faith in what I've done. So it's a different situation.

The riches of God's grace are His work alone. Only God can translate an unbeliever out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Only God can make him a citizen of heaven. God alone is able to provide salvation to all those who put their trust in Him.

Okay, so that's the overview of the characteristics. So now next I have about five or six charts and there's actually a variation on these lists. I noticed that the list from earlier from the 1912 or whenever it was and there's a list in his Seminar I'm sorry Systematic theology, so this list is maybe a little bit different you've seen let's just start out so he lists 33 riches and Actually, what's interesting is the blue? He has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 here in this page. But then there are subcategories in that. So I found that depending on how you count, you could get a lot more than 33.

So anyway, let's just take, in the eternal plan of God, that He foreknew you, you were elected, you were predestined, you were chosen, and you were called. And each one of those, we teach each of these. His foreknowledge of us. His selection of us. And some defy. Some are hard. He predestined us. He chose us. He called us. Then we get down to number two. He reconciled. This is pretty cool. Reconciled by God. And reconciled to God. And actually, I have forgotten the distinction between by God and to God. That's kind of an interesting distinction.

This little red box I have, these are the ones we're going to be looking at. We're going to look at the redeemed section and then the section down here, all sins covered by His atoning blood. So we're going to cover redeemed, related to God through propitiation, and all sins covered by His atoning blood. And just, you know, think about redeemed by God out of all condemnation.

You can think of the verse, there is Romans 8, is it 8.1? Can someone quote Romans 8.1? Tom? You can't look, you can't look.

There is therefore OK. I got it. I asked for it and I got it. OK. Fair enough. Fair enough. That's good. I got serenaded in the process. OK. All right. So there's down through five. Then we go to the next page. And we start sixes. Some of his titles are tongue twisters.

VITALLY JOIN TOGETHER WITH CHRIST FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE OLD MAN UNTO A NEW WALK. So he has subcategories. Crucified with Christ. You can think of verses as dead with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ to a walk by a new life principle. And I think he's speaking of the principle of grace. The principle that we live by, as we like to say, the operating principle is the principle of grace. Then we see number seven, freed from the law, dead to the law, delivered from the law. And we're certainly learning a lot about that in Galatians these days. And then we're going to study, the rest of what we're going to study is children of God were born again, quickened or made alive. Sons of God. We're not going to do Sons of God. I chose the ones that I was, you know, I want to do the new creature or new creation. So I kind of pick and choose here. And we didn't have a lot of time. Um, new, uh, new creature regeneration. Okay. Then the next list. Okay, number nine.

Adopted. Placed as an adult son. Just think about what we learned about that. You know, how the Roman tradition of adoption, there was an adult son kind of adoption. And we're kind of in that category. We're adopted as adult sons. Not as an adoption, as like a baby. And all things that go along with being adopted as an adult son. Accepted to God by Jesus Christ. Made righteous. of God in Christ, sanctified positionally, volitionally set apart in Christ, perfect forever. And we have to think position. We obviously aren't perfect, right? We have many days or many moments when we're not perfect. Made accepted in the Beloved, Made meat, qualified. Made meat sounds kind of... I think of a steak when I see that sometimes. I've forgotten the phraseology. I have to look at the verse.

And there are verses that back up each one of these. Then number 11, justified. Number 12, forgiven all trespasses. Wow. Made nigh or made near. That is love that was made near by the blood of Christ. Once you were far off, now you've been made near. God wants us to make sure that we realize that He is near. He's not far off. He's near. You provided the ducks. We just need to put them in a row. That's number 13. And 14. Delivered. from the power of darkness. Wow.

Translate into the kingdom of his beloved son. That's the rest of that verse, I think. On the rock, Christ Jesus. You know, if every morning, that would be a law then, but some mornings, if you got up and just read some of these, I think your day would get off to maybe a better start. Maybe, hopefully it would.

On the rock Christ Jesus, a gift, this one just always amazes me, a gift from God the Father to God the Son. I think, wow, why in the world would I be a gift? I don't have anything to bring. I'm a zero. But God, each person in his creation is precious to him. And the fact that we exercise faith is huge. Ronnie and I were trying to think, just a little digression here for a sec. We were thinking about how many people in this world, 8 billion? How many of the 8 billion will trust the Savior, will trust Him? How many people will go to be with Him for eternity? How many are Christians?

I don't have a number for that. Even if you just take everyone who professes to be a Christian, it's actually kind of saddening. It's kind of a downer, if you will, to think how many people will not accept him. It seems like obviously the majority will not.

But he knows the ones. At least seven and a half billion think they're good enough to go. And right there, Christ said that. He said, I didn't come... He basically came for the ones that know they need someone. The ones that think they don't need one. He didn't come for them. Because they don't want him. Just like we saw in his earthly life here. They don't want him. They saw what he did and they hated him for that.

Especially the Pharisees. He got in on their, you know, we're the leaders here. You can't just come in and do this. You can't do that. So anyway, it's kind of a sobering thought to think, how many will really trust him? I hope it's a lot more than I know.

That looks right. Circumcised in Christ Jesus. Partakers of a holy and royal priesthood. Holy priesthood, royal priesthood. A chosen generation of peculiar people. Having access to God. In fact, a believer is only one who really has access to God. We talked about this in Sunday School, how before Christ died on the cross, people didn't have personal relationships with God.

I feel very sorry for them. I know, I agree with you. It's amazing if you look back, how did Abraham, how did these people, they didn't have They didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given and he would come and go. But he still exercised faith. Right.

Or it would not be like a constant communication with God. I understand. I agree with you. I don't know how the... It seems amazing that people did come to him and trust him. Alright, that's 21. Within the much more care of God. I love this one. We are the object of all these things. Isn't this incredible? Object of His love, object of His grace, object of His power, object of His faithfulness, object of His peace, object of His consolation or comfort, object of His intercession.

If you think of God as someone who is kind of after you, You get the wrong picture. He's actually the opposite of that. He's actually for you. He wants you to succeed. He's not waiting for you to mess up. Look at all that list. He's desiring that you interact with Him and be involved with Him.

His inheritance. Our inheritance. Once again, some of these ones I have distinctions. I don't really remember too well. His Inheritance, Our Inheritance, Heavenly Association, Partners with Christ in Life, Partners with Christ in Position, Partners with Christ in service. Partners with Christ in suffering. That one we might... I don't want to be too much of a partner with you in suffering. I saw how you suffered. Can I get a pass on that one? Can I skip over that one? Can I take that associate? I don't need to put that on the back burner. He doesn't really let us choose some of these. Okay.

We're getting toward the end here. heavenly citizens. This is the one we saw really in spades in chapter 3 of Colossians. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And then 27, of the family and household of God, lighten the Lord.

And this is kind of interesting. I like this. I put all the little details in here, he is vitally united to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So he shows us that we're in all three persons of the Godhead. And that's pretty typical. You'll see that every aspect of the believer's relationship almost always is with the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's not like, well, I'm kind of hanging out, even though Christ is our focus.

There's no question about that. He came as a man. we're in God we're in Christ in the list here member of his body a branch in the vine a stone in the building a sheep in his flock a part of his bride a priest of the kingdom of priests a saint of a chosen generation and then we're in the Spirit there's a whole ton of those okay bless with the firstfruits and earnest of the Spirit So here we're going to focus on the Spirit a bit here. Born of the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, sealed with the Spirit, anointed with the Spirit, and then we're glorified, complete in Him, possessing every spiritual blessing. It's right out of Ephesians right there. So that's the 33 riches, with lots of sub-parts.

Then you have a couple of summary paragraphs. What I did, I took a lot of these, I took paragraphs, and if you want, I'd be happy, actually there's a list at the end of it. And okay, come over here. You get a list, or you get the paper, or both. So if you want, let me know.

1912 list 1917 and then there's this is the list this is actually the other list so that there's two lists because he yep you know like like any good writer any good author he updated it right I mean wouldn't you I mean if you had a few years I think it was like 20 or 30 years between when he wrote different things and so he updated it a bit okay so here's his here's his summary statements here The work, the riches of God's grace is now fully accomplished in and for those who have believed on the Lord Jesus. So what he's saying is, we're not going to come up and say, oh, there's just one thing, you know? And that's what will happen with some denominations. They'll say, well, you know, there's just one thing you're missing.

If you only got that, you could really be special to God. You're special to God right now. The moment you believed. It is all superhuman, and God alone could do it. Man could never have any part in it. If he could, it would at that point be imperfect and ruin it forever. We only could muck it up. That's why I think, why my gift from God the Father to God the Son?

The riches of God's grace, these 33 things he lists, are a beginning point. That's the beginning point of our Christian life. That's where we begin. We begin with this treasure of riches we have, and he wants us to go on, and based upon that, he wants to live our life based upon those. Our final presentation in glory will be the completion.

His grace is the greatest divine undertaking for one who has been lost in sin. Once again, God is the one that undertook to save man. Man didn't somehow crawl his way up and say, okay, I'm going to try to get to God. God acted unilaterally because He loves us. Nothing less than this would satisfy the infinite love of God and he might thus be free to satisfy his boundless love for us. He has met all the issues of sin for the lost and so perfectly has completed it that man needs only to believe and to receive the bounty of his grace."

So next week we're going to... let me see if I can get back here. There you go, back here. Okay, so next week we're going to start... actually Andrew will be back. I'm thankful I didn't have to travel this weekend. It would have been dicey. So we're going to start with the redeemed by God. We're going to do out of all condemnation. Followed by related to God through propitiation. All sin covered by the atonement blood.

Born again. Quickened or made alive. And lastly a new creature. So those are the ones I've kind of picked out. And maybe in a future time we can do more. Like I said we've done We've done the whole list in different time periods here at Holly Hills. Hopefully this is encouraging to me. Every time I go back through these, I'm just amazed. Pretty incredible what God has done for us. Questions? Thoughts? That can be arranged. Would you like a new binder? Yes, please. Okay, I can handle that. Okay, that's good. Let's just have a few more minutes.

We're thinking about Basically, Andrew said he would keep hanging with us. I love Andrew. I just think he's such a wonderful brother in the Lord. And then Bob, of course, will be with us. So the three of us will carry on. We're thinking about 1st Peter. 1st and 2nd Peter for next year. Okay, let's close.

We thank You, Father. We thank You so much, Lord, for Your wonderful grace, Father. Thank You for the marvelous riches that we have in Your Son. Lord, they are just overwhelming. They are beyond our comprehension. We pray that you help us to remember them and count upon them as we go through our lives as believers, Father. In Christ's name, Amen.