Sermon #18 Series: Who Is God?
Title: The Grace Of God
Text: Romans 5:20-21
Reading:
Subject:
Date: Tuesday Evening - May 22, 1990
Tape #
Introduction:
My subject tonight is The Grace Of God. My text is Romans
5:20-21. “Moreover the law entered that
the offence might abound. But where sin abounded grace did much more abound;
That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1. The source
and fountain of grace is God the Father (Eph.
1:3), who purposed in himself the everlasting salvation of an elect multitude
before the world began, and on behalf of that elect multitude made a covenant
of grace with his Son, ordered in all things and sure.
2.
The mediatorial channel of grace is God the Son (John 1:17). The grace of
God is revealed and given to men only by the mediation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. “The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Certainly, that does not mean that
God did not save men by grace before the incarnation of Christ. He did.
Salvation has always been by grace (Gen. 6:8). And that grace has always been
found and given in Christ (Rom. 3:24-26). But grace and truth were fully
revealed in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. Christ alone always has
been, is now, and shall forever be the solitary channel of grace (Rom. 5:15,
17, 21; 1 Tim. 2:5). Grace does not come through the church. Grace cannot be
conferred by some pretentious, earthly priest, and grace is not given through
the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Grace comes to sinners through
Christ alone.
3.
The only bestower of grace is God the Holy Spirit, who is called “the Spirit of grace” by the prophet
Zechariah (12:10). He is the One who applies the gospel to the hearts of
sinners with saving power. He quickens God’s elect while they are yet
spiritually dead. He conquers the rebel’s will, melts the hard heart, opens the
blind eye, and cleanses the soul. He gives ears to hear, eyes to see, and a
heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
4.
The gospel of God is the message of grace. It is called “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts
20:24). To the self-righteous religionist, it is a stumbling block. To the
learned, philosophical worldling, it is foolishness. Why? Because there is
nothing in the gospel to gratify the pride of man. The gospel of God declares
that man can never be saved, but by the grace of God. It declares that apart
from Christ, the unspeakable gift of God’s grace, there is not salvation and
the state of every human being is desperate, hopeless, and irretrievable. The
gospel addresses men and women as depraved, guilty, condemned, perishing
sinners. It puts us all upon one level. The gospel declares that the purest
moralist is in the same condition as the vilest profligate, that the zealous
religionist is no better off than the most profane infidel. Without Christ,
without grace, all are lost!
The gospel addresses every descendant
of Adam as a fallen, polluted, hell-bent, hell-deserving sinner, utterly
incapable of changing his ruined condition. The grace of God, which I now
preach to you by the gospel, is your only hope. All men, by nature, stand
before God’s holy law as justly condemned felons, awaiting the execution of his
wrath upon us (John 3:18, 36; Rom. 3:19). Our only hope is grace! “Grace is a
provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the axe of justice,
so corrupt that they cannot change their own nature, so averse to God that they
cannot turn to him, so blind that they cannot see him, so deaf that they cannot
hear him, and so dead that he must himself open their graves and lift them into
resurrection” - (George S. Bishop).
Proposition:
Our only hope of salvation and eternal life is the grace of
God freely bestowed upon sinners through Jesus Christ, the sinner’s Substitute.
Divisions:
1. The Character Of Grace.
2. The Works Of Grace.
3. The Illustrations Of Grace.
I. First, I want to show you THE CHARACTER OF GOD’S GRACE as it is revealed in Holy Scripture.
All the religious world talks about
salvation by grace. But few understand the character of God’s grace as it is
revealed in the Word of God. And as soon as grace is defined in biblical terms,
man’s opposition to it comes to surface.
Grace is an attribute of God which,
like his love, is exercised only toward his elect. Nowhere in the Bible do we
read of universal grace, or of grace bestowed upon mankind in general. The
mercy of God is “over all his works” (Psa.
145:9). But the grace of God is upon his elect. The mercy of God is life upon
this earth. The grace of God is eternal life. Mercy is anything short of
eternal wrath. The grace of God is eternal salvation. Grace is the solitary
source from which the goodwill, love, and salvation of God flow to his chosen
people. “It is the eternal and absolute free favor of God, manifested in the
vouchsafement (infallible promise) of spiritual and eternal blessings to the
guilty and unworthy” (Abraham Booth).
Arthur
Pink wrote, “Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favor of God
exercised in bestowing blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for
which no compensation is demanded.” Grace is completely unmerited and unsought.
It is altogether unattracted by us. Grace cannot be bought, earned, or won by
anything in us or done by us. If it could, it would cease to be grace. Grace is
bestowed upon sinners without attraction, without condition, without
qualification. When it first comes, it comes as a matter of pure charity,
unsought, unasked, and undesired.
In Bible terms grace is placed in
direct opposition to works, worthiness, and merit in the creature (Rom. 11:6;
4:4-5; Eph. 2:8-9). Grace and works will not mix. And any attempt by man to mix
the grace of God with the works of man or the will of man is both blasphemy and
a total denial of grace.
If you will search the Scriptures, you
will find that there are four things which always characterize the grace of
God. Whenever men speak contrary to these four things they deny the grace of
God.
A.
The grace of God is eternal (Rom. 8:28-30; 2 Tim. 1:9).
Grace does not originate in time and
cannot be controlled or directed by anything in time. Grace is eternal.
B.
The grace of God is free (Rom. 3:24).
When God declares in his Word that his
grace is free, he is telling us that his grace is -
1. Without Qualification!
2. Without Condition!
3. Without Change!
C.
The grace of God is sovereign (Rom. 5:21).
Grace reigns, everywhere, over all
things. If grace reigns, then it reigns from a throne. And the One who sits
upon the throne is sovereign. The throne of the sovereign God is called “the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). When
the Bible declares that grace is sovereign, it is declaring that God is
gracious to whom he will be gracious (Rom. 9:11-18).
1. Salvation and eternal life is the
gift of God (Rom. 6:23).
a. If it is a gift it cannot be claimed as a right.
b. If it is a gift it cannot be earned.
c. If it is a gift, the Giver is free to bestow it upon whom he will.
2. Nothing so riles man’s hatred of
God as the declaration that grace is free, sovereign, and eternal. This is the
offence of the gospel.
a. Grace is abasing to man’s proud heart, putting all upon one level.
b. Grace gives no recognition to the righteousness of man.
c. Grace makes fallen man to be utterly dependent upon the goodness of
God for salvation.
D.
And the grace of God is distinguishing (I Cor. 4:7).
Grace discriminates men. Grace
segregates men. Grace makes differences between men. Grace chooses some and
passes by others. God has his favorites, whom he has from eternity singled out
from the rest of Adam’s race, to whom he will be gracious.
1. Grace separated Abraham from the rest of his family.
2. Grace separated Jacob and Esau.
3. Grace separated David from his brothers.
The only difference between the
children of God and the children of the devil is grace. Every child of God
knows it and gladly acknowledges, “By the
grace of God I am what I am” (I Cor. 15:10).
II. Let me briefly show you THE
WORKS OF GRACE as they are set forth in the Word of God.
I will not spend much time here. But I
want you to understand that everything involved in the salvation of sinners is
the work of God’s grace. There is nothing required for our salvation that is in
anyway dependent upon, determined by, or conditioned upon man, not the worth of
man, not the works of man, and not the will of man. We are saved by grace alone
(Eph. 1:3-14; 2:1-9).
A.
God’s election is the election of grace (Rom. 11:5-6).
B.
God’s covenant is the covenant of grace (Psa. 89:2-3).
C.
Our adoption into the family of God was by grace (Eph. 1:5-6).
D.
The redemption of our souls by Christ was a marvellous work of God’s grace (Heb.
2:9).
E.
We are justified by grace (Eph. 1:7).
F.
We are forgiven by grace (Eph. 1:7).
G.
Our regeneration and calling is by the grace and power of God the Holy Spirit (Gal.
1:15-16).
H.
Our sanctification is by the grace of God (1 Cor. 1:30).
I.
Our preservation in grace is by grace.
J.
And our resurrection shall be the work of God’s grace (John 5:25-28).
From the gates of hell to the gate of
heavenly glory, we owe our salvation to grace alone. When almighty God has
finished the work, he shall “bring forth
the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it!” (Zech.
4:7).
III. Let me finish my message by showing you some of THE TROPHIES OF GOD’S GRACE.
The glory of the grace of God shines forth most splendrously
when we behold the unworthiness of those whom he has saved by his marvellous
grace (1 Cor. 1:26-31).
Here are four trophies of grace which
will serve to illustrate what I have so feebly tried to preach.
A.
Manasseh, King of Judah (2 Chron. 33:1-13).
Manasseh was a barbaric monster. He
sacrificed his own children to fiery altars of idolatry. He filled Jerusalem
with innocent blood. His sacreligious indecencies perverted the whole nation.He
lead Judah into corruptions unmentionable even among the heathen. Yet, the
grace of God touched his heart, renewed his soul, forgave his sin, and made him
an heir of heavenly glory!
B.
Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9).
A more blood thirsty persecutor of
God’s church the world has never known than Saul. He was a monster of a man,
set upon the destruction of God’s lambs, bent upon the annihilation of
Christianity. His thirst for violence and murder was insatiable. His rancorus
heart was filled with violence. Never did a man live who, in the opinion of
human judgment, was more certainly deserving of eternal damnation. Yet, this
godless, implacable wretch of a man is today seated with Christ upon his
throne, a trophy of the grace of God!
C.
The Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
These people were the most sensual,
profligate people of the ancient Roman world. They were the most vile of the
vilest age in the annals of human history. Yet, through the infinitely tender
mercies of an ever gracious God, a great multitude of them today are robed in
white and crowned with glory.
D.
The Man who now preaches grace to you!
·
I am Gomer!
·
I am Onesimus!
·
I am the
prodigal son!
·
I am a sinner
saved by grace!
1. Grace chose me.
2. Grace redeemed me.
3. Grace preserved me.
4. Grace called me.
5. Grace keeps me.
6. Grace will bring me home.