Principle & The Principles of Grace
Courtney Hemenway · Aug 12, 2007
Principles of Grace, No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926036114398

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for any time that we can just come before you as a group of your children and just to delve into your Word. We thank you just for the intimacy that we have. We thank you for the boldness of which we can come before you and bring you these praises and prayer requests. Father, even though you know all these, you are delighted by having us come before you with these requests. We do thank you again just for the ability to come before you in such a fashion at any time, any place, anywhere. And we just thank you and ask for Kurt and Mike as they are moving.

We just pray that you'll if it's in your will, Lord, just to make that go smoothly, make those transitions easy. And Father, we just commit those moves to you. And Father, we do thank you for Cheryl's uncle that went home to be with you. And Father, it's face-to-face with you now. What an awesome thought that is.

We celebrate that fact, and we just realize that the foreigner has made it back to the citizenship in heaven. We just thank you again. just for all that you do for us moment by moment. We thank you for how much you have blessed us. Thank you for the position that we have in Christ. Father, we just commit this time to you now, and may you be glorified by all that we say and do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. We boldly went forth into question one of lesson six. Does everybody have less than six? Does everybody need less than six? Actually, that's it. I'm just going to go back, the lingering question that we, I hope as we go through these questions and we go through these descriptions of grace, we'll get to more of that question that we entered into on the very first week, whether grace can operate under somebody who feels worthy or unworthy. And last week we went through a couple of the verses where, what did we bring to the table when God bestowed grace on us? What did we bring to the table? Sin and weakness. We brought a corpse. We were dead in our transgressions.

Remember all those things remember all those lovely description it reminds me when we Through the identification truths where Where we study who we are in Adam first, and then we get into who we are in Christ. I And kind of when we're talking about grace now, it's almost what we bring to the table is all the gnarly stuff from Adam. That's the only thing we bring is sin, weakness, and we'll go through more verses today about what we do for grace. Remember what our definition is, our, I guess, Chester McCauley won the shorter one than Schaefer. Anybody, we're what, five or six weeks into this? Remember what it is? What is the definition of grace that we came up with? The shortened one? Got it.

And I'll probably repeat that because the mic's here. It is the unmerited and unlimited blessings of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Okay, so we've, we're going through some of the unlimited aspects of that and we'll go. Oh, I was gonna go back on that. I wanted to read out if you have the hungry heart and I thought it was maybe kind of working our way through this worthy and unworthy aspect. And I'll read a little bit of it. And this is the first one from Stoney and the second one's from, is it Charles Coates? Charles Coates. CAC, yeah.

If I, once a lost product, want to know the measure of my acceptance with the Father, He alone defines it for me. It is only as I know what the Lord Jesus is to the Father in glory that I can in any degree truly estimate my own acceptance in Him. Had He my sins laid on Him, how is He now accepted? For as He is now accepted, so am I. And therefore, it is the gospel of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Try for your own acceptance, and it will always be a dubious and imperfect thing. Get to understand His acceptance, and your soul will be enlarged into all the fullness and blessedness, not only of His, but of your own, because you are in Him. And then, Coach, many are looking to find something good in themselves. And in most cases, without being conscious, they're doing so. effort, disappointment, self-reproaches, and self-occupation make up the weary round of their lives, with now and then perhaps a gleam of spiritual happiness. No man's heart will ever be gladdened by the joy of divine acceptance until he has learned that there is not a single bit about him, as a man in the flesh, that does not deserve the judgment of God.

It is a wonderful moment when, by faith, we appropriate and occupy our position in the favor of the Father, when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of His Son. And this is the one, we do not then think of ourselves or our unworthiness at all. We think of the Lord Jesus, His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father. And by faith, we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy. And I guess the key that I was looking for in there was we do not think of ourselves or our unworthiness. You know, and we're kind of delving into that, where, you know, do we just mope around in our unworthiness when we know, through our identification, when we study that, the 34 or 215 things that we have immediately once we believe in the Lord Jesus.

We have all those things. So, are we to mope around unworthy, or are we worthy to be before the King face to face? Yes, we are. I like the way he put it here. We don't think of our unworthiness because we are in Him. We think of all that's in Him. So it's not that we just mope around and think of unworthiness. We don't even bother with that anymore.

Worthiness, unworthiness, because all we're thinking of is our life in Him. I thought that was a little bit more clarification as we get into this about feeling worthy and unworthy and how that impacts the system of grace. So, lesson six, question two.

I need somebody to read Romans 4.4. Anybody? I'm gonna call. Okay.

Okay, and actually, for those of you who use the New American Standard, now to the one that works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. So the word there actually, strangely enough, which usually the New American Standard has the most literal, or one of the more literal translations, they did the word favor instead of grace. When you look in actually the Greek, it is the Greek word charis, which is grace. So, the King James, I think, is even a little bit better. Now, to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Okay? So, how about we clarify this verse a little bit more?

Now, to the one who puts in forty hours is the paycheck not counted as a favor, but what is owed to you? okay now the one who puts in 40 hours is the paycheck not counted as a favor but what is owed to you okay so this verse is trying to get the difference between grace and works so what what does it say I guess clarify the difference it says about favor or what is due or what is the debt now I guess the point being is you don't pick up a paycheck and it's just out of the graciousness of your employer that says, you know, I'm just giving this to you.

What have you done by working? What? You earned it. Or you have what to the employer? Well, not merit, but you've accrued a debt. If I work for an employer for 40 hours and I haven't been paid for it, what is on that employer? A debt. He owes me 40 hours worth of work. So he has a debt that he has accrued. In this verse, there's a difference between a debt and favor or grace. Do you have with God a debt? Or does He have a debt? Excuse me, does God have a debt? Does He owe you anything?

Did you work really hard to receive grace? Now, you can't go up to God and say, you know, I've been really, really good this week. I've memorized for me two verses all week long, and I'm really good. So God, you owe me. You owe me a little more grace this week because I was really good this week. You know, I can't memorize that well, so I got two verses. You have a debt accrued to you.

Is that what this verse is saying? No. So again, it is about... There's nothing that we can do. There is no debt on God's part to owe us grace. So what does this talk to us about? Merited versus unmerited. What does that say about that? Big long silence here. What? We can't earn it. So what does that mean? It is what?

Unmerited. Okay, again, Going back, the first part of this we're looking at in the definitions, the verses that support the fact that it's unmerited. This verse says that it cannot be, that grace cannot be a debt. It cannot be. It is grace. It is unmerited. So there's nothing that we can do. Again, to the point, there is no little bit that's going to get us a little bit more grace or to actually earn any grace. There's nothing that we can do. Nothing. There is no debt owed by God. So unmerited. Any thoughts? Let's go on to number three. 520. Romans 520. Somebody read that one. Okay, so Is there a way to out sin grace? Does this verse say that? That I can really be bad I can have enough sin that grace just can't cover it Is that what this says? What does it say? What does it say about grace in our definition?

It's more than enough or unlimited. The verse in the New American Standard, and the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So, if you put it on a little scale here, sin is here. Grace is not right equal with it. Grace is infinitely above it. And if I'm sinning more or there's sin, no matter what, there's always abundant grace to meet that. There's no way I can out-sin grace. There's never a point where grace is just about caught up to by sin. Man, we're right there. We're right at the tipping point. The point here is that it's unlimited. There is not a point where I can out-sin grace. Does everybody understand that?

I'm functioning on a law basis. And if I function on a law basis, what the law does is it causes the sin to increase. And so the contrast is even more keen, because, well, if I'm going to try to merit God's grace, then what's really going to happen is I'm going to sin more. And is that going to mean that the grace gets diminished, or because of the law, I've gone to the Y, and I'm going to sin? Yeah, I'm going to have to get grace Yeah, good point. The points between law and grace. And law is a merit-based system. So as Mike said, what was the law there for?

To convict us. The sole purpose of the law is to convict us and to show that there is no way we can meet this standard. you know, what are their 600 and whatever number laws. And again, the thought being, again, you have to do all of those all the time, never breaking one, otherwise you fail. So all the law does is convict us.

It puts the big spotlight on sin. So, as Mike says, when you mix that back in, any kind of law or merit, you sin more. Or the spotlight's on the sin more and more. You try and do it by merit. You try and do it by law. And that is the opposite of grace. But what this verse I love says, no matter how much you do that, grace is always going to cover it. Grace operates in an unlimited basis. Okay? Alright, zooming through this here.

Question four, from Romans 5.20, does Paul say that we should sin more? Is this dangerous teaching about grace? This goes back to Monique and Bruce's question. Does this verse say, how can I exalt grace? Just keep on raising that sin level. Am I going to do a mic here? Raise your hand if that's what you think. I'm out there in a chicken. What do you think? You're stealing my thunder. That's it. Exactly.

You know, if you're thinking this way, congratulations, because that's exactly what Paul was dealing with. Paul is dealing with the exact same thing. And we will see in a couple of verses that he addresses that. So somebody read Romans 6, 1 and 2. He anticipated this, he answered this question. If you leave that dangling out there and you just take one verse and take it out of context, We're supposed to sin so grace can really abound, super abound. If you take that by itself, it can be dangerous if you take it out of context.

But, as I say, Paul addresses. Paul knew what was going on in their little minds, so he addressed it. He brought it out. And what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? Answering the question. And what does he say? May it never be. Okay? Yeah, Bruce. In, You know, in this one, I don't know if it does that. This verse, I don't know. Many other verses, I think, say that in that Christ paid, you know, is a propitiation of our sins.

So he is satisfied. So all the sins that were laid upon him are taken away. We have nothing. There's no amount of sins past, present, future. that we even have to deal with. Again, I go back to, therefore, there is now no condemnation. The sin question has been dealt with.

And this, I think, deals more with the identification. We who have died to sin, how shall we who died to sin, still live in it. See, I think this more goes to our identification of Him, not as much the sin question. I think this is beyond that almost, in that we're identified with Christ. We live in Christ. I guess, who are you now? You are in Christ. Are you to live that way, as conforming to Him, or are you to live as in Adam?

I think that's more what this verse is addressing. Right. But again, it's addressing, yeah, I think the sin issue before grace and the sin issue is taken care of at the cross. And that's why, you know, we kind of deal with this on some things where Do you have to be a Christian before you're a Christian? Really, we're dealing with this on some issues. Our tendency is to say, you have to measure up. You have to be a Christian before I'll talk to you about Christ. Or you have to be so good before you accept Christ or you believe in Christ.

I've looked at that. And I don't know if I shared this last time, there was a guy, maybe I didn't, I don't know. There was a guy who I was down in Highlands Ranch, and the guy came up and he wanted, and I was just coming out of a place, and he, kind of gnarly looking guy, and he wanted to get, he needed some gas. And it was going up to the station, five, six blocks up, and said, can I give gas? Well, no, I can't. Company vehicle, blah, blah, blah, took off. And I thought, probably I don't have to give him a ride, but I could have gone and given him the gas and all this.

But my first inclination was to judge him. And I thought, in our Christian lives, how many times do we judge somebody and say, you have to measure up this high before you really can accept what I'm telling you about Christ? I worry about that like the guy that Mike was talking about. I'm not good enough to go in there and get this good stuff.

None of us are worthy. I don't care if you're wearing the $500 Gucci suit or you're wearing torn up, ripped up, living in the gutter clothes. In God's eyes, we're all sinners. And so there is no distinction, you know, between sins. You know, that was the one thing I was trying when we're talking about it, about some issues. And it was like, is there greater sins because, you know, whether I lie or whether I steal or murder? You know, is there a difference in sin? Exactly. That's the thing. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

All of us are sinners. When we come to the cross, we're all sinners, desperately wicked. You know, when we go through identification class, when we see who we are in Adam, it's not a pretty picture. I think you have to know. Absolutely, absolutely. You have to recognize that you're a sinner. That's the key. That you know that you need a savior. You have to come to that point and that's where I think we miss a lot of opportunities because you have to measure up so far before we can even really talk. Because you have to get right here before you're acceptable enough.

Or it's not. Like I said, the Gucci suit to the guy in the grubby clothes, in God's eyes, are all sinners. Yes, you do have to come to that realization that you are a sinner. Everybody has to come to that. And that you need a Savior. Everybody has to come to that point.

It doesn't matter how many times you sin. You're a sinner. God is going to send you all on the same level. We're so quantitative that, oh, I'll be sinning all day and night, or I'm not going to keep it. But to God, it doesn't matter the amount. It's the fact that we're simply a sinner, and that's enough to make us a sinner. Absolutely, that's the point. It doesn't matter. And again, that's the old Adam scale. We have a scale here, and I'm just a little higher than you because you lied yesterday, and I didn't. God's eyes? Flat pawn. Flat pawn. Doesn't make any difference. We look at the mass murderers. You look at these guys. Jeffrey Dahmer, eight people. Oh, oh, he's a horrible guy.

I couldn't, ugh. Except for God's grace, that could be me. And we've got to understand that. And so, yeah, when the sin question comes up, it's a level pond. You do one sin, and we're born with sin, so you don't have any options. God looks at you the same way. You're a sinner. You need Jesus Christ. That's your only way out. Death on the cross, co-crucifixion with Christ, Romans 6, and then we're identified with Him.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. All right. Sorry. A little bit of a tangent there. Oh, yes. Right, so that's good. Yeah, I think that's coming to the point of salvation. After salvation, it gets to be, therefore there is now no condemnation. I can beat myself up all day long about a sin. What does he call that in John 1? Confess. Which means, I agree, God, I am not doing the things that you say I am. I agree with you. I am not doing the things I should if I am in Christ. That's what the confession is. But that's all. It's not beating myself up that I've got to go do 59 things to make up for that sin that I did. No condemnation.

I'm just out of fellowship when I do it. And that's the loss now, is the loss of fellowship, not of the burden of sin. And that's the thing that I think a lot of Christians haven't gotten a hold of yet, is it's not, you know, to keep carrying that sin around on you. The loss is fellowship with Christ. If I'm not acting who I am, I lose fellowship with the Lord. And when I do that, that's my loss. That's when the pain comes. Go ahead.

The Lord is not our issue anyway. So what pervades us is what was the last part of that I I think yeah, God convicts us. The law convicts Adam, and in Adam, I think we're convicted, but I don't know as far as the Jewish law. I'm thinking like in Romans 1. There is no excuse. We all know that there's a God. I'm trying to think of the conviction of the Jew. The Jews are convicted based on the Hosea law. And Adam will do that anyway. Adam will automatically do a law system. Yeah.

Yeah, I think I think, you know, the law unto yourself, I mean, you know, you know, I think any I think also with revealed truth, you know, you know, your sinning, I guess. That's what we bring forth. I guess the question I would ask to anybody is what makes you able to stand in heaven or be before a God? And the part that I look at is every time it's something you have to do. It's a merit-based system. So whether it's law or what, you know, you look at, as Mike has said a few times, You know, look at the Inca or the Mayan. They knew that there was a God and he was mad. And so he had to have some kind of sacrifice. Every culture has, every religion has something to do with God. So there's a law in the heart, I guess, and a law unto itself that you know there's a God.

Romans 1 says that, that we're without excuse. And then with the Adamic nature, It's always a merit or some kind of works system, whether that's law or works or whatever, to appease God. So there's always that in there. I hope that answers it. I'll have to think of a script of the law in your heart written. What's that one? Well, that's fine.

Romans 2 talks about the Gentiles. because the Jews were easy to compare because they had a law that God gave them. So the Gentiles could say, well, we have a law, how can you compare us? The answer is one of the laws of the town. In Romans 2? I'll look at that next time, Alishka, for Romans 2.

The other issue about that is the fact that God, if you take a look at what sin is, it's not a whole bunch of bad stuff. Yeah. It's missing the mark. Right. And so, what God demands of these creatures is that they make it to the mark. If they don't make it to the mark, they fall short. They're worthy of condemnation. And you know what that means.

Romans 3 says that all that fall short of the Lord is God. None seek after God. No, not one. Right. Yeah, I mean that's the point of the identification in Adam. Everybody's heart is desperately wicked. All have fallen short. There is no one who can make the mark. Back to the Romans 6, 1 and 2.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Notice that Paul does not retract Romans 5.20 where he says, should we sin so grace can abound? He doesn't retract that. He doesn't say that where sin abounds, grace abounds to the same level. But Paul, he doesn't do that. He stays with verse 20. You cannot out-sin grace. Grace always abounds above sin. And notice that his answer is very simple in verse 2. Shall we sin that grace may abound? What was Paul's answer? No! Yeah, Tom?

Well, and Paul's answer, is very clear. No. You say, but it seems like, well, does that make a difference? No. The answer is still no. It doesn't matter. But you say logically verse 20 would lead to that conclusion. Logic. What is Paul's answer to it? No. You know, he doesn't care about your logic, doesn't care about it seems like. His answer is no. And it's because, well, actually the word that he used is a very strong Greek word. It's me, genoito. And it's basically an emphatic no. So, he had anticipated the answer on 520 and he answered it here. No, I don't care the logic, I don't care what it seems like, his answer is no, it doesn't fit.

I think this goes back to our identification truths and who we are in Christ. You know, I'll read back in, I think, the key verses in Romans 6, 1 through 11. And again, thinking about this, you know, if you are in Christ, will you be wanting to sin? Is that who you are? And I'll go back in a couple of the verses, kind of, I think he addresses this. What shall we say? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. His answer, how shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over you. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Okay? That emphatic no was backed up by a lot of if you're in Christ. Does this even make sense? You're in newness of life. You're in Him. Does it make sense to go, I'm going to sin more so I can have grace more? Does that make sense to a person in Christ? No, I hope not. So his emphatic no is followed up by quite a bit that says, If you're in Christ, and what does it mean to be in Christ?

You're freed from sin. You're freed from the slavery of sin. You don't have to do it. So it's illogical to say, I'm going to sin more so grace is there, because that's not who I am in Christ. So Paul answers very emphatically, I think, the answer to, if sinning makes grace abound, I'm going to sin more. It doesn't make sense.

You're not slave to sin anymore. You're in Christ. Who you are in Christ, that's the important thing. And you're not going to be sinning to have grace abound more. I also think, because I'm listening to you talk, that there's a contrast between The old creation, the principles of the old creation are sin and law. In Christ, grace is the outbreak.

So he's not only talking about being in Christ, he's also saying, look, if we're positioned in Christ, living in a grace system, then it isn't a matter of, I mean, the question is really, who, because we're in Christ, why would you do that? Yeah, good point. It's not only what he says here about our identification, but we're in a different system now. We're in the grace system. We aren't on the law of merits and works side. We're in a grace system. It doesn't make sense to sin to get grace. We should be operating in the grace system.

I think, for other reasons, I want to show how the grace is big. When people sin more, the grace is even more. And I think he's sort of fancying the, so that we don't do it on purpose, but it's like, in case you do it, I mean, it's fine. I think there are two key issues there. One, and that was you looking ahead in my notes. The other thing was this shows that grace is unlimited. You can't out-sin it. But it also does show that if I do sin, grace far exceeds it.

And so it has the calming or the peace that you know that no matter what I've done, grace is still greater than that. I'm walking so you can get on the mic. And so the question is, is grace sold out? If I sit here, is grace going to be bumped up if I sit here? Grace is just pervasive. So you can't test the limits.

Because it's always going to be a balance. I think you guys are cheating. These are all in my notes coming up. This is all abounding. We're going to get into that, actually. And that's the very point, that it's unlimited. Like I said, you don't have a meter here that you're almost there. Boy, you had a really bad week. Your sins are almost to the top of that grace level. Your point is, no, it's not. We can't even see the top of the container, so to speak, of grace. We're not even close. It abounds, and we're going to get into that word. Abundant grace abounding.

What does that mean? You know, that's kind of, you know, when you say infinity, do you kids ever do that? An infinity times, well, an infinity times infinity times, you know, and you get into those battles. Well, Paul almost gets into that in grace to show how unlimited this is. All right. Where are we at? Number five? Zooming through. Does a grace system scare you?

And the obligatory why or why not? Why should it? Huh? Why should it? Okay, answer your question. Why should it? Anybody else? Does it scare you? We have a why and we have it scares me to death. Any others out there? Others? Okay, why does it scare you, Mike?

Because if I come at it from Adam's viewpoint, I cannot see anything. I can't imagine that grace would keep me from seeing. I need to move. And if I just get grace, I'm free to sit. I don't know if you all caught that. It's basically, under this grace system, which is all around us and all this, it's kind of like taking the governor off your car. You can go as fast as you want.

You know, because it's unlimited. You know, this grace is this huge, unlimited pool of blessings. So, guess what? You know, he fits into the 520 right here, the Romans 520. Sin more, grace more. Sin more, grace more. He's worried about that aspect of it. There is no condemnation. There is, you know, I can sin. The condemnation is gone. I have no boundaries. And it says sin...

Well, the good part is you can never reach that. The bad part is God may deal with you anyway just to train you. bring you back into focus here, into the fellowship. It's not that you can just go crazy and I'm going to go mass murder because grace will cover that. You're going to have to deal with those. It's not that you have this unlimited. You are still under some constraints and God will lovingly bring you back to focus. But the scary part is the unlimited.

Yeah, it's overwhelming. It's like you're swimming in an ocean and there's no shore because it's everywhere. And when you do that, that can be very overwhelming. And once you get over that hurdle, there's a wonderful aspect of that. If you can get over the unworthiness, or that I've got to be worthy, no. He's wanting to pour out His grace and blessings to you. And then you're in this ocean of just wonder. But it is very overwhelming. Like, what's the deal with you? You know, like, there's the mind.

And if you said you've given up on knowing, knowing salvation, knowing Him and everything, it's going to be much worse for you than if you hadn't known Him. So it's like, when you touch Him, you try to touch Him, then, I believe, of course, you're still safe of any dispute with your doubts and everything else. And it's like, it's completely Well, that's what you know, I guess that's kind of my tell Mike, you know, you can you can sin, but God's going to deal with you. I mean, it's not that grace lovingly, graciously, he deals with you. You're going in the wrong direction. You are not acting like who you are at Christ. He will use things to bring you back.

No, not necessarily, you know, but always might consider it also my brother, you know, you know, even though He is child training you. It's never a good thing when you have to discipline your children. I don't like that, but when you do, it's for their benefit. It's not good to have your children in the class with you at this point, getting the looks.

I didn't want to give the impression that I didn't think that race can control what I'm saying. I absolutely think it can. There's no standpoint towards abiding with grace. It's a very scary proposition because I'm not persuaded that grace will not only forgive me, but will prevent me from sinning.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the other thing I was, we'll get to this probably weeks from now. You know, grace is something you learn slowly. It's in the category of spiritual maturity. I don't get born yesterday and drive a car tomorrow. It does take time because it's an amazing system.

The other part of whether it's scary or not, The scary part is we're taught all through our lives, contrary to a grace system, always. What do you tell your kids? We teach our kids that if you do X, then you'll receive Y based on your actions. In many cases, not only is it based on your action, but your attitude. Everything resides with us and our actions, not just the free receiving of an unmerited gift. It's unlike everything we're taught in this world. I'll give you an idea, and I've tried this on some people. It's amazing the receipt.

I give you Bronco tickets. I have you come over to my house for dinner. What is the first thing you want to do? What? Yeah, give back. Because your game is, I have to give something back. You can't come over to my house without me at least inviting you back. Or if I go over to your house, you've got to come over. Or we'll go out to lunch. You give me those Bronco tickets. Why don't we go see a Rockies game? I'll get you the Rockies game. What do we do? You cannot receive anything freely. You always want to pay back. So what is in grace? Does grace have a payback? Does grace have a debt? Does grace have any of this? Does grace have anything what the world says? Grace is contrary to the world and Adam's system.

In everything you do, there's actions. You do something and you get something. You do something, you pay for it. There's always this something you have to do. In grace, is there anything you have to do? Is that the second one? So it is a little bit scary in that the fact that it's completely contrary to all that we're taught as children, as parents, as residents of this earth. It's always contrary to that. So grace is a completely different system. And it's hard for us to understand that.

Again, I did this one time and quickly. I did something for somebody and they said, well, you know, I want to do this back to you. And I said, you know, under a grace system, you don't have to do that. Boy, you should have seen the look that I got. I thought I was going to get slugged. It was like, the audacity of you not to allow me to pay you back. Wow, that's how ingrained we are against a grace system.

Try that sometime. Just see what the reaction is to somebody who says you do something for them and they want to do something back and just say no. Under grace, you don't have to do that. No paybacks. Watch their reaction. That's the kind of thing we fight trying to get grace into our lives quickly. The only thing we have to do is say what?

Thank you. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you again just for your system of grace. Unmerited, unlimited blessings from you. That is overwhelming. When we cross over that hurdle, though, and realize what that means, that is just an unbelievable thing that just gives us great peace and comfort. And we just thank you for your unmerited blessings to us based not on anything that we have done, but totally on the completed work of Jesus Christ, your Son, on the cross. Father, we just give you thanks for your grace and what it means to each and every one of us. We do this and we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.