Grace - Introduction

Okay, there's a handout for grace. Probably the most informative verse in all of the Bible about grace is Romans 6.14, which we've, probably over the last three years, we've jumped on this verse quite a few times. But it's a very interesting verse in the New American Standard.

It says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. And then it gives the reason. For you are not under law, but under grace. So I'm going to start out with a question. What does it mean to be under grace? We have a different master. We have a different reality. So as we get into this thing about grace, I would start out by saying the Christian life is not lived by a set of rules.

And a lot of times, that's really how you live it. Instinctively, tell me what to do and I'll do it. Most of you are old enough to remember the Burma shave ads going down the road, the two-lane roads, and all these wonderful sayings about how you're supposed to conduct yourself. But there are two statements I think you can make about every believers.

One is they're not under law. And if you look at Hebrews 7, 11, and 12, For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Law being changed. And change means transported. Something replaced law. So when you see, and you can read, I just read a portion of it, but Hebrews 7, 11, and 12, There's a change there. And what's the change? The change is made of necessity also of the law.

The point is that when a new system comes in, the old system is obsolete. And that's really what this verse is saying. That doesn't mean that we agree with it or put ourselves under it, but we are under a new system. And we're not under the law because why? Something's changed. Pretty simple.

Second Corinthians 3, 7 through 11, talking about the Ten Commandments. The law had been done away with. And that word done away with is the same word that we see in Romans 6, where it's I was crucified, or my old man was crucified so that the old man would be katorgao, that's the word, put out of business. So 2 Corinthians 3 says the law had been done away or put out of business.

It's not the system anymore. It means to abolish or make it inoperative. The door is closed. It's not in business anymore. So you can say the reason I'm not under law is because the law has been done away with in terms of it being a controlling system for my behavior. Just a thought here.

I was looking at that verse that you ask what changed and it says that the priesthood had changed. Under law, you're under that lineage of Aaron, right? But under grace, you have a priest who is not in that same law of order. The motivation is different. The motivation is different, the criteria is different, the standard is different. So really the Lord Jesus changes everything with regards to that. He did. Not only on the cross, but also as his place as priest over the order.

So one of the metaphors that goes through my mind is that if you served in the military, you recognize that when you leave home, And your first entry into the military is boot camp. And what boot camp's designed to do is to take the civilian-ness out of you and replace it with the military mindset. So when you go into the military, you walk away. It doesn't mean you're not subject to the civilian authorities, but the mindset is different. Or when you get discharged from the military, you come out, you left this set of rules to a new set. One of the things that really surprised me when I went into the military, that if you got in trouble legally, they had a whole set of their own rules, the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

You're guilty until proven guilty. That's exactly right. And you didn't have a hearing with a lawyer, you went before your commanding officer and he could do whatever he wanted with you. Yeah, good. So the first point I want you to understand is that we are not under any law system anymore.

So that does mean you can go 45 down this street here. This law system we're talking about, go back up to Romans 6, 14. And one of the questions on your sheet is, what is grace designed to do? What is it designed to do? Real easy answer. No. Well, yeah, but not. What's that?

To free us from the bondage of sin. Put it positively. Grace is the only operating system that will keep you from sinning. It's the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus? No, it's not. It's an operating system that's designed specifically by God to keep you from sinning.

Grace is. Now, that doesn't make any sense to the natural mind. No sense at all, because you have to tell me what to do. But hopefully, as we go through, you'll see how grace accomplishes the purpose of God. Sin won't have dominion over you. Why? Because you're under grace. Well, did sin have dominion over me? Yeah, it did. And it still does. Well, depending.

But the grace is designed so that sin won't have dominion anymore. It isn't a law system that we tweaked. It's a whole new environment called grace. Now, let's talk about the word grace. What does it mean? What did the Greeks say the word grace meant?

Something attractive or beautiful? Yeah. If you said Miles' sermon was very gracious last Sunday, what would you be saying? Boy, it was really attractive. It was very gracious. So they used a word that simply put means pleasure. That's what they thought grace meant. Anything charming, attractive, beautiful.

You know, it's like when somebody says, Brian has a charismatic personality. What are they saying about Brian? He's one of those guys. that is charming, attractive, speaks great, fun to be around. He's charismatic. Someone you want to hang out with. Yeah. Yeah. So the word charis means, really it means it's a quality of attractiveness. That's how the Greeks looked at it.

Luke 4.22, wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth. The words of grace were beautiful, or they were attractive, or they're charming. See that?

That's what that, Luke 4.22.

So, Colossians 4.6, let your speech always be with grace. What does that mean? Your speech needs to be attractive, charming, and beautiful. Okay. You're looking at me like, I don't know what that means. But seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. So we as believers, all of our speech should be gracious. It should be attractive. It should be charming.

And you know what the word salt means in this context? It's a great meaning. We think, well, that guy's kind of salty. What it really means is it means the ability to put a phrase really well. to say things in such a way that they, oh, I get it. You see that? Okay. So they used it, as you said, the Greeks used it in another way. They used it as a favor done to somebody.

Now that great Christian philosopher, Aristotle, That's a joke. Here's what he said about grace. Something conferred freely with no expectation of return and finding its source in the bounty and the free heartedness of the giver. That's Aristotle said that. That's pretty gracious. Yeah, it is, isn't it? So as a Greek philosopher, he understood. He understood what the word grace meant, that it was, I love the part that it's free, and the giver just gives it because he wants to.

You didn't earn it, he just does it. So I'll give you an example. Do a favor for someone. out of your heart with no expectations of return. None. Just because one wanted to do it. So you invite me over for dinner. The first reaction I have is I have to invite you back. What have I just done? I've spoiled your gracious act because I think I need to pay you back.

Act 710. and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt and made him governor over Egypt and all his house. This phrase and gave him favor is the word charis. We're talking about Pharaoh and Joseph. Pharaoh was gracious to Joseph. He just gave him all this stuff for free. What did Joseph do to earn it?

Nothing other than interpret a dream. So the third way the Greeks used it is the way you talked about, Mike, is that it's a response for a favor done. What's the best English word in response for a favor done? What word do we use? Thank you. Thanks is the word charis.

Second Corinthians 8.16, but thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. Thanks, but thanks be to God, charis. Thank you, God. The whole concept of giving enters into the picture. So give me some examples that wouldn't fit under this definition. I would call them the wrong motivation for giving. Give me a couple of those. Recognition. Hmm? Recognition. Recognition. OK. Merit. What's that? Merit. Marriage? Merit. Here's what I have in mind.

Why don't we pass the plate at Holly Hills? We're obligated to give. That's exactly why. That's exactly why. where it puts an onus on you to reach in your pocket and, you know. But it's all about the giver. It is all about the giver. The basket passes. Now, I'm talking about why don't you give. If I stand up in front of you and say, look, you all need to come up with $50 because we need it for the budget.

That's gracious, right? No? No, it's not. Or I feel, and this is one I love, I feel like I ought to give 10%. I just feel it. Start with just giving 1%. Well, even that's an obligation. I had lunch with a close friend of mine on Friday. who's a really wealthy man, and I said to him, we were going back and forth, and I said, you realize that all this wealth that you have, you're just the custodian of it, that God blessed you with it, and your obligation before a gracious God is what do you want me to do with all this bounty you've given me? He said, yeah, I think about that all the time.

I was going to give them a reason to give me money next, but I didn't. So what is the proper motivation for giving, like in a church environment? What is the proper motivation? It's grace. I don't give to God because he's been so gracious to me. You see that? It's like sometimes when a person is newly saved, their attitude is, well, look what God did for me. I owe him. No, you don't. No, you don't. Because if you did, then it would be law.

See that? in 2 Corinthians 8, 19, and not only so, but who was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in the manner of this grace, which is ministered to us to the glory of the Lord and to show our readiness. Paul's talking about the fact that he's been, as he has been traveling, he's been taking contributions for the oppressed Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. And so he refers to it that also appointed by the church is to travel with us in the manner of this grace. He recognizes that him taking money back to Jerusalem was the offering itself is called grace. See that?

And I really do think that Oh boy, it's been 30 some years now at Holly Hills when we were almost broke. They even had a target date for shutting down the doors. And the guys that were running the church at that time decided that they were never gonna talk about money again. And that we're never gonna take up a collection again and they were gonna just trust God to maintain the finances of the church, and here we are today. We're still here. Have you ever heard anybody stand up there and say, hey, we need 100 bucks for so-and-so? You never hear it here. Why?

Because this grace principle really does work. It really does. So actually, the offering that most churches give, they should call it the grace. rather than an offering. Not an offering, it's grace. Well, I think the reason that you support the church you're in is because of the grace. It's not a do this or die or God's going to be mad, or we're going to put the hammer on you, or anything like that. When you are gracious in giving money or gracious towards somebody, it's just because you want it to be. The motivation was put inside your heart by the Lord himself. And there aren't percentages in the Lord's grace. So I think we can see that the motivation for Christian living is a grateful heart and not rules. When grace is understood, it always brings forth, thank you.

I mean, really, when you think about it, is there anything that you have that wasn't given to you? even your employment, even your income, even your, if you have money in the bank, you know, well, I saved. But who gave it to you in the first place? Yeah. It has nothing to do with, oh, this is my nest egg. You know, what's that old saying? If you're going to put all your eggs in one basket, you better pay attention to the basket. The point is, is that all of my eggs and all of your eggs are in the Lord's basket, and He's the one that pays attention to it.

And what you'll find is, as you go through your life, that you will be gracious in circumstances that just show up, because the Lord will show up and say, hey, this person over here needs some help. And you're not quarreling about that, and there isn't even any resistance.

You're there. That's how grace works. So just for fun, let's look at some grace provisions in the Old Testament. Exodus 32, one through six. And this has to do with unmerited setting where God demonstrated grace. And it's, rather than me read it, somebody look it up, because I don't need to read it. It's Exodus 32. verses 1 through 6. It's a little long, but read it.

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And Aaron said to them, break off the gold earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in the ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded cap.

Then they said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose early on that next day, offered birth offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Okay, so if you're God, and this is what's going on, how do you think about this? No, if you're God, and you think about this, what's your attitude because of what these people are doing? What's the human, the natural human attitude? Yeah. I'm angry with them. I'm going to get rid of them. These people have no appreciation for what I've done. No appreciation at all. So how is God going to act in this circumstance? What is He going to do? This is a demonstration in the Old Testament of God's grace. How did he react?

He didn't kill them all. Yeah. Yeah. But he did some of them. But in general, he manifested grace towards the nation of Israel. see that? Now, that isn't the degree, the kind of grace that we live under, but God is the author of doing a favor for man, and in every case, it's unmerited. If there's ever some verses in the Old Testament that prove that Israel didn't merit God's favor, these are the verses. Because there isn't anything in here that would cause God to say, oh, good job, fellas. Nothing.

So in almost every case, the context, man is deserving the total opposite of what he gets. See that? And that's especially true in the Old Testament. You see it everywhere there. We can read down to verse 30 which shows that they sinned. Exodus 33 shows that how deserving they were not.

So, Mike, read 34-1. And the Lord said to Moses, cut two tables of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So what does he do? Moses threw the tablets down and they broke and God wrote them again. Go down to verse 6.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. There it is. There's the grace. And it isn't because he acts that way, he is that way. That's who he is. Yeah, that's his character. So it's a pretty good indication of how a whole nation turns against him and how he reacts.

There's this tension in the Old Testament where we see that God seemingly turns a blind eye to their wickedness and extends grace to them, but that's only appearances because the cross hasn't come yet. And the cross resolves that, so God would be both just and a justifier. It's not that he turned a blind eye to that sin, but he knew the cross would deal with it.

That's a really important part because One of the things we're going to talk about with Schaeffer's Seven Steps of Grace is exactly that. God doesn't save people on a grace basis. He does it on a justice basis. I just think that's one of the most common misinterpretations of grace, is that grace is just ignoring sin, as if it doesn't really matter. Yeah. He's got hardwood floors. He never sweeps anything under the rug. That's right.

And you know, don't you find it interesting that for us to understand what grace is, we have to be in a position where we absolutely need grace to take the next step. Otherwise, we're so proud that we think we deserve whatever we have. steps of the Christian, you know, salvation. He starts to learn the law. I'm going to say no, but we'll get to that. So you have to look at this principle in the Old Testament. When you got the two parties together, God and man, man always brought his bag of tricks. It was called sin. He showed up with sin and God showed up with grace every time.

Zechariah 12.10, and I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace. of supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." He's talking about the cross. Numbers 14, 19, pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy loving kindness, grace, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.

The great thing about studying the Old Testament is that the basic premise is simple. The Jews always brought sin, God always brought grace to the table, every time. Don't we do the same? Well, it's a little different with us, and we'll find out as we go on.

And then in Psalm 51.1, David says, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness.

Well, David knew God's character. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgression. So David goes to God with his sin, and understands that forgiveness is there. And actually has the courage to say to him, be generous to me, oh God, according to your loving kindness. I know what you're like. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgression. David brought sin, what did God bring? Grace.

So the first time we find out in the New Testament about how this grace is going to show up is John 1, 17, that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So here's the Lord Jesus shows up and he brings grace and truth. So because it was an unmerited favor, it never puts the giver in a position of obligation. Said another way, the Lord Jesus just did it because he wanted to do it.

It was part of his character. Imagine the eternal covenant, the father and the son get together and they say, we've got a sin problem. We've got to take care of it. And the father says to the son, if you become a man and pay the penalty for the sins of the world, I will lift you up. So he does two, the two most important things that Cross did is it satisfied God's wrath against sin. And it allowed God to be gracious to a lost world. And even in the Old Testament, His grace was given looking forward to what He was going to do in Calvary.

It's like He was gracious on the credit card. He knew He was going to pay the price then. Grace costs the giver. It never costs the receiver. did Moses' glory, he put a veil on, not because the glory was too bright, but because it was fading. That's your opinion. There are others that say that the reason he put the veil on was because the glory that shone out of him intimidated all the Jews.

I'm getting close to time here. Let me finish a couple of things because we'll start another section. So when you look at grace in Paul's epistles or in the New Testament, Acts 20, 24 says, but I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself so that I might accomplish my course and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify, listen to this, to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. So Paul Paul had a special, I would use the word, slot in the program of God to expound the gospel and to show that it was a grace system. He's the one that really understood grace. The good news of the gospel is that it's on a grace basis.

That's the good news. See that? So a couple of I'll send you home with. The word grace is used 155 times in the New Testament. How many times do you think Paul used that 155? 130. Pretty cool. Every epistle Paul writes begins and closes with the mention of grace.

So we'll stop there and we'll pick up and talk about the doctrine and the system of grace next week. And then we can get to your questions. All right, let's close. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look at grace. We recognize it's a system that you have given us to live under. We recognize that it's part and parcel of your very character. And so our desire is to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name, amen.