The Undeserved Grace of God Offers Us Rescue from Deserved Punishment (335) - January 31 2026

This week we look at God's Grace. God is love, and so it is the love of the Great Jehovah for His creation, that reveals itself through His grace (undeserved favor) and mercy (withholding of deserved punishment). All of humanity gets to choose whether to love God in return, receive the undeserved free gift of salvation.
 
This program covers the following Scriptures from the Amplified Classic version (AMPC): Romans 3:23; Genesis 3:6; Romans 12:3; Matthew 17:18-20; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 2:11; Ephesians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 9:8.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And a very good day to you, this is Pastor Marc Whelan with Touch of God. And this week we are looking at the topic of God's grace, His mercy and His grace upon His creation. Father, I thank you today in the name of your son Jesus for allowing me, Grace, to speak your scriptures to your creation, to your people and to those who have yet to know you. And I thank you that your grace allows me to have the faith to believe that I hear from you and the faith to believe in your word, to understand it, to comprehend it by your Holy Spirit teaching me and for your Holy Spirit to teach all of us here today, including me, about your grace and your mercy, in Jesus' name, Amen. So first of all, let's look at the topic of grace and mercy and the definitions, because often we will say God's grace, God's mercy, and some of us might think they are basically the same thing. They are both very, very good things from the Lord. They are a result of His love that He has for us, regardless of what we've done. What is the difference between mercy and grace? The Greek word used for mercy is most often Elios, which means pity and compassion. And for grace, the Greek word is most often charis or charis. That means favor. So mercy and grace, as paraphrased from Wilmington's Guide to the Bible, can be differentiated as follows. Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment, while grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor. Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment. That's punishment that you and I deserve. If we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, believe that God raised Him from the dead, we confess Jesus as our Lord, then the Bible says in Romans chapter 10 verse 9 that we are saved. But also in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, it says that if we confess our sins, He, the Lord, is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. These gifts, these blessings from the Lord, are undeserved. They are examples of unmerited favor. Deserved punishment is for you and I to go straight to hell after we breathe our last breath on the earth. God's mercy, should we receive His Son Jesus, is to withhold that punishment and instead Jesus would then have took the punishment for you and you have then inherited the result of the finished works of Christ Jesus at the cross, Him having destroyed the works of the devil Satan, and Jesus has then received the punishment for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So it was the great substitution of life that occurred at the cross. Jesus in our place. Jesus paid the penalty, the severe penalty that our sins produced the wages of, which was death. That is God's mercy, the act of withholding deserved punishment from us who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. If we don't receive Jesus, then the punishment will be served, judgment will be served upon us and we will continue to hell where we were already destined to go. Grace, however, is the act of endowing unmerited favor. So grace is favor, mercy is withholding deserved punishment. Grace is unmerited favor, meaning favor we have received as a result of nothing we have done. It's a result of God's love for you and I and His creation. Unmerited favor, favor that we definitely did not deserve. We do not deserve anything good from the Lord. We deserve what we have earned. The wages of sin is death and none of us deserve anything except for that. However, God's grace is unmerited favor and His mercy withholding deserved punishment allow a way of escape from the path of destruction to hell and instead receive the gift of eternal life that doesn't begin in heaven but begins the very moment that you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and confess Him as such. We're going to read out a couple of quotes here from people on the topic of God's grace. Charles Spurgeon is quoted as saying, No matter how good you think yourself to be, you cannot enter heaven unless it is under the terms of sovereign grace. God is sovereign. He can do what He wants. He created us, but it just so happens that He is a good, good Father and every good thing comes down from the Father of lights. There is no darkness, no shifting shadow in Him. He is the light. He is full of light. His Son, also Jesus, is full of light. He is the light. He is love. God is love. Another quote from Charles Spurgeon, The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul. So it's God's grace, His unmerited favor for us, that allows us to receive His love, His power, and His attention, His desire to heal us, to redeem us, body, soul, and spirit, to reconcile us, to fix us, to repair us, to recreate us in spirit, heal our bodies. It is His grace that allows us to be completely born again, such that we would not perish but have eternal life. We do not deserve God's grace, that's why it's unmerited favor. We do not deserve God's mercy. We do not deserve for Him to withhold punishment. If someone has done something wrong against you, you would want justice. You would go to the courtroom, and you would expect that judge to fairly judge the case. God is a lover of justice, and yet perfect justice would be for us not to have the option to receive eternal life, not to have the option to receive God's unmerited favor and His free gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of His sinless Son, Jesus. But God's grace, His love, in the form of His grace and the ability of us to believe by the faith that He has given us out of that grace, His love allows us a way of escape from certain spiritual death. Charles Spurgeon prayed this prayer, Lord, send Your life throughout the entire church. Visit Your church. Restore sound doctrine and holy, earnest living. Take away from professing Christians their love of frivolities, their attempts to meet the world on its own ground, and give back the old love of the doctrines of the cross and Christ. May free grace and dying love again be the music that refreshes the church and makes her heart exceedingly glad. A.W. Tozer spoke about grace as well. He said, grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God's kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Another respected man of God, Watchman Nee, who was on the earth from 1903 to 1972, he was considered by many to be the most influential Chinese Christian of the 20th century. He is generally acknowledged as a gifted and articulate preacher of the gospel. It is well known that he spent the last 20 years of his life imprisoned for his faith. Watchman Nee says of grace, the Christian life, from start to finish, is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. We see here that Watchman Nee is saying there is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. Is there a limit to God's love? Well, there is no limit to God. God is the Alpha and the Omega, and if God is love, that also means there is no limit to love and there is no limit to His love. God, of course, is limitless with His love and therefore His grace and our ability through faith to receive the free gift of eternal salvation, to receive God's free gift of healing by the stripes of His Son Jesus, to receive all that God has bestowed upon us and allowed us to partake in His divine nature and all of God's promises. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 says, Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives, we fall short based on our nature, which from our first birth to the time we are reborn is inherently fallen. It is fallen because when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they rejected God and obeyed the devil Satan, according to Genesis chapter 3 verse 6. We were as the devil's nature was, so was our nature in this world. But due to God's amazing grace, even though He loves justice, His love was shown by His grace to allow us a way out of the path of destruction that we were on before accepting Christ by choosing His Son, whom the Father sent to suffer in our place for our sins on that cross. But it would have been impossible to use faith to accept Christ if faith had not been given to us by God first, and He gave it out of His grace, which is out of His love. A parent does not withhold a good thing from their child, and a parent most certainly does not withhold a way of rescue for their child not to drown in an ocean that they deserve to drown in, that was their own ancestral doing through Adam and Eve from their own lineage. No good parent would want to see their child drown, and so the Father made an incredible sacrifice by sending His only begotten Son in human form, such that Jesus would walk the earth as man in right relationship with His Father, but also to destroy the works of the enemy, to show people the kingdom of heaven has come, and for people to spread the gospel of the good news now that Jesus went to the cross and sent the power of the Holy Spirit for all of us to receive as believers, and now Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit, all being in one, are now one with us believers, and God has set up His home no longer in an ark but now in the temple within the believer. Romans chapter 12 verse 3, the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome says, For by the grace unmerited favor of God given to me, I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought, not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance, but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him. So we see we have each received a degree of faith, a measure of faith apportioned by God in order that we may use this faith to believe in things that are true but that we cannot see with our naked eyes, also believing by faith in God's Word to decree and declare over situations knowing that if we believe without doubting that we can speak to a mountain with the smallest example of faith, which is the size of a mustard seed, then it will be done for us. Whatever situation you have going on in your life, speak God's will over it, speak life over it and into it. Command the problem to leave. Be thankful to the Lord. Tell that problem, that mountain to be cast into the sea. Tell that problem to be gone from your life. Be gracious to the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving. Make your wants known to the Lord. Speak his word over situations. He gave you a voice, but he also gave you his Holy Spirit that out of your belly shall flow rivers of living waters that you may speak his will in power, but also use faith when you speak God's word and no doubt. Remove that doubt and all things will be granted to you as you speak God's will over the situation. It will be done for you. Matthew chapter 17 verse 18 to 20, And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked privately, Why could we not drive it out? He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith, that is your lack of firmly relying trust. Well, truly I say to you, if you have faith that is living like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you. Dr. Lester Sumrall, a very respected man of God who knew his identity in Christ and walked in the dominion and authority of Christ Jesus, once said, When you feed your faith, you starve your doubts. Faith is a result of God's grace. Faith did not come before grace. Grace came before faith. It is the faith that God gives us a measure of because he has grace for us, unmerited favor, and both come from his love for you and I. God has not made it difficult for us to come into his kingdom and be redeemed. He only requires us to be a receiver of what he offers as a free gift, to believe using God's grace-given faith, that faith that is living like a grain of mustard seed, to be saved by believing in his Son. Confess Jesus as Lord. Believe that God raised him from the dead. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 to 9, it says, For it is by free grace, God's unmerited favor, that you are saved, delivered from judgment, and made partakers of Christ's salvation through your faith. And this salvation is not of yourselves, of your own doing. It came not through your own striving, but it is the gift of God, not because of works, not the fulfillment of the law's demands, lest any man should boast. It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself. So here we see in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 to 9, this grace is free, it's God's unmerited favor, you cannot work for his grace. There is no need to work for God's grace when he already wants to send you free gifts. You cannot pay for your own sin. As much as sometimes we believe we can, we will never ever ever be able to go to the cross ourselves and shed blood. It has already been paid for. Jesus is already the one who knew no sin became sin. So if we already knew sin, we cannot go to the cross ourselves. God's grace should not be abused because God will not be mocked. God's grace is sufficient. God's grace is to propel you to say no to sin. The power of God to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil, the ability to submit to God in order that we may resist the devil so that he will flee, according to the book of James. But God's grace is that power, that strength. Now that you're born again, you are no longer under the powers of darkness. You're in the kingdom of his beloved son. That's Jesus' kingdom. So now you're no longer a child of the devil. You're now a child of God. You're his property, which means the devil has no right to you. So don't give the devil any. Don't allow the devil to still work through the ways of your nature that you once had. That's why we have to stay in the word of God every day and to have this important relationship with Jesus and the Father that God so preciously sacrificed his son for, that we may come to be more like Jesus every day with the grace of God empowering us to be like him, to become like him. As we read the word of God, Romans chapter 12 verse 2, we will become more and more renewed in our mind, updating our mind to the truth and removing the lies and the misunderstandings that we have had all of our lives before that moment. It is the grace of God that is unmerited, but a loving parent wants to rescue his child from being held captive, from becoming sick, from becoming destroyed completely and perish in an eternal torment in hell. A loving parent in heaven today loves you, and God wants you to be his child. He wants you to receive his son Jesus such that you would no longer be in the devil's territory, in the kingdom of darkness. But now God's grace, now that you're born again, you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. His grace, his Holy Spirit empowering you through God's grace is within you. The temple of the Lord is within you. Your spirit as one spirit with the Lord, being empowered by that powerful Holy Spirit within you every hour you make choices. Those are your free will. God cannot force you to make a decision. He can show you the options. It's up to you to seek him, to choose the right one every single moment of the day. Let the Lord Jesus walk in you. Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, Paul writes to the church at Galatia, and he says, it's not I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. So today, focus on the Lord. Ask him, Lord, how can you live more in me and for me to be less and you more? How can I be more like you? I open my heart so that, Lord, that you can do a work in me today. You can do your will in my heart. Lord, I know you allowed me to become born again, my one spirit with your spirit. But Lord, help me renew my mind. Help me discover your ways. Help me know about you. Help me do your will. Help me pray for the sick and see them recover. Help me understand my authority in you. Lord, I thank you for your grace today. I thank you for your mercy. You withheld punishment from me, Lord. You have bestowed on me your promises according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus, your unmerited favor, your grace. Lord, now let me live for you because you died for me. Titus chapter 2 verse 11, for the grace of God, his unmerited favor and blessing has come forward, appeared for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7, yet grace, God's unmerited favor, was given to each of us individually, not indiscriminately, but in different ways in proportion to the measure of Christ's rich and bounteous gift. And we know that gift is immense. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 8 says, And God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need, be self-sufficient, possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. You see in this verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 8, you see how immense God's love is, his grace, his undeserved favor for us, that he wants you to no longer be anxious for anything, but to know that you have a loving father in heaven, the great Yahweh, Adonai, trust in him, there is much work to do, and the daily concerns need to be cast upon the Lord, cast your cares upon him so that he can use you and you can be about your father's business instead of worrying about your own. A couple of closing quotes from Watchman Nee, he says, And here is the gospel, that God has completed the work of redemption, and that we need to do nothing whatever to merit it, but can enter by faith directly into the values of his finished work. And we know in Jesus's finished works, he destroyed the works of the enemy. So Jesus's work destroyed the enemy's work. Let us walk in confidence today, amen? In Christ Jesus. And one final quote from Watchman Nee, I received everything not by walking, but by sitting down. Not by doing, but by resting in the Lord. And for those of you who don't know, we can read about the rest of God in Hebrews chapter 4 and the surrounding chapters for context. That is all we have time for today. It has been a blessing telling you about God's word and about his nature and his grace and mercy today. Lord, we thank you that we even have the grace to speak your word and to teach your people. And Lord, we thank you today. We love you. We cherish you. We bless your most holy name, in Jesus's name, amen. Our website is tog.world. You can send a prayer request, and you can also find out information on our weekly online Zoom call as well. But until next week, you have a blessed week. Amen.