The Greatness of Grace

This is one of those sermons that when it is over if you can say, thank you LORD I am not like the people he was talking about then this message was not for you.  It could be that this message is just for me and not you at all.  So if it upsets you, angers you, or make you feel uncomfortable, then it is for you.

Grace Greater Than All Our Sin Lyrics: FORGIVENESS
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can we do to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,
Brighter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

To understand God’s grace is to understand outside our human understanding of Grace.

1. Grace used as a noun (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

2. 
Used as a verb, do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence.

I am not one to watch commercials but I saw this commercial about a bleach pen.  If you had a stain, just pull out the pen and rub it on the stain and it would be gone. Sometimes we treat grace like a holy bleach pen. Oops, I made a mistake. Let me grab my bleach pen of grace. Quick prayer to blot out the stains. And off we go as if nothing happened. Yet grace is so much more than a holy bleach pen. So much more than a moment where we seek forgiveness for our sin. Grace isn’t meant to be just a moment-by-moment "my bad" cleaning. Grace is meant to be a movement of God in and through our lives. Grace not only results in an internal change in our own lives; it also moves us toward actions that result in external changes in the lives of others.

Grace is a terribly misunderstood word.  Some of the most detailed theology textbooks do not offer any concise definition of the term. Someone has proposed an acronym: GRACE is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. That's not a bad way to characterize grace, but it is not a sufficient theological definition.

One of the best-known definitions of grace is only three words: God's unmerited favor. A. W. Tozer expanded on that: "Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits on the undeserving."

Grace is not merely unmerited favor; it is favor bestowed on sinners who deserve wrath. Showing kindness to a stranger is "unmerited favor"; but doing good to one's enemies is more the spirit of grace.

To help us understand Grace today, I want to share with you a few scriptures that have been difficult for some to understand.

Luke 6:27-36  Read

Grace is not a dormant or abstract quality, but a dynamic, active, working principle:  "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation…and instructing us" (Titus 2:11-12).

It is not some kind of wraith like blessing that lies idle until we deserve it. Grace is God's sovereign will for all sinners (Ephesians 1:5-6).

Grace is not a one-time event in the Christian experience. We stand in grace.

Romans 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The entire Christian life is driven and empowered by grace: Hebrews 13:9

It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods.

Peter said we should "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

So, we could properly define grace as the free and benevolent influence of a holy God operating sovereignly in the lives of undeserving believers.

We heard the story of the two sons, where the younger son said to his father, ‘Give me my inheritance I am supposed to receive someday. So the father divided his wealth between his two sons. A few days later the younger son gathered up all that he had and left. He traveled far away to another country, and there he wasted his money living like a fool. After he spent everything he had, there was a terrible famine throughout the country. He was hungry and needed money. So, he went and got a job with one of the people who lived there. The man sent him into the fields to feed pigs. He was so hungry that he wanted to eat the food the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything. The son realized that he had been a fool.

He thought, ‘All my father’s hired workers have plenty of food. But here I am, almost dead because I have nothing to eat.  I will leave and go to my father. I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But let me be like one of your hired workers.’  So he left and went to his father.

While the son was still a long way off, his father saw him coming and felt sorry for him. So, he ran to him and hugged and kissed him. The son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and have done wrong to you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, ‘Hurry! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Also, put a ring on his finger and good sandals on his feet. And bring our best calf and kill it so that we can celebrate with plenty to eat. My son was dead, but now he is alive again! He was lost, but now he is found!’ So, they began to have a party.  The older son had been out in the field. When he came near the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing.  So he called to one of the servant boys and asked, ‘What does all this mean?’  The boy said, ‘Your brother has come back, and your father killed the best calf to eat. He is happy because he has his son back safe and sound.

The older son was happy and so excited his brother was home--- oh, you read the story.  He was angry and would not go in to the party. So, his father went out and begged him to come in.  But he said to his father, ‘Look, for all these years I have worked like a slave for you. I have always done what you told me to do, and you never gave me even a young goat for a party with my friends. But then this son of yours comes home (notice he did not say my brother) after wasting your money on prostitutes, and you kill the best calf for him!  His father said to him, ‘Oh, my son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But this was a day to be happy and celebrate. Your brother was dead, but now he is alive. He was lost, but now he is found.  It is time to be gracious, not angry.

I hear Jesus saying, “Give him your cloak also. I’m reminded of Noah, Noah found grace in the eyes of God. But not only Noah, but also his 3 sons and their wives get in the ark too.

The thief on the cross.  Forgiveness plus grace.  “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  You see, Grace goes beyond forgiveness…

Some of us understand that God forgives, but I wonder sometimes if we really understand His grace.

If you do understand it, “God bless you”, because many have never truly understood what Grace was. Some think Grace and Forgiveness were the same things. To some they sound like the same thing. “I had grace, so I forgave them.” Some think when you forgave someone, you had grace on them. But what I want to talk about is a church that is capable of the same kind of Grace that God has shown to us.

·        A grace that prefers the other person. In honor preferring one another

·        A grace that is not a me first attitude. It is not my way or the highway

·        A grace that goes beyond forgiveness. It is forgetting the past.

·        A grace that supports and comes along side people who do not deserve it. 

Is it possible that this church could be a church that is full of Grace?  It is one thing to be a friendly church but it is greater to be a gracious church.  The real question is …

·        Are we capable of showing grace to other people as well as the household of faith?

·        How will our church ever be a grace church if we are not a Grace people?

When Jesus was talking about our enemies and how we are to treat them how much more gracious should we be to our Christian brothers and sisters?

Some of us haven’t gotten forgiveness down pat yet, how will we ever get to grace?  There is this attitude that I forgive you but I will never forget what you have done, is not forgiveness.  If you keep bringing up the past you have problems with forgiveness.  That is what the devil does.  God has a sea of forgetfulness.

Micah 7:18-19 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.  He will again have compassion on is; He will tread our iniquities under foot, Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

If we are to say to our enemies and those who have disrespected us more than just I forgive you as taught by our LORD by adding grace to our actions it will look like this: 

·        I forgive you and I want to bless you… Here’s my cloak!

·        You stole 50 dollars from me, but I forgive you and by the way, here are another 20.

·        It’s the father putting a ring on the finger of the son who wasted his inheritance.

·        You wasted everything I ever worked for, but here’s a ring and a fatted calf and a celebration because the son that was lost has come home!

·        Grace goes far beyond Forgiveness.

I am well aware there are people who hard to understand why they act the way they do.  They are spiteful, petty, malicious, and downright hard to love and we call them our brothers and sisters.  They are not in the class of enemies.  So, how much more gracious should we be towards them?  

My advice is pray for them that the LORD open their eyes to see that they are mean, spiteful, petty malicious and downright hard people to love.  It may be that the LORD has just been waiting for someone to pray for these people so He could send the Holy Spirit to open their eyes to their ungracious actions.

If we can ever become a church that extends Grace to everyone, we will be a Church that others say, Behold, how they love one another.