First Timothy - Special - Mercy, Grace and Love

This little class has a title, and the title is Grace, Mercy, and Love. We don't need to bother with Chester McCauley's definition of grace because even as much as we talk about grace around here, I think grace is significantly misunderstood when it comes to the way God operates, and especially with the lost.

And so, is itself a revelation of all human hearts, not having this truth scripture revealed will be unable to comprehend it or adjust themselves to the provision. It's interesting with with God's grace, it requires an adjustment on our part, whether you're a believer or not a believer. If you're lost, salvation is presented as something you need to receive, God's grace. If you're a believer who has received salvation, you still need to be adjusted to the provisions of grace, how does it work? What does it do?

So first thing I wrote down that grace is not mercy and it's not love. And so if you look at Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5, here's what it says. But God who is rich in mercy, there's the word mercy, For His great love, there's the word love, for with He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us or made us alive together with Christ, and then in parentheses, by grace, you have been saved. So how would you define mercy? And don't give me the, it's God not giving you what you deserve. How would you define God's mercy? don't have a definition. Oh, and then we can't go on. I wrote down that if you look at this verse, mercy can be defined as the compassion in God which moved him to provide a savior for the lost.

And that'll be an important point as we go forward because, Even if God had been able to save anybody on the basis of his sovereign mercy, he could have saved every person on that basis, and the death of Christ would have been rendered unnecessary. You okay with that? If God had been able to save even one soul on the basis of his sovereign mercy alone, he could have saved every person on that basis and the death of Christ would have been rendered unnecessary. Make sense? Does that register with you? Okay.

So, Next element is the love of God, the divine love of God. It loves an emotion. Would you agree with that? It's an emotion that comes from the infinite character of God. That's what he is. He's a lover. It's the motivating purpose and back of all that God does. in saving a soul. So there's the motive. And through his mercy, he has mercifully supplied a savior for the lost. You get those two things.

He's a lover and he's merciful. So being a lover, That's what you say, well, why did God save me? Well, because He loved me. Well, what did He have to go through? What part of Him would cause Him to provide a Savior? And why did He have to provide a Savior? Why didn't He just say, I love all of them, you're in? So why can't God just save on the basis of love?

Does it have to do with the Trinity? No. God is holy and he's righteous. I don't think we appreciate that one single sin is such an offense against a holy, righteous God that in order to atone for that or to make it right. He can't just say, well, never mind. I love these guys. I'm going to save them anyway. Or, you know, I'm merciful. I'll provide a savior. But God might perfectly desire to save your soul. He may have a real desire to do it and still be utterly helpless to do it.

And the reason is it's in light of the claims which his divine righteousness makes against the sinner. You understand that? That God's divine righteousness has a claim against all sin. What's the claim? It's real simple. If you sin, what happens? You die. Okay? His righteousness, he is the one that told Adam, in the day that you sin, you shall surely die. And so not until that claim is met, until that claim is met by God's, against his righteousness, can his infinite love realize the desire he has to save you.

You all right with that or is that too complicated? So I think we've had this discussion sometime before. I think God is God and can make any rules he wants. But he can't violate who he is. I think he could. See, in my mind, he could have made the rule that yes, he could have just wiped all the sin away. No, no, he couldn't have. He's God. But I think the reason is that he wanted to demonstrate his love to us. He could have wiped it out, but you don't get the love aspect of that. The love aspect of it is giving it away. How could he have wiped it out? That's what I want to know. He's God. So he just says, I'm going to wipe it out? Yeah.

What about the offense of sin against his righteousness? In my mind, his love could have wiped it out. I love you and I'm wiping it out. That's exactly opposite of what the Word of God teaches. It's the other way around. I know. I think the reason why he did it is to demonstrate his love. Yeah, but he had to do it that way.

I think God is God. God can make up any rules, anything. No, he can't. Can God make up any rules? He can say, well, I've decided that there's not going to be such a thing as sin. Do what you want. He can't do that. He may decide that, well, I'm going to go against my own righteousness and I'm going to do some of that stuff myself. He can't do that.

Because he's righteous. He can eliminate the sin. He can say sin is gone. But he's got to do it in a manner that satisfies his righteousness. He just can't say, never mind. Can't do that. Never mind. He's just in his power. No. No, he can't. He doesn't have that power. Different in what? Different in what?

When Adam was created, he wasn't righteous, but he was what? Innocent. No sin. So if God said to him, do what you want, I'm not going to give you a test. Right? I mean, have at it. You can eat anything you want. I'm not going to test you. Why did he test him?

Why would God do that? God loves us so much. Why would he give you the opportunity to not comply? It's because he's righteous and when he created you, and we'll stick with Adam, when he created Adam in the image and likeness of himself, Adam became a free agent. Which meant what? He had to choose God either for him or against him. Otherwise, Adam wouldn't be righteous. He wouldn't be as God.

See that? Well, God gave us, you know, will, right? A will from the very beginning. Sure did. Sure did. He gave all the angels wills, too. Same thing, the problem with... You think he loves the angels? I don't think it ever says whether he does or doesn't. And the reason is... That's one reason why the angels are looking in to see about this. They don't understand love. They don't understand what that is.

So if God makes a creature like Adam, after his own image and likeness, And intrinsically, this, we call him, human being, this man, has characteristics of God, and will is the most important one. Because God didn't want, like the elect angels, robots. You can't love a robot, a robot doesn't love you back.

See? So, that's why he gave him a test. They have to want to. We have to want to. See that? But as much as God loves us, once sin entered the world, he just couldn't say, because he's righteous, oh, nevermind. Because why? It's because he is who he is. He's absolutely perfect, right, righteous in his existence. And anything that's not like him dies. Is that confusing? Yeah. He does everything.

Why did he create? Why did he create Adam, the universe? It says in Genesis, he wanted to glorify himself at the end of every day. He said, it's good. It's really good. Then he makes man. And then he gives man a test. He didn't give anybody else in that creation a test. He gave man a test.

Well, the fact that he did that alone tells me that if you're going to be like me, you have to choose to be like me. You have to exercise your will to obey me or just listen under me. Otherwise, what are you? You're a pet. You're a Labrador. You're a bird. And he put Adam in charge of everything that he created. What was Adam supposed to do with what he got? Glorify God. That's what he's supposed to do. Now, let's look at it backwards.

What if God wasn't a lover, but he was righteous? He was holy, He was merciful, but He's not a lover. You get salvation? Why not? Because that's His motive for sending the Son. Yeah, yeah. So, but you know it's interesting because this verse we said that it is by grace that you are saved. Not by love and not by mercy. It's by grace. So what does that mean? That means I get the full package. What does it mean from God even offering you salvation? Let me give you a definition.

Grace is what God may be free to do and indeed what he does do according to the lost after Christ has died on behalf of them. By grace you are saved. See, I don't think we appreciate the fact that without Christ there's no salvation. I don't care how much of a lover God is. Because what did his sacrifice do?

You pay sin debt. Yeah. What I wrote down is that when released from his holy righteous demands, his righteousness demanded, when Adam sinned, somebody was going to die. Well, Adam died spiritually and he died physically sometime later. But there was no sacrificial, willing death to pay the penalty. Can you die to pay the penalty for your own sins?

Answer, no. Why not? Because it takes a sinless person. OK, so it takes more than that. Christ was sinless, but who is he? He's God. So it takes God to satisfy God's righteousness. Anything less than that, there's no salvation. Does that make sense? Have I lost you in the weeds here? Let me say it this way.

The love of God will never be satisfied until he has done all he can do for one that he wants to save. And that's why it had to be Christ. You know, the eternal covenant was something that was put into place before he created Adam. I mean, God didn't come up with this plan because he said, well, let's see, how am I going to put this together?

Like he was creating a game. You know, roll the dice, move the... Now, this wasn't a game. Courtney's right, God so loved the world. He loves the creatures that he created who are like him. But you can never forget the fact that he's righteous, and because he's righteous, Here, you have to have, God has to have satisfaction. That's a great word that we talk about, propitiation. God has to be satisfied about the offense against his righteousness, and the only one that could do it was a member of the Godhead.

Am I right with that? I mean, it... Well, God dwells in eternity, What's that? God dwells in eternity. Yes, He does. So He was already there. I mean, we can't understand that. That's too hard. Oh, what eternity is, there is no time. Yeah, that's true. You will one day. If it's the eternal covenant, then He knew man would sin. Yes, He did. Yes, He did. But you know, he took a risk. You see the risk? He knew what the risk was. He knew that if he gave man free will, then he had to give him a test. Because if you have a free will, what good is it if you don't have a test?

Like, if I love Donna, and I just say that, but I never do anything, How good and how valid is my love? And I want her to love me back. She has to decide about that. I can't make her do it. It's the same way with God and you. If he makes a creature in his own image and likeness, the creature has a will. What other creature has a will other than angels and us? Your pet cat have a will? Nah. The birds have a will? Do predators have wills? Do preys have wills? Do any of the creatures God made in the first six days of creation, do they have wills? No, they don't. They operate on instinct. And so when Adam falls because he's been put in charge, what happens to all of them? They fall too. They all die. Isn't that why the whole creation groans? Part of it. Yeah. Yeah. Here's another statement you can chew on.

Since grace only represents what God can and will do for those who trust the Savior, it must function apart from all human work and cooperation. It calls for no more than confidence in the one who can save. The reason I put that in there is that your salvation and my salvation had nothing to do with your ability to save yourself. So what did you do to get saved? What's that mean? Faith. What did you do? What was the act? Your belief. What did you believe?

No. No. It has to be specific. That leads us to salvation. In order to be saved, what specifically do you have to believe? Out loud, I can't hear you. Who's he? No, Jesus. So Jesus was the one who died on a cross to do what? To satisfy you? No, to satisfy himself. to satisfy the Father. Without that, sin doesn't get satisfied. There is this blot against the righteousness of God for eternity. So God takes care of it, implements the remedy And by the way, it's under no obligation to offer it to any of the creatures who do the sinning, right? Did he offer salvation to the angels that sinned?

Nope. But he did to us. He didn't have to, but he did. And that demonstrates what Courtney's talking about, that God loves us. But this transaction to satisfy his righteousness comes first. You okay with that? No more questions? Let's see. What was done on the cross? The satisfaction? Yeah, it was. It was.

When it says, I am the Father of One, at the cross, the Father turned His back on Christ. When the sins were laid upon Him, there wasn't the oneness So here's how, you know, you bring up an important point. How serious was God about the soul that sins that will die? And how serious was he with his son on the cross when he turned his back on him? That alone tells you about his righteousness. Look what he did. He was made sin. Jesus was made sin for us. He was identified with the sin nature. And what did the Father do when that happened? Turned His back on Him.

Now, you know, all the warm fuzzy love in the world has nothing to do with that. That's righteousness being satisfied by this victim dying, being separated from God. I mean, you can't think of anything more serious than the offense against God's righteousness. It's a good thing he's a lover, because if he wasn't, we probably wouldn't be around.

That's where the new creation starts. It was because of the accomplishment of what Christ did. Let me read a couple of things for you. The scriptures delegate to the operating of grace the only salvation now offered to sinful men. There's no other way. than believing in what Christ did and who he is. God's grace also provides the security for the saved one. This is done by continuing the grace work of God with the individual in spite of his imperfections. We all come under that umbrella.

Grace also undertakes to direct the saved one in the new manner of his daily life after he has been saved. So not only are we saved by grace, but grace is the direction of the new life. I don't know how long does it take the Spirit of God to convince us that it's not, it isn't your effort, it's your receiving. You know, we've all studied Newell's Romans and we've looked at those statements after chapter six.

There's three sets of them. Oh man, under grace functions. And the one that has always struck me was that to be disappointed in yourself is to have trusted in yourself in the first place. That's not grace. That's self-trust. Yeah, but it seems like the Christian falls back into that because he's still got that. I hate to tell you this, Mike, but under grace there is no yeah, buts. Okay. A couple of verses, John 116, for of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. Grace, grace, grace, okay? Romans 5, 1, and therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Justification, why do you think they call salvation justification? Why would I say to you, are you saved? And you say back to me, I've been justified before, holy God. What does justified mean? That you've been accounted righteous. And what did you do to do that, get that? Believe. That's it.

Yeah, so that's why justification is the first thing, not love. Justification is the first thing, and then sanctification, and then glorification. So you have to be judged by God righteous because you believed in the person and work of Christ, okay? Romans 8, one, there's now and therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, no condemnation.

Hebrews 10.14, for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. He did it. So maybe put it another way. A new motive for this is set up by the fact that the one saved was perfected forever in the sight of God as being in Christ, therefore partaking of his merit and his standing forever. You wouldn't have that if God operated only on love. See that?

Do you agree with the statement that consequently the obligation to gain merit is removed completely? No. The obligation to gain merit is totally eliminated. And we know what the world is. That doesn't answer the question. Is the obligation to gain merit been completely removed? What do you think? Yeah, it has. In other words, there isn't any hidden rules left over that you must do in order to be righteous. You're not under any kind of a performance system which we title law. We totally are under Grace 614, Romans 614.

Say that again, oh, that's a great. Yeah, that's a good Right. Well, it creates a problem for us. Here's my next question. The new problem now shows up, that of how a perfect person, a perfected person, should walk in this world. That's the problem. How does that happen? So, several places.

The Lord Jesus says in John 13, 24, a new commandment I give you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Well, if you're nice to me, I might love you. But God said, no, he doesn't qualify it. Then he says in Ephesians 4, 1, and therefore, the prisoner of the Lord Jesus, I entreat you to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

So if we find out that we live under grace, that the standard that we have is heaven itself, then we got a problem. How are we going to live that way? I mean, it's a realistic problem. You know, I can't live, like I said a couple of weeks ago, I can't go to God and say, I need Thursdays off so I can sin a little bit. He doesn't give you Thursdays off. Why?

Because you're considered righteous. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the most righteous thing that he said, and he repeated it over and over, I only do what I see my father doing. I never do anything else. So if that's the way we function, or that's the way we're called to function, Learning about who you are, where you are, and what you have is really important because you will automatically go to the default position, which is trying. I'm trying to be a better Christian. Sure is. Sure is.

Ephesians 4.30 says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed, for the day of redemption. So look what God has done. He saved us based on the work of the cross. Our response to what he did is to believe him. So he saves us, then he seals us by the third person of the Trinity.

And then he says in Titus 2.11, For the grace of God has appeared. And what did it bring? Salvation to all men. And then it brought this, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly. Oh, here's that word, righteously and godly in this present age.

That's God to do that. What's that? That's His job to do that. Well, He says, that's why grace is here, because this is what it's here to teach you to do. And then He says, looking for that blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession. And here's the last one, zealous for good deeds. Oh, boy. So here's this. Well, let's talk about that. You guys got to get singing. Nobody's come out of that other room yet. I'm kind of keeping my eye on them.

The more I find out about Sal, it proves his amazing grace. Why do I say this? What's cool about grace? It's not amazing to the believer, it's normal. It's normal for us to live under grace. Well, it's still amazing to me. Sure. It is. If you look at it from a worldly standpoint, but from your position in heaven, you expect His grace, because He says, this is what I'm going to do. You know? So, I think we better quit, because... I think... Are we going to have confession after this? What's that? What did you say? Are we going to have confession after this? No, I'm just trying to... The whole thing that struck me about this was the fact that If you look at grace from an earthly human point of view, it's a really difficult thing.

But if you look at it from your position in the heavenlies, in Christ, it's the normal thing. We're saved by grace, we're to live by grace. We're to expect God to bless us. because he's already done so much. And in every aspect, it's like our friend Kathy. If she goes into this environment tomorrow expecting God to bless her, no matter what the circumstances are, he is blessing her. Can you think of one situation since you've been a Christian that was really painful and tough to get through? that when you got through it and you look back, you realize that God's hand was in the whole thing and He was blessing you in the midst of it. Yeah, we all have that story of our lives, that we live under this umbrella of grace and God is always blessing us. You know, He's shooting torpedoes at your sin nature, but how does He free you from it? trying to get you to stop relying on it and trust Him. That's grace. That's close.

Father, we thank You for Your Word. Sometimes these things are hard to grasp hold of, but I pray that every one of us would recognize how gracious You are and that the loftiness of which You have taken us and placed us in Christ, that we really are and really do share your righteousness. We thank you, Father. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.