AMAZING GRACE

AMAZING GRACE

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 6.

The following story appeared in the Boston Globe in June of 1990:
Accompanied by her fiancé, a woman went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the meal for their wedding reception. The two of them pored over the menu, made selections of china and silver, and pointed to pictures of the flower arrangements they liked. They both had expensive taste, and the bill came to thirteen thousand dollars. After leaving a check for half that amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of wedding announcements.

The day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet. “I’m just not sure,” he said. “It’s a big commitment. Let’s think about this a little longer.” When his angry fiancée returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet, the Events Manager could not have been more understanding. “The same thing happened to me, Honey,” she said, and told the story of her own broken engagement. But about the refund, she had bad news. “The contract is binding. You’re only entitled to thirteen hundred dollars back. You have two options: to forfeit the rest of the down payment, or go ahead with the banquet. I’m sorry. Really, I am.”

It seemed crazy, but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead with the party- not a wedding banquet, mind you, but a big blowout. Ten years before, this same woman had been living in a homeless shelter. She had got back on her feet, found a good job, and set aside a sizable nest egg. Now she had the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of Boston to a night on the town.

And so it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a party such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken – “in honor of the groom” she said – and sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d’oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to big-band melodies late into the night.”

That is a story that describes grace: The undeserving receiving favor. Jesus told a story just like that in the book of Matthew. I want to focus our attention this morning on this issue of Grace. Not only is it a part of the name of this church, but it is a major part of our purpose as a church, a local gathering of God’s people. Our purpose statement comes from II Peter 3:18.
Will you please quote this verse with me?

II Peter 3:18- “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Here is the question at hand: How can we grow in grace? If this is what we are to be doing, if this is a part of our main purpose as a church, then we had better take time to consider it, define it, and live it – don’t you think? A few years ago, I was visiting Fellowship Bible Church in Dallas, Texas. While there, I picked up some material that listed ways in which people can live under the grace of God. The ten ways to grow in grace, which I want to share with you this morning, has been adapted from that list.

The grace we are speaking of today can be traced to a word used to describe joy, kindness or hope. Trace the roots of “grace” or charis in Greek, and you will find a verb that means “I rejoice, I am glad.” But, most of all, when we speak of the term grace in the Bible, we are referring to that undeserved favor given by God, most notably demonstrated in the free gift of salvation. And then, because of that grace given to us, we are asked to respond with grace toward others and actually grow in it.

In its most simple form, a definition of grace is this: To give or receive something that was not earned or deserved. To distinguish it from mercy, again, on a the most simplistic level, is to say that while grace offers something not deserved, mercy refrains from giving the punishment that is deserved.

Gordan MacDonald said: “The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church”, “You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.”
So, then, we must consider how to we obey God and GROW IN GRACE:
How to grow in Grace:

1. Serve God for who He is and what He has done, not because you want to gain his acceptance through good works.

Psalm 100:2,3 – “Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his…”

Why do we praise God here together? Why do we serve Him with our lives? If we are growing in grace, it will be because of who He is and what He has done. The other alternative is to serve Him because we believe that will help us be accepted by God. But, the greatest truth of grace reminds us that this cannot be our motive: Please read the words that are bold and underlined.

Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

The reason we have salvation is because we have accepted by faith this gift from God. We could not do enough good works through service to earn acceptance. It is by grace: underserved favor.

2. Live for God out of love and thankfulness, rather than guilt and duty.

I love the illustration John Piper gives in his book: Desiring God. I will paraphrase it. He gives this scenario: He walks up to the door of his home and rings the doorbell. His wife comes to the door and wonders why he rang the doorbell of his own home. From behind his back, he reveals a dozen roses and gives them to her. He then asks if she would go on a date with him that night.

She gets excited, and says oh, they are so beautiful. And a date would be great. Why did you? And then, he responds: Because it was my duty. The Bible says I am to love you and one way to show love is to give roses, so here they are. And I suppose a date is expected when married, and so I am fulfilling my duty by asking you out. You can imagine the response that would bring. Some believers do that with God. Why am I in church? Why do I give? Why do I serve? Because I have to. Because the Bible says I am supposed to. Because it is my duty. And it is void of feeling and love.
But, Piper said, what if I responded this way. I ring the doorbell, she is surprised to see me ring it, and even more surprised when I give her flowers. She is excited about going on a date and then asks: Why did you? He then responds: Because I love you. Because I cannot think of anything else I would rather do or anyone else I would rather be with than you. Now that will bring a different response. That is what a spouse wants, not “I did it because of duty.” That is what God wants. He doesn’t want us to serve Him out of guilt and duty. He wants our service, our giving, our praise, our lives, because it is our thankful response to who He is and what He has done. That is acceptable and pleasing to Him.

Romans 6:13,14 – “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Because we have been brought from death to life, we respond out of gratefulness by giving ourselves to right living. It is a very dangerous thing if we take God’s grace for granted or seek to abuse it. Look at:

Romans 6:1 – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may about? By no means!...”

Please turn over to chapter 14.

Let’s look at this from the other side, from the perspective of one who is given the responsibility of teaching and training others, in particular children. How do we keep from giving our children the idea that it is all about guilt and duty, and yet still give them loving discipline?

Sir Edward C. Burne-Jones, the prominent nineteenth-century English artist, went to tea at the home of his daughter. As a special treat his young granddaughter was allowed to come to the table; she misbehaved, and her mother made her stand in the corner with her face to the wall. Sir Edward did not interfere with his grandchild’s training, but the next morning he arrived at his daughter’s home with his paints and brushes. He went to the wall where the little girl had been forced to stand, and there he painted pictures – a kitten chasing its tail, lambs in a field, goldfish swimming. He decorated the wall on both sides of that corner with paintings for his granddaughter’s delight. If she had to stand in the corner again, at least she would have something to look at.”

The punishment the girl received was deserved, and grace does not mean that there is no punishment. Grace arrived with the paintings in the corner, so that while the girl might receive punishment deserved, she also received a gift of grace – the paintings to admire that she certainly did not deserve.

I think if we see God’s grace even in the midst of our sin, we can see His love and be thankful for it. We can also offer grace to others, despite their sin. That then leads us live in light of God’s grace, rather than spend all of our time trying to erase our guilt for sin or just fulfill a duty expected of us. That is why grace is tied to joy. That is how joy can be had even though our world and our own hearts are full of corruption.

3. Believe in biblical absolutes, but reject attempts to legislate the Christian life through human rules.

In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace”, Philip Yancey gives this personal testimony: “I grew up in a church that drew sharp lines between “the age of Law” and “the age of Grace.” While ignoring most moral prohibitions from the Old Testament, we had our own pecking order rivaling the Orthodox Jews’. At the top were smoking and drinking (this being the South, however, with its tobacco-dependent economy, some allowances were made for smoking). Movies ranked just below these vices, with many church members refusing even to attend The Sound of Music. Rock music, then in its infancy, was likewise regarded as an abomination, quite possibly demonic in origin.

Other proscriptions – wearing makeup and jewelry, reading the Sunday paper, playing or watching sports on Sunday, mixed swimming (curiously termed “mixed bathing”), skirt length for girls, hair length for boys – were heeded or not heeded depending on a person’s level of spirituality. I grew up with the strong impression that a person became spiritual by attending to these gray-area rules… You gain the church’s , and presumably God’s, approval by following the prescribed pattern.”

What Mr. Yancey experienced is, unfortunately, not uncommon: believers focusing on the externals as though they were still trying to earn something:
Galatians 3:2,3 – “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Here is question for you to consider carefully:
Are you willing to accept someone who has a different opinion on any of the following:
· Going to the movie theater or live theater
· Wearing makeup
· Having cosmetic surgery
· Watching television
· Going to the beach
· Having a quiet time every day
· Going to a restaurant or working in one that sells alcohol
· Wearing certain clothing
· Wearing certain jewelry
· Tattoos
· Listening to certain music
· Dancing
· Holding a certain job
· Wearing your hair in a certain way
· Having a big home and nice possessions
· Drinking certain things
· Eating certain foods

If you evaluate your own heart on these issues of opinion, you may be able to see if you are growing in grace or not. Related to this is:

4. Accept people at their current level of spiritual development and encourage them to grow in an atmosphere of grace.

Daniel Taylor, in his book The Myth of Certainty, talks about those who try to control people’s spirituality levels:
“The great weapon of authoritarianism, secular or religious, is legalism: the manufacturing and manipulation of rules for the purpose of illegitimate control. Perhaps the most damaging of all the perversions of God’s will and Christ’s work, legalism clings to law at the expense of grace, to the letter in place of the spirit.

Legalism is one more expression of the human compulsion for security. If we can vigorously enforce an exhaustive list of dos and don’ts (with an emphasis on external behavior), we not only can control unpredictable human beings but have God’s favor as well…”

That is the tendency of human nature, but it is not in line with God’s grace.
Paul said of himself:

I Corinthians 15:10 – “But by the grace of God I am what I am…”

That could be said about all of us. At whatever stage of our Christian walk, at whatever level of spiritual maturity, we are there by the grace of God at work in our lives. Therefore, it goes to reason that we must accept others wherever they are in their journey as well. Some will be more spiritually mature than you and others will be much less. How you treat those who are at a lower lever says a lot about whether or not you understand God’s grace.

Paul also reminds us that not every believer sees things the same way or chooses to live the same way:

Romans 14:6,7 – “The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.”

In other words: One Christian may choose to not do anything else on Sunday except go to church and rest – and that is o.k. – it is between him and God. Another Christian may choose to go to church, play football, and do laundry on Sunday – and that is o.k. – it is between him and God. Once Christian did not eat meat, back then, that was offered to idols; but another believer knew nothing was wrong with it, gave thanks for it, and did eat. Neither believer sinned, as long as their heart was right before God.

We have to be able to separate what is a biblical mark of maturity and what is simply personal, Christian liberty. In fact, one of the points of Romans 14 is that the person who is truly spiritually mature is the one is knows his liberties and enjoys them. The weaker brother, or less spiritually mature is the one who sets all kinds of limitations. However, both of them can co-exist and must, if they are willing to set aside their own personal preferences for the good of others who are weak.

Please turn back to the book of Matthew, chapter 23. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 856 or 873.

5. Commit to honesty and transparency, which models love and acceptance.

It is important to talk about our weaknesses just as much as we are willing to talk about our commitment to do right. When we are open about our failures, others feel more loved and accepted.

In the mid-1960’s Bill Russell was the center for the world-champion Boston Celtics. He was a great rebounder, and seemed to take charge of the game with relative ease. The team revolved around his presence. In a radio interview, people identified more with this great basketball star because of what he admitted.

The sports reporter asked the all-pro basketball star if he ever got nervous. Russell surprising answered: Before every game, I vomit. Shocked, the sportscaster asked what he did if they played two games the same day. He replied immediately: I vomit twice.

It is refreshing to hear an athlete admit weakness. But, more importantly, grace begins to be understood when believers are willing to admit that they still struggle with temptation and still sin. Once we stop pretending to have it all together, others feel accepted.

How we speak to others reveals our view of grace. The Bible says:
Colossians 4:6 – “Let your conversation be always full of grace…”

Donald Barnhouse, the late pastor and Bible scholar said: “Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace.”

How we treat others in need reveals our view of grace.
During his days as president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of companions were traveling across the country on horseback. They came to a river that had left its banks because of a recent downpour. The swollen river had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to ford the river on horseback, fighting for his life against the rapid currents. Each rider was threatened with the very real possibility of death, which caused a traveler, who was not part of their group, to step aside and watch. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, the stranger asked President Jefferson if he would carry him across the river. The president agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on, and shortly thereafter the two of them mad it safely to the other side. As the stranger slid off the back of the horse onto dry ground, one in the group asked him, Tell me, why did you select the president to ask this favor of? The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him. All I know, he said, is that on some of your faces was written the answer No, and on some of them was the answer Yes. His was a Yes face.”

So, when someone who is not dressed how you would like them to be, not using the words you approve of, not living the way you are living, comes into your life, do they see a no face, filled with disgust and rejection, or do they see a yes face, communicating the kind of love that can only be given from a heart full of grace?

6. Place the emphasis on inner motivations rather than outward behaviors.

This is what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees, struggled with. Jesus said to them:

Matthew 23:25,27 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

What they were doing outwardly was not the problem, it was an issue of the heart, of their inner motivations for why they did what they did.

Please turn to Psalm 69. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 502 or 516.

Benjamin Warfield said, “Grace is free sovereign favor to the ill-deserving.”
We are not to be looking to give grace just when someone behaves the way we desire. We are to be looking at the heart. And when we instruct others, teach others and live our own lives, we can emphasize heart issues over the outward appearance.
Teresa and I have talked about this in rearing our children. We are much more concerned with their spirit and attitude than we are in them doing what is outwardly acceptable to us so they won’t get in trouble. I think God is more interested in that for us as well.

7. Refuse to deny or minimize the pain that comes into your life as a result of your sin or the sins of others. Allow the pain to draw you to God.

Job experienced pain like no other – loss of health, loss of all 10 children through tragic accidents, loss of wealth, loss of friends and his wife’s support. Job was not denying or minimizing the pain. If you have read Job, you know that he was feeling it and admitted how hard it was. And yet, in the midst of it all, he was able to speak these words:

Job 1:21 – “…The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

That allows a person to go toward God even when there is intense pain.
On the other side of the coin could be some of the things we read in the Psalms. David gets in situations of pain where he even wonders where God is and he admits it. For example:

Psalm 69:17,20 – “Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me…Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.”

David sometimes felt that God was absent and yet he allowed his pain and discouragement to take him toward God, not away from Him. Have you noticed that people who struggle tend to go away from God and away from church, the very place where they need to be for prayer and love and encouragement? We must decide, that in the midst of pain, we will go toward others and toward God, for our spiritual good.

It is o.k. to say: Here is how I have sinned and here have been the consequences. But don’t allow that to keep you from going to God in confession and then accepting forgiveness. It is good to tell someone: Here is how you have deeply hurt me (and to be specific about it). But don’t allow that to keep you from offering forgiveness God has given you and going to God for comfort.
8. Learn to forgive others as Jesus did, and point people, who do not know Him, to the God of grace.

In John 8, the religious leaders brought to Jesus an adulterous woman and reminded Him that the law said they should stone her to death. Jesus, instead, said that those without sin should cast the first stone and they all walked away. He gave the gift of forgiveness that she did not deserve – and protection from her executors. Actually, we are all like that adulterous woman. Wait Greg, I have not committed adultery. Yes you have – atleast spiritually. You have been unfaithful to God. And before you were saved, you were a natural person, an enemy of God according to the Bible. He gives you forgiveness even though, like that adulterous woman, you deserved death and Hell. So, based on that forgiveness, you must forgive – yes – even those who don’t deserve it – that’s the point!

Ephesians 4:32 – “…forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Most of us are always dealing with some person who has hurt us, is presently hurting us or will hurt us in the future. And we must constantly decide whether or not we are going to live with a heart of bitterness and unforgiveness, or whether we are going to give it to God and forgive. If you think for just a second, I bet you could think of someone you need to forgive. The only question is: are you willing to? Because, based on God’s forgiveness of you, you have no excuse. It doesn’t matter the nature of their offense against you; and it doesn’t matter how often they have done it; and it doesn’t matter whether they are repentant or not. Forgiveness is a messy, tough, “unfair” proposition. The question is: Will you forgive?

9. Understand the biblical commands as describing the life befitting a Christian already accepted by God, not as laws that bring you more merit with God.

Have you ever heard or used the phrase: “God helps those who help themselves”? It can sound good, even spiritual. Some think its in the Bible. But, the truth of grace would say that phrase is heresy. In fact, it is a grace-killer. The fact is, God helps the helpless, the undeserving, those who don’t measure up, those who fail to achieve His standard.

I think it is natural for us to struggle with this because, even though we know God has saved us, and that we were not able to earn it through works, we tend to think we have to work to keep it and hope to be accepted by God. The truth of the Scripture is that we are already accepted, if we have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. And then, if we are willing to believe the truths about who we are in Christ, then we can see the commands of Scripture as descriptive of who we are not as a means to earn our salvation.

So, let’s review some of the truths in Scripture about who we are in Him, shall we? The phrase will appear on the screen along with one of the Bible verses from which it comes. When it appears, please say it out loud with me.

In Christ (as a headline above):
I am God’s child (John 1:12)
I am Christ’s friend (John 15:15)
I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am united with the Lord and one with Him in spirit (I Corinthians 6:17)
I have been bought with a price – I belong to God (I Corinthians 12:27)
I am a saint (Ephesians 1:1)
I have been adopted as God’s child (Ephesians 1:5)
I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18)
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins (Colossians 1:14)
I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10)

And those are just some of the truths, that if you truly believe them, can turn into living based on who we already are in Christ, not on what we hope to earn.

Shelby Foote, in his 3-volume work The Civil War speaks of something surprising that took place when slavery was abolished. It was on New Year’s Day 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was publicly stated, but it was not until December 18, 1865, that the Constitution made those convictions official. I am quoting now:

“Headlines on newspapers in virtually every state trumpeted the same message: Slavery Legally Abolished. And yet something happened that many would have never expected. The vast majority of the slaves in the South who were legally freed continued to live as slaves. Most of them went right on living as though nothing had happened. Though free, the Blacks lived virtually unchanged lives throughout the Reconstruction Period.”

Isn’t that sad? A war had been fought. A president had been assassinated. An amendment to the Constitution had now been signed into law. And yet, many of the slaves didn’t know they had been freed or chose to remain as slaves. As believers in Christ, we have been freed from bondage to the law; and yet some believers still remained enslaved and try to keep others there as well. That is a tragedy.

10. View your pain, in any form or area of life as a way for God’s power to be shown in your life and for you to grow.

Our perspective must be that of the Apostle Paul’s. Sometimes the pain we experience cannot be easily attributed to my sin or someone’s sin against me. When that type of pain comes, we need to respond to how Paul responds to God here. Paul had some physical pain that God would not take away:

II Corinthians 12:9 – “But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

You probably have pain, physical or otherwise in your life. If you are growing in grace, than you can see it the way Paul saw his. God’s grace is sufficient for you as well. Do you believe that? He wants to show His power through your weakness.

Bill Moyers’ documentary film on the hymn “Amazing Grace” includes a scene filmed in Wembley Stadium in London. Various musical groups, mostly rock bands, had gathered together in celebration of the changes in South Africa, and for some reason the promoters scheduled an opera singer, Jessye Norman, as the closing act. For twelve hours groups like Guns’n’Roses have blasted the crowd through banks of speakers, riling up fans already high on booze and dope. The film cuts back and forth between those scenes of the crowd and a discussion Moyer was having with the singer Jessye Norman about the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

The hymn was written by John Newton, who was once a cruel slave trader. He first called out to God in the midst of a storm that nearly threw him overboard. Newton came to see the truth gradually, continuing to ply his trade even after his conversion. He wrote the song “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” while waiting in an African harbor for a shipment of slaves. Later, thought, he renounced his profession, became a minister, and joined William Wilberforce in the fight against slavery. John Newton never lost sight of the depths from which he had been lifted. He never lost sight of grace. When he wrote “…that saved a wretch like me,” he meant those words with all his heart.

In the film, Jessye Norman tells Bill Moyers that Newton may have borrowed an old tune sung by the slaves themselves, redeeming the song, just as he had been redeemed. Finally, the time comes for her to sing. A single circle of light follows Norman, an African American woman wearing a flowing African dress, as she strolls onstage. No backup band, no musical instruments, just Jessye. The crowd stirs, restless. Few recognize the opera diva. A voice yells for more Guns’n’Roses. Other take up the cry. The scene is getting ugly.

Alone, a capella, Jessye Norman begins to sing, very slowly:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found – Was blind, but now I see.

A remarkable thin happens in Wembley Stadium that night. Seventy thousand raucous fans fall silent before her demonstration of grace. By the time she reaches the third verse, Tis grace has brought me safe this far, And grace will lead me home, several thousand fans are singing along, digging far back in nearly lost memories for words they heard long ago.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, Than when we first begun.

Jessye Norman later confessed she had no idea what power descended on Wembley Stadium that night. The world thirsts for grace. When grace descends, the world falls silent before it.