Which Side of the Cross - Finish Lesson 9, Start Lesson 10
Mike Doyle · Jun 11, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926559377973

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we are talking about grace. And I'm here to do the last two questions that J.D. didn't quite get through last Sunday, which was lesson nine. Courtney will get up in a minute and start into lesson 10. So question 11 was and which stimulated, I think, a lot of discussion. last week. I'm sorry, we went past 11, but 11 did stimulate some.

Can the one distributing grace be put under an obligation by those receiving grace? Who doesn't understand the question? Which one of you? Excuse me, where are you at? You don't have them, I don't think we have less than nine. I think I'll give you mine. I'll repeat the question slower.

Can the one distributing the grace, be put on their obligation by those receiving the grace? Answer is no. I can't say no without explaining. If there was obligation in any sense, it would totally negate the fact that it was grace. Right, which is free. It's free. So if we try to go to God and manipulate him with prayer or whatever we're doing, hoping that we're going to get more grace from him if we somehow obey or get involved in or do something that we think is more pleasing to him, with the mindset that we're going to obligate him to shower more grace on us, then we've destroyed the whole premise of grace. I know I say that, but trust me, we all do it. We all do it. We make deals with God. We say, look, now if you will just do so-and-so, then I'll do so-and-so, or I've done so-and-so and now it's your turn to do.

It's a very difficult thing to learn to live under grace where God is the one who distributes and dispenses grace overwhelmingly all the time and totally undeserved. It's very difficult to learn that. And you can't learn it anywhere other than inside the Word of God, because that's where it's laid out. You find out from studying the Word of God how gracious He is and how overwhelming it is.

I purposely ask that question because I know our mindset sometimes is, especially if we come out of somewhat of a legal denomination, that there's always this attempt to put God under an obligation to bless me. And how feeble that really is, because if grace is unlimited and unmerited, what is your feeble obligation, trying to put him under obligation, going to do? If he said, OK, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to stop doing my grace and I'm going to give you just what you want. That would be pretty short-changed, wouldn't it? Anybody understand? Anybody have a question about that?

12. Explain the difference of God's grace in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Now, I've got a couple of quotes, Exodus 33, 13, Now therefore I pray you, if I have found grace in your sight, show me the way that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight, consider that this nation is your people. So here's Moses saying, if I have found grace in your sight, do this. 34-1 The Lord said unto Moses, Hew the two tablets of stone like unto the first ones, and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets, which you broke."

Remember what he did? He came down and the people are all going through the crazy dancing so he throws the Ten Commandments on the ground. And God is upset. Moses says, wait a minute, you can't zip them out of extinction. He's trying to work a deal with God. But God says, okay, verse 6, the Lord passed before him. Moses said to God, I want to see your glory. And what was God's response? Remember? He said, you can't see me, my glory face to face, but here's what I'm going to do.

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth. He put him in the cleft of a rock and in essence he said, I'm going to pass by and you can peek it. After I go by, you can kind of peek. But we, because we're in Christ, have the capacity and the privilege to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, face to face.

So, let's talk a little bit about what did man bring to the table in the Old Testament? When he sat down with God, working a deal, what did he bring? Nothing. Nothing in the sense of grace, but he brought a couple of things. What was it? He had to be obedient. He had to be blessed. He had to be obedient, but when he shows up at the table, what's he got? He's got sin and he's got weakness. That's what he shows up with, right? And cocky about that. What does God show up with? his grace. So what's the difference between the way God dealt with mankind in the Old Testament in a gracious manner and how he deals now in grace? What's the big difference? He was gracious in the Old Testament, wasn't he? So, but what's the difference? He dealt with them as a nation as opposed to an individual. Dealt with them as a nation.

He had to do something in order to get his grace. He had certain rules he had to abide by. Well, you had to abide by his rules in order, if you obeyed me I would bless you, if you don't I would curse you. So a cursed man comes before God, then God offers grace to him. He declared Abraham righteous, why? Because he believed.

Now the next 40 years of Moses' life, or at least 30 years of Moses' life, is not chapter and verse of the highs of the Old Testament. He's pretty much a slug. But over 40 years, he comes into the fullness of the righteousness that God has declared him in the faith. What's the difference between a guy like Abraham and you? What's the difference? It's pretty simple.

God dealt with man in individual cases, individual people on a grace basis. He would not give a man what he deserved or he would account Abraham righteous or the nation of Israel righteous if they believed. If they didn't believe, you know, the 40 years in the desert, what happened to the 40 years in the desert? They all died, except for Joshua and Caleb, because they were the guys that believed.

The difference is, they were cases in which God was exhibiting his grace. Now, the entire environment in which we live is grace. law and obligation and the ifs go away. There is no tyranny now. There is nothing before God that says, if you'll do this I will bless you. What he says now is that I've already blessed you, you'll respond and do. The operating principle now is grace rather than law and he's always dispensing grace.

The problem is we don't get it. Or we're trying to operate on a legal system, a holy water legal system, and he's operating in grace. It's like trying to listen to God on channel 7 and he's broadcasting on 9. We don't get it. And he only deals with grace now. Only.

He never reverts back, let's say, you decide in your wonderful mind that you're going to make a deal with God. I'm going to go to God and I'm going to say, look, if you will do so and so, I promise I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. Is he listening? Not under those circumstances. He hears what you're saying, but he said, wait a minute, I've already done X, Y, and Z. I've already done it all. I don't need to be coerced or promised into blessing you.

That's what I do all the time now. And it's based on the fact that my son has absolutely taken care of every impediment between mankind and me. Operating principle, environment we live in, it's like the air got changed. We used to breathe polluted air under law, now it's pure. We live in an environment where God's grace is constant. All the time.

I know you've recently been down to Cape Kennedy. What struck me when I went down there was, if you've ever seen a launch of the shuttle, how much energy is expended underneath that thing when they light it off. And it's so much energy, I mean they have to flood the launch pad with water to keep the vibration from that thing from destroying the launch pad.

Living under grace is like being right under pad 29A when that baby goes off. It's so intense and so aggressive and surrounds us so much and yet we do everything we can to try to jump out of that. We want to be on the sidelines watching rather than just living in the grace.

Acts 20-24 But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course in the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify of the gospel of the grace of God. That's exactly what Paul did. He was testifying of the gospel, the good news of the grace of God. And that's what we do, not only with what we say, but how we live our lives. We are testifying to the grace of God.

So in all of the history of mankind, Paul is a cool guy and he has a special slot. And his slot was to expound the gospel and show that it's a grace system. That's his job, to show and explain the grace system. The good news of the gospel is totally on a grace basis. As an example, the word grace is used 155 times in the New Testament. How many times do you think Paul used it? 130. 155 times that word is used, he mentioned it 130. Every epistle of Paul including Galatians starts with grace and ends with grace. Every single one of them.

So last question, is it dangerous to teach grace? Really? Have you taught it lately? I haven't taught it, but I know it. Is it dangerous to teach grace? To whom? Believers or unbelievers? Both. Probably, we'll start with believers. Is it dangerous to teach grace to believers? Certainly not, Paul did it. Paul did it. How about in 2017? Is it dangerous to teach grace? Yes. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's very dangerous. Louis Perry Chaffer, everybody knows who he is. He was the founder of Dow Seminar.

You know what he said about grace? It is the most hated thing in the world. You know why it is? Why would grace be the most hated thing to the world? Can't earn it. Can't earn it. Who can't earn it? The old man Adam. The problem with grace is that grace says to Adam, the condemned man, I've done everything, there's nothing left for you to do. And what does Adam think? Oh, I've got to have something to do. Isn't that how it thinks? I've got to do something. God says, no, there's nothing left for you to do. We're all done. You get no credit, you don't have to act. Really what I've done here is to put you out of business, so don't even think about that.

It's really tough because if you're like me, I'm forever doing things out of a sense of obligation. If you invite me to dinner, what's my first reaction? I'm going to invite you back unless it So it's interesting how God's grace is such a wonderful thing to accomplish a really interesting purpose and that is through the cross of Christ all the work was done and the implementation of grace keeps the old man from operating because there's nothing for him to do in grace and if anything fries him that will do it. I got to be doing something like what? Like what? You mean they just can't accept it? Can't accept it. They feel they have to do something. Sure. Sure.

And if you're not a student of the Word of God, especially in Paul's epistles, you're not apprehending what the grace is in every aspect of your life. But as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you begin to see, wow, everywhere I turn, the grace of God is overwhelming.

And it's not just the little tiny things, it's the really quiet, wonderful things. I'm watching Doris Lauther talk about her cancer under the heading of Grace. She's at rest, there's no stress. Is that a blessing? Wow, that's really something. Most look at Grace as an agency that doesn't control the behavior of a believer. Can Grace control your behavior? Does it control your behavior? That's your job. So I'm going to stop there and Courtney can tell us why grace can control your behavior.

Also, just to answer that last question, Mike and I have talked a lot about teaching grace and if it is dangerous. We've had a lot of responses, and one of the responses is, well, do I just sit back and do nothing? I'm not under law, I don't have to do anything, so I'll just sit back. I think of also Paul. We say in 2017, Paul experienced the same thing. Look at the times we're in, Romans 6.

What should we do? We're not under law, so should we sin more so grace can abound? He was experiencing the same thing about the dangers of teaching grace. Now that you take off this throttle of law and you have this freedom of grace, do we go ahead and sin like crazy? And so a similar type thing in ours is apathy, that because you're under grace you don't have to do anything, so I'll just sit back and do nothing. The dangerous part was back in Paul's time as well as in ours.

Let's get to Lesson 10. Question 1. What is the design of grace, or what is it supposed to accomplish? So I said, let's flip it around. Let's first look at law. What was it supposed to accomplish? Guidelines, order, what else? Make sin abound. How do those jive with guidelines and order? Do those come together? Guidelines and order with making sin abound?

See, the common thing is supposed to be, oh, it's going to be all this great and it's meant to me to walk the straight line and I'll be perfect if I just follow the law. But if you look at what Scripture says about it, it's completely different. And this is what, again, what law was meant to do. When you really look at it in Scripture, it wasn't meant to have an order or guidelines or anything like that.

Let's look at Romans 3.20. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. So that's key. You can't be justified by law. So no flesh will be justified in this sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So law was to expose sin and gain knowledge of sin. So that was the purpose of it. So you knew sin by the law. And then Romans 5, 20.

The law came in so that the transgression would decrease? Increase. Everybody thinks law is supposed to be this thing that just corrals us. Law is not that. Law exposes sin and by this, law came in so the transgression would increase. I now know their boundaries. Order. What is man's response? Anywhere out of this border, order, or guidelines. The law was meant to keep you not in the borders. It was to show you that you are in sin. And you are not in the guidelines, not in any order. That was what it was for.

And the other, which, from the beginning of it, no flesh will be justified. Is anybody justified by the law? Scripture says no. So, I guess these are the dangers of it. So, is the law sinful? No. But it makes me sin. But we are sinners. We're sinners. And I add a little law to it. Now I really sin. I really like to sin now, because I know it's bad. So is it sinful?

The sign says wet paint. Exactly. Gail in the back expresses what a child, if you don't think there's a sin nature, the first thing you do is put out wet paint. Don't touch wet paint. What is your first and immediate reaction? Touch it. Perfect example of the sin nature. There's the order. There's the guideline. What did it make me do? Touch. That's exactly a demonstration of the sinful nature. Tell a kid, who's a parent, tell a kid, don't do this. What's the first thing they do? They do it. It's the sin nature. Oh, there's a guideline. There's an order.

Well, I'm going to beat that one. And the first impulse is to beat it. That's exactly what this is saying that the law is meant to do. You give me a law, I'll break it. And I like to break it. In the old man. That's his first impulse. So back to it, is the law sinful? Because it makes me sin. Why not? You answered yes very quickly, but now why? It's wholly unjust. It's wholly unjust.

And we know that by scripture. Let's see here. Romans 7.7. What shall I say? See, these are all things we bring up to 2017. And this is just so new. Paul had this exact same condition in who he was trying to teach.

Romans 7.7. What shall we say then?

Is the law sin? May it never be. On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. So there's a realization that the positive aspect of law. It made me know sin, and then what did that make me do? Know that I'm a sinner? And then what did that make me do? Created a need that was? I needed a savior. So it is holy in its purpose. It's like, you know, I just came back from camp and some of the things, you know, the prayers and some of the different things about Satan and all this. And I go back to, what is Satan's power today?

Strong. Strong, okay. Stronger. Stronger, okay. Anything else? He's a defeated foe. That's the key. He's a defeated foe. So, who allows him to do whatever he wants? We do. No. Who allows him to function? God. God does now. So, when I hear prayers about Satan attacking or something, who allowed that? God. God did.

That's a hard concept for a lot of people to understand. He's a defeated foe. So, again, when we see how God uses Satan, the epitome of evil, he uses him for his purposes. The law came in to expose sin. Why? So we have a need for a Savior. So it is holy and just. It had a purpose. And the purpose was to develop a need for a Savior. So we know about law, nobody's justified by it, and its purpose was to develop a need for us to have a savior.

So, what was the design of grace? We know what the law was, now what about grace? That was the flip side. What's this on grace? What's the design of it? Mystery. Okay, keep sin from raining. What else? I started kind of at the basis of it. Where does grace emanate? From God? I basically came back to design, the engineer that I am. Look at the foundation, how it's built, where's the structure, and all that.

Paul will teach us about grace, but I went back to the beginning of it, where if you look in John 1.17, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. So the basis of grace is Christ. Grace and truth were realized through Christ.

We can also look at John 1.14, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So grace is realized and the fullness of grace is embodied in Christ.

That's the base, that's the foundation of it. So it's through Christ. What was grace designed to accomplish? We touched on it a little bit. So first question is what is the basis for it? I think the basis is Christ. But now what was grace designed to accomplish? To make sin abound?

Same as law? Somebody brave. I won't bite, I won't hit. So what was it to accomplish? Joanne had it before. In Romans 5, 20 and 21, the law came in so that the transgression would increase, so that's where law is, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through the righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Okay, so when sin abounded, what did grace do?

Superabounded. Not even close. Not even in the same zip code. What sin is, and just like Mike said, light it off on the, you know, you're underneath the shuttle launch, or you're trying to drink from a fire hose. Grace is coming on so much so it's so overwhelming to what the sin is. Grace super abounds.

And so that and even grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ. So this is again what we're saying too is the differences I think between Old Testament and New Testament and believers is we have a reigning principle now. And that reigning principle is grace. As Mike said, it's like a new atmosphere that we have. We're living in an atmosphere that has grace reigning for a believer. And the purpose, even so, grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Again, Christ being the basis and it's eternal life, righteousness. And again, we'll get to another question a little bit later on about whether it can... I'll ask it now.

So is there another way of controlling conduct other than rules or law? Can you only have rules or law to control conduct? Rules and law don't work. Bingo. So what do we do now? This is where you say, is there a danger to teaching grace? We don't have any rules. We don't have any guidelines. Now what? How is your conduct conducted now? How is your conduct directed now?

Because I love God for what He did. I'm separated from the old man. So, Christ living through me, I live a life on space. Right. And now you're living in grace. So, does grace motivate you? Yes. And it transforms you don't you think? How does it motivate you or transform you? It just does. The infamous children's answer, cuz. Cuz. I always loved that answer. Why? Cuz.

But that's basically, it's kind of what Russ was saying. The life that we have now in Christ, that's a new life in us. And the indwelling spirit is convicting us and convincing us of all these truths. A lot of those truths are about God's grace. And now, that is the spiritual growth. We're growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those two things. Growing in grace, and that's understanding these truths, and we're saying the fun and the facts and the tracks and the whatever. As we know the facts, I'll have to read it. Faith in the facts is like the train on the tracks. Facts lead and the feelings follow. As you know the facts of who you are in Christ, And that grace reigning principle, that's what motivates us now. Not a bunch of guidelines, not a bunch of laws, not rules. It's by grace. Graciousness of God. Who we are in Christ. So it's a completely different system than what we had before.

So it's to prevent sin from reigning. And then it's to motivate us through the love and the gracious raining principles that we live in now. Yeah, and that's basically, I guess, a shorter version, is that we don't have rules now, but we have the principle of grace. And that's what motivates us. We don't have these rules now, but we have a principle of grace. And as you understand that, the reason why I went back to kind of the foundation is, and we'll get into a little bit of this, is that Yes, Paul is the one who teaches us about grace, and he's the only one. But the foundation is in Christ.

And I think that's why in 2 Peter 3.18, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul teaches us about that, but the basis of it is in Christ.

Grace was realized through Christ. So as we know Christ more and more through reading the Word, we'll understand grace there. You understand the principle, but the mechanisms were explained by Paul. And he's the only one who did it. But grace and truth are realized through Christ. And so I say the foundation is knowing Christ and spending your time getting to know him personally, intimately. And then when Paul comes with all this, how grace functions, you understand because you know Christ, which is the basis of it.

So it's automatic. It's not automatic. No, but I mean, because you change, you think differently. So that's what I mean. I think as you know more facts, and you know who Christ is, and that's your very life, you are transformed, you are conformed. But again, and I know what Mike is going to do, you still need Paul to explain the mechanics of it. But when you see that grace and truth are realized through Christ, I think that's the foundation. Paul explains the mechanics of it.

I would say the word principle applies here because a principle is a way I think functions or operates and sometimes in the Word of God rather than use the word principle they will use the word law. the law of the spirit of grace. It's really the principle. So as sin and death operate under a principle of sin and death, grace operates under a principle and functions under a principle. So it's designed to operate and function the same way every time which God put into place.

So what makes us nervous is that A lot of those principles are not spelled out anywhere necessarily, although Paul does spell out a lot of them. This is how grace is going to operate in your life, and this is how you're going to respond. Law requires that I take the first step. Grace requires that I respond. Receive.

And again, I think the understanding, I go back to knowing who Christ is. If he's where it's realized, if you Spend your time knowing Him. That's where grace is realized. And so when the Holy Spirit is convicting you of this, there's understanding because that's who He is. And that's who I am. That's my very life. So that's where I think the basis is Christ. And then Paul lays out operating principles maybe. So, okay, yeah.

I say that I live constantly in a sense of gratitude. That would be my response when I understand that I'm free and alive in Christ, that I walk in a sense of gratitude. I think that's the growing in the grace and knowledge, as you begin to understand that.

Because the old man is fighting everything about this. Everything. Because it goes totally against the Adamic nature and so as you realize you're in a gracious one day you become receptive to that appreciative thankful for it because you don't have to there's nothing you do for it other than say thank you and as you grow in the grace and knowledge you understand that but it's a battle it's a growth process because the old man is there every moment of every day trying to make you go under law So, you know, I think that's where we struggle in the growth process is when that little whispery voice tells us, nah, you know, it's not free. It's really not free. You've got to do this. You know, aren't you feeling a little guilty for what you did yesterday? Just a little guilty. You know, you should think about that. Is it paid for? Yep. Is it God done with it? Yep. Do you have to worry about it? Nope. You're under grace now. But that little voice is always in there. And that's where the growing is to understand who you are in Christ and you're in a principle and operating system of grace. And that's where you do begin to appreciate that.

I think we're skipping the cross because that's where the power is. You missed the first third of the class where we dealt with that. The cross wasn't a gracious act. It was payment. The gracious part is, and we'll get into that in Ephesians, salvation is grace-based, but the cross is not. The cross was pure judicial. And you were on that cross. Yeah. Co-crucifixion. Romans 6.

Alright, so what are the two things, question two, what are the two things scripture says we can be under? Under the bus? Under the weather? Under what? Under a blanket? Under water? What are the two things that scripture says? Not what other people say. But what does scripture say we're under? Law or grace? Sin or grace? Those are the two options. Not under the weather, not under anything else. So, basically law or sin and grace. Those are the two. So, I look at from the sinful side that we're under.

I'll read the whole section just because I always think, when we dealt with this, I think with one of JD's questions, what did we come to the cross with? What did we come to the table with? And I think this pretty much expresses what we come to the table with. And this is in Romans 3, 9, and I'll read all the way through 18. So when we came to the table, this is what we brought.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. So the under part, we're under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one, There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of Asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their path, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

That's what we brought to the table. Pretty good picture, right? We're swell people. We were coming to the table with a lot. A lot of good stuff. Now, we were totally against God. Everything, all we brought was sin and weakness. So, what about grace?

And we'll look at Romans 6.14. So, that was about under sin. Now, under grace.

So, at Romans 6.14, For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So, two things. Sin and grace. We're under sin or under grace? What are we under now as believers? Grace. Grace. What a joyous position that is. You know, and it's kind of funny when you read these verses, and this is with some of the Bible study that Ingrid's been in and stuff, and going about how you tell people you're not under law.

And this just absolute adherence that there has to be law. And that, you know, you've got to be under law. What do you mean, no law? Ten Commandments. They're holy and righteous and good, and we're still under those. What does it say here? You are not under law, but under grace.

So when, who's that guy, Judge Roy, whatever, in Alabama or Arkansas, fighting to have the Ten Commandments still in his courtroom. Is that what we as believers should be fighting for? Is that what we're under? A lot of Christians are really good because that Ten Commandments is holy and just, which we said the law is holy and just, but we have to fight for keeping us under the law and under the Ten Commandments.

What does this verse say? We're not under law, we're under grace. What's interesting about that is that only the old man, the sin nature, would demand that we be under law. Which means that those that are demanding to be under law do not have an apprehension of their co-crucifixion with Christ's burial and resurrection. They don't realize that they think of themselves as a cleaned up Adamic man and that the law will somehow desire to be under law proves that they're still under the influence of the old Adamic man.

Exactly. And that's how, as you respond in these things, as you respond in a law-based, who are you responding to? The old man or the new life in Christ? putting lipstick on a pig. You can pretty it up with lipstick, but it's still a pig. But we fight this, and I can't remember, I don't know if you can say, their response was about law. It's kind of mixed.

I mean, it sounds good both ways, but it's just hard to make that separation of grace only. Yeah, I mean, when you point out these verses, there's some justification, finding some justification to stay under law. So they use the word cheap grace, you know. Cheap grace. You still need to make God the Lord of your life. You know, you're still checking out our sin and we need to clean up every little bit of our lives.

Yeah. Which is totally wrong. Totally wrong. We're under grace. Under grace. Alright, so question three. I think we're getting buzzed pretty quick here. Do you think grace is a natural way of thinking for us? It just comes naturally. Well, let's put it this way.

Is grace realized through Adam? Again, going back to where it's based in John 117, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. So, do we know biblical grace before salvation? No, you can't. Does the world show or teach us about grace?

Can we look at it, turn on the news at night, or the latest reality TV show, or whatever? Or the latest book from the Christian bookstore. Or the latest from the Christian bookstore. Or some Bible studies. Can you see grace from that? They have fake news for you. Yeah, there's a lot of fake news on that. Fake grace. Yeah, fake grace. I mean, you know, it is. That's kind of a good analogy. It's the fake grace. So, yeah, I've got some more on this. I've got several verses we'll go through. We'll start with this one next week. Just think about in verse 3, do you think there's a natural, that grace is a natural way of thinking for us and how that is expressed. Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your gracious system of living in grace that we have right now, the operating system. And what a wonderful system that is versus the law-based system where the law was meant to expose and to increase our knowledge of sin, where grace is just a pure operating system where all we can do is say thank you. We cannot do anything. It is unmerited and the unlimited part. As we begin to look into the scripture and see Christ as the realization of grace and truth, we see that it is unlimited and again, just the thought of unmerited. The old man keeps knocking on us, trying to get us to do something, but in your system of grace, there is nothing but saying thank you.

And we rest in those facts. We thank you again for the scripture who points this out and just the knowledge of your son as we realize that grace is through him and then through the epistles of Paul who gives us the operating principles and many aspects of grace that is not realized through the world or anywhere else. So we thank you again for your word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that convinces us of these truths. We just pray for Vernon in the next meeting just to bring forth the word accurately and to prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for this time in Jesus' name. Amen.