Principle & Principles of Grace

We didn't get too far last week. We're going to be back on lesson five. Who needs lesson five? Anybody need it? It's back there. You can actually have the holes punched this time, so you can actually put it in your notebook. All right, we are going to go back to, just briefly, to question number five. Does God's grace operate in people who think they are worthy or unworthy? That was the topic that I had a couple different opinions on.

I'm going to get in trouble again, but I'm going to do it anyway. Besides my wife, I got a call from my daughter who listens to this in Anchorage by the internet and she agreed with Ingrid. So, I'm having mounting pressure from my family here. And now I just realized I'm going to get killed from her because of now mentioning this because she'll get it. Sorry, daughter.

The thought is, do you feel worthy or unworthy? We address that a little bit, and I understand the point. I guess the two different points were, do you feel worthy for receiving grace? I don't know if Steve, you were one that was saying, and Ingrid brought up the same point. And we went through identification truths. You know, the 34 things of Lewis Barry Chafer and then Middletown Bible, even up that to 215 things that we receive when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, from that, are we worthy? That, I think, is kind of the point that we're looking at. Does that make you feel worthy? The point on the flip side is, if you feel worthy, why do you feel worthy? What I go beyond that is, you did something. Yeah, you know, when you feel worthy, it's something that you did.

I think that's the concept. And I kind of started thinking about this a little bit more about it. And, well, actually, I should go on to say, from last week, any other thoughts from our discussions last week, you who were here? Any more thoughts in digging in in your position? You know, I came to it almost as a... I thought about it more and more.

I think it's more almost of a position and condition, almost, in that the process or the... not the process, but the reason why we receive all things is because we're in Christ and we're eminently worthy to receive all those 215 things. Because of what? We're in Christ. So, I mean, what Inger was bringing up was, do we just sit around and mope?

I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. That's the only way you get grace? I don't think that's what we're saying. I think what we're saying is, yes, we're eminently worthy in Christ. But what did we do? What made us worthy? What things did we do to make us worthy? Thank you.

Nothing. So, it's not when we say unworthy that we just mope around and we're just, you know, the little clouds over our head and we think, you know, we're just unworthy. No. From the identification truth, you know, we went through all those 34 things. You just latch on to one of those things.

You know, the one that always hit me was that intimacy in my prayer. You know, when you realize that you can come before the God of the universe and say, Daddy, Daddy. That one alone to me just blows my socks off. That we have the intimacy to go before the God of the universe who holds everything together and who's created everything, who's in control of everything, and we have the intimacy to go before him and say, Daddy, I hurt. Daddy, man, this is a great day. Daddy, I can't believe that. And you look at his attributes and you just are amazed.

But the position I'm going from is not that it's anything that I did to deserve that. The only thing that qualifies me to do that is what? Being placed into Christ. So I don't mope around all the day thinking I'm unworthy. But positionally, I have everything. But I don't sit around and go, because I did, as I say, I helped that little old lady across the road. I memorized 20 verses this week. Father, I did everything, all those works, I did, and I'm so proud of it. Well, you had a great week.

The whole point here is, and I think it's in the next question actually, Well, it doesn't matter that the minute you think You did something to deserve this. Grace is out. Grace is gone. So there is an element to this, what I think or feel or what I deserve. So there is an element of that.

The minute I think of something that I did, a major portion of my Christian life, I'm a type A-er. I helped build a church physically. I was an elder, a deacon, and all these different things, and I did, and I was, I go get them. I worked 80 hours a week plus, and I did all this stuff, and I thought, you know, isn't the Lord proud of me? I did 80 hours this week for the Lord. And he's going to smile just a little bit more than you, because I did 80 hours. I built a church.

The grace is totally not based on my actions, other than one unmeritorious thing that we do. Faith, we believe. And so Paul was saying that as he realized that he was going to be a hypocrite, he then changed his attitude to mostly to be honest. So that's how it functioned. He wasn't hoping about my work, mostly because of how he felt in his life. 2 Corinthians 12, 9, and he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in what?

Strength and activity? The things I do? Weakness. Paul boasted in that, and he boasted in Christ, the things in Christ. Not Paul, I did 89 different things. He boasted in his weakness. You know, I love when you get in the favorite kind of linchpin turning point that I think we all identify with is in the Roman 7 struggles that you see, and where, you know, I want to. Paul obviously knew the Lord.

He'd spent time with the Lord, all this intimacy with Him. And yet, all of the efforts he tried, he finally comes down to, it's only you, Christ. all my best efforts, everything that I can do, thanks be to God. Thanks be to the Lord Jesus. And so all this great stuff, he comes down to the fact that the only thing that makes him worthy is being in Christ.

And again, the thinking of anything worthy does negate the grace principle, because if that requires anything other than an unmeritorious act, it's not grace anymore. I would draw to that the worthiness of God's great presence. My definition is a narrative and it's based on the character of who God is. And so that if I was to do anything meritorious, I would have to do it on his level. The other thing is, in the book of Hebrews, there's a couple of places where there is an exhortation that believers will go who have come to the throne of Christ. This indicates to me that there's a growing knowledge and intimacy with Christ, contrasted with what I bring to the table, which is nothing but weakness.

I must be encouraged to come to the throne of Christ. to receive mercy and grace at the time of need, or to enter into the Holy of Holies, what I belong, got to be in truth, and taught about that which I could not, as God does this double revelation to me, the one about His glory, and He is coming to set me right, showing me who I am, How do you get boldness out of that? The only way to get bold out of that is to try to understand the greatest of the standards. Right. Yeah, I mean it's... Thank you. I mean that's it. It's not by, I don't enter boldly because, you know, I did 89 things.

It's only in Christ. And as you realize that intimacy with Christ and our life with Christ, I have great boldness through that. Great boldness of all these things I know I have positionally in Christ. You know, as we mature, the intimacy, you know, just becomes more and more a part of my life. And what are we called out to be? conformed to the image of Christ. So our condition begins to match our position. Think about this. Go back to Bruce. Your thought is that the minute I think of anything worthy of myself, it does impact grace because that immediately severs us from grace. We'll get through this.

Also a few researches here, like the fourth chapter talks about entering the God's breast. And what's interesting about that is that the person who lives in the breast, the subjective benefit is that it's a person's breast. Your own efforts won't ever give you that breast. You can never do that.

You've heard me, the teacher, talk to Mike. One of my big things is peace and rest. That is one thing that the world cannot offer is rest and peace. He promises the peace that surpasses all understanding. And, you know, come unto me all who labor, and I will give you rest. Take my oak, and I will give you rest. You know? The world doesn't offer that.

You know, that's kind of one of my, you know, if there's, you know, and I don't want to sound bad, I think, on how to say it. It's one of those things, my thoughts of if I'm doing it and what my motive is, if I'm at rest, I feel more I'm in God's will than if I'm laboring in something. And it doesn't mean that it's all candy and cherries and whipped cream and wonder. They're trials. One of the few verses that I actually can memorize, the James one, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. It doesn't say if, it doesn't say maybe. When?

And what is it for to perfect us? So it's not that this rest means that your life will just be an abundance of blessings. There will be blessings undoubtedly. And as we study grace, it's unlimited blessings. But there will be trials. But in that, you have peace and rest. And that's the amazing thing. And anyway, I go on forever on peace and the rest. Anyway, we'll get on to number six.

Let's move on and we should We I think started out with this and one is the definition of grace and this is the principle number five that in Macaulay's tapes Talks about and so does anybody that the shortened one not the Lewis Berry Chafer long longer version but the the Kind of a bridged one that we came up with. Does anybody remember what that was? It was the definition of grace. Man, we're how many weeks into this? Come on. Come on. Somebody be brave.

Grace is the... Everybody hear that? Grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Again, grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. I think that's a good working definition of grace.

You know, I think we did that in the Tuesday study. After weeks or months of studying grace, I think Mike went around the table and asked, OK, give us a definition of grace. Well, after that, we had, what, how many people were in there? And we had that many different definitions of grace after that.

So this is kind of, I'd say, a working definition of grace. Grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. OK, so question seven. What are the three essential parts in the definition of grace? So, the first one is unmerited. Grace is the unmerited blessing of God. Grace is always unmerited. Unmerited. And we're going to get into that in unlimited aspects. So, the second one, grace is what? First is unmerited, second is Unlimited.

Now, question B. Can you ever overwork grace? Yes, no. Yes. Yes. No. No. Thank you. Can you ever take more grace than there is? I'm a grace hog. I want to take more than I can get. Is there any way that I can do that? No. because it wouldn't be unlimited. Grace is boundless or unlimited.

And the third essential element of that definition is what? Adequate of the work of Christ. Grace is based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Again, going back to the unmerited part, Who did the work? Christ. It is nothing that we have done. It's kind of cool when I'm studying this. As I said last week, it's always the teacher that gets more out of this than the class. I've been humbled when I started looking at, we'll get into what the recipients of grace, what they come to the table with. We think, again, worthy, unworthy, proud, and all this stuff. We'll see what we bring to the table in grace.

Number eight, read Ephesians 2.5. So, who's got one? Somebody got it there? Mike, you there?

Okay, Mike, Ephesians 2.5. Even when we were dead in trespasses, you made us alive together in Christ.

Okay, so Ephesians 2.5, and that's the King James Version, the New King James, the New American Standard. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. So, what are the three elements to this verse?

Number one, what is the first thing about the people? Well, actually, let's go on the positive side first. Let's go on the positive. What? Made alive. They've been saved. These people are saved. That is a blessing. That's number one. Number two, what was the basis of this blessing? The basis is by what? by grace. Okay, the people were saved, number one, and that's the blessing. Number two, the basis was by grace. By grace you have been saved. So the blessing was saved. Now, now the cool part.

What was the payment? What did we give for this blessing and grace? What did we bring to the table? Sin, weakness. We brought a corpse. Man, do we come to the table with a lot. What does it say? We were dead in sin. Man, what a deal. Come to grace and what do we bring? We brought a corpse. We were dead in sin and while dead, God gave us what? Enormous blessings. Salvation. So, what do we see from this verse about the recipient of grace?

What does he contribute? What meritorious service does he provide? Zero. He brought a corpse. What is the value of a corpse? Worthless. We come to the table with a corpse. So when we start thinking about how proud we are about what we do for grace, what meritorious thing we do, what does it say here? We brought a corpse. We're dead in sin.

And what did He do? He blessed us by salvation. And the basis was by what? Grace. So we're starting to get a flavor for, and I hope we'll kind of get down in this worthy and unworthy part when you start seeing in all these instances of where God pours out His grace, what we what we come with and And it's you know, it's it's really revealing when I went through this, you know, I keep thinking, you know, and and Stephen I you know, I kind of and talk with Aaron family and I was like, yeah, I understand, you know in Christ I had boldness I have all this but then when I see this grace every time I come to the table, you know in these verses You know, I don't come with much like zero and all I pray sin weakness corpse death You know, that's my contribution And so it's kind of eye-opening when you get through this. Yeah, Mike? Yeah, this is in salvation. What we do to come to receive the grace and salvation. And so this is how we kind of, I guess, enter into the system, the grace system. How do we enter into this system? And what do we do to enter into that system? All right, Romans, number nine, Romans 520. Bruce, you got a Bible, or who's got one? Steve, anybody? Anybody got a Romans 520? You got one?

And the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So, what was the contribution made by the recipient of grace in this verse? Not only sin, but what? Increased sin. I even like that. We not only brought sin, we brought increased sin.

So we're even stepping up the table. Are we going to get to that question? If you can hold on for that one, we will get to that. And we'll see. I don't want to get ahead of myself. We'll get to that one. So if you can hold off for just a minute, we'll get to that one.

So we came with increased sin. So against the background of increased sin, grace did much more abound. Does something sound contradictory in this verse? Does something just sound weird? Well, we can get into that one as a believer or non-believer. Non-believer, what choices does he have? He can sin or sin. See, I'm talking about an unbeliever. An unbeliever has only one choice. He can sin or sin. It's the only choice he has. He's in bondage. It's the only thing he can do.

Now, in Christ, it's a whole different matter, and that's why I want to segregate that into a believer and an unbeliever. An unbeliever, they have no choice. Tom was talking about sin and all this for an unbeliever. Well, yeah, they don't have a choice. That's all they can do. By their very nature, that's all they can do is sin.

I'll get back to that. I'm curious if the thing that caused it to happen was law. Was law? Yeah, and what is the purpose of the law? Yeah, to show us sin. So, the law shows us the sin, and then, like I said in this one, I guess what I was trying to get at on the contradictory part...

Oh, Jeff. I just have a question. Is this stuff that you can challenge? You and your wife have the exact same question. I'm gonna get to that. Because Paul addressed that very thing. And one of the things we get to is the fact that I like that because if you have that question, this is what Paul came through in the same thing. He had the exact same question and he answered it.

So I guess the contradictory part of this that I see is Sin is increasing, so what is God doing? He's blessing. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense to you? Sin is increasing and God is what? Giving you blessings. Is that kind of weird? What is our definition?

Unlimited. Unlimited. So the question is, can I out-sin grace? Can I out-sin it? And is it only so far? Unlimited. So, in receiving grace, the first thing we talked about is what? Unmerited. Because what it's saying here is, in sin, he pours out grace all the more. So, is it unmerited? It has to be. It has to be. As sin increases, grace abounds even more. It's not saying that I do anything. In fact, as sin increases, grace abounds all the more. So it's nothing. Again, the point is, it's unmerited. Okay, we'll get to your question here in a little bit. Romans 5, 6 through 10. Can I have somebody get that? I'll call on somebody. Bruce, you there? You got a Bible? Romans 5, 6 through 10. Seeing just the great tenor, there's some parallels.

Very rarely will anyone die from an anxious fit, but for a good man, it's only a matter of time. God demonstrates his own life for us sinners, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath? Remember, before we were born, we were God's enemies. We were reconciled to him through death and son. How much more have we been reconciled OK, just because I use the new American standard, I'll read it because some of the words Romans five, six through ten.

For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

Okay, first one. So, I give four words that describe the recipients of grace from this verse. Let's start in verse 6. What does it say? What was the first characteristic of the recipient of grace? What were we? Helpless. Wow, there's another cool term for us. It's really meritorious. We're helpless. We were still helpless. Notice that the contribution we made to deserve blessing is helpless. In the King James, it says, without strength. So again, the recipient of grace comes to the table. Really, really cool. He's helpless. He or she is helpless. Okay?

So, also from verse 6, what is the second characteristic of the recipient of grace from this verse? Verse 6. Ungodly. You starting to get the picture here about recipients of grace? You know? It kind of pumps you up, doesn't it? That it's all the things you did and what you come to the table to receive this grace.

So far, we're helpless and we're ungodly. Third one, from verse 8. What does it say? Sinners! It only gets better. Helpless, ungodly. We're sinners. So, again, the recipients of grace One of the other characteristics were sinners. So if you read this verse in the light of what we deserve verse 8 should read God judges us judges us while we were yet sinner sinners that matches God judges that is what should occur, but there is a different principle. It's called God's grace God is able to give blessings on an unmerited basis God should judge but he doesn't and It's already been done. What is with our sins? What has happened to our sins?

Part of them? Part of them? Only through this Thursday? All of them. And the thing I was trying to point out too, we're very good at maybe our past sins, those ugly things. Maybe today. You know, I kicked the dog. I don't know, whatever. I didn't. My daughter's a little nervous. I did some sin. I had a horrible thought on the way driving here. You know, whatever.

So I'm really good about that one. But what about those future ones? Those have been paid for. And the corollary to all that that I always remember is therefore there is now what? No condemnation. Okay, so again, we're getting to the sin part. It's all been taken care of. God has been what? Big word, P, propitiated. He's satisfied. The sin question has been dealt with. Okay, so again, all this is now on an unmerited basis. The sinner part, all that, everything's now on an unmerited basis. Okay, fourth one from verse 10.

Enemies. So, the one who is pouring out grace to us, we were just so thankful, right? Yeah, we deserved it, right? We deserved all that grace, that lavished pouring out of grace because we were buddies, we were friends, we were right there praising God, right? Enemies. Enemies. So, notice the pattern is the same all the way through. Undeserved or unmerited blessing. So, the four words that describe the recipient of grace are helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God.

Do you feel worthy? Do you feel worthy? You came to the table with a lot of good stuff, didn't you? No, it's always going to be the same. And as you study these verses, it becomes more and more apparent that it is totally unmerited. I came to the table with nothing but trouble. I came as an enemy, ungodly sinner.

And God did what? Poured out His grace on me. I mean, as you go through this series, I hope you get just more of an appreciation of this principle of grace and what it means. Unmerited, unlimited blessings. Because we were helpless, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God. We are. See, and that's what I think the thing is, you go from that position, and our position is, and we went through those 34 things, the 215 things, I mean, that's so amazing. And what is the only thing we can say to that?

Thank you. You know, there are a couple things out of this class I hope you begin to understand. One, grace is unmerited, unlimited blessings based on the totally adequate work of Christ. that, so you appreciate that, but the other is the only thing you can do is say thank you. Thank you. And you enter into an unlimited flow of blessings.

That's really cool. Alright, did you have something? Okay, okay. Yeah, go ahead. I'm standing outside, and I'm standing at home, and we're like two years away. And this guy comes up to me, and I'm in my bones, and I'm crying. And he said, it doesn't mean anything. And I said, why? And he said, because it's safe to keep praying to God. So I entered into an argument with this guy. And I said, I don't think that's anything. But if God would forgive us, I think we could just go in. Yeah. I think that goes back to our previous class of identification. What does Adam want to do? What does the old nature want to do? Something! Anything! The law. He thrived on the law because what? You do something. You have to jump so high, you have to do something.

And the unmerited part goes where? I really think, again, the key to this is going back to our identification. The root of why you feel worthy is because of the... I'm about to be buzzed. Because the old man, the old man is one who wants to be worthy for doing something. He wants to do something. The law is his comfort. Because you do something and you receive something. You are a part of it.

And everything we're talking about in Christ is unmerited. So, it's a completely different system. So, yeah, I mean, the pride, what Mike's talking about, you know, I just, I have to contribute. Who is speaking there? I mean, obviously, he's an unbeliever, but Adam is the one who's saying, you know, the bar is this high and I can't make it. I'm going to walk on down the street.

When, in actuality, the gift is there and all you have to do is receive it. The only thing we have to offer is the unmerited Action of faith. That poor guy walked down the street and all he had to do was believe. Unmeritorious. Nothing he had to bring to the table.

I got $20. I can throw it in the till. A lot of people kind of come on Christmas services and pay their $20 or $100 or whatever. What is that? Doing something. I paid my $20. And so it really gets back. And as you listen to this definition time and time again, and we'll see. I guess we can start into lesson six. We'll start in there. We'll continue on here. Does everybody have lesson six? You need one? Or do you have a question or a comment? Okay. Lesson six. We'll get like two minutes into question number one. So who's got 2 Corinthians 12, nine and 10? Why don't we do nine and 10? Anybody? He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast Okay, so what is the basis for God's blessing?

Weakness, you know, it's on the in the verse six ones, you know death You know our background besides weakness is death abounding sin powerlessness and godly sinners enemies of God This is the type of person that God blesses Okay. So what does this show based on our definition of grace? What does that show? What Power but what in in our definition of grace, what does that show?

Oh Unmerited. Weakness. We again come to the table with, you know, every great thing, we come with weakness. Paul is saying, you know, for power is perfected in weakness. Okay? For Christ's sake, when I am weak, then I am strong. Again, the basis is, you know, the weakness so that the only thing that can be wrought from the grace is it's unmerited. I can't do anything for it. I'm in a position of weakness. We brought a corpse to the table. We're enemies. We're ungodly. These are the things we offer.

As we'll see in the next few verses, we'll also know this because in Scripture it says that grace is the opposite of merit. And obviously the opposite of merit would be no merit. Okay, so as we get into the next verses, we'll do that. I think I'll stop it there before we get into question 2. So, I guess we'll go ahead and we'll hand out it. We'll close in prayer, but I'll hand out verse 7. It looks like we'll probably only get through 6 next week. I appreciate your comments. I love having the comments and discussions with it.

So it may take us a little longer. It looks like we may go two quarters to get through grace now. So we're not gonna try and rush through it. I think we're gonna take some time. And I think Mike's semi cleared it, I think with the elders. that we won't finish in October. We'll go through to January. We can take it a little bit slower instead of trying to rush through and get everything done. Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we just thank you again. as we begin just to open up grace and the thought of what we bring to the table. Again, the worthy and worthiness. Yes, we have boldness. We have a position in Christ that has just amazing attributes, amazing blessings. And we are so thankful for each and every one of them as we realize our position in Christ.

But Father, we also realize what we did to receive that grace. We did nothing. And if we had to do anything, your system of grace would not function. There's not a middle ground between grace and law, grace and works. It is either grace or it is not. And so, Father, we just thank you. Thank you for your unmerited, unlimited blessings through the totally adequate work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.