"Understanding God’s Grace" by Hiram Kemp

The man went into a restaurant and sat down to eat his meal.

At the conclusion of the meal, he went to the waiter and he asked for the check, to

which the waiter responded, there's no check.

His response was, but I didn't pay anything, surely there's a check, she said.

There is no check, he says, how can I get a free meal?

She said, oh, it's not free.

The man that was before you paid the ticket in your place, to which you responded, I don't

know that man.

She said, that's not the point, he paid anyway.

He responded, I didn't ask him to pay.

She says, I know, but he wasn't forced to, he did it simply because he wanted to.

What do you call that?

You call that grace.

According to the Bible, one day you and I will stand before the throne of God, Romans

14 and verse 12, second Corinthians five and verse 10, and there'll be a sense in which

we may think to ourselves and even say to God, God, where's the check?

To which at that moment, he'll respond, there is no check, and maybe your mind will start

wondering, surely there's a check.

I know I lived, I know how I lived, I know I wasn't perfect.

Surely there's something to pay, to which you'll respond, the man that went before you

paid in your place.

John 1 29, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said, behold, the lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world.

And you might be thinking in that moment, but there was a time in my life when I didn't

even know this man.

I didn't even ask him to pay, to which heaven will respond, I know, he chose to.

Jesus says, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord, I have the

power to lay it down and to take it up again.

He didn't have to, he chose to, it's called grace.

Tonight, all of the songs in the service have been driven toward this idea of grace in one

way, shape, or form.

And grace, though we sing about it and read about it in scripture, it's kind of hard to

put it into human words.

John says that Jesus is grace.

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1 and verse 17, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

And we bailed his glory, glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and

truth tonight, briefly in our devotional time together.

I just want to say three things about what the grace of God means for us as we launch

out into our week.

And then we'll extend the invitation.

Three simple realities.

You've already sung these tonight and heard them in song.

But three realities from scripture about the grace of God that should change us as

people as we go out and live this week.

Number one, the grace of God means no bragging.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, Charles read it for us a moment ago, but Paul says in Ephesians

2 and verse 8, for by grace have you been saved through faith and it's not your own

doing, it's the gift of God.

It's not a result of works so that no one may boast.

The grace of God means there is no bragging.

There is nobody that gets to stand before God and say, ultimately, I've earned it.

When you think about your salvation in relation to the grace of God, it's because of what

God has chosen to do for us in and through the person of Christ.

So what does that mean?

It means you're not so special.

He's so special.

First Timothy 6, 15 and 16.

It means you're not so smart.

He's the wise and smart one.

Romans 16 and verse 27.

It means you're not so good, but he's so good.

Psalm 25 and verse 8 says good and upright is the Lord.

The grace of God removes this idea of bragging from our mindset as it relates to salvation

and causes us to look upward to God and say, it's only because of what he's chosen to do

in his kindness and goodness that we can ultimately be saved.

General Mills ran into a crisis in 1947 with their Betty Crocker cakes.

They had been on a roll and all of a sudden out of nowhere, they saw sales begin to plummet.

They called in a Freudian psychologist who evaluated things and he told them, the women

are no longer buying the cakes because they're having a little bit of guilt.

He did a survey of various people, the psychologist did, and he brought them backward and said,

basically, the women are saying it's kind of hard for them to say to their family and

friends that this is homemade when all they're doing is adding water to it.

They feel like they're robbing people.

And General Mills went back to the drawing board and they said, we've got a new idea.

And they wrote back out their advertisement plan and it was simply under this banner,

add an egg.

And the sales skyrocketed.

We are dying to contribute something.

We really want to do our part.

We really want to say to God, you know, I contributed, I added something, I left a tip.

But grace says no bragging at all.

God brings everything to the table.

And as it relates to your salvation and mine, if you come into the throne room of God with

your resume, you're disqualified because the very thing that qualifies you is his record

and not your own.

Hebrews 7 and verse 26.

Here's number two tonight about grace.

The grace of God means no borrowing.

The grace of God not only means no bragging, but it also means you don't borrow anything.

In second Corinthians eight and verse nine, Paul says, you know, the grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for your sake, he became poor, that you through

his poverty might be made rich.

The grace of God fully supplies everything we need.

Paul says our sufficiency is not from ourselves.

It's from God.

Second Corinthians three and verse five.

And so the grace of God is God saying to you, this is everything that you need.

If the Christian life and if Christian theology was a storehouse or an edifice, and if it

was burning down, grace would be the first thing that I would run into grab because without

grace, there really is no hope of salvation.

But with grace, it means we have everything we need.

Psalm 34 and verse 10 says we lack no good thing.

Ephesians one and verse three, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Second Peter one and verse three, we have all things that pertain to life and godliness.

The grace of God means no borrowing.

Now, how does this play out in your life and mine?

It means according to Paul, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though

he was rich yet for your sake, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made

rich.

You're rich with everything you need.

It changes how you move in the world.

If the grace of God means no borrowing, it means when you go into relationships, you

already have everything you need and you're not expecting this relationship to make you

somebody because you already came in fully rich in Jesus Christ.

You want to do your part.

You want to be a good person, but you're not expecting this relationship to make you who

you are.

It changes you.

You go to work.

I'm not expecting this job to make me who I am.

I'm already fully rich.

Whatever happens on this job, whatever happens as I'm employed here, it doesn't make me or

break me because grace means no borrowing.

I don't borrow significance from all of these relationships and from these various circumstances

in my life.

I don't borrow it from what other people think about me.

Grace means I have everything I need and I'm fully supplied in Jesus.

And finally tonight, here's the third thing.

The grace of God for us means nobody has to be left behind.

In Hebrews chapter two and verse nine, the Bible says, but we see Jesus who was made

a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.

He was crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste of death

for every man.

The grace of God means we've got nothing to brag about.

It means we don't borrow significance or meaning from anybody else or anything else is fully

supplied for us in Jesus.

But the third thing it means is nobody has to be left behind because Hebrews two and

verse nine says Jesus tasted of death for every man.

If you can imagine yourself being deathly ill, maybe there are some times you've been

sick and you felt that way.

And now imagine the tallest and nastiest cup of medicine you've ever seen before.

Not only does the medicine look nasty, but the cup itself does.

And then all of a sudden the person that's administering it, whether a spouse or a parent

or a doctor who's perfectly healthy, just about the time you're scrunching up your face

and thinking, I really don't want to down this.

They take it in your place.

And at first you're confused because they're perfectly healthy.

And then all of a sudden through them taking the medicine that should have been yours as

disgusting and vile as it appeared, you start to get better.

Your fever leaves, your cough vanishes, you can breathe again, you feel well.

The Bible says Jesus took the medicine that should have been ours.

He by the grace of God tasted death for every man.

The cup of death really was heinous and vile and disgusting.

And when Jesus takes it in your place, a mysterious thing happens.

Though he tasted death, we receive life and everybody that trusts in him, all of a sudden

through that faith, trust and belief, we're made well.

The Hebrew writer says it this way in chapter five, verses eight and nine, though he were

a son yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered and being made perfect, he became

the author of eternal salvation to everyone who obeys him.

Because of Jesus, absolutely nobody has to be left behind because our spiritual medicine,

which should have been ours, death, he's taken in our place.

What I want to say before we extend the invitation as you go out through this week is just remember

the grace of God.

It really does change everything.

And one day when you stand before the throne of God, don't look for a check, look for the

Christ and follow his feet and give him thanks for what he's done in our place.

It means you've got nothing to brag about.

But if you must boast, boast in the Lord, all glory to God.

First Corinthians one and verse 31, you don't have to borrow.

There's nothing that's going to happen this week that's going to make you any more than

you already are.

That's not bad news.

That's great news.

You're already rich.

Nobody can upgrade you.

The grace of God has made you everything you need to be and nobody has to be left behind.

He's already taken your medicine.

And because of that in Christ, there's a sense in which you're perfectly healthy.

The grace of God toward humanity is what ignites the plan of salvation.

But grace always means no earning, but it never means no effort.

There is a response.

And tonight, if you want to lay hold of that, believe in that Jesus is the Christ, the son

of God, you can turn from sin.

And based on your confession, be immersed in water, have your sins forgiven.

You won't owe a bill because the man that went before you has already paid.

He didn't have to, but he chose to.

If you need to respond to the invitation, if we can pray with you and pray for you,

we'd love to do it as together we stand and sing.