The True Grace of God

Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you for gathering us here, and we thank you, Lord, that you are at work among us, you have been faithful, you have given us so much to be thankful for, so many gifts and blessings, and Lord, one of them is just each other, the brotherhood that we heard about this morning. Father, we just want to lift up a prayer right now for us as a church.

We want to lift up a prayer for Savannah and the new baby, and you know the critical nature of this, being as early as it is, Lord, we just pray that you would come and undertake and grant health and healing for both mother and baby. We also pray for Kawita, Lord, and the Erickson family, the journey they've been on with this cancer. We pray for complete healing.

We pray for grace. We pray for peace. We pray for, Lord, wisdom.

Just pray, Lord, that you would work in a mighty way and glorify your name. I also pray for my brother Jeremy as he shares now a message, Lord, from you that you have laid on his heart. I pray that you would anoint him as he shares, anoint us as we listen, help us to leave this place different, changed from what we were.

So Lord, we just commit this time into your hands, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. Thank you.

You may be seated. Good morning. I want to confess, first of all, that I'm feeling just weak this morning.

So I covet your prayers, just, yeah, that the Lord would still use me. I know that that's what he promises, right, that he will use us in our weakness. Secondly, I'd like to say that, I'd like to invite you to give me any critique because I'm planning this morning to preach what I believe the Lord has laid on my heart for preaching in about a month over at the Living Hope Bible School.

And the title of that series that I've placed it is The Inner Christian Life. So some of the things, maybe I've preached here before in the past, but I've tried to take some of my burdens and my passion. Also in today's sermon, it's introductory, so there's more to come.

I've been asked to preach four days, so there's more to come after today's sermon. This is merely just the introductory. So maybe someday I'll preach the other ones.

I do apologize for those of you who are going to be at the Bible School and have to hear it twice. That's the one reason I really didn't want to preach it this morning. But maybe it's good to hear things twice.

So what if I told you that an object this size, right here, could produce enough energy to power an average home in the United States for two and a half months? Would you believe me? An object this size. Some of you are shaking your heads because you know exactly what I'm talking about. What if I told you an object this size could produce the equivalent of, its same equivalent would be one, or sorry, 2,000 pounds of coal.

That'd be pretty amazing, right? Something this big that I can just hold in my hand. Can you imagine going out and shoveling 2,000 pounds of coal? And then all the work and clean up and all the mess coal would produce. And this can produce 2,000 pounds of coal, the same amount of energy.

What if I told you that it could produce the same amount of energy as 120 gallons of oil? That's a lot. In 1938, two German chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, discovered that bombarding uranium with neutrons caused a reaction which split the nucleus of the uranium and released enormous amounts of energy known today as nuclear fission. And that's why they can drop a little bomb on a city and create such devastation.

This small amount of material here can produce an enormous amount of energy. In fact, if you were to take a bunch of these and stack them up and put them into a cylinder about 12 foot around and 12 foot tall and put it into a reactor, you could produce enough power to power a large city. A 12 foot by 12 foot space could produce enough power for a large city.

In fact, these typical commercial reactors you see out there, if you took what they're using in there, that small size, it would be the equivalent of 3 million solar panels. 3 million, think of the ground space that 3 million solar panels would take up. Or you've seen these big wind turbines, 430 of those guys, the big blades going down the highway.

It would take 430 of those to equal the same amount of a small nuclear reactor. And the efficiency is, with nuclear, 92% of the year it can be producing power. In fact, they say out of all the waste they have from the US nuclear power plants, they would cover up football field, that's it.

92% of the year it can be running. Coal, on the other hand, is 40, somewhere between 40 and 50% of the time, because how dirty it is and how much maintenance it takes to keep the thing up and running, wind 35% of the time, solar 25% of the time. Nuclear is a very clean energy, a very efficient energy.

Now I want you all to take your Bibles and find the page in your Bible that divides Matthew from Malachi. Find the page. You all got it? Hold it up.

Okay, now what you're holding in your hand, have you ever thought about the significance of this little dividing page right here? The significance of why is this page even here? What if I told you that there's an even greater significance than this little piece in what we've discovered as humans? What if this page right here had a greater significance? A much greater significance and had a correlation between what we're talking about. This little piece of what would be considered uranium if it truly were. Now I want you to take your Bibles and turn to John chapter one.

John chapter one, and I want to look in verse 16 and 17. This is talking about Jesus and it says, and of his fullness have all we received. And grace for grace, the ESV says, and grace upon grace.

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The title that I titled this message is The True Grace of God. It's taken out of a passage in Peter where Peter says that towards the end of his book, he says, I've written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God.

And when you say something is the true grace of God, there means there's also a counterfeit. There's also a counterfeit, a false grace of God. Now this passage here says that the law came by Moses, in verse 17.

But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, we could see that we related to God. It would be said by law.

In fact, it says in the book of John, it says that the law and the prophets were until John, but now the kingdom of God is preached. And so if I were to draw on the board this morning a picture of the Old Testament in simple terms, I draw a picture of maybe we'll say this is God and this is man. I think one of the foundational principles of the Old Testament was God gave the law.

And he expected man to live righteously. And that's how we, before that dividing page, if you would have been born before that dividing page, that's how you would have related to God. And as this verse said in verse 17, the law was given by Moses.

But then it goes on to say that grace and truth came by Jesus. Now Romans 8 says this about the law. As we saw here, the law, it says that Romans 8 in verse 3, it says, for what the law could not do in that it was weak.

Somehow, even though God's plan was to give us the law, later in the New Testament, Paul tells us that the law was weak. The law was weak. And it says that it was weak or powerless through the flesh.

And then the answer is God sending his son. That was the answer of the New Testament. And so the law was weak.

It couldn't do something. It was powerless in some way. In fact, Galatians goes on and says that, talking about the things of the law, it says the weak and beggarly elements.

Hebrews says, the old covenant which is weak and waxing away, waxing old. A very pivotal passage. I'd like all you to turn to Galatians.

I remember when the Lord opened my eyes to this, and it's very important. We understand in Galatians chapter 3, something we must always remember. In verse 21, it says, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, this part right here.

For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. If there had been a law, any law that had been given, that could have produced righteousness, then it says, righteousness would have been, or could have produced life, it says. Righteousness then would have been by the law.

But there wasn't one. And God saw that. So let's all turn to Jeremiah chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 and verse 33. God saw this weakness. He saw this problem with mankind.

And so he said this, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. He says he's going to make a new covenant.

And we call that the New Testament or the New Covenant. All put over here in New Testament. And he says he's going to do something in that New Testament.

He says he's going to put his law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts. Now let's turn over to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36.

A more about this new covenant he's going to make with his people. In verse 26, he says, A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Notice the things there it says he will put a new heart, a new spirit. He will put his spirit within that area, that new spirit.

He will cause you to walk in his statutes, to keep his judgments, and to do them. Now let's jump to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 14. Paul says here, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are no longer under the law.

You are not under the law, but you're under grace. So in the New Testament, we learn that we're no longer under law. We're now under a thing called grace.

And so in the new covenant, God gives us this new thing, that dividing page, that uranium, that power that we can find called grace. We read it in John chapter 1. It said grace, the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus. And then it goes on in Romans 8. So it says we're no longer under the law, but under grace.

But he says in that verse that we just read, he said that we would, sin shall not have dominion over you. So one of the amazing things when we're under grace, is sin no longer has dominion over us. One of the problems when we're under the law is sin had dominion over us.

It was our master. Even though we had this law to tell us what to do, you could tell your child what to do all along, but there's no power, there's no strength. But somehow, when we're under this new covenant, it says we're no longer under sin.

We no longer has dominion over us because we're under grace. Somehow grace breaks the bondage of sin having dominion. And then in Romans 8, it goes on to say that the righteousness, the righteousness requirements of the law shall be fulfilled in us who walk after the spirit.

So after all of this, the Lord has now come up with a new way to give us. To give us a new and living way. It's an amazing thing as we read through the Bible.

Somehow, these authors must have saw something amazing. Because as you go through the Bible and you read Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Philemon, 1st and 2nd Peter, 2nd John in Revelation, all of them open with something like this. Grace and peace be with you from God our Father.

Somehow, these apostles thought it was pretty important to every time they open a letter to say something about grace from God and bless them with it. And many times in their letters, they even close with the idea of grace. So in their minds, there must have been something very significant about it.

But what truly is grace? If the law came by Moses and grace came by Jesus, we need to have a defining understanding when we're reading our Bibles to know what grace really is. There's a lot of books out there. There's a lot of songs about grace.

There's a lot of sermons about grace. I remember years ago, I used to struggle when I would hear somebody talk about grace because it felt to me like there was no fear of God anymore. It was just all about God and His kindness.

So what is grace? Well, I want to look at a verse, a very interesting verse in Jude. If you turn there and in verse 4, Jude 4, Jude warns us talking about people creeping into the church and talking about us preaching the faith that was once delivered. He says this, For there are certain men that have crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Does anybody know what the word lasciviousness means? Anybody have an idea? Evil. Okay, sexual immorality. Any other ideas? Immorality.

Okay, it is the absence of restraint. It's people who are no longer practicing self-control. It's allowing yourself to do whatever you feel like with your animal instincts.

It says here that these men have turned, they've twisted, they're teaching their people that the grace of God is now allowing them not to have to restrain themselves. How could that be? One translation says it allows us to live immoral lives. Another translation says they've turned it into a license for immorality.

I was raised, and you all know this, but I'll tell you anyway. I was raised in a Baptist church and many of my growing up years, we believed in a doctrine. I think I heard Benjamin preach about it while we were gone.

I would have liked to hear that. About a doctrine called one saved, always saved. This doctrine was taught to us that we're all going to sin.

We're all going to fall into sin, even after we're Christians. It was because of the grace of God that we were saved, which is all true. But there was an underlying current, an underlying flow that said that there wasn't much you could do about it.

That if you did sin, it didn't affect your salvation. It didn't affect eternity. It affected only your rewards in eternity.

One quote, or somebody I remember telling me very clearly, if it doesn't take works to become saved, it doesn't take works to lose your salvation. Here's some quotes I want to read you as I was preparing for this. We were just recently, we flew to Belize and on our way back, we got in a shuttle and we heard one of these very famous preachers on the radio.

He was speaking and as he was speaking, some of the things he was saying was not lining up with what I believe the scripture teaches. But let me read you some of these quotes. Here's one of them.

You tell me, you listen carefully. It says this, by grace, God loves all, forgives all and accepts all with no conditions, no strings attached, no fine print, no qualifications, no limits and no ongoing requirements. Is that true? There's some things that sound good in there, but there's some things that sound suspicious.

Here's another one. Unconditional grace. Let's stop there for a minute.

Unconditional grace. Does grace, is it unconditional? We should ask that question. Unconditional grace is given freely and without any strings attached.

It doesn't require us to meet certain standards or criteria to receive it. Here's one, a very popular charismatic pastor. I'll just give you his name.

His name is Joseph Prince. And he said this, I know a friend. He used to be a Christian.

He left the Lord. You would be surprised even though he lived a lifestyle of sin. Salvation is more solid than his lifestyle.

You hear what he's saying? Salvation is more sure than whatever sin he could possibly do. And maybe he dies young, but in heaven, you're going to see him. You're going to see him because salvation is not because of what he did.

He will never perish. Here's one from a man who has been elected twice to the Southern Baptist Convention. He's heard all over the radio and television broadcasts.

He wrote in his book, no matter what you do as a child of God, you are forgiven. You say murder? Forgiven. Stealing? Forgiven.

Adultery? Forgiven. Worshiping idols? Forgiven. Now there is some truth to that, right? There is some truth to that.

If a person truly repents, God can grant forgiveness. But to approach God with that idea that no matter, since I'm a child of God, I can do whatever I want and I'm forgiven. That's a dangerous footstool to be on.

Here's another one from John MacArthur. Yes, someone says, but can't Christians put themselves outside God's grace? We're talking about Christians, he says, putting themselves outside of God's grace. What about those who commit abominable sins? Don't they nullify the work of redemption in themselves? Don't they forfeit the love of God? Certainly not.

It's preposterous to think that we can forfeit it by anything we do. These are teachers out there that promote and support the doctrine of once saved, always saved. And they teach that grace overlooks sin.

That grace is not conditional. It's not tied to anything we can do or not do. And I believe that when Jude warned us about people creeping in the church and twisting grace into license to sin, that he was warning us about this kind of thinking, a thinking that is not sober, a thinking that doesn't fear God.

That doesn't mean that we throw it all out, that God can't forgive or that grace isn't his favorite. But we must be careful. This one caught my eye several years ago.

I came across this story. And it's an extreme story, but it serves its purpose. This was in the Pittsburgh Tribune.

It was called Once Saved, Always Saved. Deacon says killer rests in heaven. I don't know how many remember the man who went into a LA fitness club and shot a bunch of women.

And I think three of them died. This was back in 2009. George Sidney.

He was the one who went in and shot the women rests in heaven now because he professed a faith in Jesus years before his shooting rampage. A celestial Christian church leader said. Jack Rickard, a deacon at the Plum Church, Sydney attended for years, said the Bible makes it clear that professing a faith in Jesus, a savior means you will have complete eternal salvation.

Richard, 80 of Indiana, said celestial members are firm believers in Once Saved, Always Saved. He said the church focuses on the intense study of scripture. Richard conveyed his beliefs that Sardini attained eternal life.

George is going to heaven, but he's not going to get his rewards, Richard said. He said that Sardini won't be offered all of heaven benefits because of his sin. George was a professing believer, Rickard said.

Shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sardini walked into the L.A. Fitness Center in Great Southern Shopping Center in Collier and opened fire in an aerobics room filled with women. In addition to killing three, he wounded nine others before killing himself. And he wrote in his diary, in his journal, he wrote that his pastor had convinced him it was possible to commit mass murder and still be welcomed into heaven.

He actually wrote that. He actually wrote in his journal that he was going to see God today when he was done with what he did. It's shocking.

And yet many of us probably are sitting here this morning thinking, well, I'm definitely not there. But I guess my question is, in principle, do we still give in to some of these ideas that God's grace overlooks and is favorable and it's merciful, which it is? But do we maybe not look at what else God's grace is supposed to be doing in our life? How can we measure if God's grace is actually working in our life and actually producing something? So what is grace? Is it unmerited favor? Is it unconditional? I believe the best way to find this out is to look at some of the verses in the scripture. The best way to study anything is to look at the verses in the scripture in their context.

Before you go read a book, before you go look in a commentary, look up every verse, read them, look up the Greek word and read every place that Greek word is found and see what it means. So I'd like to do a quick look at six or seven verses here. I think all of us know this one.

We don't need to turn to it. But Ephesians 2, 8, 9, who thinks they can quote that? Anybody? I can start you. Four by grace.

Anybody can quote it? So in this verse, we learn that grace is what saves us. It's not our own works. And we need to remember that.

It's not our own works. It's by grace that we're saved, that we cannot boast. It is God's favor, his power, his strength that saves us.

But it does have a condition. Did you hear the condition? What was the condition? Faith. Grace is not unconditional.

Grace has a condition already as we hear. Romans 3. So we learned here that grace, I'm just going to put it, should have left more space, saves. The second one is Romans chapter 3, verse 24.

Who thinks they can quote that? I'll start at the first two words. Being justified. Okay, I'll say it.

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Being justified freely by his grace. So we learn here that grace also not only saves, but it justifies.

I remember one time years ago, somebody said justify means justify. I never did it, right? So the idea of justification is God wipes it clean. He forgives.

He makes us just in his sight. When we come to him and we have faith and we repent, he wipes away our sin and he justifies us and we can thank God for that grace that has justified us. And it says it's free.

It's not costing. You don't need to come with a million dollars. You don't need to come and do certain penance and go to Rome and climb up the steps 20 hundred times and kiss a little jewel or something.

It's free. Okay, let's turn to Titus. If you would turn here, this is a good one.

Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2 in verse 11. It says for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness, worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So here we learn that grace does something more than just saving us and justifying us.

It's a teacher. Grace is a teacher. And we think about Jesus.

We think about him coming into this world and teaching us. He taught us many things. He said the Sermon on the Mount.

He told us to love our enemies, told us not to store up treasure in heaven. He told us to take care of the poor and the weak. The grace of God, Jesus was an embodiment of the grace of God.

He came from heaven and he taught us these things. As this verse says, to deny ungodliness and to deny worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. Grace teaches.

It convicts us. I remember as I was in that Baptist church and as I started to question, why do we do what we do? As I sought through all of our traditions and all of our things and I began to question, does it make sense that Jesus, the son of God, the one who came to earth, we wouldn't even obey his teachings? Does that make any sense? And it says, Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit would be given and remind us the things that Jesus said. And so as I read those words of Jesus, the grace of God opened my eyes and started to teach me.

In Hebrews, it says, you'll have no need that any man shall teach you. And so here we can see that the grace of God is a teacher. It woke me up.

It started putting questions in my heart. Many times the Holy Spirit will work in your heart by putting questions in your heart. He'll make you think twice.

You ever start complaining and he'll give you a different perspective. So grace not only saves and justifies, but it teaches you. I ask that my question for you this morning is, how are you doing in that area of grace? Are you giving room for it to teach you? Are you listening to the intuition, the promptings that come from the Holy Spirit? Are you giving it the time of day? Now in Hebrews chapter four, you can turn there if you want.

We read it this morning. Sorry, I think it's, I thought it was 12, but I have Hebrews four here, but we can see if it's right. Hebrews chapter four in verse 16.

Yeah, this is it. It says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. So here we now learn that grace is a helper.

It allows us, it helps us in moments of need. Notice the verse says to help in the time of need. When you're in a moment and you have need, you ever find yourself coming to the end of yourself and saying, I have no idea how to do this, Lord.

I have no idea how to move forward. Um, I don't feel ready. I didn't feel ready to preach this morning.

I told my wife, I wish somebody else would be here tomorrow, ready to say I'll preach. Um, and I just had to say it to him this morning. I don't want to preach, but Lord, in my weakness, would you help me? The Holy Spirit is a helper.

He will help us in a time of need as it says, but notice, was there a condition there? Anybody pick up on the condition? What's the condition in the verse? We need to come. That's a condition. And what else do we need to do? We need to come what boldly.

That's a condition. You know, sometimes I don't feel like coming boldly. Sometimes I don't feel like having faith.

You ever feel like that? You don't feel like in your feelings, your emotions don't feel like putting faith into gear, but it says here, we need to come boldly to find grace. That takes faith. That takes a confidence before God and a believing in his promises.

So grace is now we learned as a helper. I remember many times as the Lord was waking me up to these ideas of grace, I would be struggling. I'd be struggling with raising my children.

And, and I remember one time I was having a struggle with one of my children in our relationship, and I was learning to talk to the Lord in those times. And I asked him, I said, um, what should I do? I asked this child to go and put something, put something on, um, the house. And, and, um, I was just being my typical father, just go do it.

Right. And, uh, I asked the Lord, what should I do? And to help our relationship, cause I was sensing this tension and he said, go help him. And I went and helped him.

And it really, I sensed that our relationship was so much closer after that. And so the Lord wants to help you in those times of need. When you ask, when you come to that place and you say, well, I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to do it. Sometimes the Lord's grace will give you thoughts that don't even seem logical. Don't even seem like the thing you should do, but he wants to help us.

And remember, this is the promise. If we approach God by law, then really we're just old Testament Christians. If all we do is just our relationship with God is a checklist of, I don't do this.

I don't do this. I try to love my enemies. I try to not stir up treasure.

And then we just go on with their own lives. We're old Testament Christians. We have not found the dividing.

We have not found the power of this. We're still running coal or solar panels or something like that. But God wants us to learn how we can initiate this new thing called grace to help us.

Because this was weak. This one didn't work out so well. Okay, now I want you, if you can turn to 1 Corinthians.

Paul has something to say about the grace he found in his life. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 10. It says here that Paul is saying, but by God's grace or by the grace of God, I am what I am.

He's saying, I'm finding all the power in my ministry because of God's grace. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me was not in vain or it wasn't empty. It wasn't useless.

But I labored more abundantly than they all, than all the other apostles. Paul said, I'm running here and there. And they've got wives to take care of.

I'm not, I don't have a wife. I'm running here and there. I've labored more abundantly than all the other apostles yet.

Not I, he says, but what the grace of God, which was with me. Somehow Paul had found in his life, the strength and the power of grace. And he attributed it to his labors, his ministering labors.

You know, he says, I was three days on the sea and I didn't sleep at night. And I was stoned for dead and all this stuff. He said he found the strength because of the grace of God.

He found that. And that's why I think he opened every passage with the grace of God be with you. Because he had found that strength of God.

And so grace is not only a helper, but it's a laborer. It helps us labor in our times of need and gives us strength to do the things we need to do. Now jump to second Corinthians and verse chapter nine, sorry.

Second Corinthians nine and verse eight. Now Paul is blessing with this grace that he has found and encouraging. And he says this in God in verse eight, God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

That you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. He's saying that God has the strength and can make grace abound. That means grow in your life.

That you having all sufficiency in all things. Does that cover everything? That everything you face, you would have a sufficient supply in every situation you face. He is saying, he's praying that God would allow that grace to abound towards you.

That you may abound to every good work. So grace is, I'm just going to put a sufficient supply. Now don't get lost in this.

I forgot to read a quote at the very beginning. This is a good quote. Grace can be dissected like a frog, but the thing dies in the process.

And the innards are discouraging to anybody but the purely scientific mind. I know that's a little awkward, but you know, we're sitting here dissecting grace, right? And if we all go away today and we're like, wow, that was interesting. Now I know what that is.

And we move on with our life and it makes no difference in our life. It was a useless time. We've just dissected it and killed it.

What we hope to go away with is an encouragement and excitement to look for grace in our lives. Look for grace in each situation. Ask for grace.

Humble ourselves for grace. And the last thing I want to read is in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Paul said, talking about, I believe this is talking about his thorn in the flesh. Verse 7, and he said, after he asked God over and over and over to remove the thorn, God replied, my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

And then Paul goes on to say he would rather glory in his thorn, in his infirmities, in his weakness, because the power of Christ would rest upon him. In other words, when our weakness, when we are weak and God's grace comes in, just like water flows to the lowest point, God's grace comes in. Notice what Paul calls it.

He says, the power of Christ may rest upon me. And so I want to put here, it's a strength. I'll have to put that over here.

So we've seen here that grace saves, it justifies, it teaches, it helps, it labors. It's a sufficient supply for every good work. And it's a strength.

It's the power of Christ upon our hearts. So is it merely just unmerited favor? I saw this definition, I heard, and I thought it was very good. Grace is the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in one's life.

The divine influence upon our hearts and the reflection in our life. You know, we say somebody, that lady is so graceful, the way she walks. What are we saying? We're saying she's elegant.

She's learned the posture of a lady. That's what the word means. And as God's heart reflects into our heart, as we give him room, as we ask for more power, we have a peace about us.

We have a joy about us. And God, people can say that person is graceful. He's full of God's grace.

He's full of God's influence. He's full of his character. I came to a point in my life where I was under conviction that Jesus required me to obey his commands.

I still remember the night that I came under that fear of God, where I had this picture in my mind of trampling on the Son of God and counting his blood as unholy and repenting and telling the Lord that I wanted to live for him and becoming serious and sober about obeying him. But then coming up short and weak and not able to do it until one day I read that verse where Jesus said, without me, you can do, what's the verse? Nothing. Without the Lord, we can do nothing.

And I believe this grace is another word for the Spirit's work in our heart. In fact, in Hebrews, it says he's called the Spirit of grace. And so as we learn to walk in the new covenant and we're tempted, you know, I'll be honest, in our Anabaptist way, we talk a lot, a lot about obedience, right? Talk a lot about the fear of God.

We talk a lot about pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. At least that's what it sounds like sometimes. But if we forget where we're at on that dividing page and we go home and do this, we will come up short.

And that's a burden I have for our Anabaptist people, that we learn to obey God, but through the power of his grace. Listen to some of these quotes. This is an early church writer, Clement of Alexandria.

He said this, a man by himself, working and toiling at freedom from passion achieves nothing. You want to try to get sin out of your life all by yourself, you'll achieve zero. But if he plainly shows himself very desirous and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God.

If you show yourself very desirous and earnest, Clement of Alexandria, a couple of hundred years after Jesus Christ lives, said you will attain it by the power of God. He says this, for God conspires with willing soul. He works, he wants to show himself powerful with willing souls.

But if they are banned in their eagerness, the spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained. For to save the unwilling is the part of one exercising compulsion, but to save the willing, that of one of showing grace. Here's another quote.

From an early church writer, it is grace that makes us fulfill the law. Remember what we talked about? It is grace which makes us truly fulfill the law and causes nature to be liberated from the dominion of sin. We are no longer under sin, it says, but under grace.

Here's one more, grace is not given because we have done great works, but in order that we may be able to do them. Grace is not given because we did works. You didn't receive grace because of some great work you did, but you receive grace to do the great works.

Now, here's one from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He died, but he had a lot to say about grace. In fact, he coined the phrase cheap grace.

He says this, cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living in incarnate. Costly grace, and he's not saying we need to pay it, he's saying Jesus paid for it. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field.

For the sake of it, a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy, which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye, which caused him to stumble.

It is the call of Jesus Christ, at which the disciples left his net and followed. Costly grace is the gospel, which must be sought again and again. The gift which must be asked for, the door at which must be knocked.

I don't know if you remember the second verse of the song, Amazing Grace, but it says this, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear." Did you ever think about that? Grace teaches us to fear. And then it goes on and says, "'And grace my fears relieved.'" First John says, perfect love casts out all fear. And so God's grace wants to lead us along.

He wants to, at times, bring fear into our lives, but at times, relieve those fears. I want to end this time with that verse that Peter said. He said, but grow in grace.

Grace is something that each one of us can grow in. So my question is today, have we found that power? The power that is over here in the New Testament, not compared to all that old stuff that doesn't work so well, the weak and beggarly stuff. Have we found the power that is found in the New Testament, the grace of God? And if I had lots more time and could preach more of these sermons, then I would talk about, the next thing I want to talk about is how do we receive grace? What are the conditions for grace? Where do we need to be in a state to receive God's grace? But for today, I hope it whets your appetite and helps us to remember that the only way we can fulfill the new covenant, the righteousness requirements of the new covenant is to depend on his grace and depend on his spirit.

Thank you, God bless you.