Abundant Grace

What took place the moment you realized you were a sinner and trusted in what Christ did for you on the cross by dying for your sins.  Grace is what we do not deserve.  We are placed in Christ and have access to His grace.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, good morning again, everyone.

unknown 0:06

Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

We're going to be starting off in the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. Again, talking about all the things that we have in Christ. What took place, the moment you understood that you're a sinner and needing no Savior and trust in what Christ did for you on the cross by dying, paying for our sins. Right again, offering that as a free gift to anyone who will believe. Before we get started, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time that we can come together and worship you freely in this nation without a threat of persecution. We can sing praises to you. We can make our requests known, and we can get into your word. So Lord, I thank you for that. And as we get into Ephesians and other passages of the word, just ask that our hearts and minds would be attentive that we would understand fully what you've done for us, not only by sending your son to die in our place, but being placed in you and all the things that we have access to. So, Lord, I do ask that you would use me this morning to communicate clearly your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Ephesians chapter 1, we've talked about the being blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places, being placed into Christ. We've talked about how we are to be before him blameless in love. That is a result of being placed into Christ. We have the adoptions of children, that sun placement. We talked about that a while ago. Verse 6 says to the praise of his grace, where he hath made us accepted in the blood. So we praise him. There will be much praise, much glory of his grace, and he has made us accepted in the blood. Now this word accepted kind of gets lost in the English here, the full weight of this word. It literally means to make graceful, uh to pursue with grace, to surround in grace, to honor with blessing. This is huge. When we think of grace, understand this is God's unmerited favor. This is us as people, as sinners, receiving what we do not deserve, getting blessing after blessing that you cannot earn. So he has placed us in Christ. We are accepted. We have access to all of this grace because we've been placed in Christ, in the beloved. Now, there's many other passages that talk about this. This is our access into His grace, the grace that He's giving us for daily living. We call that sanctification. In other words, God has done everything needed for us to live the life he's called us to live. The process of sanctification is us taking those things by faith, moment by moment, day by day, and walking with him. That is the process. But he's done everything. He needs to do nothing else. He's supplied everything that we need to live the life he's called us to live. So let's take a look. Let's go to Romans chapter 5 first, and then I'll be going to Colossians. But Romans chapter 5, Paul writing to the Church of Rome, he wants to give them the understanding and the wisdom of this. And in chapter 5, he says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying, therefore, being justified, being declared righteous, being saved, our salvation depends totally on if we will rely on what he did for us on our behalf. And if we do that, we have forgiveness of sins. We have a credit of his righteousness to our account. So we have peace with God. We are no longer his enemy. We're not under his condemnation. We're not under his wrath. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 2 he says, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So we have access by faith. I usually think of a man that's just dying of thirst. His mouth is like he's been eating crackers in the sand. It's just dry as can be. And he's asking God to please give me a drink of water. And he's standing on his toes, and he's thirsty, and he doesn't even have any spit in his mouth. And he's thinking, God, please just make it rain. Give me some water somehow. And he's standing on his toes because he's in a mountain stream up to here. All he has to do is relax. And he's got all the water he could want. That's how I think we as believers can sometimes do. Oh God, please give me some patience. I really need it. Oh, please do this. He's given it to us. We have to access it by faith. We can thank him for it. We rely on him for it. He has given us all things that pertain to the life of God. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Any lack in my life, he fulfills. And I'm talking about the fruit of the Spirit, that kind of lack. Not, well, you know, I couldn't really use a new set of tires or something. No, no, I'm not talking about that. Spiritual things. He has given us all things that pertain to Latin. He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. We are being pursued by grace. We are accepted in the blood. We're surrounded by grace. We have honor and blessing. All of these things is what he means by you're accepted in the blood. You are surrounded by grace in Christ. He has placed you in it. That is in addition to being saved. You trusted Christ to pay for your sins? Wonderful. Now understand all the things that you have. That's what Paul talks about in Ephesians. And this is showing how to access that grace. We're surrounded, we're standing in it. We access it by faith. First, you need to know that you have it. Then you need to believe that it is true. Take it by faith. Grab a hold of it. Remember, faith, relying on someone or something to do something, or they've done something for you. That's what faith is. So when you come across passages like that, you realize we are surrounded, we're standing in grace. We access it by faith. We rely on God for that to be true. Turn with me to Colossians. As a young Bible student, this was one of my favorite passages in the New Testament, Colossians 2, 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did you receive him? You received him by faith. How do you walk with him? You walk with him by faith. You trust solely in what Christ did for you on the cross to be saved from your sin and the penalty of sin. And you trust solely in what Christ has done for you to walk with him. He's given us new life. He's given us the indwelling Holy Spirit. He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places. We have all things that pertain to life and godness. All these things are true, and they become true in my life when I grab a hold of those, when I apprehend those by faith, by relying on what He said to be true. No different than our, what we call our justification, being saved. I like to ask people how hard did you try? How much did you work to be saved? And I hope the answer is always, I didn't. I relied on what he did. I relied on Christ's work on the cross for me on my behalf. The same is true with our sanctification, our daily Christian life. If you're trying, if you're working on it, you're literally working from the flesh, trying to make the flesh conform to the image of Christ. It takes no faith, it takes a lot of effort, and it doesn't get much for results. We're to live a life of faith, trusting in what Christ has done on our behalf and for us. So he says, to the praise and glory of his grace, we don't deserve it. He freely bestows it, wherein he hath made us acceptable, surrounded by grace, pursuing after grace in Christ, in the beloved. In whom, verse 7, we have redemption through his blood. Redemption that literally means a releasing affected by a payment or a ransom. You're being released because the payment's been made. The ransom has been made. It's a liberation procured by payment or ransom. That's what this redemption literally means. We were held in captivity, we were slave to our sin. Jesus paid the ransom, paid the price, so that we could be set free. I think of the nation of Israel, how they were slaves to Pharaoh, and they could not do what they wanted. They had to obey Pharaoh. They were slaves. And to make bricks, build cities. Whatever Pharaoh wanted, that's who they had to obey. Until God set them free. And he did that with the Passover lamb. He did that with that. This is showing his ownership. When he paid the redemption, the ransom, he's buying us. Turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 13. After God delivered them with the Passover, God gave them a command in Exodus chapter 13. I'll start at verse twelve. And all the firstborn of men among the children shall you redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, say, What is this? And thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us up out of Egypt from the house of bondage. So he is telling the nation of Israel, Remember how you were delivered. And I bought you, I bought the firstborn. Remember, the firstborn were under the judgment, they had to be behind the blood, and the destroyer would pass over them, the judgment would pass over them, so they would be saved from that as long as the right lamb was killed, the blood was applied, they had nothing to worry about. So God says, I bought you, I paid for you with a blood payment. And to give a sign, to help you understand that every firstborn that's born, you're gonna have to make a sacrifice, you're gonna have to buy it back, you're going to have to redeem it, you're gonna have to purchase it. Gives you a sense of ownership, of value. When years ago, when our kids were little, Becky and I wrote this course called Growing Kids God's Way. And one of the lessons it was trying to teach was value. Kids are little, they don't understand what something is worth. I mean, you can trade them a nickel for a dime because the nickel's bigger, right? It must be worth more. Kids don't understand value. And he said the teacher there was teaching his girls the value of things, and they were putting in a garden. And so they had to uh they made the girls move these rocks out of the garden so they could have a decent garden, and it paid so much for the removal of these rocks. It was hard work, it said it was hot out and they worked hard and sweated, and then they started to understand the value of the dollar, what they were paid, because they could reflect back and say, oh, that's like moving rocks for half a day. It be it connected. God is making a connection here. You have to pay for that. Once you pay for that, you've bought it, it's yours, you're redeeming it back, and what someone pays shows you just how much they want something. If you've ever tried to sell something, uh you don't necessarily get to determine the value. It's the person buying it. Well, I'm only willing to give you this much for it, right? You can ask whatever you want, but what is someone willing to pay? That's really the value, and what you're willing to pay shows you how much you want that then. Let me ask you. How much was God willing to pay for you? Because he wanted to die. He wanted to purchase you from slavery of sin. He wanted to take you out of that and have you with him for eternity. That's a love that I cannot. So Moses is told, God tells Moses, and Moses tells the people of Israel, this is how you have to do it. And when your kids ask, hey, what's this all about, you explain it to them. You let them and you teach them about this ownership. Um the Apostle Paul talks about that. We're going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. The Apostle Paul makes a pretty big deal about it. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, uh, verse 19 and 20. It says, What? Understand the Corinthian church, the church at Corinth, uh, they were, you know, they're considered like the Las Vegas of the New Testament. They uh were into all kinds of different sins and things like that, acting like it was just okay, that there was no big deal. And in chapter 6, Paul challenges them with this. He says, verse 19, what? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. He doesn't stop there. You've been bought with a price, therefore, because you are bought, because you have a new owner, you're not a slave to sin anymore. Because you've been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. His ownership. He purchased you, he bought you. You see this also in 1 Peter. He brings this up also from 1 Peter chapter 1. I'll hit a couple verses here to show again what we look forward to. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 and 4, it says, Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. So again, things that we have, once you become a believer, you have an inheritance. It's in heaven. It is undefiled, it cannot be corrupted. Something to look forward to. Then in verse 13 he says, Wherefore, gird up your loins of your mind, be sober, hope to the end, uh, for the grace that is to be brought unto you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he says, now pay attention when he says gird up your loins, that was like when someone was ready to go into battle or something like that, or run a race. That's what they would do. They would gird up their loins. He says, Do that of your mind, so be paying attention, be sober-minded, and realize what we have. We have this grace that Christ has revealed to us. He says, as obedient children, not fashion yourself according to the former lust of ignorance, but as he has called you, he that has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation or conduct, because it's written, be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who, without respect to persons, judging according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourn in cure and fear, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed, purchased with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your main conversation, main conduct received by the tradition of your father, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So here he says, just like the Passover lamb is that picture of redemption, he says, Jesus is a our Passover lamb. He's one who is bought you. You've been purchased by the blood. It was very forward for the foundation of the world, but was manifested in his last times for you. So he gets into that whole concept of he died for you, he purchased you, you have been redeemed. Now let's go back to Ephesians in verse 7 there. In him we have redemption through his blood. We've been purchased, we've been bought, he has ownership of us through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Verse 6 talks about the glory of his grace. Now it's talking about the riches of his grace. Uh in uh the word there, forgiveness, uh talks about the being a pardon of sin, letting go as if you've the sin has never been committed, and a remission of the penalty of sin. Release from the bondage or imprisonment. That's what that word forgiveness literally means. We were slaves to sin. Uh we had no choice, just like the nation of Israel was slaves to the Egyptians, and the only way to be delivered was God intervening. God sending a deliverer of Moses to uh Israel. In Egypt, God is sending Jesus to the world through the nation of Israel to release us, to have remission of the penalty, to have a part just like you never committed a sin, because God is creating his perfect life for your sin. So that is forgiveness. Forgiveness of sin. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, it says, In you he's quickened, made alive, who were dead in trespass and sin, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. And these are these are truths that sometimes people have a hard time grabbing a hold of. We might say, Well, that was never that wasn't me. I didn't walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, meaning Satan, of the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Because no, that's how we all are. We all are, apart from Christ, among whom also we have our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath, even as others. So there's no, well, some people are this, and some people it might manifest, but no, he says, we all have that in us. We all wanted to follow the desires of our flesh. But he says, but God is rich in mercy, his great loved Lord, and he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved? And he's raised us up together. He's made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith? That's not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should most. For we are his workmen, workmanship created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So he once you trusted Christ, he's blessed you with all spiritual blessings. He's adopted you. There will be a time when you sit at his table as a as a full son. He has given us the spirit of adoption. He has given us forgiveness of sin. He has purchased us out of the out of the being a slave. He owns us. He wants us to be conformed to the image of his son. He has done all of these things. He has made us accepted, surrounded us by grace. In Christ, we have all of these wonderful things. And we access each and every one by faith. By faith. Chapter 1, verse 8 says this. Where he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. This means to overflow. Like if you're pouring a cup and you tell them and you say, say what? And they never do it. You just keep on pouring it, it overflows, and it just goes and it goes and it goes. That's what he's saying with this abounding. He's abounding to us wisdom and prudence. Now, that word is only used two times, prudence there. It's only used two times in the New Testament. The other time it's used is in Luke, chapter 1 and verse 17. And speaking of what John the Baptist would do, in chapter 1, verse 17 of Luke, it says, He may go before him in the spirit power of Elijah, go before the Messiah, go before Jesus Christ, talking about John the Baptist here, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom. There's that word that could translate the wisdom here, and prudence in the other passage, Ephesians 1.8. And to the wisdom of the just to make ready the people prepared for the Lord. So John the Baptist's job was to go out, he was a preacher of righteousness. And people started to understand their sinful condition and what they truly were, so that they would rely on Jesus being their Savior, being their Messiah. And he says, that is the wisdom, the understanding that they would have to be just. They would understand who they were in need of a savior. So when Paul talks to the Ephesian church, he has a Jesus bounded. He's given you more and more of wisdom and understanding to know. Through his word, we start to realize just how needy we are as a people, and just what he has provided for us. And we only have to take a hold of that by faith, and then it becomes true in my life. Without understanding, without the knowledge, the wisdom of this, we are left to ourselves and our flesh. And we can try to live that Christian life, and we can work on it, and we can think, well, I've done good here and here. Well, here and here I've got to work on harder, but I just got to give it more. That is God. By the way, as you have received Christ Jesus, so walking in him. How do you walk with him? The same way you received him by faith. You relied on what he did for you. How do you walk in him? By relying on what he did for you. This is abundant grace. You are surrounded, you are standing in it. You have everything you need to live the life he's called you to live. We have forgiveness. We've been purchased so we should walk with him. Some people, when they start hearing about abundant grace, they get the idea: well, does that mean that no matter what I do, I'm still forgiven? No matter what I do, I will still be with the Lord forever and eternity? And the doctrinal answer is, well, yes, if that's how you feel about it. But if you're thinking that way, something's wrong in your thinking. It's no different than when the missionary told his son, uh, son, you can only go so far up to the bank. You can't go to the river. You can go close, but don't go into the river when you go fishing because there's uh alligators in the water, and I don't want you to get eaten. And so you stay back on the bank and you can fish. Whatever you do, don't take the canoe out, don't step into the water. It's not safe. And the boy says, Okay, fine, that's what I'll do. And so the boy's fishing, and he's catching a fish here and catching a fish there, and he starts to think, you know, I bet I can catch a bigger fish if I could just go over there. I bet I could cast a little further if I just stepped into the water a little bit. And so, well, I know dad said not to, but oh, I don't think it'll hurt anything. And so he starts walking in to the water, and he's fishing, he's casting a little bit further, and he's catching bigger fish, he's having a good time, and then all of a sudden, alligator clamps onto him and he screams. His dad jumps in, was able to pry open the mouth of the alligator, and he gets up on the on the shore, and before the dad can get on the back out of the water, the alligator clamps on him and drags him down and starts doing the death roll. The boy says, Well, thanks, Dad, that was great. But you know, I was having a good time fishing out there. I think I'm gonna go right back in the water. That's the idea when Paul says, Shall we sin that grace may abound? Shall we return to be a slave that God's grace may abound? God forbid. You sacrificed your life so that I could be set free. Why would I want to go back? Why would I want to go back and live the life that you saved me from? We have abundant grace. We access it by faith. Let's pray. Father, thank you for all that you've done for each and every one of us. Thank you for the riches of your grace you've bestowed on us. Lord, I do ask that we would keep these things in mind and take it by faith each and every day, moment by moment, and that you would be glorified and honored in and through us. So thank you again for all that you've done. In Jesus' name. Amen.