Means of Grace Intro
Means of Grace • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction: 1 Minute
· Greeting: Welcome to Made New, I am [Name, Title, Church], I am [Name, Title, Church] and I am [Name, Title, Church]. We are three local pastors striving to teach you theology and help you apply it to your life.
· State Subject: Means of Grace
· Transition:
The Doctrine Defined with Clarity: 5 Minutes
Definition: Fallen man receives all the blessings of salvation out of the eternal fountain of the grace of God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ and through the operation of the Holy Spirit.
The term “means of grace” is not found in the Bible but is nevertheless a proper designation of the means that are indicated in the Bible. At the same time the term is not very definite and may have a far more comprehensive meaning than it ordinarily has in theology. The Church may be represented as the great means of grace which Christ, working through the Holy Spirit, uses for the gathering of the elect, the edification of the saints, and the building up of His spiritual body.
The whole providential guidance of the saints, through prosperity and adversity, often becomes a means by which the Holy Spirit leads the elect to Christ or to an ever-closer communion with Him.
The Church is not a means of grace alongside of the Word and the sacraments, because her power in promoting the work of the grace of God consists only in the administration of these. She is not instrumental in communicating grace, except by means of the Word and of the sacraments.
Strictly speaking, only the Word and the sacraments can be regarded as means of grace, that is, as objective channels which Christ has instituted in the Church, and to which He ordinarily binds Himself in the communication of His grace. Of course, these may never be dissociated from Christ, nor from the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, nor from the Church which is the appointed organ for the distribution of the blessings of divine grace. They are in themselves quite ineffective and are productive of spiritual results only through the efficacious operation of the Holy Spirit.
Two Historical Views
· Catholic View
While the Roman Catholics regarded even relics and images as means of grace, they singled out in particular the Word and the sacraments.
In the system that was gradually developed the Church of Rome recognizes a means that is even superior to the sacraments. The Church itself is regarded as the primary means of grace. In it Christ continues His divine-human life on earth, performs His prophetic, priestly, and kingly work, and through it He communicates the fulness of His grace and truth. This grace serves especially to raise man from the natural to the supernatural order.
· Reformed View
They deny that the means of grace can of themselves confer grace, as if they were endued with a magical power to produce holiness. God and God only is the efficient cause of salvation. And in the distribution and communication of His grace He is not absolutely bound to the divinely appointed means through which He ordinarily works but uses them to serve His gracious purposes according to His own free will.
God has appointed them as the ordinary means through which He works His grace in the hearts of sinners, and their willful neglect can only result in spiritual loss.
The Doctrine Demonstrated in Scripture: 11 minutes
– “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers” (ESV).
Paul says something quite unusual. By doing so you save both yourself and your hearers. What would you do, if someone came up to you and said, ‘you can save yourself?’ What if they told you that they read that from the Bible, how would you respond?
It is quite simple, really. All that Paul is saying is that God uses means to accomplish his purposes. Therefore, God still maintains his glory even though he uses human instruments to carry out his plans.
So, then, what Paul is saying is that if Timothy is committed to godliness and is committed to good doctrine and is teaching it; it is this teaching and preaching which will serve as the means that God uses to convert the people at Ephesus. Thus, if Timothy does this, he gives evidence that he himself is really saved.
Calvin writes, “Nor ought they to think it strange that Paul ascribes to Timothy the work of saving the Church; for, certainly, all that is gained to God is saved, and it is by the preaching of the gospel that we are gathered to Christ. And as the unfaithfulness or carelessness of the pastor is ruinous to the Church, so the cause of salvation is justly ascribed to his faithfulness and diligence. True, it is God alone that saves; and not even the smallest portion of his glory can lawfully be bestowed on men. But God parts with no portion of his glory when he employs the agency of men for bestowing salvation.”
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Commercial/Coffee Break: 1 Minute
Doctrine Defended against Objections: 5 Minutes
Some may see the ordinary means of grace as an insult to God’s power to effect sanctification. ?????? (NOT SURE WHAT OBJECTIONS THERE ARE)
Yet, Jesus says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” says that everything we need for godliness has been provided for us. Thus, God uses ordinary means to accomplish his purposes in the life of the church.
Doctrine Devoted in Life: 11 Minutes
Proper and Improper use of ordinary means.
God wants us to be sure of Him, come to Him, and draw strength from Him so that we can live fully for Him. But He does not give Himself to us in any way we might devise. He has made Himself knowable and accessible in specific ways of His own wise choosing.
He is not bound by ordinary means. His chosen means are not intended to restrict His availability, but the opposite. His chosen means identify where He has concentrated His availability, like a gushing fountain of mercy for sinners who are so desperate that they are finally coming to Christ on His terms.
The people of God in the Old Testament corrupted their worship. They treated His means as their mechanics, as if God’s grace could “work” in an automatic way, like putting a coin in a gumball machine. Isaiah, for example, denounced the worship of God’s people, though their form of worship adhered to the book of Leviticus and their participation in it was full to the extent of being lavish. But God said through Isaiah, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood” ().
The people of God in the New Testament also misused the means of grace. Members of the church in Corinth were receiving the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner” (), that is, in a divisive and arrogant manner, which is opposite to the dying love of Jesus proclaimed in that very sacrament. Their selfish abuse of His sacred gift turned it into its opposite, namely, a means of judgment.
The striking thing about the early church here is how simple their pattern of life was, and yet how compelling it was. How do we account for that? To use the language of Jonathan Edwards, these early Christians were laying themselves “in the way of allurement,” that is, they were joyfully placing themselves in the path of Christ’s promised power. No wonder the early church flourished.
Conclusion: 1 Minute
· Repeat definition:
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