Law & Grace - Where are you, & why does it matter?

Good morning. I just want to preface things here with in the last few days, if you try to get hold of me via email, my email account was hacked and so is blocked. And so if you get something bounce back message or no response at all, that's why. And I've just learned a new definition for James 1-2, rejoice when you encounter various computers, right? So, at any rate, enough of my excuses. Let's move on to the message.

Now, since we began this series in Lawn Grace, we've had some phenomenal charts and tables and things of that sort. Here was one that we put forth earlier, took up a whole page. Here was another chart we did several weeks ago, table rather, and lots of good response on it. But anyway, that was presented and we had this nice one here just a few weeks ago that kind of looks like the back end of a bus or a large piece of toast. And so that was a nice chart that we made available and a nice full pager. We had this one last week that went like this, and that was a full pager. They presented that piece by piece.

They had along with that a half-page chart that went like this. And so a number of you may be wondering, are we studying the Bible or is this a wiring diagram for the International Space Station? So what we intend to do here is to just kind of bring it together and say, what are we trying to aim at here with all these phenomenal charts and diagrams and tables?

We've been studying here in this Law and Grace series for well over 30 weeks, 37 as of today to be exact, and there have been reasons for going through all these studies. As a matter of fact, we're going to continue for quite a few weeks more. We're going to proceed through the rest of the Gospel of Matthew. I'll resume that study this next Sunday. We are going to continue on into other New Testament passages. We think it's a very important and significant topic to cover.

Much of what can be called Christendom, this is sort of what we would sociologically view as relating to Christianity, has some sort of a man-made mixture of mini-law and mini-grace. Now let me explain what I mean by that. When we examine it closely, God never appears to intend or communicate that the Law of Moses is to be anything other than the 613 individual laws. That's the picture we get from scripture, all the laws, every single one. 613 total, 365 things not to do. and the balance of them are things that you must do. Likewise, God's amazing grace is infinitely awesome.

We don't get presented to us in scripture the idea of, well, just pick a few laws here. Pick the ones you like. Or pick the ones you don't like, because if it hurts, it must be good. Or we also find that there is not the presentation in scripture There's not the presentation of scripture of the idea that, well, we just take as much grace as you need, but nothing more than that. Just enough grace, you know, adequate amount of grace. And one of the things we would point out here is it's about who you're into. What do I mean by that?

The Israelites, who were given the full set of 613 laws by Moses, were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. This is out of 1 Corinthians 10. That's the one passage that really says that and makes that kind of a statement. The Israelites, as they went through the sea and as they passed under the cloud, at the very beginning of their time of exodus, As they did that, they were baptized into Moses.

And shortly thereafter, given all 613 laws. The law, we don't mean to bad mouth it. We don't want to speak bad of it. Why? Because the law is good and holy and righteous. The law was there to present, point by point, God's righteousness. God's righteous character. Is the law good? Yes. Are we up to it? No. Not even close.

We who are in the church, however, have died to the law of Moses as we have been baptized into Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating with him there in the heavenlies. The Israelites were given the law of Moses and baptized into him. They were placed into him. We in the church have been baptized into Christ so as to die to the law. So for the Israelites, it's, here's the law, all 613 of them, you've been baptized into Moses who gave the law, do it. In fact, we could do the Nike theme, just do it.

Right? Can it possibly be that the best we have to offer people is to mix these two up a little bit? Much of the variation among different Christian groups and denominations, by the way, how many denominations are there? More than 30,000. I'm glad you're sitting down, right?

Much of the variation among Christian groups and denominations is about how law and grace are mixed up. But it's important to recognize that the law is already mixed up with grace. Do you notice the law says several times that God's gracious? So law and grace are already mixed up in the law. So if you wanted to mix up law and grace, you missed your chance. But most Christians, most Christian groups, don't seem to have recognized that, that the chance has passed.

What we seek to do here as we go through this study is to answer some very important questions and to get clarity. Very important to get clarity. Who am I as a believer now and in the church? And who are we together? Why are we meeting here? Are we meeting here because it's customary? Well, just because that's what the bulletin says, right? Everybody else expects us to do that, right? It's the assigned time. Or are we meeting here for a much more important purpose? Where did we come from? Ah, this is key.

What is our spiritual history? What is our spiritual history? Where is my and our citizenship? Where is our heart's home? Where is our hope? Oh, and by the way, what kind of a hope is it? And where and how am I blessed? We're not done. What exactly is the nature of my and our relationship with God now and on into eternity? What is the reigning principle? When it comes right down to it, what really counts, what really calls the shots, governing my life on earth and for all eternity? So let's take that first question, take a look at it. We, from the time we believed the gospel, and it may have been fairly recently, or maybe, as in my case, over 50 years ago.

A number of you have heard the story, but I'll repeat it, just at the risk of having hymnals thrown at me. When I was four and a half, I was coming home from Sunday school. I asked my parents, this was back in the day for seat belts. I remember leaning over this 55 Chevy wagon, leaning over in the front seat and looking at my parents.

How do you become a Christian? Why don't you wait until you get older? So that night I woke my mom up. I said, I waited long enough, right? So we went out in the hallway and I became a Christian by believing, right? From the moment we believe, so me at age four and a half, we were placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.

So this gathering we have here isn't just a social custom. It isn't just a governmentally recognized place of meeting. This gathering we have is a part of the larger body of believers meeting here this morning. the entire body of believers, all who have put their trust in Christ. This has been true from the time of Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, when Peter presented the gospel, and 3,000 were saved that day, until the time of the rapture, the time when the Lord takes the church home to be with Him.

As much as we've all been placed into the body of Christ, there is a unique and special relationship that the Lord has and intends with you forever. What do I mean by that? You have, and this is on the bottom of your slide there on page one. By the way, if you're just joining with us, that number in the corner is the page number for the slide. Help you track it.

Revelation 2.17.

Now, we don't have time to go through the whole derivation, because I can get excited about verses like this. But what I want to point to here is, to him who overcomes, this is Jesus speaking to the churches, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone. Now, you might think, good, I got a white rock. Cool. I love that. Right?

But the reason for having this white stone was when someone won an athletic event. And by the way, they didn't have second and third place. When someone won an athletic event, the white stone with your name on it was given to you as your acceptance pass at the victor's banquet.

But look at this. There's a special detail here. A new name written on it. Do you know you're going to have a new name? Oh, and by the way, the victor's banquet could be real soon. A new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

Ah! It's between you and the Lord. Do you realize that? And what that tells us is that God intends not only that we all have a together relationship with the Lord, which we're enjoying here this morning as we sing together and meet together. But Christ intends a personal, individual relationship with you that is like no other. That's cool. That's really cool. Because it means that He has designed and desired a personal, individual relationship with you on into eternity.

And it isn't like, you know, hey Lord, I'm out here in the crowd and, you know, do you recognize me? Do you get a glimpse of me once in a while? The Lord says, nope. I got my focused attention on you and I'm giving you a new name. And you're going to know it and I'm going to know it and just us.

Why? Because the relationship I intend with you is special between you and me. It's personal. You want to take it personal? Yeah, do that. And it's a good thing. So when you say, who am I? I'm the person, and you can say this, I'm not talking about Vern, you can say this, I am the person that Jesus Christ desires to have fellowship with uniquely and individually and personally. And he's not saying, look, I got two seconds and looking down at his watch. He's got all the time he needs for you. Just you. Exactly you.

Where did we come from and what is our spiritual history? Physically, yes, we're all descended from a pair there in the garden, Adam and Eve. And though tarnished by Adam's sin, we still bear, every one of us, even those outside, those who weren't saved, we all bear the image and likeness of God. We still do. In our Genesis study, we listed these four passages in Genesis, and then two in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians and James, all of which list image and or likeness. The believer and the unbeliever both bear the image of God out of the original creation, even though now tarnished by sin. But when each of us believed Each of us here in the church, we were taken out of Adam, and we were placed into Christ. We were identified with Him. Made to share a likeness with Him. I have a couple of pictures here, and those are on purpose.

When we say placed into, the word, and you'll see it as baptized, and when we think baptized, we think of this baptismal that's right behind the screen here. In reality, the word baptized means to be immersed into completely so as to come out changed in character. Here are a couple examples. One that they used to use the word baptism for was they would take cloth and dip it into a very costly and expensive dye to make red or scarlet, purple. cloth, and they would dip it in the dye, and the dye would come out with the technology of the day irreversibly that new color. It would be changed by that immersion. So when we are baptized into Christ, we would be radically changed by being placed into Christ, spiritually speaking.

Similar thing was done with the sword. The sword was heated in the fire until it was white hot. Why would they do that? Because the next thing they're going to do is take that white hot sword and thrust it into a vat of water to heat, harden the surface. First heating it and then cooling it rapidly to harden the surface, to make the sword harder so that every time you went and had some kind of a sword fight, you didn't have a bunch of dings and dents and bends, right? What was that? It was taking the sword and baptizing it to do something similar to the dye in the cloth. What's that?

To immerse it so as to be radically changed by the immersion. You've been baptized into Christ with that similar intent. Spiritually speaking, you are placed into him so as to be radically changed as you come out. being in Christ who is a new kind of man.

Never before had there been the God-man. A new kind of man in that he was crucified and buried and resurrected to a new kind of life. Not the same old life like Lazarus, but a new kind of life. We now share his spiritual history as he died and was buried raised, ascended, and seated in the heavenlies. We share that history. All five steps in sequence. That is our new spiritual history.

Each of us can look back and we can point to some highlights in our life and, boy, I did this and this happened to me and wasn't it great when we went here and look at that? And then we look back at some other things and we say, well, that wasn't so good and, boy, I sure wish I'd never done that. And, you know, I wish this hadn't happened to me. But you know what? What really is going to matter for all eternity is this new history.

Because we've been so identified with Christ that there will come a day, and I wouldn't mind if it's today, there will come a day when we will look at Him and we will be like Him. Heaven is where we're at. We are a heavenly people by God's own doing. There in the heavenlies in Christ is where we're blessed.

Ephesians 1.3. There is where we're blessed with every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenlies in Christ. That's where we're blessed. Where were the Israelites blessed? Deuteronomy 28. They were blessed, if they obeyed, here on earth. We, in the church, are already blessed unconditionally in the heavenly places. They are in the heavenlies where we are seated with Him.

Ephesians 2.6. We are now seated with Christ. You see, we're waiting until we can look at and you say, OK, we open our eyes. You can open your eyes now, right? You open your eyes and we're waiting to that day we look at it and we say, hey, I'm in heaven's throne room. I'm seated with Christ.

That day will come. Could be today. That day will come. But you don't have to wait for that to be spiritual reality. It happened the day you believe the gospel. You were seated with Christ in the heavenlies. It's already a done deal, spiritually speaking. You're already there. You don't need a ticket. You've already arrived. You're seated with Christ now if you're a believer in Christ. There in the heavenlies, in Christ, is where we have our citizenship. In biblical times, the custom was this.

The Book of Life was the name given to the list of living, non-criminal citizens. So, for example, if you were to walk into Ephesus or you walk into Rome, they would have a list of citizens. So living citizens who weren't guilty of a crime, were listed in that city's Book of Life, and your citizenship was in a city. That's the Old Testament pattern.

Very interestingly, when you see the first listings of the Book of Life for Israel, the Book of Life applied only to those who were living Israelites. And then it began to be applied towards the end of the Old Testament of those who had membership in the coming kingdom. And what was the city? Earthly Jerusalem. It's in the New Testament where the Book of Life is our citizenship. It's the list of living citizens. And by the way, are you criminals? Well, you're forgiven criminals, right? You're criminals who are forgiven, who have a citizenship in heaven with Christ.

That's what the Book of Life means to us. We have a citizenship there. Our name is in the book of life because that's where our citizenship is. And we who have believed have a citizenship there. That's where our citizenship is. Well, I'm a citizen here in the United States and glad for it. At least I hope so. But I do have, for certain, a citizenship there in heaven. And that's a wonderful thing.

There in the heavenlies is where we can set our minds. It's been said that a person is so heavenly minded they have no earthly good. But if I take Colossians 3, 1 through 4 seriously, that's telling me that in order to be of any earthly good, I must be heavenly minded. Right? Set your minds there. If you hope to be of any earthly good at all.

There in the heavenlies is where we have our hope. And I use the word certain hope. What do I mean by that? It's not an I hope so hope. It's not a hope that says it would be nice if. It is rather a hope that is fixed and unchangeable and untouchable and untarnishable there in the heavenlies. I have a hope that is for real. A hope that's for real.

What do we also have? We have a relationship with the eternal Godhead. What do I mean by that? The three persons, otherwise known as the Trinity. One way to summarize our access is this, and it's simple. We have access in the heavenlies through Christ to the Father by means of the Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved. And one of the prime truths of our identification with Christ is that it is the eternal basis for intimacy with Him, with Christ. Forever I have a basis for intimacy, not just a hope, but a basis for intimacy. Those baptized into Moses had to keep their distance or die. Don't touch that mountain. Keep away. Don't even get close. If anybody gets close, kill them. Keep your distance. Don't touch.

But with Christ, come close. We have been baptized into Christ, placed into Him in order to be permanently changed in character, are spiritually close to Him, and are transformed to His image as we behold Him through His Word. 2 Corinthians 3. It's not, keep your distance, watch out, don't get close. Instead, it's stay close. You've been made close. Stay there. Don't move away. Stay very close.

Who are you? This is not the introduction to the CSI show. So who are you? You are of the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit made that happen, 1 Corinthians 12, 13. You have been placed, baptized, into the body of Christ. There's a whole lot of baptism going on, right? Okay? You've been placed into the body of Christ. You're a church saint. The letters to the churches were written to the saints in Corinth, to the saints at Ephesus, etc. You are a church saint.

You are of his flock. Paul talks to the elders at Ephesus for what may well be the last time in Acts chapter 20. And he tells them, he says, look, you elders, and by the way, we don't know any of their names. Look, you elders. He says, realize that this flock that you've been given charge of, they've been bought by Christ.

They're His flock. You're of Christ's flock. You've been bought with a price. Both 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and 1 Corinthians chapter 7 both remind the Corinthians they've been bought with a price. And those words were engraved on the front of the church where Nancy and I were married. Right up at the front. You are not your own. You've been bought with a price. We'll talk about that price in a minute. Now, I don't want you to get freaked out. You're Christ's brother. You've been made to be like him and of his family. Made to be like him and of his family.

Of the royal family, in fact. You're God's child by the adoption of sons. The adoption of sons was a process that several emperors in a row by New Testament times, about five to be exact, several emperors in a row had been brought into the position of being emperor by the adoption of sons. Adoptions of sons, we think of adoption frequently as adopt a child or a baby or something of that sort. The adoption of sons was done of an adult.

And when that person was adopted, it was approved by the Roman Senate. It was witnessed by seven people. And the person who was adopted was forgiven of all debts, no matter how many and what the magnitude. The person who was adopted as a son was forgiven any and all crimes. and given a place of awesome honor.

You imagine when the church at Rome gets this letter and says, you have the adoption of sons. God just adopted you. Your debts all paid. Criminal history, erased, gone. You are now in a position of awesome high honor, approved at the highest levels, and witnessed by many.

These things, by the way, are just a start. From the end of the Gospels to the end of the last book of the Bible, you are altogether the bride of Christ. Marriage here is a shadow. Intimacy with Christ now is a prelude to eternal intimacies with Christ. I want to talk about that again because sometimes people have questions. So why are we saying this?

In the context of the Gospel of Matthew, when we read of the Kingdom of Heaven, which I take to be equal to the Kingdom of God, and we'll explain briefly why, which is the future reign of Christ on this earth, your place in that coming Kingdom here on this earth won't be like the Israelites' place. The Israelites living in these kinds of bodies at that time, which could begin very soon, as soon as seven years from now. The Israelites' place will be centered on the city of Jerusalem and in the land promised to Israel back in the time of Abraham 4,000 years ago. And Christ will reign over that as a kingdom. under law, under the law of Moses. We, however, will have a different relationship.

I want to take a sidetrack here, so this is the next slide, it's on page 2. Kingdom of God is taken as the Kingdom of Heaven, and here is why. And by the way, not everybody agrees with me on this, but let me explain briefly why. The term Kingdom of God is taken as a synonym for the Kingdom of Heaven for these reasons. Summarize quickly.

The Jews often, and I underscore often, not always, used heaven as a synonym for God to avoid the risk of taking God's name in vain, since that was so serious. So they would be tending to, not always, but tending to use the term heaven in the place of God's name.

Now interestingly, we have carried forward that custom in our general culture, Now, 2,000 years later, what do I mean by that? People, rather than saying, oh, my God, although you will hear it, may also say, oh, my heavens. And they will even use another word, oh, my goodness. And instead of saying, God knows, people will say, heaven knows. So we've actually carried that custom forward into our own manner of speaking. So the Jews would often do that.

The Kingdom of Heaven term is only found in the Gospel of Matthew, which we've begun studying, and we'll resume this next Sunday, which was the one gospel of the four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the one gospel of the four that was written directly to the Jews. Parallel verses in other Gospels, where it says in Matthew, Kingdom of Heaven, will often have Kingdom of God for the same verse. Here is an example within Matthew where the two phrases are used as equivalents. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I say to you, and this is where the camel and needle's eye picture comes in, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus uses those two terms right in that passage as equivalents. So you get all sorts of interesting artistic pieces. And a whole bunch of people trying to work really hard to get a camel through a needle's eye, things like that.

Okay. No passage explains any difference in the use of the terms. Nowhere. And of course only Matthew is the book that has the term Kingdom of Heaven. Now, back to this slide. We're saying this because when Christ said that he didn't come to abolish the law, he was speaking to Israelites in the land of Israel. This is Matthew 5, 17, and 19 that we've studied not too many months ago. Christ will be, in that coming kingdom, the King of Israel. He will be the King of Kings over the Gentiles. The full title, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But we, oh boy, get ready, He will be our groom. Now, some people, they look at this What? He's going to be our groom? That means we're the bride?

Some people freak out. They go, oh, creepy, creepy, creepy. You know? Here I am a man, I'm going to go to heaven and be a woman. Ah! Creeped out over that, right? Okay, let's talk about that. All kinds of visions, you know? Ah, man, do I got to be a woman? You know? And it freaks them out. And sort of understandably.

But let's deal with that, okay? There's a couple of issues here. I'll go back to this one. There are a couple of issues here. One is, we've got to deal with this issue. First of all, it's not sexual. Physical, sexual intimacy is for this earth and earthly times. We won't be having babies in heaven. So physical intimacy, sexual connotations are for earthly times, this is not implying that. So don't worry, you won't get to heaven and be some sort of transvestite or something, right?

Okay, part one. The next question is, is it really true? Does the Bible teach it, or is Byrne just getting freaky? Right? Okay. I'll give you a couple of examples and then lead you to a supplement. Imagine the surprise of the disciples. Here is John 14. Here's Jesus talking to the disciples. And he says to them, I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So Jesus said these words to the disciples in John 14, 3 and 4. These were the sort of words that a Jewish groom would say to his bride once the engagement had taken place and he was going to build a home for them both to live in. And imagine the puzzled look on the disciples when they heard those words. Wow. He's talking to us like we're a bride and we've just gotten engaged. What's he doing? Of course, they were puzzled about a lot of things back then, right? Here's another one.

Jesus praying to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed about us. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. At first we say, okay, I'm okay with that. He was praying these words for us in the middle of his prayer in Gethsemane. In the Jewish wedding customs, From engagement until the time of the wedding, the father was to keep the bride consecrated, sanctified, and set apart exclusively for her bridegroom. So Jesus requests, sanctify them.

Those were wedding words. How about that? Given, oh, to the father. Anyway, there is a supplement. We've got them copied. Okay, we'll get some copies. The other thing is they are online, accompanying this message here. And we've got two supplements, so you might be interested in both.

Gentiles, Israel, and the Church. Here's the next slide, and we bring it up for this reason. In the kingdom, the Gentiles, this coming earthly kingdom where Christ will reign, the Gentiles will come to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, through the people of Israel. The Old Testament prophets said that ten Gentiles, a Gentile is a non-Jew, anyone who's a non-Jew, I probably qualify for that, right? I'm a Gentile. But, ten Gentiles will grab hold of a Jew and say, take me to the Messiah.

A Jew, at that time, unlike the current world environment, a Jew will be prized. Look! A Jew! He can take us to the Messiah! It'll be an exciting thing. Christ reigning over the people of Israel in the land of Israel will be the promised kingdom of God. That will be the fulfillment of those promises. The Jews will say, yes, this is it.

People of Israel will be, now get this, the people of Israel will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit to know and live out the entire law of Moses that is no more rabbis. For some people might like that. No more rabbis. Why don't you need a rabbi? Because you all know it. by the indwelling Holy Spirit. No more rabbis in this coming kingdom.

The Jews will all know all 613 laws by heart and they will have the Holy Spirit indwelling them to empower and enable them to live it out so that they will be blessed. Deuteronomy 28 verse 14 says you'll be blessed if you obey. Will they obey? Yes, because they will know it and they'll be empowered to do it, every one of them. Therefore, the land of Israel will be physically blessed, just like God said it would be. And the Gentiles will also be ruled under law.

I'll give you some passages. There are, in fact, about a dozen passages in the Old Testament that describe or make reference to the new covenant for Israel that promises them the Holy Spirit to live out the law. Ezekiel 36, 22 through 28 is one of them. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34 is another one of them. Those are two of those passages that talk about this new covenant for Israel.

But the Gentiles rule under law. Read Psalm chapter 2, it's not long. But it describes it. The Gentiles will be ruled under law. The Israelites will be ruled under law, except they'll be empowered to know and live it out. So both Jews and Gentiles living in these kinds of bodies on the earth will be living under the law, the Jews by inspiration. But we in the church will be forever the people of grace. Jews under the law, Gentiles under the law, but we in the church from Acts 2 to the rapture when the Lord takes us home, the church, we will forever be the people of grace. Always.

You see, the cross was a crossroads. It doesn't mean the same thing for all people. For everyone, Gentiles who believe Israelites who believe we who believe from Adam until the last one born on this planet Christ death on the cross is a death for our sins true for every single one Even those who thumb their nose at it Christ said I'll pay the price for every single one I'll pay it all as a matter of fact I'll gladly pay it all. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. How about that? He'll gladly pay it all. This is going to hurt. I don't care. But look what's beyond it.

For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Only we in the church have been crucified with him. I got a slide malfunction here. There's one more, and that is that Israel's new covenant, the one we referred to earlier, was ratified on the cross for Israel. It's the blood sacrifice to ratify Israel's new covenant. That's unique to Israel.

Just like here's Noah, he gets off the ark. God makes a covenant with him. And what does Noah do? There's a blood sacrifice. God makes a covenant with Abraham. And what happens? There's a blood sacrifice. Christ's death on the cross was the blood sacrifice ratifying the new covenant with Israel. For us in the church, however, we have been uniquely identified with Christ in these five ways. Crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated. Not everybody gets that. Only those who believe from Acts 2 until the time the Lord takes us home.

True for us, grace is and will be the reigning principle. What's in the final analysis, what's going to call the shots? Grace. That's the reigning principle. The word principle can either mean a fundamental truth or the way things work. It's the second definition I'm referring to here. The way things work for us in the church is grace. That's what these verses are telling us in Romans 5, 17 and 21. Grace is the reigning principle. Second, grace is to be our motivation in life.

Ephesians 4.32, and there's a similar verse in Colossians. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God and Christ also has forgiven you. Why do you forgive?

Because you've already been forgiven. See, grace is the motivator for why we do things. Is there a threat here? No. Grace is not a threat. You forgive because you've been forgiven. Grace is the motivator. Grace is also a strengthener. Here's the author of Hebrews, Hebrews 13, 9. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Let me take that in the reverse. It's not good for the heart not to be strengthened by grace. So grace is God's intended strengthener. Whatever makes you feel strong, look to grace. That's God's intended strengthener. And grace is not wimpy skimpy, just barely enough.

God doesn't say, well, I know you want a lot of grace, but this is all I got for you right now. Just a tad bunch, a little tiny bit, a pinch, you know. God's great grace is from his wealth of grace. Now, when we think of wealth, we tend to have different kinds of symbols that we think of when we think of wealth. God's wealth is measured in grace. Oh, also mercy, too.

I could throw that in. He raised us up with him, with Christ, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What for? I'll tell you. So that in the ages to come, age after age after age, to come he might show that word means demonstrate the surpassing that's over-the-top okay it's like you get in the ballpark and you'll pop and it's not just out of the park it's into orbit over-the-top riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus awesome amount of grace mountains of grace fountains of grace full on pedal to the metal full turbos grace Burning rubber grace. Lots of it. God's demonstration of grace, same passage, will occupy us forever. People often wonder what they're going to do for eternity. They'll say, but I really don't like the harp. I don't know how to play one of those things. What am I going to do with that? And after several thousand years, we'll get kind of tiring.

Well, don't worry about what you're going to do. It's what God's going to do. He's going to be demonstrating grace, and we're going to be 10,000 years down the road, and we're going, wow! Isn't that cool? God's awesome, amazing grace. And we're not going to be looking down at our watches or asking, when's the coffee break? We won't be saying, these are pretty good pews, but my rear is getting tired. It won't be any of that. Why? Because God's grace demonstration is going to be so awesome, we won't be wondering, you know, when do I get a break? Not at all.

Let's pray. Lord, your grace is indeed awesome. Your grace is an astounding reigning principle. And you're not short or stingy in supply. And we thank you for that. Your grace is what we need, Lord. And you've made it that way. It's precisely what we need in the magnitude that we need. Lots and lots and lots of it. Thank you for it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.