Understand Grace - Part 3

2:51And then, but John specifically, and in the New Testament, as we anchor our New Testament understanding of grace, it's all the Anchored upon the apostolic witness. Those who testify who Jesus is, they saw him. Upon this, Paul is going to build his understanding, his doctrines, and his teaching of grace, the favor of God manifested in Christ. Came away with an understanding that what John wants us to see is he wants us to behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And therein is grace most vividly depicted. And so, as we summarize so far, looking at grace in the Old Testament, grace in the New Testament, I boil it down to a simple concept: grace is the devoted favor of God upon a person. It's the devoted favor.

3:52And if there's anything that we flourish under, it's under God's devoted favor. If there's anything we wilt under, it's being separated from Him. So, God's devoted favor, it's the one thing we wish, the one thing we hope we wish upon everybody, and that, and especially anybody and those close to us, we want God's favor, God's loving kindness to abound toward them. So that's grace in the Old Testament, and now we're beginning our study of grace in the New Testament. Tonight, I just want to take a little portion of that, and I want you to consider a metaphor of grace, a metaphor of grace that is very prominent in the New Testament and really even in the Old, but a metaphor that just stands out about grace that I'd like to just give some thought to tonight and let that start sinking in as what grace is and the metaphor used. And that metaphor for grace, before we come to it, I want to make sure we have in our minds an inseparable union that is depicted in Scripture, and that is grace and the spirit of grace. Grace is very personal. It's not like grace is some kind of substance out there. Grace is very personal. It flows from one person to the next.

5:43It's favor. It's like it involves one showing favor and one as an object of one receiving that favor. So grace is a person can. To another person. And we understand this just by the way we relate to one another. You can understand when you're under somebody's favor, and you can understand very quickly when you're not under someone's favor. We go through life like that. And so we understand. And so we don't separate one from a person. We don't say, okay, well, we don't separate, like in my family, dad's grace from dad.

6:35And likewise, we don't separate grace from the spirit of grace. The scripture doesn't make that. Grace is very personal. It involves an individual and it involves an object. And so the flow of grace. So there's no union. Can't talk about grace without the spirit of grace. And the scripture does this. Scripture does this in Zechariah 12:10. God says, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. The two are related there. A spirit of grace God's going to pour out, and it's going to cause the house of David to seek his grace, to pray for it, to walk. Want to come under that grace, to seek and come under that supplication. It's the same. God is going to pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look upon 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. So, grace, a connection between the spirit of grace that he pours out, supplicate there's connection. Hebrews 10, 29 says this: How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace? When God is gracious, how do you respond? One of my favorite stories of my college days, okay, not one of my favorite, but it's up there. One of the memorable things was a young man who had a crush on another young lady, and he really wanted to impress her. And so he goes all out to make a dinner. For her. And he makes it happen. And I mean, this guy was very meticulous. He was just a gourmet cook. And he made some squid and he put it in this thing. And he had all these pots. And he had it served with a nice big tin top on it. And he set it all down. The table all set out. She was sitting there. He lifts it up in this great display of extravagance and poise and posture. And she takes one look at it. She goes, ooh, I'm not going to eat that.

9:52The next day, he told me, She's off my list, off my list. She insulted the spirit of grace. And you think about what grace does. Grace is a very extravagant display of love and affection. And when God does this on the cross, it's an extravagant display of over-the-top love. And favor upon humanity. And to disregard the spirit of grace, or disregard the cross, or just to see it as, ah, that's just that's nothing, or I want no part of that. It's like saying, ooh, I'm not going to get near that.

10:55It's insulting. And so there is a spirit of grace. And when you insult the spirit of grace, guess what happens? There's no more flow of grace. That's why the unpardonable sin is connected to blaspheming the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of grace. And when you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, when you permanently insult the Holy Spirit, you are cutting off that flow of grace. And so that's connected. So you cannot disconnect the Spirit of grace from grace itself.

11:47So, but the metaphor you see very frequently about the Spirit of God. The spirit of grace is water. Water. Take a moment and talk about that. Water. Think about physical water for a moment. What does water, physical water, do? Well, it's used, and you see this in a couple places, but two major things in Scripture. It's an agent that removes physical impurities. You think about physical water, wash, bathe. It's an agent that removes physical impurities. You see this in Leviticus 14:8, cleansing, bathing, the idea that it's an agent that removes physical impurities, even if ceremonially, but also physically.

12:48It's also the medium that conveys substance necessary for physical life. We need water. Isaiah 44:3 says this: For I will pour out water on the dry and thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on all your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants, and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water. So he's talking about physical land, thirsty land, streams of water on the dry ground. And it will cause grass to spring up.

13:35And in that same context, he's obviously connecting it to the Spirit of God up on humanity, upon the offspring, Israel. And they will spring up. So physical water is a metaphor. You can think about it, well, I'll give you a little bit, take you a little bit into my garden. My gardening, as you know, it's not very good at it. What can you say about these squash plants here? What do they look like to you? They're thirsty. Yes, they've. And I was going to take a picture of my squash plants, but they were so bad that I thought somebody might call animal control on me. Aren't you glad there's not an animal control for plants? But anyway, my plants were completely.

14:35And I started watering them. And guess what happens? There's this thing, you know what happens when water gets to your plants? It's like it's a whole different plant. So if you're going to garden, make sure you understand there's this thing called water. It makes a big difference. It makes a huge difference. And you can see what the difference water makes. It is, what does water do? It transports nutrients. It takes, you know, fueled by the sun, it transports nutrients necessary for a plant's well-being, and that's what makes it fruitful, that's what makes it flourish. Without that water, it is exhausted. And I think many of us go through life like those plants on your left, void of internal supply, an exhausted spirit, and yet there is God's spirit that he promises. And so I want to, we need God's spirit, or we wilt, we fade, we don't flourish and are not fruitful. Water.

16:00We think about the spirit of grace. There's physical water, but then there's the spirit of grace. Metaphorically, it's speaking of the spirit of grace. And when you think about the spirit of grace, connecting it to physical water, just like physical water removes impurities, so the agent through whom God removes spiritual impurities is his spirit. How does the Blood of Christ gets applied to us. It's a work of the Spirit. It's a spiritual work. And that blood of Christ, how are our sins removed? Well, in much the same way that water removes dirt, the Spirit of God is that agent or that medium that means God removes sin, puts them on Christ.

16:56You see this in Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36: Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your filthiness and from all of your idols. So this metaphor, this sprinkling clean water on you, does something in the heart. And what he's talking about is it's a spiritual work. He's using the metaphor. He's going to sprinkle them, clean water, put his clean spirit within you. As you think about not just to remove the filthiness, but it's also the medium through whom God conveys expressions of his grace that are necessary for spiritual life. Just like the plant needs water to transport nutrients, so we need the Spirit of God. We are spiritual beings, and we need spiritual connection with God.

18:01And his spirit is that medium, that agent, that means, however, you can through whom God conveys his expressions of grace that are necessary for spiritual life. What are some of the expressions of his grace? Well, we've been singing about them a whole bunch tonight. Forgiveness of sin, illumination, teaching, understanding, comfort, peace. All of these are ministrations of the Spirit. And you need these, just like a plant needs nutrients. But in a physical sense, let's think about living waters just so you can get an understanding of how the Bible uses it. Living waters stand in contrast to like a cistern.

18:53Living waters stand in contrast to like stagnant waters. And in Israel's time, and in the time of the writing, cisterns. What's a cistern? It holds water. It's a water collection. And so it's so living waters are different from stagnant waters, which you might find here in Texas in a pond. That's a stagnant waters or a rainwater collection system or something like that. In Israel, it's cisterns, and you dig these great big old carve them into the rock usually, and you put them in a low place, catch the rain, let the water go down into them. And if it only rains a few times a year, you have very little bit of rain, those cisterns get water in them, and then what happens? It sits there, and you're drawing water out of these cisterns all year, and so they tend to get fouled.

20:04Leviticus speaks of these kinds of cisterns. I mean, you can see them all over in Scripture. Won't spend much time there. But living waters are connected to an underground source, an underground source. It's an interesting situation in Genesis 26:18. Isaac is digging wells. I'll just read it, verse 18. Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. Verse 19, but when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, that's the word, a well of flowing water.

20:48Living waters. It's the idea of waters that are flowing. Well, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, The water is ours. It's an interesting connection going back into the patriarchal period. They understood groundwater. They understood, and notice that they don't say the well is ours, they say the water is ours. You have tapped into our water supply. They understood something about underground waters and movement of underground waters, hydrogeology. And so, but this is what living waters is. It's about underground flowing supply.

21:38Now, when you relate this in a spiritual sense, when you start thinking about living waters in the metaphor of physical living waters, and you put this in the idea of a spiritual sense, which the scriptures readily do, it is perhaps the best metaphor that we can understand how the Spirit of God moves. But if you think about living waters, this depicts very well Israel's rejection of God. In Jeremiah 12, 2:13, Jeremiah says, This, quoting God, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to Hewn for themselves cisterns, and not just any cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So, this water, this idea of water and living waters depicts spirituals' rejection. What was Israel's sin? Well, the problem with the nation of Israel is that it was that they had abandoned trusting in God and his ways.

23:07Living waters, something they had, they had ceased trusting in God and his ways, the fountain of living waters, and put their trust in idolatrous objects. And that's what they did. They started carving out and making their own images, and that's the whole deal. Their idolatry. It's like you have gone after these other deities, other gods, they cannot supply. They are cisterns. In fact, they're broken cisterns. What's the problem with the broken cistern? It doesn't hold water. Yeah, if you got a, it's like, what's the problem with the bucket with a hole in it? It doesn't hold water. And so God's issue with Israel. Israel is look, you've rejected the fountain of life, the fountain of all vitality for something that you have made that cannot hold water, cannot satisfy, grows putrid, corrupt, that is God's gripe with Israel and with anyone who abandons Him and choose to make their own way.

24:42But also, in a spiritual sense, not only does it depict Israel's rejection, it also depicts the spiritual supply of the Spirit of grace, aka the Holy Spirit. It is spiritual in nature. When I talk about, yes, it's the Holy Spirit, but it's the Holy Spirit in that spirit of grace. Not in the coming to judge, not in the, but in that spirit, that hour of favor. And so the Spirit of grace, it is spiritual in nature.

25:23The Spirit of grace, what does he do? You know, he doesn't talk much about himself. Have you ever noticed that? The Holy Spirit. Spirit doesn't really talk much about himself. He exalts Christ. He glorifies the Father. And yet, very important, you see the effects of his work. He wants to magnify Christ. He can tell when a person is born again. You can't really quite figure out why, where, when, exactly what all happened, but boy, you can sure tell. Something changes in the person. You can tell his work.

26:04But his work is spiritual in nature, and what does he do? He applies Christ's sacrifice. He is the life-giving and life-transforming agent of God. He refreshes, he satisfies the soul. And all this is dispensed by Jesus. Favor. His work. You remember we saw this in John 4. You remember, Jesus meets the woman at the well? And what does he tell her? She comes out there at noon, right between the mountains of blessing, the mountains of cursing, to a well. She herself has had several, many husbands, probably comes out late in the day because she is ashamed, doesn't connect well with some of the other ladies. Usually they would come in the morning.

27:01Jesus makes his way, meets her, and then he tells her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Go a little bit further. In John 7:37, remember the last day of the feast, the great day of the feast. Jesus stands up, cried out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But he was speaking of his spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. Spirit, living waters, satisfying. And as you just look at the ministry of the Spirit, as Jesus tells us about him, it goes like this.

28:10You see this spiritual supply of this spirit of grace. You can see it in John 4, the favor. You just see it abundantly, this favor dispensed on this woman at the well. And it's life-transforming. Just knowing that the The King of Kings, the Messiah, the Lord, the dispenser of everything good, the Creator of all things, has turned His loving, abounding favor upon you. That's transforming, as it did this woman. John 7, he speaks there of this life-giving power.

29:03For whoever believes in me, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living waters, rivers of life. Again, a transforming those who believe in Christ, if you take in who he is, there is a life-giving power that comes from believing and knowing Christ. It transforms us. If you really know who he is, take in and believe who he is. He transforms. The problem with many of us, why we don't live a transformed life, is we really haven't taken in who Christ is, what he has done, what that says about God's love towards us.

29:54And so we really don't believe that, so we really don't take it in, so we do not experience much transformation. Transformation at all. The new Spirit hasn't, the clean spirit hasn't taken hold in us. It goes on in John 14:16 through 17. He speaks about the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is just one administration of God's gift. Teaching ministry, John 14:26, we need someone to illumine, to show us. Testifying ministry through his people. You see his comforting ministry in John 16, 7. You see His ministrations of peace in John 20. All these are just, these are things we need to survive, to thrive. It's like His life-giving supply, Spirit of grace, applies, just like physical water.

31:02I'll tell you what impresses me about all of this is the offering. How freely the offer for a relationship to Christ is given. How freely, if you are thirsty, come to Him. It's free. It's just, it really depicts somebody who is abounding in. Grace and ready to show grace and mercy upon anybody, anybody, anywhere who is willing to come at any time, no matter what their background, no matter what the back, someone who comes thirsty. This is the depiction of grace. It's a picture of the God who revealed Himself to Moses, who abounds in loving kindness, mercy, and grace, and favor. It's freely offered.

32:04Remember what he said? If you know the gift of God, do you know the gift of God? It's Jesus. And not just in a way to take away your sins. Yes, he's the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, but you need a mediator. You need somebody, you need a shepherd. You need somebody who's mindful of you, someone who cares for you, someone who will make it his project forever to lavish you with all of the good things of your heavenly Father. That's the gift. It's not just like, here, here's a little bit of cash, or here's a little bit of a token. No, you get a living person, a shepherd. That is his gift. If you know the gift of God, it is Jesus.

33:00And who is Jesus? Eternal Christ, eternal shepherd, Son of God, Son of Man, King of kings, Lord of lords, the way, the truth, the life. He is all of this. He is the one who stewards the inheritance, the eternal kingdom. He is the one who lets in. He is the one who sends out. He is the judge of all things. If you know the gift of God, Jesus, and who Jesus is, and if you know what he gives, what does he give? He gives his spirit. John 20, he breathes upon them and he gives his spirit. That's what he gives, his spirit. So if you know the gift of God, Jesus, and you know who Jesus is, and you know what he gives, he gives that life, abundant supply of life, ask him for it.

34:05Question, do you really believe the gift of God? Do you really believe who he is? Choose to believe, if nothing else. Set your mind in that path. Believe. Pray, help my unbelief. God, I will believe. Forgive me for my unbelief. Help my unbelief, but I will believe. Choose it. It's freely offered, freely given. Respond in faith. I want to take just a moment and just talk about the headwaters of this grace. Like waters, there's a headwaters. There's a source. Where is the source? Let's trace this fountain of living waters to its source. Well, it's clearly Christ's crosswork.

35:16Jesus Himself said, John 3, verses 14 and 15, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. So it's just looking toward the cross, understanding the crosswork. We never understand the total implications of the crosswork, but as we're looking toward the crosswork and we're starting to take in who he is, we start talking about what he has done and how that impacts us. We take it in.

35:58We're trans Formed. We're changed from one kingdom to another, from being under the curse of eternal death into the kingdom of eternal light, life. That's where it begins. That's the headwaters. But that's not the full scope of it. And sometimes we put this salvation moment somewhere back in time. Oh, yeah, I've come to Christ, come to the cross, come to all that. Yeah, I've been down there, done all that, but I'm really struggling with, I'm still empty inside. Say, go back to the cross. Go back to the cross. In fact, I love this depiction in Revelation 22:1. Let me just read it to you. Then he showed me a river of the water of life. There again, you have this water of life there at the very end, clear, crystal, coming from the throne of God and the Lamb. In the middle of its street, on either side, the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

37:23I believe this is a literal river of water of life. But it has spiritual significance and still borrows in on that spiritual metaphor. There he showed me a river of the water of life, clear and crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the lamb. Interesting. Notice the headwaters of this great river. I mean, it's abundant. He says he abounds in loving kindness, and you see it depicted in the water. You see what it supplies. You see its life-giving supply to the trees, the tree of life, the river of life, the tree of life, and all of this that heals and brings wholeness to the nations.

38:20But notice where it comes out of. It comes from the throne of God and the Messiah. From God and the King of kings, from God and the judge of all the earth. Look closely where, what is the word used to describe there? From God, the throne of God and the Lamb. The Lamb who appears. As the Lamb who was slain earlier in Revelation, the crucified one. And there, there, long after the cross event, we have the Lamb in heaven from there, the headwaters of this great and mighty river, the river of life, water of life.

39:28It's no coincidence that it flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. And it's for the healing of the nations. And so, even now, it gives us a glimpse into this abundant grace, the Spirit of grace, and how He ministers to our soul. You're having a hard day, go to the cross. If you're living through lonely times, go to the cross. Whatever it is, go to the cross. Turmoil, you'll find peace. Think your life doesn't matter, go to the cross. Wow.

40:15Go to the cross. It's for the healing of the nations. And we'll never lose sight of it, even in the distant eternity. To come. Waters flow from the throne of God and the Lamb. Well, real quickly, I want to just talk about how we're to respond to God's favor, real quickly. First of all, we are to respond to God's favor by favoring Him. Think about that. Favor. You favor things. You favor. There are things you esteem. There are things you turn your affections. And we are to respond to His favor by favoring Him above all other things.

41:16Do not insult the Spirit of grace. It's lavishly been poured out, given you life, given you redemption in Christ. If you don't know Him, you can come to Him tonight. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Welcome Him into your heart, you'll be forgiven. You can do that tonight. You can even do that right now, even as I'm praying, even as I'm talking. Cry out to Him. Do not insult the Spirit of grace. He is something and someone worth living for instead of this harmful Spirit of the age. Spirit of the age is a broken system.

42:03And you should probably know that by now. If you've lived any kind of time, you realize this world is broken. I think of Matthew 13, 46. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. This is what's worth living for. Go and give all in pursuit of him. Drink in who Christ is. Drink in what he has done for you, and the spirit of grace will overwhelm your soul.

42:48Drink it in. But you have to take him in by faith in order to become like Christ. You can't ever be like him unless you take him in. You have to take in who he is by faith. And until you do so, you can never be like him. That's why I'd never want to push any kind of Christ-like morality on you without the spirit of grace in you because it's crushing. We want to walk in his ways, but first you have to take him in by faith.

43:26We flourish under grace. But we absolutely perish outside of it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the truth in your Scripture. We thank you that your Spirit inspired these words, has given us these words that we may think through and understand the supply, the richness, and how to respond to your favor. Thank you for being the God who, like a mighty river, abounds in loving kindness. What a metaphor. What a picture of the kind of favor that you have given toward mankind. Father, help us to be a people who do not insult that spirit of grace. Forgive us times that we have. Help us tonight to turn our hearts completely to you, take in who you are, and walk in your ways. Thank you, Father, for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.