Which Side of the Cross - Finish Lesson 10 Start Lesson 11

So we are in lesson 11, right? Or 10? So the only reason I'm here is because Courtney went to Florida and chickened out on us. So I think we've gotten down to question 7, right? Am I right about that? You guys are really paying attention. So question 7 has to do We talked last week about grace having the power to control us, and we indicated that it does. And then now this question is, where does grace abound? You know, in Romans chapter 5, it says, Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So the question is, where does grace abound? Lakewood? Everywhere. It does? Well, I mean, God gives it to everybody. Where does grace abound? In the believer. Close. Where is the believer? In Christ. Yeah, so that's where grace abounds, is in Christ. Okay.

What you find out in the Word of God, what He's done for us, not what He's going to do, what He's already done. And as we look backwards to see what's there, and then appropriate for today what we need. The point is that we learn grace. We've talked about that. Don't you agree with that? You have to learn it.

Otherwise you don't come equipped understanding what grace is. You may have been the recipient of or distributed a little bit of grace before you were saved, but it was always pretty much conditional, which meant it really wasn't grace. Because grace has no conditions. But now we've changed from an environment that was totally dominated by law, we've gone through the cross to the other side, the resurrected side, and now the environment that we live in is grace. And whether we know it or not, that's the environment we're in.

Titus 2.11 says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation and teaching us. So grace abounds in Christ alone.

Doesn't that seem kind of weird to say that? No? I'm going to get you thinking here in a minute. So, is it possible to grasp grace and salvation and not grasp it in the Christian life? What do you think? Is it possible to grasp grace when it comes to salvation, but not grasp it in the Christian life? What do you think?

Yes. Whoever said yes has to explain. You can't say yes or no and let it go at that. The answer is yes. How come? Well, you feel it, you know, sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don't. It's just when you come to the Lord and everything else, sometimes the Holy Spirit will comfort you during the early part. It seems like you're back learning again. OK, that's really good. You know, you can be saved by grace, but then if there's any law put on you to perform the Christian life, then there's no grace there. That's really right. Because they can't live together, right? No, they can't. They can't occupy the same space. So let me give you an example.

I give, I'm standing up in front of a crowd of non-believers, and I tell them the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15, 1, that Christ as the Son of God came to the earth, died on the cross for your sins, He was buried and resurrected, and He was seen by men. The resurrection is true, and if you believe that, God will save you for all eternity. And then I never say another word, and someone comes forward. I gave them no condition other than to believe, right? But what if I added to that, come down and give your life to Christ? Now what have I done? I've put a condition on it for you to do something. How about you got to make Jesus the Lord of your life? Believe and make Jesus, or how about this one?

Confess your sins. Ever think about that? If you study salvation, never does it say for a non-believer to be saved they have to confess their sins. Who's supposed to confess their sins? The believers are. But not the non-believers. The non-believers have one obligation, what is it? To believe the gospel.

So if I'm saved by grace, which means I exercise faith In the person and work of Christ, I think I have a head start on those who may have gotten saved with conditions. Because then they think in their mind, they still have something to do to be pleasing to God. The second part of that is, if I'm saved by grace, and I recognize that I'm saved by grace, but now I've got to live the life.

How do I do that? Isn't that the question? I was saved about three days and some guy gave me a book and the title of the book is, Now That You're Saved, Here's What You Do. And I was saved by grace and I got about one chapter in that book and I thought, this isn't it. And I didn't know, but I knew that wasn't it.

So the point I'm trying to make is this, we have to learn grace. You have to learn it. Because you don't have any experience with living in grace before you're saved. It just isn't the way the system is. You're under a lost system. So it's important to recognize that we are going to learn grace.

And it's interesting that Paul's epistles are all set up that way. The first half of them are positional truth that's already laid out to us, that's already true of us. And then the second half, what does he say? Believe or reckon or stand fast by faith in what I've just explained to you.

Be transformed. There's never a time that he says, without the grace, get busy. Get busy. You better act like a Christian because somebody's watching. So we have to learn grace and that's kind of what this four weeks is about. exactly what is grace and what does it look like and how do I live in it? How do I live in it? Because trust me, we don't know until we've been down the road a little bit and learned it.

Galatians 5.1 For freedom did Christ set us free, so stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. What was the problem in Galatians with the Galatians receiving circumcision? What was the problem with that?

Back under the law. And there was something that they had to do to enhance their position before God, right? We don't have that problem today, do we? Positionally we don't, but conditionally there's all kinds of this stuff floating around. You know, that you got to do this and you got to do that. I call it the tyranny of the odds. I ought to be doing this or I ought to be doing that. I'm just to stand fast in the liberty. I'm just to stay where God put me. Just stay there and let Him do the work. That lady that's going down to Florida, she understands that it's God who's going to save this man and not her. And she's praying that He would use her to save this guy. So she knows there's no credit and no law, no nothing. She just wants him safe.

Paul says, I testify again to every man that receives circumcision that he's a debtor to do the whole law. You are severed from Christ if you would be justified by the law. You've fallen away from grace. In other words, you've taken yourself out of the umbrella of grace and put yourself back under the umbrella of law. See that? And it isn't that you positionally got moved out of this, but now you're operating as though you are under law. That's a real disadvantage to a Christian. Does that make sense? Okay.

Now, everybody got that little round thing called the Grace Circle? Have we done this before? Have you guys seen this before? Do you have it? Well, get yourself some of this. It should be on the thing I sent off. I probably ought to draw something on it. I don't know. I might have to erase something that JD put up there. He'll get over it. So, the gray circle is like this. It's really pretty easy. Not bad, huh? So, one John. Can't read it. What is it? 4-7?

6. 7-9. 6. 1 John 4-6? 1 John 4-7. 7-9. Ok, this is called the Grace Circle. Look at that. Put circle here. So this has to do with loving God. So somebody read that verse. Where is it again? I didn't get it. It's 1 John 4, 7-9. Somebody read it. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Okay, so God has manifested the love of God towards us. because God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Okay. So, under grace, I actually have an obligation to love God, right? Do I? I don't have an obligation? Sure I do. Don't I have an obligation to love God?

What do you think? Well, you do it automatically. Hold that thought, and somebody read 1 John 4, 19. We love because He first loved us. Oh, there it is. Why do I love God? Because He first loved me. See the grace there? He doesn't say to me, you love me. He says, love me because I first loved you. That's the way grace works. He's the originator of the action. I'm the receiver of it. Does that make sense? Okay, so, I'm to love God because he first loved me. Kind of cool, right?

Now, read, somebody read John 14.21. 14.21. Anybody? He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. Okay.

I love him because he first loved me. When I get down here, what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to keep his commandments, right? Why? Because I love him. Why? Because he first loved me. This happens because these two things went before it. Do you understand that? The reason that I love God and the real reason that I respond to Him and listen under to Him is because I love Him. But I don't love Him until He first loves me. Does that make sense? Now, in John 14, I can't read this, is it 21 again? at the end there?

Lots of people want to talk about, well, gee, we're going to go to this thing called the Bhima Judgment. I'm not going to be rewarded for anything. And he is going to reward us for doing what? What's he going to reward us for? Him working through us. Because we obeyed him, right? But go back, keep going backwards around the circle now. Why do I obey him? Because He loved me. Or because I love Him. Why do I love Him? Because He first loved me. Isn't it cool that you have to complete the circle all the way around back to Him? Why is that important?

Because that's how grace works. God gets all the credit for what He does and we're responsive to it. You can't wake up one morning and say, I think I'm going to love God today. No way. Or he did something really cool for me, so I'm going to respond. I'm going to do something cool for him today. So the reason that we love God is really simple. It's because he first loved us. And the reason that he rewards me is because I obey him, because I love him, because he first loved me. You can't stop at any of those quadrants. You have to keep going all the way around to who's the cause here.

Does that make sense? So many of us as believers want to stop and say, oh, I really love God and I'm operating out of the love I have for Him. Well, where'd that come from? Or I'm obeying God. How do you like that? I'm doing a great job. Well, why are you doing that? Are you doing it out of a sense of obligation? No. Or are you doing it out of a sense that you love Him? That you love Him.

But where does the love start? Here's another example. When we do marriage counseling, one of the things we do with the prospective husband is in Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 says, real simple, you're to love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And I like it right then in the conversation because I look at the guy and I say, how's that going to work out for you? And if he's smart and understands, he'll say, I'm not sure I can do that. That's the right attitude to have.

Because you can't do it out of yourself. How can you love some other human being as Christ loved the church? You're not God. But it's a command. So we say, well, how about I do the best I can and God will grade it on the curve. No. It's a command. This is how it works. I love God because he first loved me. I listen to him and obey him about my wife because I'm allowing him to do the loving through me as Christ loved the church. Guess what happens? I get rewarded for that. Cool, but I'm not the cause of any of it. I'm what they call the middle voice guy. It comes to me and out through me.

It seems like we've learned that under grace, in a sense, there really aren't rules we have to keep. But when I was going through it, it says, he who has my commands keeps them. I'm thinking commands are laws and rules. Principles. Well, it's not like, if I will. It's not like that. If you do this, then I will respond. That's the mentality of a person under law. Even if the law's got a lot of holy water on it, it's still the mentality. If you do this, then I will do.

But over here under grace, the equation changes. Because I've already blessed you. you will respond. You can't resist the love of God and the grace of God. You can't do it. So when you learn to live under the grace, the behavior pattern that follows that is always pleasing to him, and he's always the one getting the credit. Does that make sense? All the time. And if I recognize this, Actually it frees me from this whole dance of tyranny that I ought to be doing this and that and I rest in the grace and love of the Lord Jesus and He does these things through me because that's what He wants to do.

And to be motivated by the grace of God in Christ is a really cool thing. It's effortless. Over here you're straining, right? straining, and if somebody comes along and sort of puts a bump in your road, you're really upset about it. Over here, the bumps don't matter. Because, I mean, if my sinning caused God to withdraw His grace from me, it wouldn't be grace.

Yeah. Well, I was thinking, too, on the lost side, you're always looking at yourself. And on the grace side, you're always looking at the Lord. That's right. That's right. So any questions there? It's going to get more complicated now that we're moving on. It's going to be kind of complicated. So everybody, we're going to go on to the next bit.

Everybody get a copy either electronically or physically of the paper that I sent out entitled Schaefer, the Schaefer paper on grace. I put a dozen copies back there and I figured that's all I'd need because the rest of you could get them electronically. This is a very interesting paper because it was written, I want to say, probably about in the 1940s, you know, by Lewis Sperry Schaefer. And everybody have a copy of Lesson 11?

Got those questions? If you don't, I'll give you a second to grab them. In this paper, and we'll spend about three weeks going through it, in this paper there are seven elements of grace. Five, I think seven. I think seven that we'll go through. So are there any copies back there of the paper? If we're running out and you've got it electronically, You can use it then put it back for those who don't have computers or don't know how to use them. OK, the first part of this of this paper, the heading is Grace is not withheld because of demerit. Now, I thought about this and I thought, well, nobody knows what a demerit is today. So what is a demerit? What would you say a demerit is? A mark on your record? A mark on your record? Sure.

I remember a buddy of mine, I went to a boarding high school and a friend of mine from my town went to another boarding high school that was a military school. And what they would give them at the beginning of every semester was a matchbook. Everybody know what a matchbook is? And it had so many matches in it. And you had to hang on to that because every time you didn't measure up, they would take one of them one of the matches out of there. And by the end of the term you better have something left in there. If you didn't, you were in big trouble.

So a demerit is anything which impels a soul to cry out for kindness and benefit of grace. Anything that we do that falls short. So the first thing we're going to talk about is grace can't be withheld because there's a demerit. You didn't measure up, you screwed up, you didn't do enough or you did enough the other way, okay? So that's what the term demerit means. If you look it up in the dictionary, it has some expanded meanings. But that's basically what it is. We don't use that term a lot these days, but that's, you know, he would use it. Would a synonym be sin? Say that again? Would a synonym be sin? It could be, yeah. The real definition of sin is missing the mark. Yeah, it would fit. But it's like if I'm commanded to love God and I don't. That's a demerit. So does that cause God to withdraw his grace? So the second question is, where does grace find its greatest triumph in glory?

We've already answered that question. Where does it find it? We found that it's in Christ, but let's talk about where it's most apparent. Would it be the cross? No. In the paper, it's a very good answer. It says, Grace finds its greatest triumph and glory in the sphere of human helplessness. Cool, huh?

The sphere of human helplessness. Now I know the Constitution doesn't say that, but that's too bad. So grace is going to find its greatest triumph and glory in our helplessness. So as we're growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus and the work of the Spirit is taking us down a road where we are learning helplessness, it's okay. It's okay. Because that's where grace operates the best. You see that?

When you run out of gas is when grace kicks in. My buddy Bob Strong used to say, you know most Christians are like they hang on to a rope, hanging on to their Christianity and they don't want to let go because they're going to fall, right? And God keeps adding weight in their pockets. And finally they run out of gas and they let go and they find out that the floor was that far below their feet. The grace was there waiting for them all along. You have to understand under grace, human weakness is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Does that make sense? Maybe not. In the case of demerit, when does grace cease to be grace? Never. Now listen to what Jaffer says. Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human failure or sin. In fact, grace cannot be exercised where there is the slightest degree of human merit to be recognized.

That's why I said this thing is a little more complicated because this guy is pretty exact in the way he writes, but think about this. Have you ever thought in your sinfulness, and I know most of you have committed two or three sins in your life, that you have looked at God and said, boy, you know, I did it this time. You're going to withdraw your grace from me because I've really screwed it up this time. You ever had that thought? Yeah. We all have. Guess what?

Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human failure and sin. You cannot sin enough that God would withdraw his grace from you. When I read that, it was confusing to me because It seems like God will never pull his grace from the cause of our failure.

What do you think? That's what he's saying. Yeah, it seemed like he was saying it the opposite when I read it. So, human failure and sin. We wonder sometimes, why has this circumstance and this trial come into my life and I can't deal with it? Guess what? It's designed to accomplish this. It's designed to teach the person who has the trial that he doesn't or she does not have human strength to deal with it. You sit down with somebody and you start talking about, you just chitchat and then all of a sudden here comes this discussion about, well, I've got this sin in my life and I just can't stop.

Are you surprised? Not me. How is that person ever going to learn the grace of God? That it is absolutely as exhaustive as it is? Because God is going to prove to them that their failure has nothing to do with the administration of His grace. It's amazing to watch it happen, but a human has to be brought to the point where they are absolutely, well, I can't do anything about this.

And when you get there, then the grace is there. That's how you learn it. So, it ceases to be grace if God were under some compelling reason to withdraw it because you were really a bad guy. Here's the biggest example. We're aware of the fact that people that become believers, they cruise along in their life for a while and then they turn their back on the Lord. They go the other way. And as a matter of fact, they even begin to preach against the gospel, right? or live in such a manner that they're a terrible witness.

How do we feel about somebody like that? What do we think God's going to do? What's the general attitude? God's going to get them. That person's going to have a terrible life. What's the ultimate thing God will do to them? Take them home. Is that a bad deal? No, it's a great deal. Because where do they go? They go right to be with the Lord, even though they blaspheme Him.

You can't withdraw God's grace no matter what you do. Does that make sense? We don't think like that, but that's the way grace operates. We think that God is going to somehow come and make life really miserable for those who are blaspheming Him, as though Christ didn't pay for it on the cross. So we've got a little purgatory going on here, and God's going to get them. Well, he may make life very difficult for him, because when he withdraws his unrest, unrest is a very difficult thing. But you can't out-sin the grace of God. It's the height of human arrogance to think that you can.

Do you see that? Because God's not going to withdraw his grace based on what you do, because you weren't the cause of it to start with. Can I ask you a question? Yes. The reason that that sentence confused me is it doesn't seem like there's ever any way possible where God would ever be compelled to withdraw His grace. That's right. That's exactly right. Not for you. Not for you.

What a great conclusion to come to. That there is nothing ever possible in my life, no matter what, that would cause God to withdraw His grace from me. Nothing. Rather than making you feel like you're under an intimidation, I would think you'd think, wow, that's pretty cool.

It would have a tendency to keep me from wanting to sin more, like Romans 6.14, that grace specifically was was given so that we would sin less, not law. Sin won't have dominion over you. Why? Because you're under grace and you're not under law anymore. It's interesting to find out that grace is designed to keep us from sinning. Pretty cool.

4. Does the contamination of human sin need to be gotten rid of? What do you think? Does it need to be gotten rid of? Does it need to be? Whether it has been or not, the question is, does it need to be? No. Really? Well, you can't get rid of it. The contamination. Notice how this phrase is questioned. The contamination of human sin. Does it need to be gotten rid of? Let me read what he says. It's kind of cool. On the other hand, the issue of human sin must be disposed of forever.

Christ the Lamb of God having taken away the sin of the world has by his cross forever disposed of the contamination of sin. So what is the contamination of sin? Condemnation? What does the word contamination bring to mind? You catch something. Something spoiled or you added something to it that ruined it. He contaminated the water, the contamination of sin.

He has by the cross created an entirely new relation between God and man. Consequently, men are now either accepting or rejecting Christ who has borne their sins. The point is this, that yes, human sin must be disposed of and the contamination has to be disposed of. Why? Because who is the offended party in this deal? God is. So God has taken it upon himself to deal with the contamination of sin. Has he not? You can't do it. I can't do it. The whole world lined up perfectly under a law system can't do it because he's still offended.

Sin contaminates everything so how does he fix it? God has to fix it. How did he do it? Through Christ. A judicial act. He crucified Christ, he was buried, and when Christ rose again, did he rise right back into the same old contamination? Did he? No. What did he rise into? New life. Newness of life. New creation. No contamination. Oh wow. So when you see that term in Christ, which Paul uses 140 times in the epistles, in Christ there is no contamination of sin. None.

Because he took care of it. Gee, there's something else that God has done. He does the loving, takes care of the contamination, wipes out the sin issue. He's doing a pretty good job so far. So does it need to be gotten rid of? Yes it does. And it was. And it was. So this afternoon you're going to sin, right? Some of you. Has the contamination of that sin been taken care of by Christ? Absolutely it has. Absolutely it has.

Because all of our sins were future at the time of the cross, weren't they? So he was paying the penalty for the sins of the whole world for all time. So the contamination for your sinfulness is gone. Does God exhibit less grace for the one who sins less and more grace for the one who sins more?

I can't say no without explaining. So we've already discovered that his grace won't be withheld because of demerit, right? He won't withhold it. Well, can grace be lessened because of demerit? Explain. You've got to explain. You can't just say yes or no or one or two. You've got to explain. So let's say, I'm trying to find two people that really work. Let's say Bob is a really big time sinner. And you're less of a sinner. And he saves both of you. Did it take more grace to save Bob than you?

No. No, why not? Why didn't it? You said there are no conditions with grace. That's right. There's no conditions. See, again, the thought process of humanity is, well, I can make God do this or that or more or less the way I function and operate. Nonsense.

His grace is full on all the time. The best example, when I first saw it, I thought, oh, that's grace. I got to watch on video the launch of the shuttle from Pad 39A in Florida, right? And I was watching underneath the launch pad when that sucker lit off. and all of that energy comes out of the bottom of that thing and they have to flood the launching pad with water so it won't disintegrate.

Right down there is little old Mike and all that grace is coming on me. What can I do about that? Is there anything I can do to contribute to that? Nope. So the same grace is showered on Bob, is showered on you, is showered on all of us and it doesn't stop. It goes on 24-7 all the time. So we've got to get out of our minds. Haven't you had people come up and say, I wish Joe would come to Christ.

He'd make a great Christian because he's such a good guy. Oh, really? Does that mean he's not a sinner? Oh, but he's not a bad sinner. Don't we have that mentality? But Mike over here, he's a big time sinner. God's going to have to do something extra for him. No, he's not. No, he's not.

It's the same way as you live your life. Is God going to have to do more grace for you and less grace for me? Because you're not living as cool as I am? No way. We're all under the same shower of grace all the time. Grace is never exercised by God in making up what may be lacking in the life and character of a sinner. Does grace make up for what is lacking in the human life? So let's say you're doing a 65% good job of living a Christian life. So God's grace makes up for the rest?

What do you think? You say, well so far I'm doing pretty good. How many times does somebody call you on the phone and say, hey Russ, how are you doing? You say, I'm doing good. What does good mean? I always say, stop lying to me and tell me the truth. Well, I'm doing okay, but I got, you know, we all have that. Well, I'm doing okay, except for, you know, I kicked the dog this morning, but don't tell anybody.

Does God need more grace for that kind of a person than he does for somebody else? Or he's got a standard up here that we all are to live under, so Donna falls down a little bit. Here comes more grace to get her back up here. No. It's all the same, all the time. Because we're in Christ and we live in grace. The reason I love this paper is that Schaeffer sat down and thought through this, about all these weird ideas you get about how grace works. That can't be grace. Grace isn't making up for my loss. Right? No, he's not.

7. Is there any payment due by God when dispensing grace? What's that? No, or it wouldn't be grace. That's exactly right. It wouldn't be. There's no payment. Absolutely no payment. A couple of weeks ago I asked a question and we had a discussion about it. Can the person under grace put the person who is distributing the grace under obligation? Can the person receiving the grace put the person giving the grace under obligation? It would be law. Because grace is purely out of the heart of the giver of it. There is no obligation to live up to. To get that? It's a free gift. What's that? It's a free gift. All the time. All the time.

Our minds tell us sometimes that we have to do something more than what we're doing in order to receive more of the grace. Here's a puzzling question. Let's see how good we are at answering this. I don't know if we have enough time. In Hebrews, it says that we are to go to the throne of grace in time of need. Uh-oh, that just blew my whole theory. Did it? I'm always in need. Yeah, that's the point. I'm always in need. So I'm at the throne all the time.

But the point being is that sometimes you can misinterpret that saying, well I'm going along and then I find myself in a box and I need extra grace. Extra grace, what does it come in a jar? How much more do I need? There is the issue though that my recognition that I really need God's grace in this particular time, and I go to the throne of grace and find out what? It's been there all the time. And it's been full on all the time.

I just wasn't taking advantage of it. See that? It's never a sign of, oh, God has sort of forgotten me. He's on vacation. He looked away from me because I was sinful. Or I just was sort of lax this week. Not that. Never. But there are times that I go to them and you go to them and you say, look, you know, I'm in a situation here. I can't handle this. I need your grace. Like, not from the viewpoint that I don't have it. I just need to experience what's going on with what you tell me grace is. Is that okay? Perfect. So we'll pick up with eight I'll send out the next group of questions today probably. I should have sent them out, but I have already printed them and they're back there as well. Let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus, and how we thank you that grace and truth came by him. We certainly look forward to growing in that grace on a moment-by-moment basis that we might live and rest in Him. We pray in His precious name, Amen.