Grace, Grace, Everywhere Grace

Grace, Grace, Everywhere Grace By Rev. Res Spears As I have done many times before from this pulpit, today I want to make an unsurprising confession to you all: I am not an easy person to love. Furthermore, I'm not an easy person to live with. Now, as I said, this will hardly come with the force of revelation to most of you, but I can tell you that there are two people in our midst today - my wife and my mother - who have a better perspective on this matter than anyone else ever has had, short of God Himself. Many of you here have great love and respect for Annette and Miss Lynn, and perhaps at least a part of the reason you hold them in such high regard is that you recognize the deep well of grace it must take for them to put up with me, much less for them to love me as they do. Trust me - I recognize it, too. Now, if I were to stand here and list my shortcomings, I suspect it would take most of our time today - and I'd probably still miss a point or two. But I'll give one example that's fresh in my mind: I'm terrible when it comes to our finances. That's why Annette is in charge of paying our bills, because when it's up to me, it never gets done on time. One of the first things Annette had to do when we got together was to help me figure out how to take care of all my outstanding bills, and we struggled for a long time to get out from under the penalties and interest charges I had racked up during my life as a prodigal bachelor. But that's only half the story in regards to the financial nightmare that I can be. The other half (or maybe more than half) is my prodigality. Now, the word "prodigal" comes from the same root as the word "prodigious," which means "extraordinary in amount, extent, degree or force." A prodigious feat is a marvelous one. If your car uses a prodigious amount of fuel, it's a gas-guzzler. The prodigal son was one who had spent an extraordinary amount of money on his extravagantly immoral lifestyle. I identify with the prodigal son not so much because of the immoral lifestyle but in my ability to burn through a paycheck almost before it has cleared the bank. Saving money has never really been my forté. And so, yesterday, I watched Annette turn a little bit grayer while looking through our most recent credit card bill, and I realized once again how thankful I am to have a wife who chooses not to operate by the law of karma, but instead by the law of grace. Karma might get me murdered in my sleep. Grace gets me a peck on the forehead and a tender and heartfelt "I love you" at bedtime. And as we continue our study on grace this week, I want to be certain that I acknowledge the simple grace of a gracious wife to her prodigal husband. Last week, as we compared grace and karma, we discovered one of the things that grace is not. Grace is not getting what you deserve. Grace is not what comes around goes around. Today, as we take a look at what is often termed "common grace," it's important for us to define what grace IS, and here we'll see that the story I've told you about Annette is helpful to our understanding. Now, many of you have probably heard grace defined as an acrostic: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. And that's a nice definition about God's saving grace, but this idea of common grace is more basic, and it requires us to define grace outside of Jesus Christ, who is, of course, the fullness of God's grace. Biblically, the basic idea of grace is summed up in the word "favor." The first appearance of that word is in the book of Genesis, where Moses writes that "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Now, the Hebrew word that's translated as "favor" there is hen, which, in turn, comes from the Hebrew root hanan, which carries the sense of a superior bending or stooping in kindness to show favor to an inferior. So in the sense of the story I told about Annette and me, it should be clear that she's the superior - she's the one in charge of our finances. And in the choice she made to treat me with mercy and grace, rather than karma, she stooped in kindness to show favor to her inferior, the prodigal husband. Grace is something that flows from the greater to the lesser, from the superior to the inferior. Grace is when the police officer lets the speeder off with a warning. Grace is when the boss overlooks the employee's late arrival to work. Grace is when the cable company gives you an extra week to pay your bill. (Does that ever happen anymore?) In the case of Noah, grace was what God showed when He gave Noah the plans for the ark that would save him and his family from the flood that would destroy life on the earth. But we see the grace of God manifested in at least two other parts of this flood narrative in the Book of Genesis, and I'd like to direct your attention there this morning. We'll be looking at several other passages, as well, but for now, turn to Genesis, chapter 6. We'll pick up in verse 1. Genesis 6:1-3 NASB95 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Now, there is a lot of debate over the meaning of "sons of God" in this passage, but there's strong evidence from other passages of Scripture - notably the one we read in the Book of Job last week - that the reference is to angels, and in this case, to fallen angels who were corrupting the line of humanity. But the main point I want you to notice is what God says in verse 3. He had had enough of the evil that walked the earth. Nevertheless, He chose not to destroy the earth immediately but to give mankind 120 years to turn to Him. We know this isn't a reference to an age limit, because Noah and many of the generations to follow lived for more than 120 years. So God, in His infinite grace, chose to delay His perfect judgment to allow time for people to repent, even though, as we see in verse 5, Genesis 6:5 NASB95 [T]he LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And so, we see in verse 8 that Noah found favor with the Lord, and then we see later in the chapter that God told Noah His plan to bring the flood and how to build the ark that would save Noah and his family. Then, in chapter 7, we read the familiar story of the flood, and in chapter 8, we read about the flood subsiding and about Noah and his family and all the animals finally leaving the ark. (By the way, how did Noah and his family get off the boat? They disembARKed! Please, don't let that be the only thing you remember from this sermon!) Anyway, we read in verse 20 of chapter 8 that Noah's first action was to offer thanksgiving sacrifices to God. And then, verse 21: Genesis 8:21-22 NASB95 The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease." Now, I've taken us to the story of Noah in order to point out this song that God sings here. Even though the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, God covenants never again to destroy the earth in a flood. Genesis 8:22 NASB95 "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease." This, my friends is common grace. God manifests his grace in the seeds that are planted and in the harvest He brings. He demonstrates His grace in the cold and in the heat, in the summer and winter. It is by His grace that we have both day and night, and it is by His grace that time itself continues to tick along. These are benevolent acts of God, who stoops down to show favor upon His creation, upon we who are infinitely inferior to Him and yet made in His image. In fact, this grace extends to ALL His creation. David wrote about this in the 145th psalm, part of which I read at the beginning of today's service. Let me read you a couple of other selections from that Psalm. Psalm 145:8-9 NASB95 The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The LORD is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. What are the works of God? He is the creator of everything, of course, so they are all His works. And His mercies are over them all. This is God's common grace. Psalm 145:15-16 NASB95 The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. It is by God's common grace that we are fed, and yet not just we who have been saved, but all of His creation. Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount, when He told us not to worry about earthly things but to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matthew 6:26-30 NASB95 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! By His grace, God provides food for the birds and causes the lilies to grow so beautifully. And the point Jesus makes here is that if God will do such things for birds and flowers and grass, then will He not also provide what is needed for those who love Him and seek to do His work? Our God is not a disinterested bystander when it comes to His creation. He did not simply set everything in motion and then sit back to see how it all played out. No, our God is active and present within His creation. Our God manifests His common grace in these and so many other ways, because He loves what He created. In fact, it's because of His great love for us that He stooped down in the Person of His unique and eternal Son, Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life and have it abundantly. That doesn't simply mean that Jesus came so we could have full lives here on earth, although that's part of it. What that verse means is that Jesus came so that we could have eternal life - lives in the very presence of God the Father, through the work of His Son and by the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. By God's grace, Jesus, the eternal, holy, sinless, and perfect Son of God, came to live as a man among those who had been created through Him. By God's grace, Jesus showed us the very character of His perfect Father. By God's grace, Jesus offered Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of mankind's sins. By God's grace, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day to show that His sacrifice had been acceptable to God and to show that He has power over death itself. By God's grace, Jesus ascended into heaven to be with the Father so that the Holy Spirit could come. By God's grace, all who believe that Jesus is who He said He is, who repent for their sins, and who accept the gracious gift of His atoning sacrifice will receive this abundant, eternal life. And one day, by God's grace, Jesus will return to take home all the living and dead who have followed Him in faith. That's the story of God's saving grace. That's the full-of-grace message of the gospel. That's the grace that God lavishes upon all who believe in Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord. But, as we have seen, God lavishes His common grace on all mankind, even upon non-believers. Why does He do that? The Apostle Paul, speaking to the people of Lystra, had an answer to that question. Acts 14:16-17 NASB95 "In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." In other words, God allowed the nations of earth to turn from Him and go their pagan ways, but He showed them the common grace of rain and fruitful seasons and food and glad hearts in order to give them a witness to Himself. To the church in Rome - and we'll be studying this letter in more detail in the coming weeks - Paul wrote this: Romans 2:4 NASB95 [D]o you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? God stoops to offer His kindness, His benevolence, to mankind, and He demonstrates His tolerance and His patience to sinners in order to lead us to repentance. God's grace leads us to repentance. His grace triumphs over judgment every time. But grace isn't an easy message for us to hear. In fact, this message caused the people of Lystra to stone Paul almost to the point of death and then drag him out of the city. You see, grace requires us to admit that we are not the top dogs. Remember that grace comes from a superior to an inferior, so by admitting that we need even common grace, we first have to admit that there is a God who is over everything and that our lives are in His hands. When I say that we receive our very food by God's grace, I know that some of you cringe a little. I know this, because I know how it sounds to me. After all, I work hard, and I earn a paycheck, even if I spend it too quickly, and I like to think that I'm in control here. We all think that way to some degree or another. But if there's one thing that the past few months should have taught us, it is that we have control over much less than we like to think we do. And so, we depend on God's grace. We depend on God's grace for the food on our tables, for the clothes on our backs, for the jobs or the government checks that provide the money we buy those things with. We depend on God's grace for the breath that we breathe. We even depend on God's grace for the love of our families, because it is by His grace that we have been taught to love. The Apostle John put it this way: 1 John 4:19 NASB95 We love, because He first loved us. Without the gracious love of God, we would not even know how to love one another. But because of His grace, we can love one another and be gracious to one another, just like my dear wife loves and is gracious to me. And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ - if you have accepted this great and wonderful gift of God's saving grace in addition to the great and wonderful gift of His common grace - then sharing this abounding grace you have within you should be second nature. Back in that psalm that we've referenced a couple of times today, David writes about how this looks. Psalm 145:10-12 NASB95 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O LORD, And Your godly ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power; To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. I've said it many times: We are blessed so that we can bless others. Just as God's common grace is given as a witness to His love and mercy, His saving grace is given so that we who have received it will BE witnesses to His love and mercy, so that we will be witnesses to the glory of the majesty of His Kingdom. God's grace is meant to be shared, and the world is desperate for it. Give thanks to Him and bless Him for it. But don't keep it for yourself. This week, go out and share it with someone. Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 12:47 AM July 26, 2020.