The Grace of God

Why are you here today? There are many possible answers that we could offer. You might say, well, I'm here because I'm commanded to be here. Or you're here because you want to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Or you're here because you enjoy the fellowship. Now, all of these are good reasons for being here. But what is the most basic reason that you're here? The most basic reason that you're here is because God, who is love, wants to share His very being with you in a family, a God-family relationship. You are here because of God's love and mercy. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You're here because God the Father has called you into His marvelous light, and you have responded to that calling. In short, we could say that we're here because of the grace of God, if we know what grace really is. The Greek word for grace is charis. It's spelled C-H-A-R-I-S, and it is defined as divine favor. Now, divine favor has many aspects to it. Of course, one of the principal aspects that we've emphasized so much in the Church of God through the years is free, unmerited pardon of sin.

Why did God spare Noah? Look, if you would, in Genesis 6 and verse 8. We find in Genesis 6 that the thought, the intent, the heart of man was continually upon evil. God was even sorry within His being that He had created human beings upon the earth because of the condition that they had fallen into, reminiscent of what we see today in just about every facet of the activities around about us.

And we come down to verse 8 in Genesis 6-8, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He found divine favor.

The Hebrew word for grace is spelled C-H-E-N, spelled con, K-H-A-N-E, something like that. And it's the same meaning, divine favor, same as Charis, the Greek word. Why did God call out Abraham? Well, He called out Abraham because of divine favor.

Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldees, which was a modern Iraq area, an area of the Tiger's Euphrates, an area that was given over to paganism. And because of God's grace, He called out Abraham. Please turn to Romans 4. Romans 4, verse 16.

Romans 4, verse 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace. I'll just say this. Faith gives us access to the grace. And a little bit more about that. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the Father of us all. The sermonette sets the stage very well for the sermon today. So Abraham, because of God's divine favor, was called out from Ur of the Chaldees to come into what we call the land of promise, which is referred to in the Bible.

Today it is known as Palestine, and the great conflict that rages there we know somewhat about. Why did God cause lot to be spared from Sodom? If you would now turn to Genesis 19, verse 19. Genesis 19 and verse 19. Genesis 19 and verse 19. Behold now your servant has found grace in your sight, lot, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have showed unto me in saving my life.

He basically picked Lot up by the nape of the neck and set him outside of Sodom, along with Lot and his two daughters. Lot's wife looked back, turned to a pillar of salt, and Lot's two son-in-laws were never really with it to begin with. So you saved my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain unless some evil take me and I die.

So let me flee to this city, which he did. Eventually, I guess, do you know the story how Lot's daughters got him drunk, and as a result of that, Lot fathered two children, became the father progenitor of Moab and Ammon. Why did God choose Jacob and not Esau? Let's go now to Romans 9. Now, in these examples that we're giving up front here about God's grace, the people who are recipients of this grace virtually did nothing, but because of divine favor, God spared Noah.

Now, it says about Noah that Noah was more righteous than any person of his age. That period of time, Abraham, perhaps, I don't know how Abraham, it doesn't say how Abraham came into the knowledge of the true God, but God called him out. He believed God, he responded, he did what he said. Now, in this case here, I don't know what I said, but I want to go to Romans 9 and verse 6. In this case here, Jacob and Esau, still in the womb of their mother, having not done good or evil, God chooses Jacob. In Romans 9 and verse 6, It's not as though the Word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel.

Of course, God is calling out men and women from all kindreds, races, tongues, ethnic groups, and grafting them into the natural olive tree, the Israel of God. So that's what that statement means. They're not all of Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, just because you're descended from Abraham, that does not make you a spiritual child of God.

So not because they're just the seed of Abraham, are they all children? But in Isaac shall your seed be called. Now why would you be called by the seed of Isaac? It's because Isaac was born of faith. Abraham and Sarah, who were passed away the age of childbearing, were given the promises that if they obeyed God, that they would be able to begat and Sarah would bear a child Isaac. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.

So birth doesn't make you a spiritual son or daughter of God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise that this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls.

It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I loved less. Before they were ever born, God said, Esau is going to serve Jacob. What shall I say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Now, God does the way... Why does God do things the way he does things? So he can have mercy on all. Could he have done it another way?

I don't know. But this is the way that he has chosen to do it, and much of it is strictly by grace. Now, as we shall see as we go along, grace has other dimensions to it as well. Why did God choose Israel? Why choose the nation of Israel? Why not choose another nation? Well, my answer to that is that he had to start somewhere, and he started with Israel.

If you would go to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16 describes the state of Israel. When God came upon them, it says it was the time of love, and he spread his garment over them, and they became His. And this description of the way Israel was when God chose them was the condition of a newborn that had not been cleaned up. A newborn that has not been cleaned up is a rather messy site.

In Ezekiel 16, verse 1, Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say thus says the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Your birth and your nativity is of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, your mother a Hittite.

And as for your nativity in the day that you were born, your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you, and you were not salted at all nor swaddled at all. I mean, it was right out of the womb messy. That's the condition that Israel was in. But as I said, God had to start somewhere to work out his plan as he had preordained with the Word, and he started with Israel.

Verse 5, Non I pitted you to do any of these unto you, to have compassion upon you. But you were cut out in the open field to the loathing of your person in the day that you were born. So God took them, he cleaned them up, and he entered into a covenant with them. Verse 8, Now when I passed by you and looked upon you, behold, your time was a time of love.

I spread my garment over you, covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore unto you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine. So it wasn't because of Israel's righteousness that they were any better than any other nation. It was because of God's divine favor that he started with them. Why did God choose Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt?

Remember Moses had fled after he had killed the Egyptian and went out into the desert where he met up with a man named Jethro, eventually married Jethro's daughter and bore children by her. And after 40 years at the age of 80, God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. Let's notice now, Exodus 33. Exodus 33. And of course, Moses was somewhat a reluctant kind of leader in that he was not so anxious to go back because he protested and said, are they going to listen to me?

Evidently, Moses did not speak very well, and God said, well, I'll give you errand to be in a sense of mouthpiece. And all along the way, Moses was like, I can't do this, God, without you. One verse in the Bible says that Moses was meek above all men on the face of the earth, which to me that means, who am I that I should be chosen to do this great work?

In Exodus 33 and verse 12. And Moses said unto the eternal sea, You say unto me, Bring up this people, and you have not yet let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. So Moses found grace in the sight of God. Now, Moses wanted to have a confirmation of this divine favor.

Verse 13, Now therefore I pray you, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight, and consider that this nation is your people. It's like proof to me that you're really going to be with us as we leave this place and go to the land of promise. And he said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said unto him, If your presence go not with me, carry us not up from here. For herein shall it be known here that I and your people have found grace in your sight.

Is it not in that you go with us, so shall we be separated, I and your people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. So Moses said, If you don't go with us, we don't have a chance out there. And so it is today. If we don't have the presence of God with us, we don't have a chance out there in the wilderness. The eternal Son of Moses, I will do this thing also, that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight.

And I know you by name. And he said, I beseech you, show me your glory. So Moses wanted a further proof, and this is how it came to be, that God showed Moses his hind parts. Based on this, show me your grace. Show me the proof thereof. Verse 19, He said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And He said, You cannot see Me, or see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in a cliff of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand while I pass by.

And I will show you My hand, and you shall see My back parts, but My face you shall not see. So Moses and Israel were recipients of God's grace, not because of any great thing that they had done. So now we come down to each one of us, individually and specifically. Why did God call you? Why did God call me? Was it because of our nationality? Was it because of the region in which we live? Was it because of our genetic endowment? Was it because of our ethnic or ethnicity? Was it because of any of those kind of things? Was it because we had these great riches, or we had a great education, or we lived in a fine house, or you could go on and on?

Was it because of any kind of physical material thing that God called you or me? So was it because of works or any other facet of your being? Or was it because of His great grace, as in the case of the grace that He extended to those that I've already mentioned? So the answer, my brethren, is because of God's great grace. That's why He called you, not because of what we have done. Remember, grace is divine favor. But grace is perhaps the most misused and abused gift of God.

Grace is not cheap, as described by the only believed preachers of the day. The grace that frees us from sin and death required the death of the Son of God. Let me say that again. The grace that frees us from sin and death truly brings freedom, required the death of the Son of God.

Therefore, a part of the price that is paid so that we can be recipients of grace is the death of Jesus Christ. The fact could be viewed as somewhat of a paradox. That is, God created humans in His own image to become members of His spiritual family. God created humans in a natural state, in a neutral state. That is, not having sinned. If humans were created in a state of sin, then God would be the author of sin, and God is not the author of sin. But humans were created subject to sin and death. God and the Word knew that humans would sin, and since the wages of sin is death, God and Christ would need a Redeemer to buy them back.

The plan of salvation and the way of redemption was foreordained before the world began. Let's go now to 1 Peter 1 and verse 18. This plan of salvation and redemption is a very ancient plan, and it goes back into the annals of what we would call time. Perhaps better would be back into eternity. I don't know if you can go with what some would say the philosophers would say about going back into eternity. Eternity is is.

No beginning and no end. But at some point, this plan was ordained. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 18, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with a precious blood of Christ, the Lamb, without blemish, without spot, who verily was foreordained. The Greek word is progonosko. Progonosko, from Gnosis knowledge to know beforehand. Pro is before, who was verily foreordained, known beforehand, before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

Verse 23, Being born again, being begotten again, is the correct translation. Gennao has to do with context and who the one bringing the action is, whether it's the father or the mother. Of course, God the Father is in the role of both father and mother in the sense that he begets us. Listen carefully. He begets us with the word of truth, and he brings us to birth.

Whereas in the human realm, the father begets us, the mother brings us to birth. But God the Father begets us, and he brings us to birth. By the same spirit that was in Christ, in us, he'll raise us again. Romans 8-11. Being begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. So God created humans and set in motion the process of procreation. Through male and female coming together, they could have children, and in that sense, we call it reproducing themselves.

You don't literally reproduce yourself, but each kind reproduces after its kind. So lions have lions and tigers, tigers, and so on, and humans have humans. So God created humans and set in motion the process of procreation. Through male and female coming together and having children. In this process, the offspring of those children bear the DNA of their parents. The father and the mother each contributing to what we call the genetic pool or the genome.

The first humans were created beings. Adam and Eve were created beings. But then their offspring resulted from a process of begettle, conception, and birth. God, in His infinite wisdom, designed a plan of redemption and salvation. We've read from 1 Peter 1 that it was before the foundation of the world, this one who would redeem us. He designed a plan of salvation and redemption for reproducing the God-kind through a similar process, begettle, conception, birth. Begettle, conception, and birth. Some today want to quote, skip the conception phase, the fetal stage of being in the womb.

Paul writes in Galatians 4, verse 26, I believe it is, that the church, the mother of us all, Jerusalem above, who is the mother of us all. When we are begotten of the eternal spirit and born through the spirit in the family of God, we become inheritors of God and inheritors of eternity.

Because we are of the same essence. You want to use the human term of the same genome, of the same DNA as God, His very essence. We become partakers of the divine nature. Let's turn to Romans 8, verse 14.

Now, you might say at this point, well, I thought this sermon was about grace. You might say, I already know all of this. This is part of grace. Because of God's grace, there is this great plan of salvation and redemption. Because of God's grace, His divine favor, that because God is love, He wanted to share who He is and what He is with humankind, He gave them such favor that they could have a redeemer.

They could become partakers of His divine nature and inheritors of God. Now, for the most part, most people skip over what we'll read in verse 17 in a minute. Let's start at 14, Romans 8, 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of wayothea, which literally means sonship. Weos is the word for son in Greek. No matter how some try to turn it, we are not adopted. Let me briefly tell you why we're not adopted. Adopted children have the same rights and privileges in the legal sense as those who are born into the family and become members of the family through birth. Adopted children have the same legal right. But adopted children are not out of the loins of their parents. Therefore, it's not out of the same DNA. God does not just adopt us. We have His very divine nature, His very essence, the Holy Spirit. God is Spirit. And we talk about having God's Spirit, His divine nature within us.

So we are, that should be, sonship, the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. He is our Father, the spiritual Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. We're not adopted children. We're His children because we have His essence in us. Just whomever your child is sitting by you, that's your child. They have part of you in them, part of your DNA, and part of the DNA of the mother. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, it's an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Christ has gone through, He gave up His glory, became the begotten Son of God, lived in the flesh, died for our sins, was resurrected a glorious, radiant, life-giving Spirit that now sits at the right hand of the Father. Join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. We're on that same plane. That eternal essence. Such humans were created to subject to sin and death, and knowing that humans would sin, God ordained this great plan of redemption that would cleanse the sinner from all unrighteousness. God will not dwell with sin, so Jesus Christ the righteous is our propitiation for sin.

Notice now Romans 5-6.

God does not dwell with sin, so the sin problem has to be taken care of. Christianity is the only religion that provides for the sin problem. Islam is through works.

Buddhism is through meditation and the various Eastern religions that have the various forms of meditation and the various rituals, hoping that some way they will merge back into the great spiritual essence.

Christianity is personal and individual. It takes care of the sin problem.

And it is because of God's grace that He ordained this great plan.

In Romans 5-6, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet for adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commences His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You see, to be a recipient of this grace required the death of Jesus Christ. It is not cheap. Grace is not cheap.

Verse 8, Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Well, that's verse 9.

But the verse that I really want to focus on is 10. For of when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The slate was wiped clean.

Do we have to do anything? Yes, as we shall see. You must repent of your sins. You must exercise faith in the sacrifice of Christ.

Be baptized, receive the laying on of hands.

So to just believe, as the devils believe in tremble, yet they won't repent, is more toeth than just belief in the abstract sense.

Reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now, having set that stage, let's go to John 1 and note that Jesus Christ is, quote, the Grace Bringer. Jesus Christ is the one who brings the ultimate grace to us. Now, many of those examples that we read in the Old Testament, they are precursors, prerequisites, as it were, leading up and showing us examples of God's grace in His divine favor.

But to have the grace of God extended in the ultimate sense so that we can have the penalty paid for sin and no longer be enemies of God, as we read from Romans 5.10, He has reconciled us. He's made it possible for us to be at one with God. It required the death of Jesus Christ.

And John 1.1, in the beginning, was the Word denoting existence. The Word was with God denoting relationship, and the Word was God's identity. So God and the Word existing in eternity. As Hebrews 7 says, without father, without mother, without beginning or end of days.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything that was made, and Him was life. And that life was the light of men. Verse 12, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.

It's not a physical birth, nor of the will of men, but of God. And of course, you go through the steps, the gattle, conception, birth. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of a Father full of grace and truth.

Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, full of divine favor. He is the living Word of God, so obviously He would be full of truth. John, bear record of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spoke. This is John the Baptist. This particular John, not the author of this Gospel. John, bear witness of Him and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spoke. He that comes after Me is preferred before Me, for He was before Me. And of His fullness says, All we receive and grace for grace, divine favor for divine favor. Jesus Christ came full of grace and made it possible for this ultimate grace, not just to find favor that your physical life might be spared, or you might be delivered from the fiery furnace, or you might be delivered from the lion's den, but that you might be delivered from sin and death, and be partakers of God's ultimate grace. Now notice this, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now did grace exist before then? Of course it did. We've read the examples from Noah to Lot to Abraham to Israel, Moses.

But this ultimate grace whereby you can be delivered from sin and death came through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. So Jesus Christ is the bringer of grace. The whole process of salvation and coming to be a member of God is, and God's divine family is of grace. Say that again. The whole process of salvation and coming to be a member of God's divine family, it is of grace. It is of divine favor. For God wanting to share who He is and what He is with human beings ordained this great plan and made it possible. But to be a recipient of this grace requires action on our part.

Now we go to Ephesians 2.8, which is like the key in the capstone scripture for many of the Protestant ministers who somehow don't seem to be able to quite grasp this. We have had difficulty with this in the Church. I have had interesting discussions with various evangelists through the years on this. But let's view it as objectively as we possibly can from the Word of God. Now we also have to be willing to accept the rules of Greek grammar with regard to this as well. Because the writers of the Bible, just as you follow the rules of English grammar to some degree, we do. Though our grammar is becoming worse and worse, everybody says, I have came and I have ran and I have went.

You know about the little boy. The teacher kept him after school because he continually said, I have went. So she kept him and said, Johnny, you have to write on the board 500 times. I have gone. I have gone 500 times. So he stayed and he wrote it. He did a light ahead and head down and wrote it. Finally looked up. The teacher wasn't there and decided to go home, so he left a note on the board. Dear teacher, I have finished and I have went home.

So, repetitions sometimes is not the best teacher. Please don't say, I have ran, I have came, I have went, and a few of those other things. In Ephesians 2.8, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Now, what does that not of yourselves modify? Does it modify faith or does it modify saved? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

Now, if you hear most of the preachers of the day, they will say that salvation is by grace alone. In a most basic sense, such a claim might be true if you understand the background that I have given about grace, God's great plan of salvation, that it is because of God's grace we have such a plan.

So, in the most basic sense, if you understood all of that, you might say, well, it's grace, and it is because of God's grace we have the plan. If it were not for God's divine favor, there would have been no plan of salvation or grace. If God did not want to share, if he were not loved, love, outgoing, concerned, wanted to share his being with humankind, there would be no such plan.

Now, God and the Word had power to do all kinds of things. They created the spiritual realm. They created the universe. I mean, they had plenty that they could occupy themselves with and enjoy the splendor and the company of spirit beings, but they wanted more. They wanted to share who they are with what we would call sons and daughters, children.

That's what the Bible calls them. Sons and daughters, children of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If it were not for God's love, divine favor, human beings would not have been created in the first place. And if it were not for God's divine favor, there would be no plan of redemption. So that is grace as it were in action.

So because of God's grace, we can be saved. But that does not mean that we will be saved automatically or axiomatically as a result of God's grace. So we note here in Ephesians that it says that by grace are you saved through faith. So faith plays a role in it. For by grace are you saved through faith. Now, if you would go...we're coming back here to Ephesians, so if you want to mark it. We want to go now to Romans 5 again, the first part of the chapter, Romans 5.

In Romans 5, verse 1, Therefore, being justified by faith, remember the sermonette, the just shall live by faith. Remember Hebrews 11.6, that faith is the springboard to all things spiritual. And I'll quote it. Hebrews 11.6, Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because those who would come to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So we're going to read this verse 1, but then verse 2, we may not have thought of it in that way.

Verse 1 again, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom that is Christ. Also, we have access by faith into this grace. So the beginning point is to believe that God exists. His word is true, just like here in the sermonette, and that you believe Him and do what He says.

Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein you stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So the exercise of faith is a crucial component of the salvation process. In recent years, the Catholics and the Protestants, it was mainly led by the Lutherans.

As a result, the Protestant Reformation began in Germany. It was led by a man named Martin Luther, who nailed his theses on the church at Wittenberg somewhere in, I think, 1490-something. It highlighted so many of the heresies and the false teachings of the Catholic Church. And as a result of Luther, a great branch of Protestantism came to be called Lutheranism, the Lutheran Church. The Lutherans were very powerful, and probably still the most powerful Protestant Church in Germany.

So the Catholics and the Protestants got together a few years ago and signed a concordant in which they agreed, just a universal concordant that we all believe. And that is, they said, by faith alone. In other words, they're saying that salvation is by faith alone. Now, if you understood all of the dimensions of faith, perhaps you could say that. But they don't, because Luther called the book of James an epistle of straw, and even removed it from his version of the Bible, I guess you would say.

So they are saying that you don't have to obey. They would call it works, but obedience, the way they would say it is a work. So if one really understood all the dimensions of faith, you might say that. But for most of the Christian professing world, their definition of faith is simply believe that Jesus died for your sins, which is an act of grace, and you'll be saved. But as we have already noted, faith without works is dead.

Faith is a gift of God and is also a fruit of the Spirit. So it's like a reciprocal. That is, that God convicts you of His truth through His Word and Spirit, and He lays a weight on your mind that this is true, and it's up to you to believe it and then to act on it, to do something with it.

God doesn't make the decision for you. He convicts you of the truth, and then your positive response to it that you begin to repent. You begin to obey, to do the things that are pleasing in the sight of God. And then He adds to your faith, and you produce fruit, the fruit of faith. You believe in God and doing what He says. But God does not just axiomatically implant into your being the faith to be saved. Now let me say that again.

God does not axiomatically implant into your being the faith to be saved. If He did, then it would have to be universal salvation because if He didn't do it for everyone, then He would be a respecter of persons. And if God is the one who gives you everything in the faith sense, then where would be responsibility, and how could you ever fall away?

Remember, the devils believe and tremble. As I mentioned earlier, even some in the Church of God, and I've discussed this with various ministers, some of what we might used to call leading ministers, at one point argued that this that not of yourselves modified faith. That not of yourselves modifies salvation saved. It is the gift of God. So the phrase that not of yourselves has two possible antecedents, either salvation or faith.

Most people assume that the phrase not of yourselves refers to faith rather than to salvation. In Greek, as in English, you have to follow the rules of grammar. And the pronoun has to agree with the antecedent and gender.

In the original text, the word faith is feminine. Therefore, it cannot be the antecedent of the pronoun that, which is neuter. Since faith is feminine, it cannot possibly be the antecedent of the phrase, and that not of yourselves. Thus, the phrase not of yourselves refers to, by grace, are you saved. That is, through salvation.

That not of yourselves refers to being saved by grace. But it is through faith, and faith plays a role, and you play a role in faith.

If God axiomatically gave everyone the faith to be saved, then none would be lost. And if He gave some the faith to be saved and give it to everybody, then He'd be a respecter of persons, as we've already noted.

So faith requires action on our part. Note what the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2.

Acts 2, verse 38.

Then Peter said unto them, repent! That's action on our part. Jesus Christ does not repent for us.

Just because of the grace in which God has offered the plan of salvation through the sacrifice of Christ, remember grace and truth came through Christ.

And as we have noted so many times in the Church through the years, that grace, a dimension of grace is free, unmerited pardon of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.

So apart from Jesus Christ, sins cannot be forgiven. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ paid the price for us. So after Peter gave his inspired sermon, they said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter said, repent!

Requires action on our part and be baptized. Now, inherent within this would have to be faith in Jesus Christ for their mission of sins. That is a part of God's hand in glove with repentance, as the basic doctrines of Hebrew 6 brings out. Remember those seven great doctrines of Hebrew 6? Repentance from dead works, faith in God, the doctrine of baptism is laying on of hands, resurrection and judgment. I will go on and say therefore leaving these behind going on to perfection. So Peter said unto them, repent, be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for a mission of sins.

And you shall receive, what is it dependent upon? You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift. That is the Holy Spirit. But it has conditions. We could say that Acts 2.38 is the great summary statement of the salvation process. The gift of God is dependent upon repentance. Otherwise, Christ would be the minister of sin. Oh, just go ahead and sin and believe Christ died for your sins. And that's all there is to it.

Now there's Paul gives an answer to this. Listen, notice in Galatians 2, hang with it all the way to the end. Galatians 2. Some cases it might be redundant. Some cases it might be repetitive. But hopefully we won't be like the little boy and have went home. But let's go in Galatians 2.16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, perfect obedience does not equal forgiveness, but it is a step in the repentance process.

But by faith, and we've had a debate, the correct translation is in Jesus Christ. And the New King James correctly translates it in Jesus Christ. Once again, if Jesus Christ were the one giving the faith, and it was his faith, then none could be lost. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Perfect obedience won't get you there. The sacrifice of bulls and goats and the blood of bulls and goats will not get you there, but the blood of Christ. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we find ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin, God forbid.

So you have to repent as a part of it. We receive grace, divine favor through faith. Grace stems from God's love. Love is outgoing concern, and it is of non-effect when not shared. You just keep it within yourself. So God and Christ wanted the Word, wanted to share this love, who they are and what they are. Because God desires to share His being in a family structure, He favored or He extended grace to humankind by ordaining His great plan of salvation. So we can correctly state, in one sense, we're saved by grace, but that statement assumes that a person understands the conditions of receiving grace.

We have explained those conditions for receiving grace. In universal sense, the plan of salvation is a product of God's grace, divine favor. But we must not get the cart before the horse. God's motive for creating humans stems from love, His desire to share His being in a family structure. God's divine favor also stems from that love. God knew that humans would sin and need a Redeemer to buy them back from sin and death.

So He and the Word ordained this great plan of salvation, that is, of grace. So based on what you have heard and seen up to this point today, how would you define grace? What would be like in layman's terms of faith, believe God, do what He says, define grace? Well, in the layman's term, I would say that grace is God's active love, care, and concern for His creation.

It is divine favor, God's divine favor. It has many facets and dimensions. God's grace pervades the whole universe. By His power, He upholds the whole universe. God clothes the lilies of the field, not even a sparrow falls to the ground unless He's aware of it. He created the angels to serve as ministering servants to the heirs of salvation. This is part of His grace, His divine favor, His continual awareness. He has promised never to leave us or to forsake us.

He's always there. God has not dealt with us according to our iniquities. Let's read that scripture, Psalm 130. This can be a very comforting scripture, not dealt with us according to our iniquities. One sin, one punishment, as some might tend to believe. Of course, one sin, one repentance, and walking in a reconciled position.

God does not just sit up there and watch the signs of Me. Ha ha! So He just did that. He just wail. He goes around the next curve in the pothole for Him.

Pothole figuratively. In Psalm 130, verse 1, Out of the depths of a cried unto you, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. And you, Lord, if you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. So God does not just mark iniquities. Once again in Psalm 103, verse 8. See, all of this is part of God's grace because of His divine favor.

In a sense, the argument about law and grace is a foolish one. Not in a sense. It is foolish. Because God's law defines His character and His being of how we love Him, how we love our neighbor, and how we should function in the world. Even the giving of the law is an act of grace. It's not one or the other. Because look at the state of the world today in which they have denied God's immutable spiritual law and chosen for themselves to continue to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What hath it wrought? Listen to the morning news every morning on the local station in Houston. The murders, the robberies, the burglaries, the on and on you go. In Psalm 103, verse 8, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not chide, neither will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He talks about removing our sins as far as the east is from the west. Even when we're striving to do our very best, sometimes we still fall short of God's glory.

There are many times in life that you will face situations that seem impossible. And it won't be just a matter of, if I obey this, then X, Y, or Z will happen. Though we need at times God's grace, His divine favor, His intervention, we need at times a supernatural way of escape that is not immediately apparent. And of course, we have this promise, let's notice this in 1 Corinthians 10.13. So oftentimes we may find ourselves, as they say, with our backs against the wall, just as we heard in the sermon that read from Exodus 14 where the Israelites were pinned in, Red Sea in front of them, the mountains on either side, and Pharaoh's host behind them, because of God's grace, His divine favor. All they had to do was be still, wait, trust, and the deliverance of God. In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13, You grow in grace and favor with God by doing those things that are pleasing in His sight. The three Hebrew children would not bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. Daniel refused to pray to any other God but the God of heaven. So as His custom, He went up His place, His house, faced toward Jerusalem, stretched out His hands, prayed three times a day, cast into the lion's den. But both the Hebrew children and Daniel were delivered. So when we get a little glimpse of the grace of God, we should fall on our faces and praise God. As a hymn goes, all that man would praise the eternal for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men. So now let's close with words of exhortation from the Apostle Paul in which he uses the word grace, and in most of these verses, love and grace, and in some cases, love, grace, and faith. If I were to put it in order, it would be somewhat like this. Because of God's love, the greatest motivating force in the universe, because God so loved the world, so because of God's love, He ordained His plan. And then, because God convicts us through His word and His Spirit, we have an opportunity to exercise faith, and this faith gives us access to His grace. So let's close with these verses. We'll turn to them rather quickly, hopefully. 2 Corinthians 13-14. I'll be turning as well. I don't have them. I do have them written down, but I'm going to turn to each one of them with you.

Let's turn to each one of these. 2 Corinthians 13-14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you always. That was Paul's final closing and disapistle to the Corinthians. In Ephesians 6-24. Ephesians 6 and verse 24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. So with these verses you get some sense of what is required to be a recipient of God's grace and also how important that it is. If you just do you a word search of the word grace and read all the verses. In Titus 3.15. Timothy, Titus. In Titus 3 and verse 15. All that are with me salute you, greet them with love in the faith. Grace be with you all. Love, faith, and grace. God's great handmaidens of salvation. In 2 John 1 and verse 3. 2 John 1 and verse 3. 2 John 1 and verse 3. Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father, from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. So why are we here today? Let's answer this with the words of the Apostle Paul, our final Scripture of the day, 1 Corinthians 15.10. Paul comes close to closing this epistle. Of course, you've got chapter 16 to go, but in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10. I hope I haven't mistranslated this note. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. May the grace of God be with all of us, all of you, world without end.