Grace Unknown

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I couldn’t help but contrast the religion, the predominate religion of Thailand as that presentation was made, Buddhism, with its concept of achieving merit with the subject that we talk about

tonight, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. I want us to begin tonight in sort of a strange place. I want us to start in 2 Chronicles 33, 2 Chronicles 33. And we meet a man there who was one of the most wicked kings in Israel’s history, a man by the name of Manasseh. Notice verse 1 of 2 Chronicles 33.

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD according to the

abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down;

Here’s a man who had the best of homes, raised in the home of Hezekiah, a godly king of Israel. But Manasseh chose his own way. And he chose instead to eschew the faith of YHWH of Israel, and to pursue instead the worship of idols; to turn all that he had learned from his father, the

righteous Hezekiah on its head and pursue his own path. Verse 3 continues,

3 “… he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.” [This man was into gross rampant idolatry. But it gets worse. Notice verse 4. He came to the point that he blasphemed the true God of heaven.] … 4 He built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.” 5 For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. … verse 7 Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; …

[he put it there, not only did he blaspheme God, not only did he worship idols, but he perverted His people] 9 Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of

Jerusalem to do more evil [this is remarkable] to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.

In other words, Manasseh taught the people of Israel to sin more grossly than the Canaanites who were in the land before Israel took it. But look back at his personal life in verse 6 “He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom;” [In other words he sacrificed his sons in fire. He let them burn to death.] “… he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking

Him to anger.” [This was a wicked man, a monster of a man. Verse 10 says it’s even worse. 10 “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.” He absolutely ignored the gracious warnings of God.

So, here’s a man who grew up in a home that was devoted to the worship of the true God, who chose his own way, became a gross idolator, who built idols in the courts of the temple of God as it were shaking his very fist in God’s face. He sacrificed his sons in fire. He practiced witchcraft and sorcery and divination, and he absolutely ignored the gracious warnings of God; a monster in human flesh. But what did God do? Verse [12]

11 Therefore the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. [You know what they did. They came and they took the king of Israel, the king of Judah, Manasseh and they put thongs through his nose and chains around his body, and they led him back captive to Assyria. [to Babylon] 12 When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and [he] humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

He reaches the absolute end of himself. He refused to respond to God’s grace, and now he has dug a pit so deep that there’s no way to extricate himself. What does he do? He does what many humans do when they’ve used up God’s goodness and His grace and they reach the absolute

bottom. They have nothing left to do but to look up and cry out to God, and that’s exactly what he does.

How would you have responded if you were God? You’ve already given this man so many

chances. You’ve already expressed your grace in warning him about the path he was on, and now you have brought judgement into his life. How would you respond if you were God? Well, notice the next verse.

13 When he prayed to Him, [verse 13] [God] … was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. Verse 15 [When he returns] He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. 16 He set up the altar of the LORD

and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. … 18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh even his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of Israel. 19 His prayer also and how God was entreated by him….

What an amazing story, God’s grace truly is amazing. That’s what we come to look at tonight, the grace of God. I think I put the title of tonight’s message Grace Unknown, not because you haven’t experienced grace. Because if you are a believer, you have. But I’m afraid we really

haven’t plumbed the depths of what the word of God teaches about the grace of God. To some extent the truth about God’s grace is unknown to us. And tonight, I want us to let the pages of Scripture to open our minds and pour in an incredible rich flood of the grace of God. Let’s look at it together.

First of all, let’s look at the nature of grace. Before we define it, it’s important to note that this attribute unlike other attributes of God are only, it’s only exercised toward the elect. This attribute is never mentioned of mankind generally in all of Scripture. God shows this attribute to those whom He has graciously chosen as His own, to those who respond in faith to the gospel

message. I reminded you last week God’s goodness expresses itself in several ways. We’ll still really talking about God’s goodness. God’s goodness to man in his misery, His mercy. God’s goodness to man in his guilt, His grace.

Grace, my definition is “God’s goodness to those who deserve and have earned only His wrath.” That’s grace. God’s goodness to those who deserve and have earned only wrath.

Wayne Grudem defines it this way, “It’s God’s favor toward those who deserve no favor but only punishment.”

An old Puritan Abraham Boot writes, “It’s the eternal and absolute free favor of God manifested in the (here’s a word you don’t see very often) vouchsafement of spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the unworthy.

A. W. Pink writes, “the favor of God to those who have not only causative desserts of their own but also who are thoroughly ill deserving and hell deserving.”

A. W. Tozer, “His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit.” (We don’t have merit, we have demerit.) It is by His grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had before.

That’s the nature of grace. Now, what do all of those definitions have in common? As you look at those definitions, there is sort of a central thread that weaves it’s way through these

definitions. It’s the concept of the unmerited or undeserved favor. You’ll often hear people

define grace that way. It’s unmerited favor. Well, that’s close. But you have to add in addition, it’s unmerited favor to those who deserve exactly the opposite. That’s why my definition, it’s God’s unmerited favor of goodness to those who deserve and have earned only wrath.

But let me ask you a question. We use that word favor a lot in defining the word grace. What does that mean? What does it mean to receive God’s favor? Let me see if I can help you put your arms around that that means? Often, in human relationships the question arises about one

person’s attitude toward another. For example, we ask questions, like in our minds, will that person welcome me? Will that person be open to a request from me? Is that person a friend or a foe? Well, if that person has a positive attitude toward you, it’s called favor. The word “favor” simply means to approve or to like; to kindly regard; to show kindness toward.

Let me show you a non-theological use of this word in Scripture. Turn to Genesis 30. The use of the Old Testament word for grace. Genesis 30. I have recently gone through this with my

children. We are going through Genesis in the morning. It’s the story of Laban and his interaction with Jacob. And notice what he says in verse 25,

Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.” [So he says to his father-in-law, I’m ready to go home.] 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me depart; [he’d served a long time for those two sisters. He says, I’m ready to go.] for You yourself know my service which I have rendered you. 27 But Laban said to him, “If now it pleases you, stay with me; [because] I have [determined] that the LORD has blessed me on your account.” 28 He continued, “Name … your wages, and I will give it.”

Now, go back to verse 27. See the translation that says, “If now it pleases you, stay with me.” Literally, Laban said this to Jacob, he says, if now I have found grace in your eyes, stay with me. If you look upon me with favor, if you look upon me with interest and concern and kindness, then stay because I’ve realized that your staying means I’m going to prosper. And if you go, I

might not. Show me favor. That’s what favor means. It’s an expression of kindness. It’s an expression of positive concern firsthand, a willingness to reach out to, a willingness to care for, favor.

So, God then has a positive disposition and attitude toward those who have earned only eternal wrath. Think about that a minute. You know, I think sometimes we hear this, and it just sort of

flies right over our heads. We don’t stop to really think about it. God has determined to reach out

to you and to me in kindness when what we really deserve is exactly the opposite. We deserve His eternal wrath. That’s grace.

G. F. Bishop writes, “Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the axe of justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own natures, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind that they cannot see Him, so deaf that they cannot hear Him, and so dead that He Himself must open their graves and lift them in resurrection. That’s grace.”

We shouldn’t be surprised that God is gracious because as the scripture tells us over and over and over again that this is the nature of God. He tells Moses that “I am compassionate and

gracious” in Exodus 34:6. In Psalm 119:132 “turn to me” the Psalmist says and “be gracious to me.” And he says I can expect that because that is “Your manner with those who love your

name.” This is just Who you are. I can expect You to do this. John 1:14 says, speaking of Christ, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only

begotten with … the Father, [and He was] full of grace…. John 1:17 … the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

By the way, that doesn’t mean that there was no grace in the Old Testament, as you’ll see in a

moment. There has never been anyone saved apart from the grace of God. It’s simply making the point, the fullness of God’s grace was expressed in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture goes on to say in Romans 5:15 still speaking about God’s character, that He is by nature a

gracious God. “… the free gift is not like the transgression with the free gift in Christ. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift [that we received] by the grace of the one Man, [that is] Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”

That’s God’s grace, and it comes to us through Christ. First Corinthians 1:4, “… for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” Hebrews 10:29 speaks of the Spirit of grace. And 1 Peter 5:10 sort of sums it all up, it says, God, our God is “the God of all grace.” He delights in doing good to those who deserve only His wrath and punishment. That’s truly amazing.

I wish I could really make you think of this. I wish I could really draw this picture for you, for you to realize what it would be like to stand before God on judgment day without His grace. What would God say about you if it weren’t for His grace? What would you receive from His hand on that day if it weren’t for grace? This is the character of our God to express Himself in grace. Notice in these verses that we have looked at. God the Father is the fountain of all grace. Jesus Christ is the channel through which that grace flows to us, and the Holy Spirit is the one that bestows that grace on us. The Trinity working together that demonstrate this amazing attribute of God.

Now we know it’s the character of God. What’s the character of grace? It comes first of all in the Old Testament we come across the noun, the noun is “hen” it means grace or favor. That noun

occurs some 69 times on the Old Testament, 43 times it’s translated “as to find favor in the eyes of.” Most of those passages are man to man as the one I just read to you in Genesis 30 where

Laban says, “if I have found favor in your eyes, Jacob.”

But in those passages where it is expressed from God to man, it is referring to grace as we’ve defined it already this evening. Now, let me just make this point to you, and I’ll illustrate it to

you in a moment. No one has ever been saved in the history of the world apart from God’s grace. From Adam and Eve until today it’s impossible to return to the Divine favor except through God’s goodness expressed to those who deserve wrath and punishment, and that is grace. And that grace has always come to the center through the Lord Jesus Christ as we saw in those verses.

In the Old Testament they looked forward from the time of Adam and Eve. You know, I think sometimes we sell Old Testament characters short on what they knew. Listen, God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 that there was a person who would come who would destroy the works of Satan and who would effect their redemption. Oh, they may not have understood all that we know about Him, but they weren’t looking for a lamb sacrifice to atone for their sins. They understood and someday will look at what the Old Testament teaches about Christ and how that fills out our understanding. But you need to realize that from the very beginning Adam and Eve were saved. They were justified, they were declared righteous before God by grace through their faith in the redeemer that would come the one God promised to them.

Let me show you this. Turn back to Genesis 6:5. The flow of the chapter, he’s begun verse 1 by telling us that men begin to multiply on the face of the earth. Sin begins to take root. Verse 5 says,

[Then] the Lord saw that the wickedness was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I

have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. There’s our Hebrew word “hen.” Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Listen Noah fell into, verse 5, he was one of those who was characterized by the wickedness that was on the earth. If fact,

it’s interesting, if you go over to Genesis 8:21. After Noah and his sons get off the ark the same basic verdict is rendered. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma. This is right after they get off

the ark. And the LORD said to Himself, [they’ve offered a sacrifice,] the LORD said to Himself I’ll never again curse the ground on the account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Now, let me ask you, who was he talking about? This is not a hard problem. There are only 8 people on the whole earth. God didn’t save Noah and his family because they deserved to be saved, because they were somehow wonderful. Yes, Noah was more righteous than those on

the rest of the earth, but he wasn’t delivered because of his righteousness. He was a sinner like you and I. God showed him grace. He showed him favor.

You know, I’ve often thought it wouldn’t have been hard to work 120 years on an ark if you had come to experience the grace of God like that. One of 8 people on the surface of the earth whom God said I will save and deliver. Noah found grace.

The New Testament is “charis.” You’re familiar with that word. When we look at the New Testament word, we find some basic characteristics of grace, and here they are.

Grace is first of all eternal. Turn to 2 Timothy 1, 2 Timothy 1:9. He describes us this way. [God] “… has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” Did you see that? Grace here is described as grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.

God’s grace is eternal. If you’re in Christ, then God’s grace toward you stretches into eternity

past. When Ephesians 1 says, “He chose you in Him before the foundation of the world.” Grace, it’s eternal.

It's also free. Romans 3. I love this explanation. Paul gets into justification. We looked at this a few weeks ago when we were studying justification, so I won’t labor over it, but look at again at Romans 3:21. He finally gets to the theme of the book, he gets to laying down this good news, and he says here it is.

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all … who believe; for there is no distinction;

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [verse 24, here’s the key]

24 being justified [being declared righteous before God] as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus….

Notice, it’s free. Being justified as a gift, or freely as some translations can say, by His grace.

It’s also sovereign. Grace is sovereign. What do I mean by that? I mean that God chooses on

whom to bestow His grace. Look at 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.” Here he hints at

the fact that grace is going to be displayed on whom God chooses. But it is just a hint. It comes to full fruition in Romans 9. Turn to verse 15. Let’s start in verse 14. He’s just explained that God decided before these two boys were born, Jacob and Esau, that one He would love and one he would hate. Verses 14,

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? [It’s not unfair of God is it?] May it never be! [No, I’m just talking about what God has already revealed about Himself, Paul says,] 15 For [God] … says to Moses, [all the way back in the Old Testament to Moses He says] “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I

HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So

then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

God determines how to display, where to display His grace. By the way, the 9:15 quotes Exodus 33:19 where God makes the statement, and that text uses the Old Testament word for grace. You see God knows, excuse me, God owes no one His favor. He’s not obligated to any of us, and

certainly none of us has done anything to earn it. And grace, by its very nature, is unmerited. If it were merited or deserved, or based on anything in us, then it ceases to be grace. But what

happens when we talk about grace being sovereign? What’s the response people have? That’s

just now fair. It’s not fair. Think about that for a moment. When God doesn’t give grace, or when He withholds His grace in the case of some people, He is not treating them unfairly.

Some, let’s back up, everybody in the entire world, every human being deserves what? The wrath of God, eternal punishment. Out of that mass of humanity, God sovereignly determines on whom He will display and portray His grace. So, are they treated unfairly? This is not a trick question. Are you treated unfairly because God has shown you grace? No.

Okay, let’s go to the other group. Let’s go to those on whom God has not displayed His grace. What are they going to get? What they deserve. They’re going to get justice. No one is treated unfairly. Although it’s human nature to complain when others receive grace, and we don’t, it’s not unfair on God’s part. God is still just. The nature of grace is eternal, it’s free, and He

determines where to bestow it.

Now, let’s look at the expressions of grace. There’re several of them.

The first one is salvation, salvation. Let me just run through a number of ways that grace is expressed in salvation.

First of all, the gospel message itself in Acts 20:24 it’s called the gospel of the grace of God. The whole process of salvation from beginning to end is an expression of God’s grace. You can see it

in a number of these references, but just look at Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 2:5 he says when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive with Christ by grace you have been saved. Our salvation from beginning to end is an expression of grace. He comes back to it in verse 8,

these familiar verses, “for by grace you have been saved through faith. And even faith is not of yourself, it is the gift of God.” The whole passage is an expression of God’s grace.

Forgiveness of sin is an expression of God’s grace. Ephesians 1:7. Flip back one page there with Ephesians 1:7 he says, we have “the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”

Election, as we already saw is based on God’s grace. It’s interesting, we looked at 2 Timothy 1:9. And you remember where it says that His grace was expressed toward us from eternity. If it was expressed from eternity, then it can’t be based on what? Anything in us. We weren’t around to

impress God. But it’s by grace so that we can’t take any credit, because you see if grace is absolutely unmerited, then only one attitude is appropriate as an instrument to receiving it.

What’s that? Faith. Turn to Romans. Let me show you why this is important, Romans 4:16. Paul is in the middle of justification by faith, explaining it, and he says this in verse 16 of Romans 4 and he said, “For this reason it is by faith, [he says, let me tell you why God designed salvation to be by faith.] in other that [here’s the purpose] that it may be in accordance with grace….” He says listen, there is only one mechanism whereby we can receive salvation, and that’s through

faith, and the reason for that is if we receive it through faith, then it’s guaranteed to be just pure grace because faith is the one attitude that is the opposite of depending on one’s self since faith, at its core, is dependance on someone else. It’s crucial. It goes on, the Scripture goes on to

describe salvation and the grace that’s expressed in it.

The effectual call, Galatians 1:15. The effectual call is the theological expression that we’ll study when we get to salvation. That’s nothing more than when you heard the gospel, and the Holy

Spirit worked in your heart to make it attractive, and you responded in faith. That’s the effectual call. That too was of grace Galatians 1 tells us.

Faith is an expression of grace. Acts 18:27 said of believers said of believers in Acts says, “those who had believed through grace.” They believed through grace.

Justification, and we won’t go back through this because we’ve looked at it so much, but just to note Titus 3:7 says we are justified by His grace.

So, salvation, the whole package is an expression of God’s grace in all of these constituent parts.

But it doesn’t stop there. You know, I think a lot of Christians think that God’s grace ends the day they got converted. Or at least they don’t appreciate the significance of God’s grace for their

Christian lives. Let me show you that it definitely goes on.

Another expression of God’s grace is sanctification. Second Thessalonians 1 says that all of this is going to be accomplished in us according to the grace of our God. Second Timothy 2:1, He tells Timothy to be strong in the grace that that is in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 13:9, “Don’t be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by

grace,” Listen, if you are stable in your Christian life, if you’re not easily led astray because you understand the word of God, that’s not because you’re bright. That’s because God has given you His grace.

Again, looking at sanctification, 1 Peter 5:10, “After you have suffered for a little while,” [Peter tells the Jews that are scattered into dispersion] “the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” Do you see that all of those things, your perfecting, establishing you, strengthening you, all of those things flow to you out of the grace of God, the God of all grace? Grace doesn’t stop at salvation. It only becomes more important. Second Peter 3:18 … grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. On and on we could go, but those are just a few examples.

There’s another expression of grace, not only salvation and sanctification, but all of our service and our ministry. The Scripture is replete with these Acts 4:33, great grace was given to the

apostles and their ministry. Romans 1:5, Paul said he received grace to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

Romans 12:6 says that even spiritual gifts, the gift that you exercise in this church is an

expression of God’s grace to you and to the rest of us. First Corinthians 3:10 says grace was given to Paul to enable him to build up the Corinthians in their faith. First Corinthians 15:10, Paul says he labored by grace. Second Corinthians 9:8, by grace he says we have sufficiency for all things, an abundance for every good work. Ephesians 3:2, Paul calls his ministry a stewardship of God’s grace. Whatever ministry you have, whatever service you do, again, that is not because of your strength, that’s not because of your intelligence, it’s not because of your

innate skills. It’s all a demonstration of God’s grace to you and to us through you.

But God’s grace doesn’t end in this life. There’s another expression of it, and that is eternal blessing. I love this. You see we could be tempted to think of grace to be something we only need in this life because, after all, we’re going to be perfect when we get to heaven. We don’t need

grace anymore. Not true. There will never be a time in eternity to come when we don’t deserve

the wrath of God. Let me say that again. There will never be a time in eternity to come when you

and I don’t deserve the wrath of God because one sin deserves eternal judgment and separation from God. And everyone of us has sinned time, after time, after time.

So, we will need grace through all eternity. And the Scripture makes that clear. I love 1 Peter 1:13, Peter says fix your hope completely on the grace … [that will] be brought to you at the

revelation of Jesus Christ. And my favorite is Ephesians 2:7. Right after those verses that we all recite and right before those verses we recite about God’s grace in salvation, Paul just sort of throws this nugget in there. But it’s God intention “in the ages to come … to show us the

surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God is going to treat us with favor. Can I put it this way? He’s going to treat us as His favorites through all eternity not

because we deserve it. We’ll never deserve it. We will always deserve eternal wrath and punishment. But because of who He is, He’s going to show us that favor.

So, what do you do with this? What are the practical applications of the knowledge of God’s

grace? Let me just rehearse a couple with you, there are others we could look at, but just notice these.

First of all, if you really understand in your heart that you are still guilty before God for your sins, cry out to God, cry out to Him to show you grace. He’ll do it. Manasseh was a perfect

example of that. Manasseh, if anyone deserved wrath and punishment Manasseh did. And yet, in the midst of his absolute degradation, being led around by the nose with a thong by his enemies, chained in brass chains, brazen chains, he calls out to God. Listen to God’s response, “and shows him grace.” I don’t care what you’ve done. If you will turn from your sin, and cry out to God, He delights in being gracious.

Secondly, if you’re already in Christ, realize that you stand in grace. Look at Romans 5:2. After Paul finishes talking about justification in the first four chapters, and he gets to 5:1, he says, “therefore,” now he’s going to give us the practical application of the reality that we have been declared righteous before God. He says,

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [he’s not talking about some sort of feeling of peace, he talking about objective peace, the cessation of warfare. God put His sword away. We have peace with God. [But then he says in verse 2], “through whom [that is through Christ] … we have obtained our introduction by faith [we’ve been introduced]

into this grace in which we stand”

You see before justification we all had the same standing before God. We saw it earlier in 3:23. There is no distinction Paul said. We all had the same standing, “for all have sinned and [fallen]

short of the glory of God.” That’s our standing before we were justified. But Paul says here in Romans 5:2 we now stand in grace.

What does that mean to stand in grace? It means to be firmly fixed in grace. It means grace is the new spiritual atmosphere in which we live. Grace is the very air we breathe. We live in the realm or kingdom where, according to Romans 5:21, grace reigns, or to put it in the vernacular, the

recent vernacular, grace rules. We live where grace rules. That means that God constantly

overwhelms us with kindness we don’t deserve. He not only accepts us, He delights to receive us, and He delights to bless us. He delights to do us good. You stand in grace if you are in Christ.

Thirdly, God’s grace is sufficient and active in our trials and weaknesses. Turn 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 12. You are familiar with this passage. Paul, verse 7, says that, “Because of the

surpassing greatness of the revelations, [that he had received he says] for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given [to] me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan

to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!”

A lot of people ask, so, what was that thorn in the flesh, that messenger of Satan? We don’t know. There are some guesses. Some think it was something physical in his body. Others think it may have been actually a sort of demon influenced person in one of the churches, or in Paul’s

ministry that was creating a problem for him. We don’t know. The bottom line is, he had this trouble, this difficulty in his life, and perhaps the Holy Spirit purposefully leaves it vague so that all of us can sort of read our own situation into that. Verse 8,

Concerning this, whatever it was I implored the Lord three times that it might

leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my

weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I’ll never forget as a seminary student I read this passage, and I read a comment on it by Charles Spurgeon, and he said it occurred to him one time as he was dealing with some trouble in his own life, and he read this text. He was meditating on it. He was thinking about it, and he said he almost broke out in laughter because he thought, of course His grace is sufficient. Imagine a fish, he said. swimming in the River Thames there in London and thinking this river isn’t sufficient for me. But of course, God’s grace, His ocean of grace is sufficient for me. He said, imagine a mouse in the granaries of Egypt after the collected seven years of plenty looking at those great mounds of grain and saying, I don’t know if it’s sufficient for me. But of course, God’ grace is

sufficient. Whatever you are enduring, whatever trouble you are going through, God’s grace, His favor forward you, His delight to treat you kindly is sufficient.

Notice, His grace doesn’t always remove you from the situation. Sometimes His grace leaves you there and strengthens you to for it. But His grace is sufficient.

Fourthly, don’t use grace as an excuse for your sin. We saw this morning in Jude 4 that’s exactly what the ungodly do. They “turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” Jude 4 says. They

twist and pervert the grace of God as an excuse for their sin. Don’t do it. Turn to Romans 6:1. I quoted this verse this morning.

“What shall we say then?” [After all the wonderful truth about justification,] “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may … [abound]?” 2 May it never be!”

And he goes on in verse 14 and 15 to say, “… sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Listen, because of grace you have been set free from slavery to sin. You are no longer bound, you no longer have to obey it. Because of God’s grace to you. So, don’t abuse God’s grace by turning around and sinning.

A couple of other uses of grace. Because we enjoy God’s favor, we should be quick to show it to others. And it’s interesting, and this fascinated me in this study this week. Especially, we should be quick to show grace in how we speak to others. I thought this was fascinating. Turn to

Ephesians 4:29. Paul is teaching us how to live in keeping with what we have learned in Christ, how to put off, be renewed in the spirit of our mind and put on, he’s showing us examples of

sanctification. And he says in that context, verse 29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for [building up] for edification according to the need of the moment, [and here should be your purpose, whatever you say your intention should be] … that it will give [favor] grace to those who hear.” The same point is made in Colossians 4:6. But let me hurry on, a couple of others.

If you want to experience God’s grace, while you can never earn it, underscore that, we never earn grace by definition. Nevertheless, God has provided some conditions for receiving it. I’ve already shown you how important grace is. It’s basically the spiritual air we breathe. If the

supply of grace is cut off from you and me, our souls shrivel and die as believers. So, how is it that we experience and enjoy the abundance of God’s grace. Well, the Scripture lays down two clear conditions. Again, we don’t earn it, but God only bestows on these conditions.

First of all, we have to desire it and pray for His grace. We have to desire it and pray for it. And there are a number of texts. First of all, for ourselves, Hebrews 4:16, “come to the throne of

grace,” the writer of Hebrews says, seeking God’s grace when you find yourself tempted, when

you find yourself in trouble, when you find yourself needing grace, come to the throne of grace where God freely dispenses it.

But we’re also to do that to others. There are a number of texts. I’m not going to take time to go through some of those, you can jot down a few of them. And I think what we’ll do is print this up so we have handouts for you next week. You can pick up these sheets with these references. So, desire it, and pray for it, both for yourself and for others.

But I want us to look, in closing tonight, at the other conditions Scripture places on His grace, and that is cultivate humility, cultivate humility. This is really surprising in many ways. But turn to 1 Peter 5. The greatest enemy in your life to the supply of God’s grace is pride. Look at 1 Peter

5. He quotes in verse 5 a Proverb. Proverbs 3:34 says this, “God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” That is a, that’s a really rich, and someways shocking, statement. God is opposed to the proud.

The word opposed to is a military term. It means to take up arms against. The way I like to picture it is this. Imagine this person on a hill defending his turf, defending his own rights in

pride, and God says the person who exalts himself like that, I surround to conquer. I will take up arms and surround you to conquer the proud heart because I won’t give my glory to anyone else. I’m not going to let you share my glory. But I give grace to the humble.

You know, it’s really interesting when you look at this text, there’s several ways to pursue

humility, and at some point, I’ll preach a message on this because it’s really quite profound. But let me just give you a brief outline for you to consider it. How do we pursue humility? How do we cultivate the humility in our lives that’s the condition of our receiving grace from God.

There’re three steps in this passage.

Verse 5, submit yourself to your elders. There are a lot of reasons I believe that I can argue to you that’s not people that are older than you are, instead that’s speaking of the elders of the church. One of them is obvious. He’s just been talking about the elders of the church in the

previous verses. What he’s saying is this, you want to take the path, the road to humility? Start by subjecting yourself, submitting yourself, putting yourself under, arranging yourself under

those who are in duly constituted positions of authority over you. We live in a culture that

absolutely resents people in authority. God says the humble heart willingly places itself under those whom God has put in authority under you.

And that’s true, by the way, not just those in the church. It’s every authority God has placed over you. For you kids, it’s your parents. You wives, it's your husbands. For all of us, it’s the

government. Every place there’s an authority in our lives, if we want to pursue humility, we

begin pursuing humility by submitting to that authority, recognizing it as a God ordained authority.

There’s a second step to humility in this passage. And it’s becoming a servant of others. Notice the middle of verse 5. Clothe yourself with humility toward one another. The image of course, remember, it’s Peter. He’s going back to the last night of our Lord’s life before His crucifixion.

He says, listen, “gird yourself with a towel.” That’s the image behind this word. “Clothe yourself with humility.” Gird yourself, if you will with a towel, and as our Lord did this on the last night of His life, serve other people. You want to become humble so that you can enjoy God’s grace,

submit yourselves to those in authority and become a servant to other people.

There’s a third step to humility here in this passage. It’s found in verse 6, “Therefore humble

yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” In the context of Peter’s epistle, as he’s writing to people that have been scattered because of persecution, you know what he’s saying. He’s saying submit yourself to God’s providence. You find yourself out from your homes, away from your family, in the remotest places of the earth, and you don’t

understand. You don’t know why. Humble yourselves to the mighty hand of God. This is God’s providence in your life. Where you are, and what you’re experiencing is a result of what God has done. So, submit yourself to it. You want to pursue humility where God can bestow grace on

you? Those are the steps. Grace truly is amazing.

John Newton was a sailor who bought and sold slaves for a living during the 1700s. You know his story. He was raised by a Christian mother. He departed from all his mother had attempted to instill within him at an early age. He went on to live a life of selfishness and absolutely

unrestrained immorality. His language was so filthy that we’re told other sailors were shocked by it. He boasted that physical brutality and rape were a part of his everyday routine. To appease his own conscience, he took every opportunity, he took pleasure in trying to convince others that

Christianity was not the truth.

A series of low points in John Newton’s life caused him to rethink his ways. For example, he actually became the servant of African slaves for a time. But it all came to a turning point in John Newton’s life during a severe storm when he thought back and remembered a verse from the

Proverbs that he had learned from his mother early in life. It was a warning from God to John Newton. These were the words that came to his mind during that storm. Proverbs 1, but since you rejected Me when I called, and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice, and would not accept my rebuke, I, in turn, will laugh at your disaster when calamity overtakes you like a storm.

And as the storm raged outside, the storm raged in John Newton’s heart. As God used that

passage from Proverbs 1. Newton felt the weight of his guilt. He humbled himself before God, and he asked for mercy. He cried out for God’s grace. Newton looked back to that day when he first put his faith in Christ as the day, “The Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of the deep waters.” Newton was a changed man. He began to read a copy of the New Testament that he had onboard, and he began to pray.

God was constantly on his mind, and he soon left slave trading, and he even published a book called, Thoughts on the African Slave Trade that was based on his own experiences and

influenced the British abolition of slavery. In 1764 Newton went into the ministry where he

stayed for over 40 years, telling others of the wonderful work which God had done for him. At the end of his life John Newton said this, he said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember

two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” No wonder his song is such a favorite to so many of us. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we haven’t begun to plumb the depths of Your great grace. We have simply floated, as it were, on the surface of Who You are. O Lord, I pray that the truths we’ve looked at tonight in Your word would burn themselves deep within our hearts.

Help us to praise you, to love You to serve You, not to repay Your grace. We could never do that, and we should never try. But simply as an expression of our love and our gratitude for all that you’ve accomplished for us, and will accomplish for us in the future, by Your grace.

We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.