Fallen... | Let Grace be Grace

So we are going to start our Lenten journey in this idea of grace.

We are going to look at kind of in a backdoor way, one of our confessions

and the three forms of unity that we hold as a reformed church is the canons of

Dort. And that is we know, a lot of us may know it as kind of the tulip analogy.

And that is all well and good, but I am not a huge fan of that as far as everyday

language and how we go about presenting it. And so Jim Osterhaus back in the 90s

put out a kind of refreshed look at it where he got away from the tulip ideology

and what that meant even though all of the things he used in his acronym faith.

So it is the acronym faith. We are going to go kind of have that be the spine for

us as we go through the book or go through the season of Lent. But if you

are more, you just want to go tulip and you want to go canons of Dort while we

go through this, you will not do wrong by doing that. But we will be using the

acronym faith. There are many other acronyms out there. Some I think are good

and some are not at all. But we are going to be going through this idea of faith.

But I want you to complete these statements or these phrases as a culture.

We kind of know them to be true. And I am going to kind of figure out and I am

going to ask the question why we know these to be true. If something sounds too

good to be true, it is or it probably is. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Why not breakfast and dinner? I don't know. No pain, no gain without pain.

That makes more sense. Good. God helps those which is fairly unbiblical.

And so we like to use it in the church. Feel free to ask me this week why I

believe that it is. Break me off a piece of that. I am just wanting to see if

anyone would do that. So I appreciate that. And so we learn these phrases kind

of as these like many truths in life. We learn these phrases as kind of part of

our culture, if you will, for whatever it is. That last one being a jingle.

A lot of times we utilize kind of jingles. We could go through probably over 100

commercials or different jingles for companies that all of us would know.

And we never really think about it, but it is just something that gets

indoctrinated into who we are. Right? I mean, all I did was that little bit of a

Kit Kat slogan and most of you knew it, even though a lot of you were never

going to say that or sing it in the church. And I respect that.

But understand, it's something that you don't...when's the last time you thought

about Kit Kats? Exactly. You don't, right? Some of you probably don't even like them.

But it's something that you just know. Isn't that weird? That there are things

that when you hear it, your mind just goes to it. For me, remember the Titan

soundtrack. It has been so ingrained in who I am, right, that whenever I hear it,

I automatically go to that movie. That we have these things that bring up kind of

different either products or movies, scenarios, actors, all those kind of

things. And you don't really spend a lot of time on it. You don't study it,

but it just kind of becomes who you are. And today we're going to start the

conversation about the word grace. And the thing about grace, it gets, in my

opinion, sometimes overused in the church to the point where you have now this

thing called cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks a lot about that in his

writings that believers take this understanding of Christian liberty that

because we are saved, we can do anything we want. And though it is in some ways

true, as Paul says, everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial.

But this understanding of cheap grace is that I know it's the prayer on a Monday

that, Lord, I'm probably going to sin over the weekend, and I know you'll forgive

me. And so it's this understanding of grace that we really need to align with

when it comes to who we are as not only individuals, but as a church. And in a

culture today where it's all about making it on your own. Our culture is all

about you work your way, you earn the right, you climb the ladder, all of these

things. We've talked about it before in different sermons. But one of the things

that we have to really break through is this understanding that we have, let me

find in my notes, is that when we work towards things, it's kind of like this

work ethic that even we have this thing called the Protestant worth ethic that

we will work towards the things that we want in order to earn, we will work for

it in order to do these things, to climb the ladder, to put the notches in the

belt, we will get whatever's coming to us if we earn it. I can look out and see a

lot of very hardworking people that have that mentality. But in the reformed faith,

in the Christian faith, that can be very damaging. That can be very dangerous if we

have this kind of works righteousness, this understanding that we can work our

way to the top of the cross. We can work our way to that vertical relationship

with Jesus. And just basic Christianity, that is not the case. That there is this

thing called grace. And we're going to look at grace and this thing of grace is

so rooted in God's character that it really needs to be the center of who we

are. That we should not only be people who have received grace, that we are

people that should extend grace. And there's the rub. We love receiving grace.

I don't know anyone that's like, no God, I don't need your grace. We love to

receive it. We love to receive when those things are good things are happening to

us. But the question I want to start today that's going to take us 40 days is

what in fact is grace? What is this thing that we're talking about? Grace is a

multifaceted diamond. There's no single definition to describe grace and what

it's about. So over the next couple weeks we're going to look at different

aspects of grace. One definition that I found is the definition of grace is God's

unbelievable accepting of us. Someone else has said that grace is the

completely undeserved loving commitment God has made to us. Fair. Another

definition is God's love in action. Or grace is the face God wears when he

looks at my failures. Those aren't bad. I don't know if they go all the way but

it definitely gets us to an understanding that grace is something God

gives. Grace is something we need. But how about some of you? How would you define

grace? Any brave souls want to define grace this morning? Some guys may look and

just point at their wives and that's very nice. You know that that is a great

grace that you've been given in life. Absolutely. Anyone want to define grace

today? Interesting. We're a Christian Reformed Church. Reformed theology is our

base, right? It is our lens of reading the scriptures in the good, the bad, and

the ugly and grace is all over what we believe. Yet if you're going to sit and

try to define it, it's kind of awkward. It's kind of weird because I don't want

to say something that's incorrect but I know in my heart that's what it is.

It's kind of this understanding of I recognize it when I see it or I

recognize it when I receive it or I recognize it when I extend it but there's

an understanding here that I think we need. We need to be able to not only see

grace in our lives, we have to understand grace in our lives in order to really to

give grace, to expel grace in our lives to the world, a world that desperately

needs God's grace. The world does not desperately need Jim's grace because

Jim's grace is flawed but God's grace on the other hand is something everybody

needs and here's the thing, whether they know it or not. So we're going to start

Article 1 and this is a good place to start. This is from the Canons of Dort.

Article 1, it says, since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the

sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice

if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the

curse and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says, the whole

world is liable to the condemnation of God, Romans 3 19. All have sinned and are

depraved of the glory of God, Romans 3 23. And the wages of sin is death, Romans 6 23.

So understand that in order to understand grace, we have to understand

some pretty bad news about ourselves. Now I don't revel in the fact that I can

just look out at everybody and say we're all depraved, we're all sinners though

it's true, but the word that we're going to use and the word that Jim Osterhaus

uses is the word fallen, that we are all fallen people. Now I think it's

interesting just going back kind of jumping sermon series, last week we were

talking about angels right in the last sermon series of whose sermon is it

anyway and that's kind of where we ended with the fallen angels, Lucifer and his

fallen angels and I know some of you had questions about that but we're not even

talking about the angelic, we're talking about those made in God's image who are

fallen. Ephesians 2 1 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and our

sins. We're going to be in Ephesians 2 today, you can leave that one up there.

That in order to understand what life is for the believer, to understand every day

when you wake up is that you are dead in your trespasses and your sins. Now how we

engage with this, how we live that out is case by case. I mean this is really bad

news. I don't know anybody that can look at that and go yes, I am dead in my

trespasses and my sins. The world kind of loves it because they don't define it

that way, they don't recognize the good and the bad, they don't recognize the

damned and the saved, they don't recognize any of that. We were dead in

our trespasses and sins. Who can tell me the key word in that phrase? Were. It

would look very different today if I said you, us, I, you, me, whoever are dead

in our trespasses and sins. When the church of Ephesus heard this, this was a

encouragement from the apostle Paul to remind them of something. And I think

it's the reminder you and I need every day, that we were dead in trespasses and

sins. I know that's not what you came to hear today, but everybody here was dead

in sin, that had trespasses against God of thought, word, and deed as I prayed in

the congregational prayer. You're dead in your sins, I'm dead in my sins, this side

of the sanctuary, that side, the cars on Ridge Road, everybody was dead in

trespasses and sin. This is the result of the fall and the blood that is in our

DNA, or the sin that is in our blood, in our DNA, that we are all sinners. And

isn't that how the story goes? Or how the song that we learned growing up, red and

yellow, black and white, we are all dead in his sight? No? I don't think it seems

like a good theological, good reformed song, right, to teach our kids. Lisa, are

you here this morning? Are you gonna teach that to the light? Oh, they don't

have light house today. But, I mean, that is really a song we should teach. Someone

said, no. I'm gonna push back and go, but it is. Yeah, we don't probably want our

kids going around singing that song, because it sounds like a 90s Green Day

song, you know, that they did to some guitar riff, but understand that that is

really the task at hand. That because of sin in the world, we were all dead

without any hope of revival, any hope of having that relationship with the creator

of God. Unfortunately, it's true. And we have to start there. There's an

acceptance here that if you're gonna accept the grace of God, there is an

acceptance here that you are a fallen human being and a bunch of you just

tightened up. You don't like that. But you have to. I have to. We have to

recognize that we were dead in our sin in order to understand what life really

means. Because if we're not going to acknowledge that we are dead in our sin,

then the life that we have in Jesus doesn't matter. Because here we're gonna

do this on our own. We're gonna eat the apple, we're gonna do all the things. But

on this side is the understanding that we have been saved by grace, which we'll

get to in a second, that we were dead in our sins. We were done. But that wasn't

the final plan or else this would be a very depressing sermon series. And quite

frankly, I'd be out of a job. If that was the case and that was it, end of story, do

not pass go, do not collect $200. What is the point of Christianity then? If this

was you are dead, and that's it. End scene. I think we'd close up shop. What do you

think this building could turn into if it wasn't a church? Bob, what do you think

this church could be or what this building would be without a church in it?

Could be a nice restaurant. Yeah, sure. That'd be some nice ambiance. But God was

not done. God does not leave us in a fallen position. Ephesians 2, starting

with verse 2. In which you once walked following the course of the world,

finding the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in

the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived, the passions of the flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children

of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the

great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made

us alive together in Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with

him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ so that in the

coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in

kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. So that's where we were and that's what God

did about it. I'm going to read from Jim Osterhaus. We were dead in our

transgressions and sin, but God made us alive. To underscore the point, let's say

I am a teacher and you are one of my students. When you enter the classroom

one day, you find me stretched out on the floor, very sick. Nevertheless, you

ask me to bring you a glass of water. Although I am very ill, I managed to

drag myself down the hall to the drinking fountain to get your water. It is

very difficult to do, but I am able and I return to the classroom with your water.

Now imagine that you enter the classroom, found me stretched out on the floor dead

and said to me, Jim, go get me a glass of water. What would happen? Nothing. I would

not be able to do what you asked because I was dead. I would be completely

incapable of responding to your request. Humanities fall into sin is like that. It

is so complete that it renders all people totally unable to respond to the

message of salvation. That is what it means to be dead in our transgressions

and sins. This is terrible news and the effect of sin is to make us totally

unable to save ourselves. How can we possibly be saved? If we are spiritually

dead, how can we be made alive? Here is the good news. God does it. So we have to

understand that in this road of Lent, in this road of understanding grace, we have

to admit that we have 0% to do with receiving that grace. We are going to talk

about that tension. We are going to talk about it because there are some of us

that love ourselves so much that we actually go, well, I just want 5%. I will

give 95%. Jesus, you do the work. I really want that because we want it to have

control. We want it so we can manipulate the system. We want it so we can say we

had something to do with it. But if that is really what you want, then you have to

take the good with the bad because in order for that grace to be poured on us

every day of our life, for that relationship to be made whole in Jesus

Christ, it took the cross. Spoiler alert, that is where we are going to end. That

is where the season of Lent ends, that Monday, Thursday, which we will have a

service. Good Friday will be online and then we will come together and celebrate

Easter, Lord willing. In 32 days, we are going to come. That will be Monday,

Thursday. Don't do the math, I already did it. Jesus is going to give the greatest

sermon illustration of grace in the history of the world. That Jesus is going

to use a ritual of marriage to understand what grace actually is. And come that

Monday, Thursday, he will claim us as something and he will walk us to the new

reality with the Last Supper. That that is going to mean something. And here is

the kicker, we have absolutely no skin in the game. We can't do anything in it

except to just receive it. And friends, I understand that is a struggle. I

understand that some of you are going to struggle with this, this sermon series,

in the next 40 days, because you think that you are that bad. That you think

that there is nothing that you do in life that is deserved of God's grace.

Guess what? You are right. There isn't. But you have not strayed so far that God

is not right there with you. That the Father is not there ready to pick you up

to declare that you are his and ask that you follow him. That you live your life

with that grace. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. In of ourselves we would stay fallen.

Ephesians 2 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not

your own doing. It is a gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one may

boast. Paul is there. This is the real he gets us. Right? I don't care about all of

that Super Bowl commercial drama. This is the understanding. Because what would

that look like? For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of

your own doing. This is a gift of God. Not as a result of works. But he took that

boast out. What if Paul didn't put that in there? I guarantee you that you and I

would boast about it. Because we have that in our nature. It's the exact reason

why we need that grace. For we are his workmanship. We are not our own

workmanship. We have not created ourselves. We are created in Christ Jesus

for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. So

do you know and hear this today you are a good work. I am a good work that is

still being worked on. That still has a job to do. That is still an active vessel

for the gospel. For grace incarnate which is Jesus Christ. So for the one that

comes today and says I am not a good work. I'm too far gone. I am too sinful.

God can never love me. God can never engage. God can't. Stop. Stop fighting. Stop

trying to do this on your own. It doesn't work. It's only gonna leave you

exhausted. It's only gonna leave you burnt out. It's only gonna believe you

resenting yourself. But receive that we are his workmanship. We are created in

Christ Jesus for good works. We get Jesus right. Jesus dies for us. He is then

illuminated, regenerated in our heart to do good work. There's no such thing as

Christian passivity when it comes to just living out the life of Christ. That

we get to work. We have jobs to do. We have a Christ to point to and grace to

give out. And God knew all of this. That we would walk in him. I land the plane

with this. We live in a world where we want to be in control of our own story.

Our own rags to riches. To become our own ego monster. Another word for idol

worshiping. Another word for idol worshiping sin is when we do that for

ourselves and we think we can manipulate this system. We think we can do all of

these things. Because we're always gonna have this thing inside of us. But we

can't. And of ourselves we would stay fallen forever because we actually love

being fallen. Ask that question of yourself this week. Why do I love sin

so much? Why do I love being in a fallen posture in my life? The Bible makes it

very clear that sin is so easily entangled in us. That it's actually part

of the identity, and hear this, that we used to have. Thank God he doesn't leave

us fallen. Thank God he picks us up. He dusts us off and does something

incredible. More on that next week. Let's pray.