Grow in Grace - Joel Schrock

Good morning. I too want to greet everyone in Jesus' name. Glad to

see all the visitors here, and also the home folks. So we move

around about as much as visitors in the summer, So welcome everyone. The

title of the message today is taken from Second Peter. So I'll be reading

a number of verses. You can follow along as you like, not necessarily

going to be turning to all of them. But the title is taken from

Second Peter three, verse eighteen. And this is the last, the last

verse of the chapter, the last to hear out of Peter. I'll read

that two Peter three, verse eighteen. But grow in grace and in the

knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both

now and forever. Amen. And so the title is growing grace. And

I don't know what you think of when you think of grace. I think

it's pretty easy. When the word grace is thrown out, we kind of

head for a ditch on ditch or another in our minds. But I've been

thinking about this topic of this word for the last little while. In a

way, it's not something that I really thought i'd be talking about anytime soon

or one or two. I think sometimes that the word or the topic,

it's maybe used a little bit us as leverage, sometimes maybe up to a

blunt instrument. Too much grace, not enough grace. You should extend grace

while I'm losing patience with you, you know, Or we have a situation

where we don't understand why people don't extend grace over here, but we haven't

over here, And I think so for me, it's not easy topic.

And this is not a complete study, and you may you may find that

I'm heading into a ditch somewhere here, so you can talk to me about

that later. But this is maybe just that an introduction. It's not a

it's not a sure there'll be things missed. But it struck me recently that

this must be a pretty important topic. I was asked to share the last

the last Sunday that we were in Greece, and it was a small group,

but it was a diverse group. So there were the long term American

missionaries there that there, they know the language, they're planning to be there,

build open to build community church. There were us and another kind of

short term family that were getting ready to head home, and then there was

the group of people that didn't have a home to go back to. H

m hm. Some some refugees kind of just looking forward looking, looking to

build something new, because that was kind of the only option. M And

so I thought, what do you uh, what do you say? In

parting? And so I began to look at at out of curiosity. Interesting

look through the epistles, the letters to different groups of people by different authors,

mainly Paul, but John and Peter, and it was interesting. There's

a lot of words. There's love, there's mercy, there's peace, But

the word that stood out to me as being the most consistent was grace.

Now, peace went along with grace most times, and I think there's good

reason for that. And then I noticed that the beginnings of the letters,

most of them started out with grace. Some were in the introduction, some

are in the conclusion, not necessarily first and last verses, but in those

sections. And so grace must have been something understood by the people closest to

Jesus as being very important, vital, something vital to the Christian life,

and vital two churches. A lot of these letters were written two churches.

And maybe that's just stating the obvious, but sometimes we have to do that.

Like I said, it was interesting to note that peace many times grace

and peace. So for example, this was written many times like this,

Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father and from the Lord

Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna really jump into that, but I think it's

worth noting that. I think it seems like maybe peace follows grace. Many

times it's grace, mercy and peace, as far as I can tell.

Quick. Look, the letters that begin in the introduction where grace is given

is Romans first, Corinthians second, Corinthians, Glatians, Ephesians, Philippians,

Clausians first, Thessalonians second, Thessalonians first, Timothy, Sewod, Timothy,

Titus, Phileman first, Peter second, Peter second, John, and Revelation.

Jude begins with mercy, peace and love, and he ends not with

grace but with what I view as a benediction of grace. Really, now,

the letters that end in that in the conclusion is included. Grace is

included very similar, slightly different, but Romans first and second, Corinthians,

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Classians first and second, Thessalonians first and two,

Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews first and second, Peter in Revelation,

so the majority. So what is grace. There's a lot of things

that grace is. There's a lot of things that grace is not. I

have couple illustrations examples, short stories that maybe illustrate different words, and all

earthly illustrations are imperfect. If you look at Jesus in his teaching says many

times the Kingdom of Heaven is like something, and it's like a whole bunch

of different things. Because he's pulling a little bit from here and here and

here and here. Then you have this bigger picture. But they illustrate different

words that we know. Well, now these two examples all have the same

beginning, same story, with different endings, and so we'll see if this

helps make sense out of things as we look at this. So imagine yourself

in these stories. Imagine that you live in a kingdom where the king in

the kingdom, you have a king, and the king's kind of the person

right, So this king is powerful, he's just, and he's fair.

But you have been part of a rebellion that led to the death of his

son who is heir to the throne and his pride and joy. Now the

king's men have captured you, and the King himself will be the judge and

will pronounce judgment on the wicked people that have killed the prince. And everyone

knows that a torturous death awaits everyone that was involved in the rebellion. And

you come before the king truly regretful and sorry for what you have done,

and you get down on your knees and you beg for forgiveness for your life

to be spared. You know you've made a terrible mistake, but there's no

way for you to repay the debt you owe. And the King looks at

you and he says, you have sealed your fate by your own actions.

You deserve to die, and you will die. There's nothing here to judge.

Your actions have caused your fate, and the guards quickly come take you

away to your well deserved death. History would not judge this king harshly,

because this king is fair, This king is just. He's a king of

justice. You will receive the punishment that you deserve. Now imagine same story.

Just we'll get it back up a little bit. And you've been captured

after your involvement in this rebellion led to the death of the King's son.

And as you come before the King, you fall on your knees in true

sorrow for your wicked past, knowing you cannot repay the debt you owe,

and the King's still full of God may be anger, says you are undeserving,

but I will let you go free. You can't believe your ears because

you're free, and it doesn't matter if you can never see the King's face

again. You will be forever grateful to this King of mercy because he did

not give you the punishment that you deserved. He had mercy. Now the

same story. I won't repeat the beginning, But as you come before the

King this time and beg for your life, his face softened, his countenance

changes. He reaches for you and pulls me in for a warm embrace,

and he tells you that from now on you'll be his son and heir to

the riches of his kingdom. Now there's no way, and there's no need

to try to reap pay the King for this amazing gift of grace, because

he gave you what you clearly did not deserve. I have to have grace

of an emotional speaker. Now, as we think of these examples, again,

all earthly examples are incomplete, and we know that God is and gives

all three justice, mercy, and grace. And in fact, when grace

is given, I don't know of an exception, mercy has also been given.

I think if you look at the example of that we just had there

of grace given, mercy was also given. Didn't get the punishment he deserved,

and you got something you clearly didn't deserve. I think we can see

ourselves in that example the king who offered grace, because we know that we

all have sinned before Holy God and deserve to die. And in Romans five,

verse fifteen, we see that grace, the gift of God, came

about by and through the death of one that's Jesus Christ. Now, when

we think of an earthly example something we can picture ourselves in a physical setting.

It's easy, It's easier for me at least to see how the abuse

of grace is what's the right adjective, many probably, but is repulsive in

many ways. As we think of that last example, and you imagine someone

receiving that amazing, unspeakable gift and then leaving, turning from there and living

the rest of his life in rebellion to that king. Is that living in

grace? Does grace allow us to sin? Or is grace much greater than

that? Is grace much more beautiful than that? Does grace have much more

power than that? And does it allow us to live above sin, free

from sin, instead of in sin? And so again, you can turn

to these if you want. I'm not going to going to kind of move

through a couple references as we go along here. The first one's in Romans

six. Romans six, I'll read verses one and two, very familiar.

Versus says, what shall we say? Then? Shall we continue in sin

that grace may abound? God forbid? How shall we that are dead to

sin live any longer? Therein Now, if you think again about the example

of the king who offered grace, I think anybody I don't know if with

humanity is right word, maybe with any conscience or in them, would be

dead to the idea of rebellion to this king, of living in rebellion to

this king. And so he wouldn't live that way. And I think that

grace, the idea of grace allowing us to continue living in sin is a

real misrepresentation of grace. We can see it in the earthly setting, sometimes

it's hard to see it in the heaven are setting. I think another verse

in Chapter six there is verse fourteen, for sin shall not have dominion over

you, for you not under the law, but under grace. And so

we read that with this is great, We're not under the law right,

we're under grace now. But if we stop and look at the first part

of that verse, it says sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin

is not your master. You will not be bound by sin. Sin will

not will not drive you. And why we have the conjunction four because this

cause and effect thing four. You are not under the law, but under

grace. So grace again doesn't allow you to live in sin. It's much

more beautiful than that. It allows us to live above sin. And I

believe that we can conclude from this that if sin does have dominion over us,

then we're not living with the grace of God in our lives. In

fact, I'm willing to be corrected on this, but I think it may

mean that we are living under the law instead of grace. We may be

living under a grace that does not destroy us immediately, But we cannot claim

the grace of God in our lives as we live if sin has dominion over

us. Again, if we compare it to the example of the earthly king,

and we rebel against that king, we're living under a grace that we're

not dead. But in reality we are living in rebellion, not with disgrace

in our lives, and we will not continue to be an eritant the inheritance

of the King. Now here's an incomplete list, but a few things of

what I believe the Bible teaches grace is, and a few things that grace

isn't the first one I have in This is not in any real particular order.

But grace is free, It's a gift. It's undeserved. I'll read

Ephesians two, verse eight with this in mind. Four by grace are you

saved through faith? And that not of yourselves. It is the gift.

It is the gift of God, and goes on to say, not of

works. And so just as Simon the sorcer could not purchase the gift of

the power of the Holy Spirit, so we cannot purchase the gift of grace

or the power of grace. It's a gift. Grace is greater than sin.

Romans. And I think sometimes we think maybe it's a little bit,

maybe it's just me. Maybe it's a little bit like meekness. It's easy

to think that meekness is weakness. It's so easy to think that grace is

not that powerful of a force. But Romans five, verse twenty says,

moreover, the law entered that offense might abound, but where sin abounded,

grace did much more abound. And we all know, any of us that

are human, that sin is strong. It's enticing. But where sin is

or sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Grace is sufficient. It is

enough two Corinthians twelve. And this is Paul talking about is thorn in the

flesh verse nine. And he said, unto me, this is Jesus.

My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

And then he says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory

in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So

whatever stress we face, whatever thorn in the flesh we have, God's grace

is enough. It's sufficient every time and in every situation, God's grace is

also more than just enough Verse Timothy one, verse fourteen. And the grace

of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ

Jesus. It's exceeding abundant. And we think if something's abundant, there's plenty

of it, and probablysome extra. If it's abundant, God's grace is exceeding

abundant. Get out life songs. Well, look at song number one hundred

and four, and I think this not quite sure why it's impressed me,

since I was pretty young this song has and I think maybe it's because of

the mind pictures associated with grace, and I don't know that I thought about

it in those ways. This title is grace enough for me, But if

you if you kind of read through the words, it's clear that it's an

abundant more than enough. And the chorus has some different words, different parts,

but if you get this picture of grace is flowing from Calvary for me,

grace as fathomless as the rolling sea, and you look get a roll

and see and it looks like it goes on forever. There's no we don't

the depth the width. It just goes grace for time and eternity, his

abundant grace. I see enough for me, and I think we'll just take

the time here and sing this song. Maybe we could stand and Brian,

you want to give me a mm hmmmm, or maybe just this is not

why we're singing the song. But let's do attempt to observe the dots in

looking through tears. One day great, see enough for me. Grat sass

folly from a calm grassc good size see grade school time nature tree sing for

what standing there? I turn to think of school good stare speedy a size

see enough for me. Grat falling from gray side side see gray time,

turn gray fast fall. When I behad my re sing name to my cretry,

I found it fly through my school of grain, see how for name.

Gratis flow from the cow graz sciences fall. The science said turn gray

sea. When I in sa for thin the b my go sname to see

through all the years to come. See now green fly from cow maybe seed

a couple more. Here, grace is the divine ability to live, as

has kind of been mentioned, here is the divine ability to live above sin

Titus two verses eleven and twelve. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation,

hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying on goodliness and

worldly loss, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

Now, does this mean that we will never fall, we will never

fail if the grace of God's grace is not with us, if we stumble.

No, I don't believe that's the case. But it does mean I

believe that the grace of God will give us strength to live godly in this

present world. Grace is given to the umble. And in the Adult Sunday

School we had some things about pride and humility. Thought of that grace is

given to the umble James four, verse six. And there's quite a bit

more going on in this chapter. But he giveth more grace, wherefore he

saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Now,

just a couple things that grace is not and not all of these verses

include the word grace. But grace, as has been mentioned, is not

a license to sin. Now, I already read Romans six, verses one

and two, but I'll just repeat that here. What shall we say,

then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer

is strong, it is God forbid. It's not a license to sin.

I believe. Grace is also not a tolerance of sin. And Romans six,

verse twenty three. Again, grace is not mentioned in this in this

verse specifically, this is the wages of sin is death. There's we work

for something, we get something. The wages of sin is death. But

the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So

we have we have wages of sin, and we have the gift of God.

Grace is not a tolerance of sin. And grace is not a one

and done gift. It's not a one time event. And again this is

this is, this is where we started two Peter three, verse eighteen.

But grow in grace. We will not be given the gift of grace.

And now we're just we have it. We're perfect. The rest of our

lives grow, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior,

Jesus Christ. Now we've taken just a small look, a short look

at God's grace. God's grace that's for everyone. It's all in uh it's

it's more than enough for everyone. It's free, it's a gift, and

it gives us power. It gives us it's so much better. I think.

I think this idea that it would just be nice if God's grace covered

me while I'm sinning. It's such a cheat version. It's that the power

to live above that is such a more beautiful version of grace. How should

what should our response be to God's grace? I believe that it should be

complete thanksgiving and a sense of our unworthiness. It's a gift. We don't

deserve it, and yet in Hebrews Hebrews chapter four it says, so we

should have the sense of our worthiness. However, Hebrews four sixteen, let

us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Who's on the throne of

grace God? Right. We don't need a priest to, you know,

run messages to God for us. We don't need to pray to Mary or

to some saint. We can come to the throne of Grace ourselves that we

may obtain mercy forgiveness a sin. We need that mercy, And what's the

grace here for grace to help us in time? Of need. Grace is

that power in time of need. And I believe that we should pass,

we should live in and pass along grace to our brothers and sisters. Claussians

three, verse twelve. Put on therefore, and this does not have the

word grace. But I believe what'll worry these verses put on therefore as the

elect of God, holy and beloved, bows of mercies, kindness, humbleness

of mind, meekness, long suffering, for bearing one another and forgiving one

another. If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you,

so also do ye. And I think this is a beautiful picture of

what it means to live in grace and extend grace. Hebrews twelve, verse

twenty eight. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let

us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Let us let us have grace so we can serve acceptably. And as

we serve God acceptably, we're serving our brothers and sisters on her. Now.

I believe his two sons ago Leland. He was a parable in Matthew

eighteen of not going to read that parable. He had had some good thoughts

on that. But I just want to pull little something from that story of

when the lord in this situation found a servant that owed him money, he

was going to sell the servant, sell his wife, sells children to collect

the money that he would never get otherwise. And the man begged for forgiveness,

for mercy. And not only did he get mercy, he didn't get

sold. I believe he got the gift of grace that was that debt was

forgiven. He was given a gift that he did not deserve. And he

walked out and found a man that owed him money, and that man responded

in the same way. He had just give me some time and I'll work

this thing off, and he had him thrown into jail. He did not

extend mercy or grace in this case. He didn't say, okay, I'll

let you work it off or and then he didn't forgive the debt. It

was justice, that's all. The lord in this case in this story came

after he heard about it, came back and rescinded the grace he had offered,

that gift he had offered, And I think it's just worth thinking about

that. The last verse in Matthew eighteen tells us says, so likewise,

shall my heavenly Father do also unto you? And this is in the context

of forgiving, if you do not forgive each other. But I just thought

that was a I thought about it in the context of this because I was

thinking about that when when when Leland shared it the other Sunday. So I

believe as we learn to humbly this is this is God gives grace to the

umble humbly accept the gift. And that's the only thing about a gift.

We have to accept it if we're going to have it. As we humbly

accept the gift of grace from God for what it is, not what we

think it should be, or that we have dreamed up in our mind that

it would be better, for what it truly is in the Bible, live

in grace, with the power to live above the bond, to just sin

and pass that grace along to those around us. I believe we will continue

to grow in grace. As Peter said shortly before his death, I think

he saw this is something we grow in. We grow all our lives.

He was an older man at this time. He knew his life was about

over. His encouragement was his last encouragement was grow in grace. So like

to close by reading the familiar benediction I referred to earlier at the end of

Jude, and again especially verses twenty four and twenty five. And to me

verse twenty four is full of the grace of God. Now unto him that

is able to keep you from falling. There's that power of grace, and

to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.

To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion

and power, both now and forever. Amen. Mm hmm.