Principle and The Principles of Grace
Courtney Hemenway · Aug 26, 2007
Principles of Grace, No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926037366401

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

All right, we're gonna go back on, I think, I'm to question 10, I think. Were we just finishing up 10 on lesson set six? I think we just started that, is that correct? Does anybody know? Yes. I think that we're just starting 10. All right, one quickie, some of these things, and actually, at least this question a while ago that we addressed about law and the Gentile law and the Jew, And one of the hungry hearts this week, reading about it and thinking about it, and it kind of put it in perspective. We read in the Romans about how, one, everybody's without excuse, kind of the umbrella policy of, Everybody knows that there's a God then we went on to say about with the Gentile about how the law is unto themselves and Went through all those verses one of the other things that when I was reading this hungry heart this week was with the law to us It doesn't apply to us. Anyway, there's new creatures in Christ and in this hungry heart brought it out a little bit this week So as I was reading it this week, I'll go through it. I It was entitled, The Fruit of Grace.

And these are important facts, I think, too, for us. None can be born again by the law, and none can live anew under the law, neither its precepts nor its principle. The life I now live by faith, by adherence to, and reliance on, complete trust in the Son of God.

That's Galatians 2.20, amplified. The Gentile never was under the law and being set in the Lord Jesus, now that he believes, he stands on the other ground to which the law does not apply. Every believer is regarded by God as alive from the dead to bring forth fruit, not works, unto God. The law only deals with a man as long as he lives, never after he is dead.

You become dead to the law by the body of Christ, Romans 7.4. And that is not at all what is said of us after a second blessing or any other step of imaginary perfection. We begin with alive in Christ. I'm identified with the Lord Jesus dead and risen. It is no longer the law dealing with me to try. if I can get any good out of me. I have relinquished all by receiving Christ, and I take my stand in him, dead and risen again, as one alive from the dead, to yield myself as a new creation to God and walk in newness of life." And that was William Kelly who did that, or said that.

The teachings of grace are perfect and sufficient in themselves. They provide for the instruction of the believer in every situation which may arise. There is no need that they be supplemented or augmented by the addition of precepts from either the Law of Moses or the teaching of the Kingdom. What an indignity religion puts on every person of the Godhead alike, on the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ when it dragged souls back to the dread distance of Judaism. And that again was William Kelly. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

That's Galatians 2.21. You know, I started to think about that too. We brought this up in our Tuesday study. Does the law apply to a dead person? You know, we bring this out, and unfortunately, if somebody goes home to be at the Lord, you know, we bring up hell. Is hell subject to the 65-mile-an-hour speed limit?

No. No. You know, I want to make this clear now. Let's get on Romans, what, 13, where you're still subject to the government. You're still supposed to go 65. That doesn't mean... And remember if we sin, grace abounds more. We're not taking that principle and we're going to go out and go 100 miles an hour on the highway. Just what it means is the law doesn't apply to a dead person.

And what happens in identification? Old man is what? Crucified. Dead. So does the law apply to us anymore? No, so really it's kind of a moot point, which somewhat brings up for us who are believers now, because the law doesn't apply to us. The old man is dead. We are a new creature in Christ. So it doesn't matter about the law.

The principles that we're going about mixing law and grace are still valid in that law represents a system of works or something to achieve a result. So when we talk about law and grace, from a believer's standpoint, adding anything to grace and the unmerited, unlimited. So it applies in that sense in that anything we try and add to grace by law, by works, by something like that.

So just a follow up to that. Any other comments, thoughts? All right, let me get to it. We are on lesson six, question 10. And let me get to there. Okay, from 2 Corinthians 4.15, and somebody have that? I'll call on somebody.

2 Corinthians 4.15. Somebody can read that?

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overcome the glory of God. Okay? In New American Standard, for all things are for your sakes, that the grace which is spreading for more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

So what is the key lesson with respect to grace given in that verse? It's toward the latter part. Well, actually the middle. What does it say about that? Where as the unmerited, unlimited blessings of God, based on a totally adequate work of Christ on the cross. So, what is this?

I think what it's saying, partly, is the fact that no matter what I personally think about grace, grace is so overwhelming and so sufficient that it has the ability to reach anyone, no matter what they think about it. Yeah, it's for, you know, one, it's almost, when you start realizing what grace is, it is, you know, I thought about this too, a little bit of what you're talking about.

You know, I don't know about you, and again, I think the teacher always gets more than the class, I hope you're getting lots out of these classes, but, you know, it's really weird, I feel, and there's, not only one time, but one time in particular on the Tuesday study.

And we got into just some really deep things in Ephesians. And it was like the Lord was just opening up a window that I could see something that was great beyond. That he was starting to reveal some things that were just amazing. In this grace series, I'm starting to feel that same thing. That as you really start to grasp grace and the grace system, It's magnificent.

As we talked about last time, it's like wading out to an ocean. Once you start dabbling and getting out there, it is immense. And it shouldn't be fearful. I think somebody was like, it's kind of overwhelming. But what are you stepping into? Unmerited, unlimited blessings from God. Wow! Unlimited blessings.

And as I'm studying this more and more, it's getting to where I'm figuring this out. All we bring to the table is sin and weakness. There's nothing that I can add, do, or to help grace out. And as I understand that, there is more peace and rest than, you know, just say, thank you.

And that's, in this one, yes, it does go to grace is spreading to the more and more, but what's the next part of that verse? may cause the giving of thanks. It didn't say it caused people to go out and do great works. It didn't say it caused people to run out and evangelize. It didn't say go out and do something. What did it say? It says cause to give thanks. It didn't motivate people to go out and do it. It said that they may cause the giving of thanks. And what is the whole principle of grace? What's the only thing we can do? Say thanks and take it.

Mike. The problem with this class is that the students learn too well. I was helping Craig insulate yesterday. See, were you listening to the message last week? If you really try and do that, it's a fun thing to try and do when you do that. It is funny when you start really thinking what grace is.

You don't have to pay him. You don't have to have them over for dinner. You don't have to do anything. I mean, you may do that anyway, but you don't have to. And that's where grace is. You don't have to do anything when you receive it, other than say, and as this verse clearly says, it may cause the giving of thanks. Again, I just bring that to the contrast. It didn't say that it motivated people to do great things. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say it caused them to go out and memorize five chapters. It didn't say it did anything other than cause them to what?

Say thanks. That's the only thing, I hope as you get along in this class, that's the only thing you can do to grace. And what a cool thing that is. Unlimited, unmerited blessings of God. And the only thing I can do is say thank you. Take it. yeah that's such a key that you know I think it's there was a minister of catechism said what is the chief purpose of man to give glory to God and that that is why God does it that's why when we give thanks that is the ultimate way that we can give glory to God. Anytime we try to do works, the focus comes back on ourselves. But when we simply say thanks, the focus is all on God, and that's exactly what it's doing.

If He gives the glory, He gives all the praise, and that is why we're here. That's what we're here to do. See, that's the entire purpose, is to bring glory to Himself. You're absolutely right, and you're ahead of me. That's exactly what we're going to, is about what, and what is, once you give thanks, what is it? They're bound to the glory. What is our typical response to an offer like this? That we take something. I kind of explained it last week. What is our natural response? What is our normal response? Reciprocate. I owe you. I owe you. Again, going back, is God a debtor? No. He doesn't know.

And so the first thing we think of is that there's no free lunch. I can't just take this. What do you mean give me a free lunch? There's always a catch. Read the fine print. There's something that says, are you going to get me later? Somehow you're going to get me later for getting this free lunch. In grace, it is a free lunch. with no strings attached. But it's much better than a free lunch.

It's unlimited blessings. And once you start to grab a hold of that, it is one of the greatest motivating factors that we've talked about in the Christian's life. Unlimited blessings from God the Father. I mean, what better source do you want? What more do you want? Let me ask that. What more do you want than unlimited blessings from God? Come on, top that one. Beat that one. Think about that.

You've been given unlimited blessings from God the Father, the God of the universe. He wants to give you unlimited blessings. And the only thing you have to say is, thank you. Well, then you get to the last part of this verse. If you do that, and you receive it, and you say, thank you, what does this verse say? To abound to the glory of God. You glorify God when you do it.

Which changes you. Absolutely. And that's why, probably next week, get into that where it does change you. When you start understanding grace, it is one of the, we've talked about it, one of the greatest motivating factors. And it's not that you go out and do stuff, but you begin to be conformed to the image of Christ. You begin to live like who you are. You're a new creature in Christ, which allows you to act graciously. As you understand grace, you are able to act graciously.

It's a magnificent system. It is like none other. One of the things going back up onto what Macaulay said, about the grace. So the key to abounding grace is learning to stop saying, God, let me pay you and simply saying, Lord, there it is. Thanks. I take it. And that is the key to grace that abounds on top of already abundant grace. What is he saying? Abounding grace abounds. It's unlimited.

It is unlimited on the basis that we tune in on the thank you basis rather than the merit basis. Again, this verse clearly says all this grace causes us to say thank you. When you're in the system of grace or understand the principle of grace, all you can say is thank you.

I hope we keep getting to the point where we've gotten over that unmerited part. We'll touch a little bit on that. Any other thoughts on this verse? Yeah, Jeremy. Just real quick. I think part of the problem is we can't understand an argument, right? Because we can't understand God.

Most of the time, this may just be me, when we do things for other people, we kind of think of it as, I'm going to do this favor, and we're like the godfather. Somebody down the road might ask a favor of you. So the fact that so often we think in terms of, doing something for somebody, expecting something in return, we can't understand how God would do that for us, because that's not how we work. I think if we're honest, there's not a lot that we're simply doing things out of pure altruism.

We want something in return. And because we can't understand that, we can't understand why God would simply do something without expecting anything in return. It totally goes against the world system. It's completely... contrary to that. Everything the world tells us to do, like we've said before, you're taught that as a child from day one.

If Mr. Smith gives you an apple, thank him and say, I'll go help him or do something. Or if you do something, I'll go do this. Most people, if you come over to your house, Like I said, the first thing, we invite people over, or they invite us over. My first inclination, when can we get them over there? When can they have them back to our house? They were so kind. The Doyles had great kebabs, great kebabs that we had. My first inclination, confessing, we're going to have steaks. I'm going to one-up him one. I'm going to have steaks even. Not just as a kebab, but I'm going to have a really nice ribeye for him.

What am I doing? Totally contrary to the world system. Grace just does not fit in the world system. The Godfather, the free lunch, any of these things I talk about, our first inclination is to pay for it. He'll take the ribeye. And to be fair, I'm acting in grace. We haven't had him over for a ribeye yet, so I'm acting in grace. I hope you understand.

But it is, you know, we laugh about it, but it is really kind of funny. I mean, you think about it and how flip-flop grace is, but once you start understanding grace, it's magnificent and you start realizing what it is. And I think... You know, in response to you, Jeremy, too, it also brings you back to, again, what we've talked about, the identification truths.

Because until you know about our co-crucifixion in Christ, there's no way you can understand this. I fully believe that. Until you get the Romans 6 and understand what goes on in identification, I don't think you've got a chance of understanding grace. because your old man is going to just be running wild. He's got to do something. He's got to have some worthwhile aspect to justify his life, or his existence I should say. And so if you don't understand the identification, I think that's why trying to understand the identification truths is critical, key to this.

Because how do you understand grace where you just say thank you? God always knew that once you get a good grace, He knows that your life will be completely transformed. You will then do everything to please God because it's just, it's what you want to do. You know, it almost gets to just because, just because I'm acting who I am in Christ. You know, Mike always uses this as an example. We get beat up on Tuesday all the time.

He doesn't have to teach his dog how to bark. You don't have to teach a dog how to bark. He's a dog. He barks. You know, as you become more conformed to the image and you understand this, grace will happen because that's who you are. You're acting like who you are in Christ. And that's what we'll get to if we get to it probably next week. You know, the growth. You grow in grace. It's a process. It's a long process, I think. It shouldn't be. I mean, I wish we could all jump in, dive in, and swim fast, you know, with the current.

But I think it's a process with spiritual maturity, too. As we grow in Christ, as we grow in conformity to Him, I think grace we begin to understand. And that's the hope of this class, is that you start to understand that more and more. And once you do, it's totally motivating, totally changing. Like I said, up the offer. Who can beat the offer? Standing offer on the table is, can you beat unlimited blessings from God? Tell me what beats that. Whoever can beat that one, bring it next week.

Yeah, I was like, hey, did you know Father Chimney said I wasn't going to lose with it? It was after he said I had the diary of the Lord, and I'm not going to lose it. and she questioned if there even is a God, and some think there is a God. She did everything she could to try to humble herself. We'll get to that one.

I'm so humbled today. I did so many good things today. I humbled myself. I'm so proud of myself because I was humbled today. I did a lot of works. You know, in attest to where I am, as I think I've confessed, I'm semi-type A. I want to slay the world and run and get 59 things done before the end of the day. Wow, what a shock for me to just say, thank you.

I don't have to. There's nothing I have to do. I don't have to go out and do 59 things today to have God bless me. It's completely different for me. That's why I say for me, it's an exciting series of messages trying to prepare these things. I mean, God's got his finger on me going, hey, just say thank you. I don't have to go out and do 100 things. As we talked a little bit last week, the metrics. We don't have metrics. If I'm thinking about how good in grace I am or how humble I am, you negated it right there.

But I think one of the things you will find is that the peace that surpasses all understanding, the rest that He has promised us that the world cannot provide to us, you begin to understand and rest in it. And as you do that, grace just becomes all the more magnificent. And so when you get into the process, it's a wonderful thing. When you really put it down, why don't we do these things? When we went through the identification truths, if you just begin to marvel at all those positional truths that we have once we understand salvation in Christ, all those wonderful things, man, if you just pick up one or two of those things, it's life-altering.

You know, we went to the Eccles Bible study the other night, and Roy's beginning to figure it out. He said, you know, I understand one of the ones you really like is that intimacy with God, where we now can call God Daddy, Abba, Father. We have that ability now to go before God and say, Dad, Daddy, I'm hurting.

Daddy, I don't understand. I'm just going to trust you. Just understand that one. You're before the God of the universe with the ability to say, Daddy. Just start fathoming that when you go through a trial. You can go to the God of the universe intimately. Just like your earthly father, you could go in his room and talk to him. You have the intimacy to go before God with that closeness.

Just begin to realize that and how that changes your life. So as you understand these things, I think you just begin to rest and understand that it's not under my efforts. And once you do that, when you start realizing the unmerited basis of this, how relaxing is that? How restful is that? I don't have to do it. He's going to bless me. All I have to do is say thank you. Anyway, all right.

We'll go on to Lesson 7. Screaming on to Lesson 7. Question number one. Romans 5, 15 through 17. Somebody want to read that? 5 through 17. Alright, I'm going to call on somebody. Steve. You got a Bible? Well, that's harder to read that way. Is that the right, for Romans 5, 15? Oh, I'm sorry, I said it. I was. I just wanted to see, you know, there's that moment where I'm looking at my translation versus yours, and I had to quickly make the conversion. It's like, I don't think so. I just don't think so. I think too.

But the first gift is not by a defense, for if by the one man's defense can you die, much more the grace of God, and be gifted by the grace of the one man can you survive. The forgiveness which came from many offenses resulted in justification. Afforded by one man's defense, death reigned through one. Much more, those who received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's defense, judgment came to all men. Alright, thank you.

In these verses, what does it say about grace matching our offenses? Abounded to many, it outmatches. In the NIV it says, but the gift is not like the trespass. And then when you read on in the verses, it doesn't match the offense. Go ahead, Tom. It's much greater. God does not give in proportion to the offense. He's not saying you have a $100 fine, here's $100 to pay for the fine. Is it like that? More than that. It's not that the grace just matches the offense.

Remember last week? What was the super abounding grace? Super abounding. It's unlimited on unlimited, infinity times infinity times infinity times infinity. It's one of those things where grace more than matches the offense. As I was saying, you got five out of six of your graces today. You top that sixth one off, you've capped it off, you're done for the day. I hope you make it through the rest of the day. Grace only had so much for today. It's not like that. It doesn't match the offense. Doesn't that give you peace?

Whatever the offense is, God more than outweighs in grace. You know, it wasn't just paying for our sins, the propitiation, it was much more than that. I think here it's really pointing out not only paying for your sins, you know, a lot of people end at that, that's another thing. You know, and I think that's typical in today, where many people, Christians, are just happy to be saved.

You know, they just made it over the line, and I'm happy for that. I just made it over. I now have eternal life in Christ. That's it. I made it. Is that it? No. Unlimited blessings. And most people live that. I've gotten to this line and I crossed it.

I'm now, I'm eternally saved. God was really powerful and really, really great. in giving me that eternal salvation. He got me over the line, and now I've got to walk this line by myself. He only had just enough strength and enough power to get me into eternal life.

But after that, bud, you're on your own. Isn't that the way we kind of think? He got me over, but I've got to do a bunch of stuff now. God got me to this point, but now I've got to do a bunch of stuff to maintain that position. I've got to do something to stay here so I don't fall back on that other side of the line. I've got to do a bunch of stuff. How many times do you hear messages on grace?

How many times is it taught? It is one of those things that really isn't taught much. I go back, as I always do, identification truths aren't taught much. You know, where you separate the old man and the new creation. And if you don't do that, you know, that's why we talk a lot of times, there's a proliferation of programs. And programs are based on non-identification truths.

Typically, I should make it a gross one, but typically it's something we have to do. Go out and do whatever. The prayer of Jabez, the purpose-driven life where you go out or you do something. There are just a whole lot of things that kind of sound good to begin with, but then when you start getting into them, they tend to be more, you know, what do I have to do? What is grace? You get out of the grace system. Yeah, Bruce. Well, I was just going to comment that there's a real problem with teaching grace.

I confess, I've probably spent 20 years, I have a flat forehead from hitting a wall too many times, trying to do stuff. Like I said, I'm a type A, I want to do something. And above things. I'm an engineer. How stupid is that? I want a metric. I want to build it. I want to plan. I want to know how to do it. I want to know how big it is. I want to be able to measure it. I'm in a world of hurt. I can't do those things in grace. So consequently, as I've been studying this, it's been unbelievably freeing. I can't measure it.

I've got to be comfortable. It's come down to this. Faith. Above all, it comes down to faith. I've got to believe what God says. And when I do that, unbelievable peace and rest. I give up my wrestling, my struggling, my efforts. And that's why as we teach grace, it's unbelievable. It takes the pressure off. It's highly motivating because once you have it, you just, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord.

Yeah, Mike. I have a comment about when someone comes to Christ as a believer, what they discover is that their circumstances in the world around them never changes. They're still functioning under it. This is verse 17 says that death reigns. So death doesn't change. The world I live in is functioning by death reigning, so there's condemnation, there's law, there's barrier, there's whatever.

And here I am, introduced into a new environment called grace, but I don't see it anywhere. I don't see it functioning. I go to work, I have the same relationships I've had before, and they're still functioning the way they did before. grace other than hopefully I learned a little when I got saved. And so as the Spirit of God begins to teach us about grace, there's very little faith that grace is really going to work. That I'm going to be able to live in this environment of grace, and all my needs are going to be met, and this is really going to to make it go. I remember when the first time I started teaching, I noticed after about six or seven classes that the guys weren't as enthusiastic about what I was teaching as I was.

So I thought, well, I'll stick a little law on them and get them to move. And then it backfired. Well, you know what you're saying is kind of what Jeremy was saying too. The world is so contrary to this. Grace is a different system. When you think about it, we're operating in grace. That also brings upon what I think of many times. Where is your citizenship? Where is it? In heaven.

We're operating in a world that doesn't understand grace. That only confirms my citizenship is not here. This isn't the country I come from where grace operates 24-7. So what I think happens as a person grows in the knowledge and the grace, in the grace, and begins to operate from the position of grace, that operating out of grace speaks volumes about you are sent into the glory of God and is a gospel message just by the way you live. rather than what you don't have to say anything.

You live in grace. It speaks and shouts at people that there is another way of life. Yeah, you know that, and this is nothing on Byrne or myself or any of those. There's a Bruce Carroll song that, one of the lines of it is, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. You know? And I think about that. I think about Hal Malloy. You're just drawn to him.

When we went to the hospital when he was there, I think I was saying that, the lady who came in when I was there, one of the last days he was in the hospital, and the lady just came up to him and said, you know, everybody on the floor says I need to talk to you.

And she was the hospice lady trying to get him, and she was being ministered by him. You know, well, it's all, it's amazing, you know, just, you know, where there's amazing stories of how in the hospital, you know, and how he used them. You know, the psychiatrist who was brought in to comfort him is weeping in the corner after Hal, you know, explains he's going home to be with the Lord. She's in the corner weeping. The one who was brought to comfort him. You know, Hal's one that just, you know, comes to mind where if you start living you know, as who you are in Christ, people will be drawn to you.

Because you are so, so out of sync with the world. You are so different. People are drawn to you because of that. You know, it just doesn't fit in this world. It changed their lives. Oh, it changed a lot of people's lives. Like I said, it was pretty funny to go down there. If you went down there and saw them, it was, I mean, everybody giving blood. Yeah, oh yeah, how? Oh, everybody knows how.

You know, and everybody, you know, you go down and it's like, And literally, when I was there at Lady of Hospice, she didn't say a thing about it. Now that I think about it, she didn't say a thing about the hospice. She talked all about him and what he, and then back to, you know, you listen to him on, you know, just in a way that, you know, it was like breathing. You know, just explain about the Lord. I don't think, now that I think about it, I don't think she even said anything about the hospice.

She just said who she was from and then she went off, you know? So, I mean, that, it is a different, once you start, learning about grace and living in that grace system. Like I said, it's no greater proof that our citizenship is not here. Because the world doesn't understand or even emulate grace in any way, shape, or form. Question 2. What do these verses say about the grace that God gives us?

Is it stingy? Stingy? Cheap? Limited? Now, but the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. Again, you're starting to see that unlimited abounding, super abounding. You know, God's grace, what's he done to it?

He's attached a verb. It's not appeared or been given. but it has abounded. It's abounded. So, you know, we go back to this, you know, our definition. It's unlimited. There isn't a certain number of blessings that you get and you're used up. You know, you have a check sheet and you're done. You made it to the finish line and you're out of grace. Now, look at verse 17 also.

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Starting to get that unlimited feeling again? Paul is great on these, abounding. Abundant grace abounding. What is it here? Abundance of grace. There is no limit to this.

As you look at all these verses, it becomes just unbelievably clear that grace is unlimited. The other point I want to go back on, too. Remember when we talked about the Corinthian church? I was reading about that again, where in Corinthians it states that the Corinthian church had all gifts.

You know, they had everything. They had all gifts within that church. They had knowledge. They had all these things, but they were limited. Paul comes to you, you had all the gifts, you had all the knowledge. What'd I come? Share grace. Grace is unlimited. So even the gifts that we have are limited, but grace is unlimited. So it's just repeated over and over again about the unlimited nature of grace.

All right. Oh, yeah. Laws. I mean, there's a whole bunch. And just trying to do things. Suddenly, they're issues. Yeah, we want a little bit here. And to me, it's almost like, I think we can do it better. We'll divide up. Immorality and these kind of things. Oh, gee, we can make our own rules. They started just totally going off in left field in several different ways. And it was, you know, some back and, you know, keep the left foot here, let's hedge our bet, let's, you know, I want to be with you.

I'm going to be with you. Well, no, I'm going to be with you. What is this with you and who and who? Tom. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I have a policy. It was like, yeah, divide them up. And that's the one thing, too. A lot of people follow one teacher, and you put a lot of stock in one teacher, and you are a follower of that teacher.

Well, I always tell people, don't follow a man, whatever you do. They are as frail. They will fail. And what happens when he fails, and you put all your faith in that teacher? You know, don't do that. All right, Romans 3, 24, and 25. Somebody got that? Jeremy, you want to do that one? 3, 24, and 25.

Yeah. They justify pre-divine grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. For God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. They credit righteousness with the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Okay, so from these verses, what is the basis of God's grace system? What's it based on? Christ's work on the cross. There's a basis for the system. Hence, in our definition, unmerited, unlimited blessings of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ.

We get it here. being justified as a gift by grace, by his grace, through the redemption, which is in who? Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as what? A propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed. Again, the basis is totally on Christ's work on the cross. So again, pointing to the unmerited nature, we don't have to do anything, but it's based on Christ, not us. How can God give unmerited blessings to someone who deserves judgment? He doesn't have to justify what he does.

Yeah, what does it say here? I think we need to define the word propitiation. The reason I say that is that I used that word on the Good Friday message service that we had, and two days later one of the What is it? So, what does propitiation mean? All these years, all these messages. Propitiation. Chickens, come on, somebody. Totally satisfied. It means God is totally satisfied.

Not 99.9%, totally, 100%. It says here, propitiation in his blood. He's completely satisfied, 100% satisfied in his blood.

I'm just wondering if I want to get into this if we've got one minute. I think we'll close and I'll do this next week. We'll continue on this. But this is the beginning. We've gone through several verses on unmerited. We've gone through numerous verses on unlimited and the blessings of God. So we've shown it's unmerited. We've shown it's unlimited. Blessings of God.

Now we're going to attack the back half of this. Why is that possible? What is it based on? It's based solely on Christ's finished work on the cross. And that's what we're going to start looking at. It's based on that, 100%. And we're going to look at the free part of that. Alright, let's close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Father, again, we just thank you. for your word, for your spirit, and we thank you for just getting a glimpse into grace and what that means. We are just totally seeing how the world system is diametrically opposed to a grace system. I'm thankful that as we see that, that we realize that our citizenship is not here. Positionally, we are seated with Christ. Father, we are comforted by the fact that it is unmerited, unlimited blessings from you, Father.

We thank you that there's nothing that we've done, but it was based totally on the work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. So Father, we pray as we delve into this again, you just give us that peace and rest, understanding what your grace principle is and your grace system is. Father, we just commit this day to you now. May you be glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.