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Real Grace for Real People Larry Kirkpatrick. Price Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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Scripture Reading: Galatians 1:6-7

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ into another Gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

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This morning, as we begin our talk about grace, we must purposefully make one fact in the background visible, so as to approach our main subject with the proper care. The fact is this: Satan can only win the great controversy by getting us to bite down onto the hook of a false version of grace. Was that clear? If we are going to talk about grace, we are going to attract his undivided attention, and that's why God needs your undivided attention. If Satan can spin God's message of grace between the time that it leaves the pages of the Bible and gets into your heart and mind, then he can plant his flag right there on the mountaintop of your soul. Surely the devil isn't interested in grace." Oh, but he is. His very existence depends on it. He cannot afford to leave the topic alone. In fact, what better, more unexpected doctrine could be more ideal for him to weave his entangling, soul-destroying lies into? So, watch out. Be sober. Our foe goes about, roaring like a lion, trying to scare us (1 Peter 5:8), yet also goes about singing gently, to deceive us. He comes as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). Especially is this true when our understanding of grace is on the table. I assure you -- real grace is mutually exclusive -- it rules out all false grace. What you are about to hear is either very wrong, or very right. But it's not in the middle somewhere. I do hope you are in the Word these days.

What is Grace?

What is grace? Let's go to our Bibles for an answer. Why not turn with me to Titus 2:11-14:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Grace involves how we live, what we are changed from, and what we are changed to. Grace involves salvation. In Titus two, Paul is discussing behavior, and in the ninth verse he points out that it is because "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" that we will live differently. The very first thing that this grace teaches us is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Revelation 21:27 assures us that nothing that defiles or makes a lie will enter into heaven. Nothing. Thus it is immediately made certain that no false gospel will enter heaven. A false gospel is a lie. The true gospel intimately impacts how we live. Did you notice that the grace of God brings salvation? If I said "I'm bringing you five hundred dollars tomorrow in my wallet," would you want to make a difference between the wallet and the $500 that it carried? I would. The grace of God brings salvation. But it is not salvation. The grace of God is a quality of God, a description of the mercy of His character. It is sent out in search of us. We do not deserve it or merit it, but it has been sent out in search of us since God is trying to bring salvation to us. Grace is that quality of who our heavenly Father is that makes salvation available to us. It encompasses His mercy and a whole host of His attributes. But grace does not equal salvation. Salvation depends on the total application of grace to us. Through grace God wants to bring us salvation. That salvation means that we will live differently. We will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. There is a way that we should live under grace, and that is "soberly, righteously, and godly." People want to talk about God's "extravagant grace;" they want to emphasize the quantity of it; but He wants to emphasize the quality of it. And so He says that when, through grace, salvation is occurring in your life, your life will be one bearing the qualities of sobriety, righteousness, and godliness. Think about those core qualities. Those are qualities of the actual grace that brings actual salvation. If you have grace, you will be awake and clear-headed. If you have grace, your life will be a vivacious orchestra of righteous actions. If you have grace, your life will be a pungent expression of godliness cutting its way through the darkness engulfing the world. These aren't cheap plastic substitutes for the real thing; they are the real thing. A few years ago I was listening to a presentation about the gospel, and we were told that when it comes to the gospel, "performance always lags." But performance doesn't always lag. Enoch walked with God, and the Father took Him home to heaven. Was Enoch's experience lagging? Not at all. And of course, we would all agree that Jesus' experience was never lagging. We could come up with more examples, but it would be clear that experience does not always lag. If it did, that would make a lie of the passage in Titus. After all, when does our verse say that this sober, righteous, godly salvation experience is supposed to occur? "In this present world," or some translations have it, "in this present age." Performance does not always lag. We live this way, according to our text, looking for the soon return of Jesus and of God from heaven. Furthermore, we learn in the text that we were redeemed not so that our performance could lag, but "that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Now, iniquity is sin. Jesus has bought us back from sin. Sin doesn't own us anymore. He bought us back to "purify" a special kind of people to Himself, a people zealous for good works -- not a people without works or whose works lag. Grace -- real grace -- means real Christians, changed people, people moving away from sin at warp speed, people who moment-by-moment are living snapshots of purification. Grace is not about all of this spiritual book-keeping that occurs outside of you, on the other side of the sky somewhere, where angels are dancing on the heads of pins and singing "God You are beautiful" to the sound of applause and raucious drumming. Grace is real. Grace brings salvation. Salvation is real. Salvation showcases grace. What does your life showcase? Oh, I know; I'm not supposed to ask that. You see, to ask that is (we are told), to "take our eyes off of Jesus," or to "major in minors," or to risk "interposing ourselves into the salvation transaction." What a lie from hell. Those who so piously say that are really saying, "take your eyes off the showcase -- don't look!" as if there were something offensive in there; some mysteriously contaminating peep-show hidden away. Why yes. That's the point! The grace of God that brings salvation is supposed to be on bold display in our lives. But our foe is nervous that we will catch hold of what grace means and then live it before a world in moral-meltdown and a universe filled to overflowing with curious, intelligent, pure, inquiring beings. Friends, angels are stretched across the sky bending down with inexpressible interest in what God is doing down here on this tiny planet, this lesson-book to the universe. He is showcasing His gospel of grace. It is the devil that doesn't want anyone to look! "No, no, no," they say, "Keep your eyes on Jesus." But our text said that "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This has happened. We have seen Jesus out there, but now we want to see Him in here. We want to behold Him and become changed, and as we behold Him, we will be changed. Grace means that we change. God's grace that brings salvation has appeared to us. But how do we lay hold upon that grace? How do we get grace? We co-operate with God. Yes, that's right. If you have already bought into that version of "the gospel," which Paul calls "another gospel, which is not another," then that was your cue to run screaming from this sanctuary. Satan, with his hypnotic singing, has convinced many Christians today that if we do anything at all, we are somehow adding to the salvation process, somehow being saved by our own works or a blending of our own works with God's perfect work. Man, it is said, can contribute nothing to the salvation process, or more commonly, that he can contribute nothing toward his own salvation. So any human co-operation with God is ruled-out by defining co-operation as "works-salvation." That's how you make these subtle changes; redefine truth through tiny gradations until you've excluded it. Just shift the definitions. But why should we accept this revising? Who told us that we had to sit back gently while someone else spin-doctored the teaching of the Bible? We are free -- free to rightly divide the Word of God! The Bible warned us about the traditions of man. But traditions are not just golden-oldies, they can be subtle-new-ies too. Christians, blankly consenting to be victims are still writing-off the commandments of God and replacing them with the traditions of men. If we really were Protestants, we might have a stronger sense of this. Why will we let this happen? Let's double-check, and make sure that we really are Bible Christians.

Divine-Human Co-operation

The best example of divine-human co-operation on record is Jesus. He was divine--He was God, but He came in the flesh of a man; the humanity that He took was identical to our own, with no special exemptions or exceptions. The gospels record numerous miracles done through Jesus. But they were done through Him, rather than by Him. He sometimes commanded the sea or the grave, and they always complied. Yet before He came here, He "emptied Himself" of His divine power (Philippians 2:7-8) and in His life relied upon the Father as we must rely upon Him in our life (John 5:19, 30). Because He walked so closely with the Father, His will harmonized with His Father's, and the miracles that were wrought came because of that intimate harmony -- that intimate co-operation. He owned the power to do all of those miracles -- He had, after all, made the worlds (Hebrews 1:2); but He set that power aside in order to validate the example of His living for us. He gave us the pattern, the example, of how to live (John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21; John 17:19). How to live by grace. Jesus didn't need grace as we do. He was not guilty of sin, nor does guilt or condemnation reside in the mere nature of man. A hand is not guilty for stealing or a foot for kicking; such actions come from the brain; the extremities have no say in the matter. These actions result from minds unsubdued to the Spirit of God, and Jesus' mind was ever subdued to the Spirit of God. Jesus never developed the habit-patterns of sin that we have, for although tempted in all points like as we are, He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Therefore He never had the propensities (in that sense) of sin. He lived an uncondemnable life, and could thus ask who could convict Him of sin (John 8:46). He was exactly what we needed in a Savior: "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). But notwithstanding all this, the Father "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). He lived without sinning but took upon Himself the penalty of the sinner. He came to break sin in its lair, to conquer sin in the flesh that constitutes man's broken nature (Romans 8:3). He overcame by the power heaven, so that the grace that God would make available to us would have in it the power to condemn sin in our flesh as well. Some would say that this isn't grace. But they would be wrong. Grace makes a difference. Grace is not license. Some people see grace as a license to sin (even though, they will say, you shouldn't do it). But Jesus bought us not the privilege of sinning, but the privilege of winning. He came not to give us a placebo, but to give us power. He came, not to please man, but to displease the devil, and to glorify the Father. Jesus came not with cheap prizes from "Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes," but to clear the house of religious cheapskates. He came to break the hold that sin has on you and on me, and His real grace exposes the charlatans and fakes and their teachings. The real gospel really cleanses the temple by combining divine strength with human effort. The result of this combination is a righteousness from God that fills the life of man with richness, growth, and moral beauty; a righteousness that we could properly say has in it not one thread of human devising; a righteousness that is all of God and thus contains no merit for man. Real grace means that God's power changes those who co-operate with it. We are discussing real grace for real need. And Jesus is our only Source. He came to bring real grace for real people.

Getting Grace into the Life of a Real Person

Jesus went up on the cross and died for us. And when He breathed His last, in triumph He offered up His life to the Father. They took down the body of our Lord of grace, and placed it in a tomb that Friday evening, just as the Sabbath was arriving. They placed His corpse in a sepulchre close-by, and by order of Pilate that tomb was sealed and guarded by soldiers. Divinity waited through the night. But early in the morning, that wonderful resurrection morning, a blinding light split the sky as angels arrived in glory and stood outside the grave. An earthquake rocks the land. Effortlessly, the angel rolls away the stone, his voice splitting the darkness of the waning pre-dawn, loudly pronouncing, "Son of God, come forth; Thy Father calls Thee!" The guards stand shocked in the flashing light. There is a stirring in the tomb. And momentarily Jesus walks out of the grave. Because He lives, we can have grace. We can be free. The resurrection of Jesus is our cue to turn to another key passage on grace: Romans chapter 6. The same power that caused Jesus to rise from death, will empower you to live His way. When the time came, Jesus did walk out of the tomb; He had victory. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He has the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18). He owns the grave. He did all this so that real grace could come to real people like you and me. He offers you the key. He calls you forth from the grave -- to real grace. Real grace means release from bondage. We are to walk in newness of life. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection" says Romans 6:5. If we will do just as Jesus did -- if we will lay hold upon the power of the Father, of our own selves doing nothing (John 5:30), yet in fact doing what we see the Father do (John 5:19) empowered by grace, we will not serve sin any longer. We'll recognize, as we are shown in Romans 6:6 that "our old man is crucified with Him" when we lay hold of grace. The power of our fallen nature combined with our habit-patterns of sin -- the wicked characters that we have become -- will be broken and reshaped and renewed as we call to Him for power and stop serving sin. Do you experience the reality of Romans 6:7-8? "He that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." If we take up our cross daily as Jesus commanded (Luke 9:23), we will die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31), and sin will not have dominion over us. We will "live with Him," not just in some vague heavenly scene in the distant future, but enter here and now. Real grace is available for real people because we know "that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God" (Romans 6:9-10). The offering of Jesus to the Father in our behalf was entirely successful. The Father accepted that wonderful life represented by the blood of Jesus. The sacrifice accepted, He lives unto God and we live unto God by the power poured out from heaven, through co-operation with His grace. Jesus left the tomb -- left the place where death reigned, because sin no longer had dominion over Him and thus death no longer had dominion over Him. He took the keys of hell and death and went His way. And now if you plead with God for overcoming power through Jesus, you'll be released too. Romans 6:11-13 applies real grace to real people. Listen to what it says:

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

We are to consider ourselves truly dead unto sin. Don't get the wrong idea about this verse. We hear the word "reckon" and we sometimes think of it as if we are going to "count" ourselves one way while the reality is actually something else. But that is not what this is saying at all. This text says count or consider ourselves as we actually are, not as we are not. "Likewise," that is, in the same way, we are to recognize that we are "dead to sin and alive to God." In the same way as it is true for Jesus (and it is so unquestionably true for Jesus!), it is just as certain and true for us. Remember, when we accept Him as our personal Savior, we are joined with Him -- joined in His death and joined in His resurrection. He was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The merit and the glory are all His; the shame and the demerit of the wickedness we have wrought are ours. He stepped between us and the knife, received our penalty, empowered us to live differently, and handed us His reward. He gets the credit. We get the salvation. And I have no objections! Now you and I have been placed in control again. If we were not in control, then how could part of the fruit of the Spirit be self control, "temperance," (Galatians 5:23)? If Jesus did not give us power over the cravings of our broken nature, then how could He be fair in commanding us not to yield our members as to remote-controlled machines through which demons can work sin and woe? We are not to yield our "members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin," but to yield ourselves unto God, as those that are [that really actually are], alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Sin is surrender to remote-control. Righteousness is restoration of self-control. We are alive from the dead, our faculties are refilled with life through our active reception of the power of grace. God opens the door for us so that we walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Our members become members of righteousness, not so that God remotely controls us, but remotely empowers us to "live soberly, righteously, and godly," (when did Titus say?) "in this present world." That's what the grace of God that bringeth salvation did when it appeared to all men in the life of our Example, Jesus (Titus 2:11).

Under Grace

And so Paul arrives in Romans 6:14-15 just where we knew he must be going, and where we must finish today. He pronounces the burning truth that we are not under the law, but under grace. Listen:

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Remember, the problem is not the law, it is the dominion of sin. Jesus came to save from sin (Matthew 1:21), not from the law. Law defines sin, and that's not the problem. If you take your car to the mechanic, and he puts it onto the diagnostic machine and then discovers what the problem is, is the diagnostic machine the problem? When he says "it's going to run you about $300.00 to fix this," is he referring to his diagnostic machine? No, he's referring to the problem with your motor! We are not under the law. Jesus does not leave Christians with a motor that is going to show up on the diagnostic machine as still being broken. We are under grace. Grace. Grace makes obedience to the law possible and real. So what shall we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Your sin problem and mine are no light matter. Our eternal existence is at stake. Jesus died so that we could live, and He lives so that we can die. We must die to the old crooked nature, and die now. Grace is not a license to sin, it is a license to be free of it. Grace is not some kind of giant, impenetrable bubble descending upon us from heaven and locking us into salvation. It does not immobilize our members, but makes it possible to yield our members to sober, righteous, godly living in the last days. We must co-operate with it, and we gladly give Him all the glory and all the credit. We are under grace. Oh how sweet it is. Grace is not designed to numb our minds, to rip the devil off by saving us against our will, or to justify inaction and lifeless assurance. Grace makes us free. And if you receive the Son today, you can have this very grace. You can be free indeed (John 8:36). Would you mind if I ask, are there any takers? Friends, this is not a one timer. But there ought to be a time when you make a clear connection with Jesus, very clear. Here now is an opportunity to do that. Is there anyone who will say today, "Pastor, that grace -- that grace as you've described it today from the Word of the living God -- that's the grace I want, and that's the grace I need. I want Jesus to give me that grace and that power. I want to be made free. Give me that grace, God O please." Is there anyone here who will receive that grace? How wonderful it is, this grace in which we stand! Let's thank our Father together as we close in prayer. Let us pray that God will give to us real grace for real people. That is what Jesus died for.