Principle & The Principles of Grace

All right, I will finish up. Actually, if you look on lesson four, Mike wanted me to go over and since he's here, he can scream at me if there is something that I missed. He wanted to go over, and this is kind of interesting, the difference between Lewis Barry Chaffer's definition of grace. And later in the lesson five, we're gonna be going over Chess McCauley's definition of grace. Chaffer's definition, did anybody have that from lesson four? What Chaffer's definition was from the handout that Mike gave? Anybody have that? What's that? Favor that is limitless. Others? It's a big, long one that he gave. That's why I like, see, I'm a simple guy. I like Chester McCauley's kind of simple definition. Any others for Chaffers? Nobody?

Unrestrained, love of God. Right. Yeah, it's kind of a long one. Basically, it may be concluded that the word grace is used in the Bible in relation to divine salvation. Represents, and I like all the uns here. Okay, well, go ahead. I want to see this. You memorized it. This is pretty good. You got it? Wow, gold star over there. Yeah. Some of that might rub off on you. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. As I have exclaimed many times, my memorization is nil. That's why I can never become an organic chemist or anything like that, because that's all memorization. Memorization just, you know, I barely recognize or remember my name.

So that is great. And I really liked that one too, just for the uns. You know, the un, you know, I was thinking about this when I was reading this one, the uns. You know what that, I guess what that represents to me is kind of like the maximum or limit. There's no limit to it. It's kind of to the extreme. So it's, you know, uncompromised. Okay, there's nothing compromising. Unrestricted. There's no limit to it. And then the un-recompensed. That one's an important one.

We'll get into some of that in our definition, too, on some of the questions we're going to go over today. And then the loving favor of God toward sinners. We're going to get into that, too, a little bit more today, too, about grace and how that applies, basically, in all of God's attributes, and then how, really, grace applies in salvation. And so we're going to get a little bit more of that. Mike had also put in this, it is an unearned blessing. It is a gratuity. God is absolutely untrammeled and unshackled in expressing his infinite love by his infinite grace. Again, you kind of get this thing that, are there bounds on this?

No, no. And actually, you know, the teachers get more out of it than usually the class. I really like some of the things we're looking at today because it really opens my eyes on kind of receiving this grace and what we bring to the table. We're going to look at a lot of that today. And that is, it's kind of eye-opening. And we have a trick question. I won't say somebody's name who's in my family who's to me, because I said I wouldn't say the name. She thinks there's a trick question in the questions today.

And I guess the last question, why would we not suppose that God's divine plan of restoration of the child of God to the Father's fellowship will result in an attitude of carelessness on the part of the Christian? That's the last question on number four. Why would that be? his divine plan of restoration for the child of God to the Father's fellowship. Why would that be? Why does that not happen?

Three things. Yeah. When you really come to that understanding, that is true. Grace is the biggest motivator. Mike and I beat each other up from the identification truth. I look at Romans 6 and what Romans 6 and our identification, our co-crucifixion, I think that is one of the key foundational things. Mike has always maintained that grace is the biggest motivational change.

I think they're kind of in lockstep. You have to have both of them together. When you have both of them together, that is where the intimate fellowship comes from. And grace is the biggest motivator. And as I study this more and more, I'm becoming convinced it is a motivator. And it's our perception of grace and our understanding of grace. As we increase that, then our fellowship with the Lord just is magnified as we realize what grace really is.

Part of the thing, as far as the carelessness, We are talking about restoration of a believer. The restoration of somebody who has fallen away in a sin or something like that. The restoration comes from three different things. Confession. What is confession? agreeing with God. And if it's true, you agree with Him, then there is a true change of heart. There'll be a complete change of heart away from whatever activity, sin, that you're doing to back to what God said you are and what you should do. So, there's true confession. That means a change. The second one is that God basically says that We're not encouraged to sin. By our identification with Christ, we don't have as much the propensity, I guess, to sin.

And he says that in the Scripture in 1 John 2.1, where it says, in order that you may not sin. Can somebody look that up, actually?

1 John 2.1. Basically, it is clearly revealed that God has, by other insufficient means, guarded against all careless sinning on the part of those whom He has eternally saved through the merit of His Son. Somebody can read that in 1 John 2.

Okay, so he said, telling us about not to sin and that he will, well, he's basically told us about careless sinning. And then the third one is, God can righteously deal with sin in no other way than through the absolute value of the blood of his son. Okay, so that basically through confession, through basically he has told us about sinning.

And then the third one is, where have our sins been laid? On the cross, on Christ. So, do we have anything to be condemned about now? Therefore, there is now No condemnation. Okay, so, you know, from the answer, the three different things, again, the confession that God Himself has prepared us not to sin, and then the third is all of our sins have been laid upon Him.

Okay, now, let's go to lesson five. Is there anything else you want, Don? I guess the reason I ask that question is to point out the fact as a motivator, you don't need law not to sin. It's the grace of God and the fact that you have an advocate and the fact that you can confess and be restored to fellowship, which is the motivator. Again, grace, the motivator. Alright, lesson five. Does everybody have lesson five? Lesson five, okay. Number one.

Can we be partially under grace and partially under law? No. And why is that? There is no middle ground, is there? It's the equivalent of, can you be sort of pregnant? I don't think so. You're either pregnant or you're not. So there's really only grace. and law. They're two different things. There is no middle line. There isn't the yellow line that you go down and say, I've got grace. Just mix a little bit of law in here. Once you've done that, are you in grace? No, you can't be. They're mutually exclusive. Either the believer understands what it's like to be under grace or they'll miss the whole system.

So again, and the tendency for us is, and this is why I go back to the identification part, is that, what is the tendency of the old man? What does he want? Law. He want, you know, I've said this to myself too, you know, I'm an engineer. I wanna know how to build it, how far, how much I gotta do. I need metrics. I need metrics. Well, that's the old man. The old man needs metric.

How high do I have to go? How far do I have to do? What more do I have to do to gain just a little bit more favor with God? I like this grace thing, but what do I have to do? Just tell me the three things. Three things I have to do to really, really make grace the key in my life and make God just smile a little bit more on me.

You know, we always tend to do that. And that's the old man. It's always the old man. And that's why I say on the identification truth, if you understand the two natures and the co-crucifixion, we will start as we mature in Christ in that relationship. We'll tend to get out of that mode of always wanting to do something.

And as we see later in the questions today, What we bring to the table in grace you'll be you'll be shocked when and I was I went through these verses What we bring to the table in grace and you'll be surprised and then the trick question You know, I actually the other I thought of with when we try and do law and grace It reminded me as I was going through I thought of first Corinthians 5 6 and and that's the one I It's just, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Remember that? That was kind of more of a graphic picture of trying to mix law and grace together. Just a little pinch of law into grace ruins it. It's got to be either one or the other. So we have one system or the other, grace or law.

Now, I want to go for just a little bit of review. We've been studying using Chester McCauley as kind of a background for Grace, the Grace series. Mike has touched a little bit on Lewis Barry Chafer's materials on Grace, his book on Grace. But we're going to get back to some of what McCauley has laid out. And he's already gone through three points on Grace so far.

And then I'm going to kind of go through, you guys got your Bibles? I always like not to hear my voice only. So we'll go through a few verses. Mike, you got Romans 6, 14. John, you got John 1, 17. Jeremy, you got Titus 2, 11. And Alan, you got Ephesians 2, 4 through 8. So the first one, first point they brought up We know that grace is a state or system by which we live. We know that grace is a state or system by which we live.

And we look at that at Romans 6.14. Okay, so the system. We're not under law, just we're saying the difference between them. We are not under law, but we are under grace. Okay, so we're under a system of grace. That's the, as we've said before, it's kind of the operating system. It's the MS-DOS, the Windows, the system by which we operate now is under grace. Okay, the next one is, where do we see grace? Grace is not just seen in a system, but in a person, Jesus Christ.

John 1.17. John. Okay, it was realized through Jesus Christ. Grace was realized through Jesus Christ. The system is related to a person.

Okay, in Titus 2.11. Okay, for the grace of God has appeared through who? Who has it appeared through? Jesus Christ, okay? Bringing salvation to all men. For the grace of God has appeared in Christ Jesus.

So again, we talk about a system, but it's a person, okay? And then the third one, grace is the way God operates. And on the Ephesians 2, 4 through 8. Even when we were dead, He saved us and put us together with Christ, like race or He saved. And that race is together, the way to sit together is to confess and trust Jesus. So that in the ages to come, we might show and receive riches of His grace and His kindness toward us.

Grace is the way God operates. By grace you have been saved, surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved. Again, grace is the way God operates. That's His operating system. That's what we operate. In the new man, we operate in grace. So those are the three points that Macaulay brought out so far. And let's go to the fourth one, grace principle. Grace operates primarily in salvation.

Okay, and Debbie, Romans 1.16, April 1.20, Romans 1.20, if you can read those. You didn't get the McDonald's premium roast this morning.

Okay, and Romans 1.20. Okay, in these verses, do we see God's grace or other attributes? Do we see His grace in this? Okay, I'm going to have to do the mic thing. Yes, we do. We see grace. Do we see grace in this? We have one grace, two graces. Was that a half? Two and a half? How many think it's other than grace? You voted twice. So, why do you think it's grace? You who voted?

Salvation to everyone who believes. I guess there's graciousness in that. From the salvation aspect, I guess we could put grace in there. But what is the verse saying? For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is what? Power of God. Okay? So, it says it's the power is demonstrated in our salvation. So, it's the power of God in this verse. In verse 20, what does it say? Power, again.

It says, "...for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature." So, is it grace? You're sticking with it, huh? And nobody's going to convince you otherwise. Now, these verses basically demonstrate His power. We see his power and his character, his divine nature. And then we'll go on to question 3.

This kind of gets to it, because this basically, in Romans 1.20, you know, "...for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so they are without excuse." So, the question begs, what do you learn by nature?

What? The truth. The truth of who he is. I'm trying to figure that one out, the truth. I guess what I look at, when you look at the mountains, the rivers, the sky, if you're a scuba diver, you scuba dive and you go down and you see all these miraculous creatures, That one's for Mike. He always gives me grief about this. What do you see in that? I mean, do you see truth in that? I'm trying to figure that one out. Truth. What do you see in that? Do you see grace? Stunned silence.

And what did it say in the 120? What did it say when it was created? What did it say it showed? Does it say we see his grace? Or what does it say? It says we see his power. divine nature. That verse is saying that basically you're out without excuse. If you're in the middle of nowhere and you see creation, you know there's a God. We've talked about that before.

It's amazing when you look at the history and you look at civilizations, you see What do you see when the Inca and we were down in Honduras and they have all the Mayan and all that, what do you see in those civilizations? You see temples, you see altars. What were the altars used for? Sacrifice for what? For worship? Appeasement? Yeah, a lot of blood sacrifice.

So they didn't have the gospel, but they knew that there was a God out there and they knew that he was mad and needed something paid for. You know, in a lot of these civilizations, there's always, you know, that they know that there's a God and usually they have to do something to please him.

So that, you know, that's what I think in this invisible creation. Everybody knows that there's a God. there is a God, and you'll see it in all sorts of different facets in civilization, that people always recognize that, and that I think is what's shown in here, showing his divine power and his nature.

I look at it too, I see his attributes in it, his loving character. I'm trying to figure out truth, I'm trying to figure that one out, but I see his character. As I've said many times, when I go down and we're scuba diving, we see amazing creatures. Did God have to do that? No, he made it beautiful. I think that shows me his character. When I look at a beautiful sunset on the mountains, a Bronco sunset, orange and blue, you have a beautiful sunset or you're up in the mountains and you look up in the stars and you see just amazing creation, the stars and it's real dark and you see just these glowing stars. I just think of God's character in that.

I think, I see he didn't, you know, I guess my thing is he didn't have to make it pretty, did he? He could have made this, you know, cell block 10, you know, black walls, gray, bleh. But that's not who he is. And I think that's in creation. We see the character of God. We see his majesty. We see who he is. It's a wonderful God who created all this. It's absolutely amazing to me. When you look at, like I said, underwater, you see just amazing creatures. Why did he have to make a black-spotted eel? Why did he have to make this green, ugly moray eel? Why did he have to make sharks? Why did he have to make all that?

I think this shows his majesty, his character. He made it beautiful. Going the other direction, during the years that I... Yeah, looking down. Yeah. Principles. Oh, yeah. Well, that's like guys who go into space. When they look down and you see an Earth rise, and you see the beauty of the creation, the blue ball that we live on. I look at that and that shows me God's creation.

That's what I think is in Romans 1.20. It basically shows His power, His nature, all of His attributes, but does it show grace? I have an expired version here, but it says that it qualifies as if His invisible attributes are clearly seen. being understood so it's saying we can understand those attributes. And then it kind of bumps it up even to the eternal power. I think that's what I mean by everybody can understand this. There's not one corner of the world that you can say, I don't think they knew that there's a God. I think everybody knows it. This is unrestricted access to see God's attributes.

But his attributes of power, what they say here is power in his nature. He's able to create all this stuff and in Colossians he's able to hold it all together. Both the small and the macro and the micro you see in Colossians. He's able to hold it all together which is amazing. Yeah, yes. This one is kind of the, I think, the all-inclusive gotcha verse.

Gee, I didn't know there was a God. Everybody in their heart knows that there's a God, even the ones who claim that there is no God. They know. God says so. Yeah. It's the steps of the relationship. You know what I'm saying? Because each person was created to worship. Yeah, and I think that's what I mean. There is a God. But do you from creation know about the Lord Jesus Christ?

No. And that's where I say where the truth comes in. He is the truth. He is the word. And so that's why I kind of hedge a little bit about seeing truth. Truth is Jesus Christ. And through creation, you do not know of the Son of God. You know of God, but you don't know the Son of God.

I think that the fact that he's God puts his character in the mix in terms of he demands things because he is God. And man recognizes there is God. He recognizes that he has a responsibility to God. And until a man understands that he's creator, and that he's powerful, and that he is God, which we're not responsible for. Then there's certain principles in which God weighs down because he is God, and I have to respond because I'm a preacher, and God is violent in his character, he doesn't waver.

Right, he can't change the rules. Right. Okay, so, these verses show, in nature, We see His power, we see His character, we see who God is, just how beautiful He is. But do we see grace? I don't think you see grace. It doesn't say. If 120, it would say His power, His grace, His nature. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say His grace. We'll see that whenever the word of grace is used as a characteristic of God, it is in the context of the salvation of men. This is the interesting part to me. When God speaks of grace and salvation, what does man contribute?

Oh, we contribute a couple of things. Yeah. Belief is kind of a secondary thing. Sin and weakness. That's what we come to the table with. We do come with something. We come with sin and we're weak. And we'll go through a lot of verses right now that says that's what we come with. In grace, we bring that special stuff of sin and weakness.

And when you start realizing that, you get a much better perspective of grace and get out of that mode of what do I have to do? What do I have to do to earn a little more grace? The only thing you bring is sin and weakness. That's all you bring to the table. And we're going to go through a lot of verses now that basically show that. What do we come to the table with? Nothing except sin, weakness, and God graciously acts upon us. I guess the point being too, if there was anything else that we would need to contribute, would it be grace? If we had to contribute something, would it be grace? Unmerited. Unmerited. Unmerited. So we don't. Okay. The trick question.

Does God's grace operate in people who think they are worthy or unworthy? Now, we're going to get all you chickens to vote. I want to see how this is, because this is an interesting one. Norm's going to vote on both of them already. I can see. Hedge your bets. All right. Does it operate in people who think that they are worthy? I want to see you raise hands.

I don't want to see any chickens out there. Okay, unworthy. And somebody I know is cheating, voting twice. This was our discussion last night and Norm voting twice too. Okay, worthy. Raise your hand if you think it's worthy. Again, I want you worthy people out there.

Okay, why? The all-powerful excuse. You can get away with anything. No, there are reasons why. Why would it operate in somebody who thinks that they are worthy? Besides the all-inclusive over it. God can do whatever he wants. Start worthy and go to unworthy. That may be the process to get there, but can he operate in somebody who thinks they're worthy? Say that again? So again, start worthy, go to unworthy. And that was the discussion last night. And I'll get to that.

What about unworthy? Why do you think I'm worthy? If you go at it from a subjective operating principle in a person's mind. An unworthy person would be one who would understand grace because he'd be more apt to perceive it. And because of his view of himself not being worthy of what God is doing. If I think I'm worthy, then I don't need the grace. Hear that? Others? I'm talking about coming to the point of recognizing the blessings I have from God and that there isn't a single one that I have that I merit or am worthy of. Not a single one.

If you're worthy or unworthy, He will give you that blessing. But I can't, here's my point, I can't operate in the grace system if I do it from the mindset that I'm worthy of what I'm getting. Unmerited. I think I go back. You take the words, instead of worthy and unworthy, you say merited and unmerited. Unmerited describes.

But I think it's the point being worthy. If you think you're worthy, that's the point. The way I look at it, there's something that I have value in myself or value of something that I've done. There's something that I can do. And it's kind of the point being that I think I'm worthy. And if I think so, then as Mike said too, then why do you need grace? If you're worthy, why do you need grace? Jeremy? I think you can rephrase the question. Do we operate in grace better if we think we're worthy or unworthy?

Because this is talking about how we live in grace. Grace operates in us regardless of what we think. Like he says, who cares what we think? But as far as us operating in grace and living the Christian life, those that have the idea that all I bring is sin and weakness, well then grace is going to be so much more powerful, because we realize how much we need to rely on God. It doesn't matter what we do, because all we do is going to come short, and so we need to operate in grace.

But I still think it comes down to what you think, because that's how you live your life. That's why I phrased the question this way. It's what you think, because that's how you'll approach your life in grace. Because in my Christian life, if I think I'm worthy, grace is out the door.

But if I know that the only thing I come to the table with is nothing but sin and weakness, Somebody last night was discussing about that and we'll get into that. And I think it's kind of what you brought up too. You had the same argument. I'll get to it in a second. Yeah, at least you can.

You know, I think blessings are, at least mine, maybe Claire's, my initial reaction is blessings are just God pouring out his love to you. Rewards are more based on your life, your actions. There's a kind of a cause and effect. There's a reward that, you know, we'll be rewarded and we'll have crowns for what we've done in life.

You know, and the only reason I'm coming back here is you remember not to approach you and harass you just to get it on the mic. You know, mine is that the minute you think you're doing something for a reward, gone. If I'm doing it because I'm going to Make God a little happier. I'm going to wear that little crown.

I'm going to throw it at his feet. I think the reward is gone at that point. I know, but still, if there would be some secret reward so that we would not be aware of it, so that we couldn't act self-consciously about it. And I think those are the rewards we will receive is the ones that we are not I'm going to go out and slay the world.

I'm going to go out and win 50 people to Christ today. I'm going to help the little old lady across the road. I think there are those things that you do consciously, but once you start thinking about that... I think to run the race, though, is just to go through life and the reward is intimacy with Christ. That, I think, is the reward that we have.

To run the race, no matter what, you stumble, you fall, you hurt, you're hot, you're dry, all those things, the reward is still there of the intimacy with Christ. It doesn't matter what trials, tribulations, whatever goes on, the reward is there. You keep on going. that my James one, consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. The testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have a perfect result that you may be perfectly incomplete, lacking nothing.

You persevere, you go on, because what's he doing? He's perfecting you. So I think that's what Paul's getting at with that. And the perfecting is a deeper relationship with Christ, that intimacy, that daily intimacy with Christ. So that's the reward I think he's... Mike, I've been... A couple of thoughts about that. One is that the reward is based on our deeds.

To analyze what the deeds have to be, they have to be God's, they cannot be his will. They have to be not only But they have to be deeds that are wrought by Him, which you can't do out of the flesh. So to manifest by the fruit of the Spirit, to operate in the system of grace, you're functioning as Christ is supposed to function through you. Only He can do that through you, and that's only an operation of grace. And so what's interesting is that God rewards us based on our living in grace.

Anytime there's a merit idea about it, it comes from the flesh, and that won't be real. Well, that's going to contribute to the bonfire. Right. Yeah, that will be burned up. So again, the rewards, I think, yeah, it's not what we purposely go after. I think it is all those things we do living in grace, doing those things, those, wow. those things that are in His will that He wants us and the works that He has called out for us to do. Those are the rewards we'll get.

Okay, getting back to the point Steve had. I was thrown the verse last night, John 1, 12. But as many received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. So, going to your point, I think, Steve, is that you're worthy because He's made you a child of God. That's your worthiness. What I think the difference is, is that allows you to receive grace.

It's nothing that you've done. It facilitates the ability to receive grace, but it's nothing you've done. You aren't made worthy by any of the things that you've done. You've just been placed into Christ, and from there you're now able to receive grace, but it's not anything of your own worthiness, and I guess that's what I was trying to get at, was nothing of your own worth, nothing that you think you've done or that you think you...

I think even at that now that I think about it, I'm worthy because now I'm puffed up and I'm going to do all this stuff. I think even right there you're kind of, how does grace operate in that? Oh! Stop my raging heart. Yes, go ahead. Understanding the point, it's not that you just go around moping all day long, that I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. I can only receive grace because I'm unworthy. Yeah? I knew a rule in that commentary that says that to recognize increasingly your unworthiness, but expecting God to bless you is a great secret. Yeah. In my quest, well, it's an open thing. Okay. That's a given. Yeah.

But God blesses me in spite of all of that. But he doesn't See, I think that's the key. It's who you are in Christ. You know, and the reason you're in this position of grace is because of what He's done for you, and what He's done, and where He's put us, and what He's done for us.

I think it's just getting at that aspect of, you know, if I'm whoever, you know, Mike, great teacher, you know, and I just think I'm, you know, and I'm worthy of just a little more grace today, Gone. Gone. Yeah. You know, I think what I was trying to get at is the thinking part of it on this was more if you think you're worthy or you think you're, you know, there's something that you do, that's kind of what I was getting at.

Grace doesn't operate in a person who thinks, you know, just because, you know, I went to church and I gave a thousand dollars and I helped three old ladies across the street and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that God's going to just, because of that, I'm a little more worthy that He's going to smile on me and bless me a little bit more. That's what I'm trying to get at. Or somebody who just knows the only reason they're in grace is because of what Christ did and that all I did was bring sin and weakness to the table and he's blessing me abundantly. And it's the non-conscious act of doing things just because of who you are in Christ.

Go ahead. Yeah, in our position, that's secure. We're blessed with all spiritual blessings. We are positionally seated with Him. Condition is what I'm talking about in our operating in grace, in our condition. And as I said, the condition is getting to what we think.

I'm just trying to get to the point of if it's anything that we do, we blow grace. If it's anything that makes us feel worthy or that we have to do, I go back to unmerited. Unmerited. So, if we feel worthy about what we did, how's that unmerited? So, it's just kind of thinking of ourselves in grace. Oh, did Paul operate in God's grace from a position of power and strength? Was he, you know, he was a big guy, wrote all these epistles. Was he worthy because of all the great things he did? No. What did Paul operate from?

Give you a hint. Second Corinthians 12, nine. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in what? Weakness. So again, the aspect of worthy, unworthy, and what we think, what we bring to the table, we'll get to it. Thank you.

Is it better to, is that number one or number two? Well, we'll finish this one and we'll race through the next one, but look at the remainder of these ones because there's really good stuff in here. This really points out, the verses that we'll go over point out, again, just what we bring to the table and it'll floor you. You think it's got to be this great thing, you've got to be Paul, you've got to be this, you've got to be that in order to be under God's grace. It's totally the opposite. All the verses that discuss grace shows basically we bring nothing to the table except a few great things which we'll look at next week. So let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you again just for your grace. Father, it is unmerited. It's nothing that we do and we're so thankful for that because we just mess it up. And we thank you. that it is unlimited. There is no way we can outdo Your grace. We just thank You for that decision. We are comforted by that. We are strengthened by that. Father, we just thank You for all of Your attributes, including Your gracious nature. And Father, we just commit this time to You and this day to You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.