Understanding Grace - Part 1

1:20If we can boil the gospel down to what it is all about, it's really the good news of God's grace. It's the good news of what God's grace accomplished. To use the word Wesley used, the triumphs of his grace. So the gospel is really the good news of God's grace and its triumph over the sinfulness of fallen humanity. What in the world could ever turn fallen humanity around? What can bring healing where there's pain, renewal where there's death, reward where there's loss? Where does this come from? Where is the fountainhead of all of this? Where is the source that would counteract all of the fallenness of humanity? Well, this is the story of God's grace. It is the gospel. It is something we celebrate. And so it's important, though, to understand as we recognize the triumphs, we need to understand what is it? What is God's grace?

2:42And recognizing that there's a lot of different concepts out there about grace. What is grace? How do we square our minds and hearts upon exactly what grace is? What is God's grace? And then building on that, the reality of God's grace, how are we to respond to that as we make our way through the wilderness of this world? How do we respond to God's grace? It is a major factor of where we live. It's a major part of the world, the environment. We live within the fallenness, the realm of the fallenness of humanity, where sin is a reality, but we also live in the realm of the gospel and a God who is sovereign, good, faithful, and full of grace. How do we respond to that?

3:55One of the things that I am sure of biblically and experientially, anecdotally, 55 years of anecdotal observation, is that we need grace. We need God's grace, every one of us. We need God's grace. I remember when I was young, and I mean 10, 11-ish, 12-ish. I remember witnessing something that has horrified me and has stayed with me all of my life. I was not a believer. I was at a friend's house. We had a family. You know how sometimes you just have a family of friends. There just seems like the ages of one family kind of match your family, and you just, there tends to be so many connections that you just kind of go through life, and these families are always a fixture. Well, that was true growing up in northern New Mexico. We had a family of friends like this, and my older brother had friends, I had friends my age, and then there were some younger kids, younger, about my little brother's age. And I remember being there one time, and one of the older boys, who was probably six, seven, eight years older than me, and he had a younger brother, who was probably about ten years' difference. I had this shop, and we were all active with fixing motorcycles and doing things. And the little boy, the younger kid in this family, wanted to be part of everything that was going on.

6:00And he got, he came down and started working on some of the one of the motorcycles or something. I can't exactly remember exactly what he did in the shop, but all of us were down there, and one of the older brothers just had a meltdown on that young boy, a little brother. It was his little brother. And I mean, he opened his mouth, cursed him, called him the worst names you can imagine, belittled him severely in front of everybody. And I watched all this as it was happening. And I watched a young man, a boy, just like die on his feet. He wilted.

6:51And it was one of those things where I was like, I left, and I felt dirty. I felt, and even as I think about it, looking back, I saw an individual reduced to rubble at a time when he needed something else. Well, I can remember just keeping my eye on that young man. He didn't do well in life. He didn't do well. And let me say this. We flourish under grace. We perish outside of it. There is nothing that we need more than God's smile upon us, God's face shining upon us.

7:45We flourish. You flourish. You cause others to flourish as they come under your grace. We wilt under his frown. We need grace. Wow, do we need grace. And so I want to spend some time understanding grace, how to respond to it. And I realize I probably have a whole lot more than I can get through tonight. I have a lot lined out, but we'll just go. And I'm fine to take questions off the floor, maybe at the end as we go, as we start working our way through an understanding of grace. I want us to get it. I want us to understand it. And so I want to look at grace in the Old Testament. I want to look at grace in the New Testament. I want to look at some metaphors for grace. I want to see the accomplishment of grace and the triumphs of grace as we go along. Today, we'll just start.

9:00In the Old Testament. You've got to start somewhere. That's a good place to start. Well, grace, as we first start getting an understanding of grace, it really comes out of God's self-description. The word shows up in several places, but I'll just take our minds to God's self-description. It came at the request of Moses in Exodus 33. In Exodus 33, can you guys see that and read that, or is that just too small a font? You guys can see it way back in the back? Well, that's wonderful.

9:41What's that? You can't even see it up here. Well, okay, that's problems someplace else. It's not a. Well, this is what happens. This is in Exodus 33. And you remember what happens in Exodus 32? Anyone? The golden what? The golden calf incident happens. Okay, so God's given them the Ten Commandments, and right away they defect, and you think, okay, end of the story. But then Moses goes back and intercedes and meets with God. But look at what he says in Exodus 33, 13.

10:31He asks God to show him his glory. That's where this is going to go. But listen to what he says in Exodus 33, 13. Now, therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways, that I may know you, that I may find favor in your sight. That's the word for grace there. If I have found grace, favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I might know you, so that I may find favor. In other words, show your favor by revealing yourself to me, that I might know you more and learn to walk in the ways that are pleasing to you.

11:22Favor. So then he goes on in verse 17 of Exodus 33. And the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name. And so he says, I will let all of my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I am gracious, and will show compassion on whom I am gone. I will show compassion. There's the word for grace, same word, gracious. So Moses requests God to show him, I want to know you. And then it's exactly what happens. God shows himself to Moses. And then this is what he says, or what happens in Exodus 34, 6.

12:31Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious. There's the word, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. There's another important word, and truth. Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgressions, and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. So the Lord, he passes in front of him and he says, the Lord, now this is right after Exodus 32 and the golden calf. The Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, gives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Notice the words Related concepts there in this context where two key terms involving grace emerged. You see it up there, the word gracious and the word abounding in loving kindness or loving kindness. Gracious, it's where we get grace, and loving kindness. Loving kindness is also related to grace. And think about God as He's not just somebody who is loving and kind, He is abounding in this. He overflows with this loving kindness. This is the first time Moses is getting an idea of who this God really is. I want to know you. If I found favor, let me know you that I may find more favor. But notice the related concepts.

14:24What do you see there? Compassionate, slow to anger, truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, yet by no means leave unpunished. The words the guilty are implied there, but they aren't actually there, but it's The idea is it's just. He by no means leaves the guilty unpunished. He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet he will by no means leave it unpunished. So you can already, just by understanding this passage, get an idea of what a gracious person is like. A gracious person is compassionate, slow to anger, truthful, forgiving, and just.

15:41All of this is related in this concept of grace, and God describes Himself as gracious, abounding, overflowing, and loving-kindness. So that's where it really is. The fountainhead comes out of a concept of who God is and His self-description. Grace in the Old Testament is described theologically by one of those words, and it's described conceptually by the other one. So it's described theologically by the word grace. We just saw gracious or favor. That's one word family, and it's called the hen family or hen family. It is a word family that is often translated as favor or grace when it's the noun, or the concept of showing favor or being gracious in the concept of the verb. Same family. So grace is to show favor, or to be gracious is to show favor to or to the concept of grace is favor, one's favor upon someone else. Genesis 6:8.

17:21Noah found what in the eyes of the Lord? Found favor, or in some translations, grace. It's the idea. He found favor. You know who else found favor in the eyes of the Lord as you go through? Lot. Lot found favor. Listen to what Lot says. Who's Lot? Yes. And where was he located and he had to get out of? Sodom. Yes, he had to get out of. Out of the land there. And so the Lord spares him. And this is what Lot said. And both of these same words that we saw in the self-description are there. Now, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight. I have found grace in your sight. And you have magnified your loving-kindness, which you have shown to me by saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. So where does the Lord give him a place to go?

18:38Zoar. Some of you have just been to Zoar, and it wasn't smashed by all the fallout that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced. But there's Lot. He found favor and loving kindness. You know what the oldest inscription found in existence today? The oldest inscription? Some of you on Israel know this answer. You've been there. It's a little amulet that was found in a burial, a grave, and it's number 625. And it's an amulet that says this. The Lord make his face.

19:30To shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord make, that is, the Lord cause. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. That's the prayer. That's the priestly prayer. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you. Now, how in the world is the Lord going to cause his face to shine upon me? It's the gospel. But it's here's the concept. Going back to ancient times, this is what it means to truly live: to have God's smile, His favor, His face. The whole concept of the background of the PowerPoint here is one of the sun shining. That's the thought of grace, shining, favor, shining, God looking upon and being favorable.

20:59It's a whole concept. Where blessing comes from, that out of God's goodness, out of God's abounding in a desire to love and do kind things, even to those who do not deserve. In fact, it's all bound up in the concept of undeserving. So think about that. This is who God is. I am slow to anger, I am gracious, abounding in loving kindness. All of that involves unworthy objects. That's God, abounding in grace. So that's described theologically. It's like God shining his face, looking out of the goodness of his own goodness, not in the goodness of the object, but out of his own goodness of being who he is. That's theologically, conceptually, conceptually can understand this who he is by the word, by the noun this word has said. I've taught on this before here, but it occurs some 250 times in the Old Testament, and it's often translated as loving kindness, sometimes favor, sometimes mercy, and a whole Lot of different expressions depending on the circumstances. But it's faithfulness, it's this inner desire to show goodness, to be good, and to pour that goodness out in tangible expressions upon people, undeserving people. And he does this in all kinds of categories, saving them, so compassion on their pitiful sake, saving them, providing for them in certain situations, being loyal to them, being faithful, all kinds of concepts or expressions of this loving kindness, this faithfulness. And so it's, in many ways, it's just easier to illustrate what grace is. And that's what the Bible does by this word. It's such a rich term. It illustrates through many. You remember Hosea.

23:35You remember Hosea. What's that a story about? Well, in the first three chapters, it's about what? An unfaithful wife and a loving husband. Gomar, the unfaithful wife. Hosea, the Loving husband. They have several children. The last one is literally called Not My Child. You are not my people, and I am not your God. And so God has told Hosea to go and to take this wife. And he loves her. Not just take her, but to love her. And that's exactly what He does. So the first three chapters of the book of Hosea are about an unfaithful wife and a loving and loyal husband. Chapters 4 to the end of the book through 14 are all about an unfaithful nation and a loving God.

24:53This is what I'll read to you a little bit of it, Hosea 3. Then the Lord said to me, Go again, after she's had a child named Loami, not my child. Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods. Go love her. So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and an omer and a half. Barley.

25:32He bought her back. She was on slave stock. She had sold herself. And he buys her back. And yet, God in his faithfulness promises. And he says this: Then I said to her, You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man. So I will also be toward you. For the sons of Israel will remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, and without ephod or household idols. Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. And they will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days, or at the end of the days. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness, to his goodness.

26:40That's Hosea. You get this illustration of this loving husband for an unfaithful wife. And it's in this context, as this develops, that God speaks of what he wants. He wants what he is. What is he? He is faithful. And this is what he says in Hosea 6:6. I delight in loyalty. And there's that word, Hessed, loving kindness, faithfulness. I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifices, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. This is God's love for Israel. This is God's love for his people. This is God's love coming out of who he is, abounding in loving kindness to the completely undeserving.

27:49But it's important to recognize that he gives his loyal love and he wants loyal love from his people. He gives his grace so that we can respond in kind. He is abounding in loving kindness. He is gracious, and he wants that met by our favor to him to favor him above all else, to favor him. He favors us so that we may favor him. Well, that's illustration in Hosea. There is also a good depiction that I like to refer to in 2 Samuel. This is what God gave to David. He promised him. And I know I've probably taught on this before, but it's worth repeating. This is a very good illustration of God's faithfulness. You know, in 2 Samuel 7, David wants to build a house for God. And God says, no.

29:22I'm going to build a house for you. I'm going to build a dynasty for you. And I'm going to raise up one of your descendants. He's going to come forth from you. And I will not take my loving kindness, there's the word, away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. And it is based upon the loving kindness of God. That favor toward this house, David.

30:08You can turn to 2 Samuel 23. And there, the writer, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, records David's last song, the last words of David, and then at the end, he goes on to give an accounting of David's mighty men. And he picks this up in verse 8: These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. And he goes through this list, seemingly just a bunch of names. Verse 11, he talks about Shama, the son of Aggie. Ah, got an Aggie there.

31:00Aherah write, and the Philistines were gathered into a troop where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it, and struck the Philistines, and the Lord brought about a great victory. And he goes to this big genealogy of all of these different mighty men. And then in verse 13, he then talks about three mighty men. Verse 13, then three of the 30 chief men. Men went down and came to David at the harvest time to the cave of Edulam while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem, David's hometown. David had a craving, and he said, Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. So the three men broke through. So get that. You get the picture there. Here's David. He's thirsty. Here are his loyal, faithful troops. They've come to him. They've gathered around him. They are intensely devoted to David.

32:10If God is going to establish David's kingdom, guess what he's going to have to raise up for David? A very loyal and faithful army. So as an expression of God's covenant faithfulness to David, he gives him an army. He gives him some mighty men who will be loyal to him. And so as the writer is going through, he's talking about all of these mighty men, and then he interrupts his flow of thought and he says, Let me just show you. Let me give you an example of the heart of these mighty men. And so here's David.

32:53He's saying, oh, I wish somebody would give me a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem. Oh, I wish I had some of that. Well, that's That's the stronghold of where the Philistines are. Some of his mighty men hear David say this, and they decide: you know what? Let's go get him some water. And that's exactly what they do. They say, he wants water? Yeah, so what? If it's protected by the Philistines, he's our king. We're going to go after and get some water. So, pick it up in verse 16. So, the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem, which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. What does David do? Ah, water. No, he's very humbled. He would not drink it. And he poured it out to the Lord, and he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore, he would not drink. These things the three mighty men did. And then he picks up the narrative again: Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, and he just goes through, then verse 20, then Beniah, go toward verse 24, then Ashael. And he just goes through this list, and he gets down to verse 38, Ira, the Ithraite, Gerub, the Ithrite. And then he ends his whole letter, or his whole genealogy, the whole list of the mighty men. With one name. What is it?

34:33Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite. All of these faithful, mighty men, sworn loyalty, intensely loyal to David. What happens with Uriah? Uriah is out fighting a war, a battle, one of David's battles. David sees Uriah's wife. And what does he do? He takes her. Only wife. He takes her. God placed him in a position of authority. And look at what he does with it. He takes. Listen, God did not put David in that position so that he could take advantage and be unloyal. They are intensely loyal to him.

35:39So what happens? In a great cover-up, he brings Uriah back. Uriah doesn't play along. He wanted to conceal the pregnancy. He brings Uriah back, thinking that, okay, we'll just make all this go away through some. Kind of scheme. The scheme doesn't work because Uriah is intensely loyal to the effort, to the kingdom. That's David. And then what does he do with Uriah? Sends him back to war and puts him in a place, sends him a message in his hand to give to Joab that is basically his death instructions. Uriah doesn't look and Uriah is killed there on the field.

36:46God gave his covenant faithfulness to David. He gave his kindness to him. David didn't show it, didn't give it back. It's one of the most horrible events in human history. Psalm 51. This is where David, after he's been confronted and convicted, how does he start his prayer? Psalm 51, this is right after he's convicted about Bathsheba and all that took place and all that he did. He starts out, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. God, do not deal with me as I deserve.

37:54God, deal with me according to that favor. Turn your face upon me. Cause your face to shine upon me. How in the world could God shine his face upon such an individual that did such a horrible thing, that took total advantage of God's faithfulness and totally did not show the same kind of faithfulness to his people? How? God, be gracious to me according to your loving kindness. Don't deal with me how I deserve to be dealt with. Deal with me according to that goodness that comes out of you, that inner disposition of you to have compassion upon the completely undeserving, the one who is in a pitiful state. And he goes on, according to the greatness of your transgressions, blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me. Cleanse me from my sins, for I know my transgressions and my sins. Sin is ever before you. Against you, you only I have sinned.

39:13Put in me a right spirit. Make me hear. Verse 8, joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Verse 10, create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners like me will be converted to you. You've heard me talk about my dad's tractor. Have I told you that story? I probably have told it many times. Have you guys heard this story about my dad's great big 50-20 tractor?

40:13I'll tell it again. The older you get, it doesn't matter. Just tell the story again. But my dad bought this 50-20 tractor. This was the biggest tractor he had ever owned. And he was so proud of it. And he brought it back to the farm there, just up there in Waco. And boasting, he was saying, son, this tractor can go through anything. Don't tell that to a 14-year-old boy. He might take you literally, which is what I did. So one day I'm out there with my... one of my friends and we're driving around in the tractor. I was kind of showing off, showing how it worked and everything. And I said, see, this tractor, it can go through anything. That's really what it looked like, too. I mean, except it had big balloon tires, even.

41:14And so we're driving, so this tractor can go through anything. See that pond up there? No problem. And so I put it in gear and I just drive straight for the pond. And my friend's like, I don't think, no, no, this thing would go through anything. Well, it didn't go through the pond. It sunk in the pond. I put my dad's word to the test. I put my dad's tractor to the test, and it went down. And my dad was gracious to me. But anyway, but I think about what David did. God promised him his loving kindness. I will not take it away from you. I will not take it away from your house. And if ever there is an incident in Scripture where somebody put that loving kindness to the test, it was David with the incident of Bathsheba and Uriah, one of his faithful mighty men.

42:20It's a betrayal unthinkable. And even the writer, where he puts it and how he records David's mighty men, is telling the story of David's covenant unfaithfulness. And yet, behind that is the promise of God's favor and settled loving kindness. If anybody's ever tested it, I think that's probably except for maybe Judas. One of the most treacherous acts in human history. Testing God's loving kindness. And God was gracious to him. God did restore a right spirit. God did forgive his iniquity. That's the grace in the Old Testament.

43:28Grace is not. A lowering of standards, and grace is not some kind of metaphysical substance, it's personal, it comes from one individual to another individual. It's God giving Himself favor. Well, we summarize grace in the Old Testament. This is how we could say it. God's grace is fully rooted, not in what people do, but in His disposition to be gracious in ways beyond any human formula or calculation. That's grace. It's firmly rooted, finally rooted, not in what people do, but in His disposition to be gracious. God is disposed to be kind and generous and good and loving-kindness, forgiving, compassionate.

44:55May His face shine upon you. Because of his kind disposition. And may he make his face shine upon you. How does he make his face shine upon us? You have to come back because we'll look at grace in the New Testament next time. But I hope this awakens you and recalibrates your semester to go in God's grace. You're in Christ. You're in God's grace. If you are outside of Christ, you're outside of this special grace. Oh, yes, you still enjoy the sun, the rain, and all that, but you don't belong to him if you're outside of Christ.

45:55But the invitation of his grace is for you to come to him. Grace upon grace we have found in Jesus Christ. So you're not going to outdo the grace of God. It's already been put to the test. So come to him. Be encouraged and respond to his favor by favoring him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness and your mercy, your grace. Father, in this loving disposition, we recognize that if we're going to flourish at all, it's going to be because you caused your face to shine upon us and to be good to us, not because of anything in us, but because of your kind disposition. And so it is that kind disposition that we thank you for and we celebrate tonight in song and through contemplation and through the reading of your word and thinking upon these things. Father, help us to not just leave here having heard words, but Father, bring us face to face with what this is saying about you and what this shows us about you and your disposition toward us. It is truly a place that we can rest, knowing that you will not only have compassion and mercy and forgive us of our sins and pardon us, but that you go beyond that, giving us grace, bringing out your perfect designs in our lives, bringing out your perfect gifts to us. Help us to go this semester. Resting in these truths and excited and responding by favoring you. Thank you for giving us a reason to live. Now let us go and live in that light. In Jesus' name, amen.