Understanding Grace - Part 5

1:02The choosing, the calling, all of this begins with this over-abounding grace that God has, this devoted favor. And it has specific addresses. I think that's what's very important. It's not just He has this grace generally for some nondescript lump of people out there. No, it has your name. If you're in Christ, you can understand that what began, your salvation, really begins. In the heart of God, and it begins in this disposition of love toward you, this devoted favor to you. So he calls people by his grace. The very act of believing is a gift of grace. I've said before, he doesn't believe for us, but he gives us faith so that we can exercise it, so that we can know him, believe in him. So believing in him is by grace. So choose to believe. You'll hear me say this over and over. When you come to Scripture and you're reading Scripture, even if you come across things that are difficult, let your default be to believe, to choose to believe. Say, Lord, I'm having a hard time believing this. Just choose to believe it and move on. Now, unless, and I would say, unless there's something really glaring that you're like, okay, there's something really, really wrong, and I'm not going to choose to believe unless there's something that's just over the top out there that gives me reason not to believe. And you'll find as you go through Scripture that you won't find many of those. And then once you sort through it, it'll quickly disappear. But the skeptic looks for reasons not to believe. And so finds excuses, finds a way to blame.

2:57So the act of believing is. By grace, so exercise it. That was his gift to you. So exercise it all the more. Forgiveness of sins comes by grace, of course. He is in his disposition to let our sins go, not holding them against us. That's grace. We're justified by his grace, made legally right in our standing before him, justly made right. Regeneration is by grace, by mercy. He causing us to be born again is something of his grace, born from above with a new nature, a disposition to love the things of God, to walk in his ways, and to hunger and thirst for those things. That's his work. Grace allows us to grow in our daily walk, our daily spiritual walk. Grace allows us, it's his devoted favor that allows us to grow. He loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to stay that way. And so it's his devoted favor that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to continue to grow in his ways. So that's what we looked at last time. I want to pick up there and look at a few more of these in our time tonight.

4:28Number eight, Spiritual gifts came from God's grace. I mean, you think about the act of giving gifts. Romans 12:6 says this: Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. So, God in His wisdom, knowing you, loving you, abounding in favor, has given you certain gifts. Gifts that you are to exercise, gifts that you are to use to build up the body of Christ, something unique, distinct for you. He's given some things, and in His wisdom, many of us have some of the same gifts. Somebody said recently that taking out the trash isn't a gift. I don't know who said that, but probably somebody very brilliant in here. But anyway, there are a lot of things that are uniquely ours given to us, and you are to use them. But to think about what God has given you is an expression of His love, His abounding kindness. And so, how do you respond to that? Use it. Exercise. It. For the glory of God, for the good of others, grow in that grace. Grow in those gifts that He has given you. And we will stand before Him and see the parable, the talents, and the minas.

6:16It's one of what did you do with what God gave you? It's not about wishing you had some other gift, or that, well, I wish I was doing that instead of this, or God, you put that is irrelevant to the equation. To look at what God has given you and be thankful for it. That's what He wants. To be thankful for what He's given you and to exercise it. It's a gift of grace, favor. And so, as He's allowed you to be able to serve, that is favor. So, exercise it.

6:57Number nine, God's grace is sufficient for us. God's grace is sufficient. I really appreciated the song, My worth is not in what I own, not in the strength of flesh and bone, not in skill or name. I can't remember all the lyrics, but very profound. Our worth is found in the favor of God, that His devoted Favor to us. I don't care what you take away from the Christian. You cannot take away the favor of God. It is forever fixed to the same degree that his favor is upon Jesus Christ. We are rich.

7:52When you are in Christ, you are rich. Listen to what Corinthians 12, 9. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. This is Paul. And my grace is sufficient for you. It's all you need, Paul. It's all you need to set your heart at eternal ease. My grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. And this changes Paul's whole tune about his struggles. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

8:41That's a very important thought. His grace is sufficient. What else do you need? If God has said to you, I have given you my devoted favor, it's not ever going to go away. Not in this lifetime, not in any other. Not in what's ahead. And you're saying, yeah, that's great, God, but wow, I'd sure like to have just a little more cash flow. There's something really off. You don't understand the value of His grace and how sufficient it is. And this is where, no matter who you are, no matter where you are in your spiritual walk, at some point, this is going to set in and calm and be that only thing that can really calm, give you peace, that shalom of soul.

9:41It's not in us. It's not in our skill. It's not in our name. It's not in our accomplishments. It's just in this overabundant, devoted favor that comes out of the character of God. It is the character of God that sets our souls in a place of peace. Sufficient, no matter what may come, no matter what hardships people face, whatever. God's grace is sufficient. Number 10, God's grace brings eternal life. See how the New Testament links so much of every good thing? That we experience back to God's grace.

10:35God's grace brings eternal life. In Romans 5:21, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You think about the reign of sin in our lives being separated from God, and the reign of death, sin in humanity is one of separation, isolation from God, man going his own way. But then there is this reign of grace, the triumph, the overpowering reign and triumph of God's grace, his devoted favor. So that as sin once reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life.

11:35His devoted favor reigns because he reigns. His devoted favor upon his people reigns because he reigns, and it's going to take eternal life, eternal union to know it. So that reign of grace isn't going away because he's not going away. And so his grace is sufficient, that reign of grace. And it's going to be sufficient now. It's going to be sufficient then. But it's always going to be the basis of God's government with us. It's going to come out of this principle, this characteristic of who He is.

12:29Number 11, it is by grace that we are saved in all of its complete constellation of all the many terms that involve salvation and being saved from sin, being saved through Christ, being saved to God for eternity, and all that involves all the terms, all the expressions, heaven itself, it's all by grace that we come into this full-orbed salvation. And so I think about Ephesians 2:4. Just listen to this as I read. Paul's in one of his ongoing statements here, doxological ramblings that he just cannot seem to cease. But here he is in Ephesians 2:4, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he has loved us, and that came out of who he is, not out of who we are. He loves us with his great mercy.

13:45Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved. So even when you were as offensive and as cut off and as hostile to God and completely dead to him, even then his love was so much that he made us alive together with Christ. That's abundant favor. And it doesn't come from anything other than the wellspring of God's character and who he is. You know, our eyes have been blinded to God.

14:35We have been told that he doesn't love us. We've been told that he isn't mindful of us. And I think we come into this world with this kind of disposition. And we hear it all around, and it just kind of stays with us. But as we come to the scriptures, we start seeing more and more of this. That's not true. Start getting out. To see. He loves us with the same degree, even while we were gross, dead sinners. He loved us to the same degree as Christ.

15:14But he goes on and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. There it is. There is where all the blessings are, in Christ Jesus. Apart from Christ Jesus, there is no eternal life. There is no salvation. There is no devoted, eternal favor. But in Christ, it's all there. Because in Christ, he deals with us with the same affection, the same degree of love and devotion as Christ Himself.

15:54The same character, same being, same, we are in Christ. We don't become Christ, but we are in Him in the sense that He gave His life for us. We are on His mind. We are on His heart. We are spiritually connected to Him forever. And the Heavenly Father loves what Christ loves and loves us in Christ. And so He has seated us with Him. So that, but here, get this in verse 7. That. Why all this? Why does he do all this? So that in the ages to come, ages to come from now, ages, eternities of ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, how would you like to be in that? Step into that for a moment.

16:58That God's grace has to have an object. You don't just put grace on display like you would do some fireworks display. No, grace is something that involves personal beings. The one dispensing that grace, God, the one receiving that grace, the object, his people. And so, what does he do? He saves us. He's seated us with Christ. He's raised up, creating this whole human humanity to bear his likeness. Why? So that he might show the overabundance of his grace. This is the only way he can manifest who he is, is by having a human race, objects of his grace.

17:51And so being an object of God's grace, that's surpassing. And for eternity, to be able to show just how gracious he is, he needs us. He wants us. For some reason, he wants to make his grace known. And so he needs objects of his grace. And he put us, placed us with Christ, so that he might show the surpassing riches of his devoted, benevolent goodness. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The gift of God is by grace you have been saved through faith. That whole statement: salvation is by grace through faith. That is the gift of God.

18:56I just want to compare the two verses here: Ephesians 2:7, so that in the ages to come he might show us the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus. Compare that back to Exodus 34:6, when Moses is first coming to understand and asking, Who are you? What are you like? What is your name? And God, Moses is like, I want. To see your glory, and God says, I'm going to pass all my goodness right in front of you. And he says, Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Right there, at the very beginning, Moses meets God, and God tells him, Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am compassionate, I am gracious, I am slow to anger, and I abound like abundant waters, living waters. I abound in loving kindness. I am the source of devoted favor and goodness. And so you can see just how Paul, as he is relating, as he's thinking about what God is going to do in eternities to come and ages to come, it's to show this abounding loving kindness that was revealed to Moses in name. And Moses met the same one. And we get this picture of his grace abounding.

20:50So as we think through this, the encompassing nature of grace, a remnant is chosen by grace. God calls people by his grace. The act of believing is by grace. Forgiveness of sins comes by grace. We are justified by God's grace. Regeneration is by grace and mercy. Grace allows us to grow in our daily spiritual walk. Spiritual gifts come from God's grace. God's grace is sufficient for us. Grace brings eternal life. It is by grace that we are saved. And this is just a few.

21:36But you see the encompassing nature of God's grace. That's why, if you are in Christ, you're rich. And that's why, if you are outside of him, we want you to know you can come to him today and be placed in Christ. How do you do that? Simply call out to him. Say, God, I want your Son in my life. Forgive me of my sin. I see who he is. I welcome him. Even if I don't fully understand, I open the door to you to come in.

22:15I want to respond properly to your grace. And I don't care who you are or where you are in your walk with Christ. We need to respond well to this grace. His word. Goes forth and he says, let there be light, and it's so. Let there be waters, let creatures fill, and it was so, and it was so. And as we come to these statements about his grace, let them shape us. Let this grace, let the revelation of his grace and who he is shape us, and let us respond to him. Let us respond to grace diligently. And perhaps I want to do maybe one more installment on this and talk a little bit more about what that responding looks like. We've talked about it a little bit, but when I think about grace and how God personified grace, he personifies it in Christ Jesus. I just want to read to you 2 Corinthians 8:9, just as maybe a closing thought to this.

23:37For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. So you know the grace. What does it look like? For the Lord, for us, he had to empty himself. He had to become poor in order to make others rich. He emptied himself and he used his strength, he used what he had, he used his resources, and he poured them out in such a manner as to make those who were poor rich.

24:24And that's what grace is. Christ, you see that in his first advent, he poured himself out to death, death on the cross, so that he could be the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. But he doesn't end there. He lives to be our shepherd, our king, our counselor, our comforter, our creator. He is all of that. He is our high priest. And so that grace, that emptying of himself that we saw so vividly displayed in his first advent, continues to be who he is. He continues to pour himself out, making others rich.

25:14And this goes on throughout eternity. This is what eternity is about. He continues to give what he has. And of course, he's God, and so it's. Inexhaustible, but it is a picture of who he is. He is rich towards us. And as we think about tonight and leaving here tonight, let us respond by being rich toward him. He devoted his favor to us. Let us devote our favor upon him. Let us prefer him over everything else. And let us be ambitious about it. These aren't just truths that are just to, oh, that's a good thought, that's a good thought. I hope they motivate you to respond to be rich to him. He became poor as he poured himself out. And guess what? We're becoming like him. So guess what? That's going to be involved. We're going to be learning how to pour ourselves out to be rich toward him.

26:25Rich toward him and favor, our favor toward him, to prefer him above everything else. And maybe in the Lord's providence, we'll spend one more night looking at what being rich toward him looks like and using some of Christ's own teaching as we do that. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks again for your abounding grace and this marvelous characteristic of who you are, this revelation of yourself that you give. And we It must take work to organize the universe. It must take thought and detail and care and attention on a level that we cannot even fathom. And then you've put us together. You've given us bodies that are a universe of complication in and of themselves. But then, beyond that, you've created all that. All this is just a platform for a relationship with you. And it is that relationship that we want to be in. And so, thank you for this week. Thank you for this day. Father, help us as we leave here to look ahead to the week and to be rested and refreshed and renewed for those tasks that you have us to do this week. I pray your blessings upon everyone here and their families and the burdens that they are carrying. Father, I pray that you would step in, answer the prayers that are being lifted up from this body here on a regular basis. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

28:10You are dismissed.