[Steve Myers] Well, here we are. We were talking about our Sabbath instruction recognition coming up, we're at the end of another school year. We saw our ABC video. Class is over with. Another little elementary school that's right near our subdivision is about to be done. Class is going to be out for the summer. We're just at that time of the year, aren't we? And thinking back of the days when I used to be in school, do you remember what that was like? If it wasn't as long ago for you as it was for me some things you think back on “Wow, that was such a great class.” Others like “Oh, glad I never have to do that. I'm glad that's not a requirement to be a minister.” Chemistry, well, I'm glad that wasn't a requirement. Used to give my chemistry teacher a hard time because I was terrible at chemistry and she knew it, but she was really nice. And we always get kind of fun together even though my grades didn't reflect, you know, my love for chemistry. I used to kid her with a joke or something, you know, as often as I could. And the best one I think I told her one time was that I asked her, "What do you do with a sick chemist? What do you do with a sick chemist? Well, if you can't helium, and you can't curium, then you might as well barium.” F, that was my grade.

And somebody said to me, "I think you need a catalyst because your jokes don't get any reaction." Oh, boy. Now, if you think about that in terms of our spiritual chemistry lesson when it comes to us spiritually. Do you know what the catalyst is? Grace is the catalyst. A catalyst is something that stimulates a reaction. It's an incentive, something that spurs us on or inspires us. And when you consider the whole aspect of grace, how would you define grace? It is a multi-faceted concept that the Bible has so much to say about. If you were to define grace, maybe you would come up with the concept that it's a free gift. It's a free gift or maybe unmerited pardon because we don't deserve a pardon. But we know passages like Romans 5:14, talk about the free gift that we're given and that this grace of God is given to us through Jesus Christ because we have a Savior. And so God favors us. He blesses us, He gives us the free gift, ultimately the free gift of eternal life. And when we begin to think about grace, sometimes we don't even recognize how many times it's mentioned in the New Testament. Do you know how many times that word shows up throughout the New Testament?

Now, depending on the translation you look at, you could find it 155 times just in the New Testament. In fact, the apostle Paul alone, use the word over 100 times, especially in the book of Romans, and Corinthians, and Ephesians. And as we think about grace, the free gift or unmerited pardon is certainly not the only definition. We don't want to get locked into that. Because there's so much more to the concept of grace. Because when you think about it, grace is at the very heart of salvation. It's at the heart of salvation because we have been given ultimately the gift of eternal life. And that's what salvation is all about. When we read passages like Ephesians 2:8, it says, "We are saved by grace through faith,” that we have the faith and confidence in the sacrifice of Christ. And that gift that we are given and ultimately is given to us and we are saved. We have eternal life, ultimately. But there's even more to it than that. You can't just stop there. Because as you think about the concept of grace, grace is what helps us to live righteously. How can I put on the character of Christ? How can I live a godly life? What makes that possible? It's grace. Grace makes that possible.

In fact, I will turn to Romans 6:1, so we can pick up on this facet of the concept of grace. So yes, it is a free gift. Yes, it is unmerited pardon. Absolutely. It is at the heart of salvation, and the gift of eternal life that we are ultimately given. But in order to live a godly life, in order to live righteously, there has to be grace. Romans 6, brings this out. Notice the very beginning of chapter 6, verse 1. Paul writes this, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Answer, “Certainly not!” It really means that's ridiculous to think that. There is no way that that could be possible. That's how strong those Greek words that Paul wrote were certainly not. No way. "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

Then he goes on in verse 15, skipping down just a bit. "What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace?" Once again, ridiculous. No way. “Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” So Paul makes this intricate connection between living righteously and obedience, and the essential aspect of grace. Grace, it is such a big concept that it not only includes these facets but also harkens to the fact we have to have God in us. We have to have His influence, His guidance, His presence. And that grace includes that concept of God working in our hearts and in our minds. So, ultimately, that it moves us and it inspires us. You could say it urges us, spurs us on so that we can even serve God. You know, Paul wrote about it in that way as well.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. Notices facet of grace as a motivation for serving God. Now, it's found in an unusual chapter. You would think, well, wait a second, isn't 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection? Yeah, it certainly is, that's the resurrection chapter sometimes it’s known as. But notice the connection Paul makes even to his own life and by extension to all of us and his connection to this aspect of grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10. He says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am." Of course, at this point, he's an apostle of Jesus Christ, serving God, preaching the gospel, and that representative to the world, to the Gentiles. He says, "And His grace toward 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." You see, God showed Paul, by His grace, that he had a duty, a responsibility, an opportunity, a job that he was to do. And by the power of God's Spirit, God showed His grace upon Paul, and it motivated and moved him to serve, and to preach, and to teach.

Now, these are just a couple of little thumbnail sketches of various aspects of grace. And as we think about these different facets, did you notice something missing? Something that… well, when we look at these various aspects of grace, yeah, there is something missing. Is grace being easy on sin? I don't see that in those passages. Is it doing away with God's law? Does grace do away with… well, no, I don't see that. “Certainly not!” Is what Paul said. Well, does grace lead to tolerating sin? Well, that's okay because God loves me and is gracious to me. I don't see that. So how do we get to where we need to be? How do we live a life that is a godly, righteous life? How do we put into practice the things that God would have us do? We do that because grace is the catalyst. And by the power of God's Spirit, we can get where we need to be.

And perhaps you're like me, there was a time I didn't understand this at all. I misunderstood because I felt it's the fear of God that brings repentance. It's a fear of when you understand God, and you fear God, and awe and respect Him, that brings about repentance. Wait a second. No, that is not the whole story. Now, yes, it's true. It's true that the fear of God is something important that we need to understand. We need to awe, and honor, and respect it. No doubt about that. But when you read the Proverbs, Proverbs 9:10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is" what? "The beginning of wisdom.” It's okay to start there, but it goes on and says, "And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." So fear is a start, it's a beginning, but it's not the full motivation to grow, and to change, and repent. Knowing that there are consequences, knowing that there will be results from our wrong thoughts, our actions lead us in a whole different direction. And so when we understand the fear of God, it begins then, to open this door, I believe, to show the grace of God. That by the grace of God, we are led in the right direction, because grace is the catalyst. It is the catalyst, it is the thing that is the incentive, or the stimulus, or the motivation that leads us to do what is right.

In fact, the apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 2. Take a look at Romans 2:4. Notice Paul's emphasis here as it connects with this concept of grace being that stimulant, being that thing like a spiritual chemist causes the reaction, and the motivation, and the inspiration. Notice what Paul says here, Romans 2:4, he says, "Do you despise the riches of His goodness, His forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" Now, if you were to look this up in the Greek we would see that word for goodness, same base word as grace, that the goodness, the grace of God should lead us to repentance. Because grace is the catalyst. It's what's motivating, and leading us, and guiding us in that sense, through the power of God's Spirit. And over, and over, and over again through the Word of God, we're showing examples and illustrations of that very fact. We're shown how grace should lead us to change to a different mindset. It should lead us to the fear of God that we awe and respect Him, and then help us to turn away from sin.

Let's look at an example for a moment. The story of Zacchaeus is an interesting one as we think of it in connection to grace. Now, you may have never thought of it in this way before, but let's look at the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Luke 19, right at the very beginning of that chapter, it tells the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an interesting man because he was not very well-liked. You know why? Well, let's read the story here and we'll probably pick it up pretty quickly. We start chapter 19 in the book of Luke, where Jesus is entered and passed through Jericho. So as He goes on His way, verse 2, it says, "Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was the chief tax collector, and he was rich.” Of course, if we had a Jewish audience here, we say the name of Zacchaeus and tax collector, you probably “Sss” “Boo" “Hiss” thumbs down on a dude like that, right? Here's a guy that's in cahoots with the Romans. He's a bad dude. He's working against the Jewish people because he's taking their money. How could you live and do that? So he's hated, hated by the Jews.

And yet what happens? Christ is coming and he wants to check out what this is all about. He's heard about the commotion, heard about some of these things. So what does he do? He says “he sought to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, because he was of short stature.” So Zacchaeus is kind of a shrimpy guy. So I can kind of identify it was Zacchaeus, right? He's short, can't see over the crowd. He's definitely not like a Ray Clore or a Dan Peabody. He's more like me. I can't see over anybody. So what does he do? He goes and he climbs a tree. Verse 4, "He ran ahead, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him." To see Christ, where he's going to pass that way. So Zacchaeus is interested, “What is this all about?”

Well, here comes Christ, verse 5. "When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and He saw him." He sees Zacchaeus and He said, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house." So what does Zacchaeus do? He gets down. He made haste and came down and received him joyfully. Interesting. As a result of what Christ was going to do, Zacchaeus is happy about this. He wants to meet Christ. He wants to talk to Christ. And as a result, what happens? When we see the people's reaction? Yeah, they don't like this guy. They hate these tax collectors. Verse 7, "When the people saw it, they all complained, saying, ‘He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.’" That's all they could see, that bad side. But notice the result, verse 8, “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor.’"

If you read that in the original context, "I will give." It's what he’s saying. "I'm going to change, I will give half of my goods to the poor. And if I've taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I will restore it fourfold." Zacchaeus has a change of heart. You got to change your perspective here. He has come to see his guilt and he's going to change. I'm sure he must have felt a little guilty in the presence of Emmanuel, God with us, and saw himself for what he was. Yeah, I'd say it was a little nervous about his actions. And he comes to this conclusion. And then Christ says in verse 9, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost." So Zacchaeus has this change of mind, a change of perspective, a change of heart, and what was the incentive? What was the stimulus? What was the motivation? Grace, it was grace.

Grace was the catalyst because Christ was willing to eat with this man, to recognize him as a human being not just a guy that was in cahoots with the Romans and a tax collector. Grace was the catalyst in this situation, and that grace led Zacchaeus to a change of mind, change of perspective. I think a powerful lesson. In this lesson we see, grace ultimately reveals God's great love. Because Christ loves Zacchaeus. He loved, not because he was a tax collector, but for the potential that he had. And grace reveals God's love and in Zacchaeus' situation, it certainly did. And that illustrated a character trait of God and of Jesus Christ as well. If you turn back just a couple of passages, if you look at Luke 6, we see this grace revealing God's great love and expounded upon Christ Himself says very clearly about this kind of a scenario when it comes to this aspect of grace. Luke 6:35, Christ says, "Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return.” Well, you know what, that's what God does, doesn't He?

What has God does? God does these very things, “love your enemies, do good, lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” Yeah, that's God. That's His nature. That's who He is. And if we think about that in our life for a moment, what has God given you? How has God poured His grace out on you? How have you been blessed? How many blessings have you received? I mean, can you imagine if you receive the blessings that you deserve? Where would I be if I got what I deserved? Yeah, I'd be dead. Because that's what I deserve it. I deserved death. But God pours out blessing. Why? Why is God graceful? To help us to turn from sin. Grace is the catalyst to help us change our thinking. It should change the way we perceive our own lives, and how we perceive God as well. Like if we go back to Romans 2, again, something interesting here in this section that we read a little bit earlier about the goodness of God, God's grace. Go back to Romans 2:4. Remember, we read this and it asked that question about God's grace and how He has this wonderful forbearance.

Romans 2:4. It says this, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, His grace, His forbearance, longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” There's an expected motivation that we should change. So if God has blessed you, God is poured out His grace upon you. Should we change? What if we haven't turned from our sin? We just slough it off? We just shrug off the kindness of God. We just put it off. Don't take it into account. We take it lightly. We take God's grace lightly. Romans 2 gives a warning. Right after what we just read. Look at verse 5. You take it lightly, he says, “In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” You see, this grace should motivate us to repentance because now is the time that God has shown us His kindness. He has shown us His love. He's been merciful to us. And you better turn to Him. You better change. You’d better not shrug it off. If you just shrug it off and take it lightly, what lies ahead? Judgment, judgment. And so when we consider that very fact, God wants the best for us. He wants us to change. He wants us to grow. He wants us to be like His Son, and He is graceful. Because it's who He is. It's who He is.

I was reminded of this fact, thinking back on an old cartoon. Anyone ever read the old cartoon “Dennis the Menace”? Okay, that shows how old you maybe are. Okay, not everybody that’s old remembers Dennis. Dennis the Menace always in trouble with Mr. Wilson. You know, the guy next door, the man… he was always in trouble with always something going on with Dennis and poor Mr. Wilson. Well, this cartoon Mr. Wilson wasn't around for whatever reason. But the cartoon series is a little box to start it with. Dennis and his buddy, Joey, walking away from Mr. Wilson's house, and they both had hands loaded down with cookies. And they're walking away from the house. And in the next frame, Joey is saying to Dennis the Menace, he says, "Wow, that Mrs. Wilson. Can you believe this? I wonder what we did to get all these cookies." Then you look at the final frame and Dennis is answering Joey and Dennis says, "Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we're nice, it's because she's nice.”

Yeah, that's it. Why does God give us cookies? “Well, not because I was so nice this week and I was a good boy. And, you know, I tried to do well and serve people.” No, He's nice. God is graceful. God is amazing. And when we recognize the fact that every good and perfect gift is from God, we recognize that very fact. Why does that happen? God is good to me because God is good. God is full of grace. And He reveals Himself in that very fact. Grace reveals God's great love. Fantastic lesson. But there's more to the story than just that as well. When we think of the grace of God, especially considering it as this motivation, as this catalyst in our spiritual life, there's an illustration that maybe is unexpected and it's in the calling of the disciples. In fact, in Peter's calling, now remember as Christ is calling the disciples, He calls people from various professions. You remember what Peter, and James, and John, remember what they were doing? They were fishermen, they were fishermen.

In fact, if we turn back to Luke 5, I should have had you hold your place there. Luke 5, right at the very beginning of the chapter tells that story of Simon Peter, and the calling to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Notice this particular story and the connection to grace. Luke 5:1, it says, “So it was, as the multitude pressed Him to hear the word of God,” now that's talking about Christ. There was this multitude following Christ. They’re on top of Him, trying to hear, trying to understand what Christ is talking about. And here He is by it says “the Lake of Gennesaret.” So He's by the Sea of Galilee. And so what does He do? It says, verse 2, Christ “saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. So He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s," Simon Peter, “and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.” And so we see Christ take advantage of this beautiful natural amphitheater because sound reflects off the water so that this great multitude could hear Christ, that sound would permeate this multitude so that everyone would be able to hear.

And so as a result, He preaches, He teaches, and then verse 4, “He had stopped speaking, and He said to Simon, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Now, that confuses people. Verse 5, “Simon answered, said, ‘Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I'll let down the net.’ And when they'd done this,” what happens? I mean, if you can imagine this picture, these guys were out all night, they are exhausted, they are disappointed, they're discouraged. They came back, doesn't even seem like they got a rubber boot and the tin can, nothing. They didn't come back with anything. And you know, they've given up. They'd given up because it says here in verse 2, they “were washing the nets.” They were washing the nets. It's over, the day's done. Fine. “We've got nothing.”

But Jesus says “Cast out your nets” they do and what happens? Verse 6, “they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.” I mean from nothing to wow! Look at this amazing turnaround. Now, why? Why did that happen? It's grace. Grace. Christ was gracious with them and blessed them. Now that's not the important part of the story. Look at Peter's reaction. Verse 8. “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ For he and all who are with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so were also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid.’” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's the beginning. “'But from now on you will catch men.’ So when they brought their boats to the land, they forsook all and followed Him.” Amazing reaction. Peter had a change of heart, change of perspective. Why? Because of the goodness of Jesus Christ. Christ's goodness led Peter, you can say to it repentance. The incentive, the catalyst was grace. Grace led Peter to this change of heart. And in fact, it caused him to look at himself differently. He saw himself for who he was. And so this grace of God reveals sin.

That's lesson number two. Not only does grace reveal God's great love, but the grace of God reveals our sin. Because God's intent by this great haul of fish was not just “Hey, here's some money, you're going to profit for a while from this big haul." That wasn't the point. The point was to get to the heart and mind of Peter, and James and John, God's intent was to expose sin, to reveal sin, to uncover them for who they really were. Because ultimately, true repentance isn't thinking, "Well, hey, I did this nice thing the other day, or I wasn't all bad. I did write them a letter and encouraged them." Know this grace caused Peter to see himself as he was and had to admit he was a sinful man. And grace should lead us that way, should motivate us that way to admit that we are sinners and not to cover it up. Because grace does not paper over sin, doesn't paper over it and hide it.

Because sometimes we have that tendency to think that's what grace does, what God's love, and mercy, and it causes us not to even have to think about those bad things. And sometimes we just get it backward. Because repentance does not bring grace. That's backward. Repentance does not bring grace. Grace is the catalyst, and it should bring repentance. It should bring repentance, should help us to see ourselves as we really are. In fact, as we think about it, Paul gave more than just one warning not only to the Romans, but he also reminded the Corinthians about this very fact as well. Look at 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6 at the very beginning of this chapter. Here we see God inspiring Paul to help us to get it right. Not to have it backward in our thinking, but to get it right. Notice what he says to God's Church in Corinth, certainly to us by extension, talking to the Church here, talking about those who work together, those who are part of the family, the Church of God. 2 Corinthians 6:1, it says, "We then, as workers together with Him," we are a part of the Body, we're working together with Christ. He also then says, "We plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain."

What do you mean, receiving the grace of God in vain? I mean, vanity, vain is useless. You mean, you could take grace uselessly. What is he talking about here? What would you consider this passage is the subject really grace? See, emphasizing God's goodness here or is this more of a warning? You see, God is kind, God is tolerant. God is patient. But why? Because ultimately, God will judge sin. We know that judgment has begun at the house of God on us the Church right now, we know there's a time coming when God will judge the world, and they will face God's holy wrath. That will happen. And God's grace should convict us. And we should be convicted and humbled before Him, as we deeply understand that need, that need for forgiveness. And here we see Paul is not saying, “Oh, don't talk about sin. Don't talk about judgment. Just bask in God's grace.”

That's not what he's saying here. You see, it's the message of grace that helps us to change. And not just talking about nice and fluffy things. You see this is an admonition, this is really like a command. And it's a sober warning about impending judgment. That's what Paul's emphasizing here. And so when we consider the grace of God, we know ultimately, His judgment will be upon those who do evil, who practice those things. In fact, that's how he got into that whole scenario in Romans 2. And so as we think about the grace of God, His kindness is not about the absence of judgment, but instead, it's about the absolute certainty of judgment. We look at it this way. If you were to imagine for a moment, you're driving along on the interstate and God reveals to you, He opens your mind to the fact that three miles down the road, the bridge is out. And cars are speeding along at 70 miles an hour just plummeting over that bridge that is no longer there into this watery mess that has washed out the bridge and they are just being carried away. And you recognize this, God has shown this to you, He's revealed that to you. Every single car's being lost and ends up destroyed.

So what are you going to do about it? I mean, you'd be a fool to continue to drive in that same direction. I mean, you know, the danger ahead. The reality is that's a couple of miles ahead. God's shown this to you. What are you going to do? Well, you’ve got to do something. This is down the road. You've got time. You've got time to turn the car around. You see God revealing that to you, has shown you that you got to stop the car. This is the catalyst to about-face, reverse direction, go the other way before it's too late. Because God has mercifully shown you this. And that is the story of grace, that ultimately, we all deserve to go over that bridge. We deserve God's wrath and His judgment, but He gives us grace. And in a sense, He's holding back this powerful righteous indignation and anger and gives us grace so that we will change and if we don't repent, we reject that opportunity. We reject… what are we rejecting? We're rejecting His kindness. We're rejecting His love, we're rejecting His mercy, we're rejecting His grace.

And if we do that, there's nothing to look forward to, but ultimately going over that bridge to destruction. And you see that as such a far cry from what most of the religious world understands grace to be. It's a far cry from, “Eh, who needs God's law. Oh, we don't want to talk about sin. Oh, we don't want to warn about judgment. You know that laws done away." No, when you really understand, grace is the catalyst to be godly. In fact, there's a beautiful summary scripture back in the book of Isaiah, if you'd like to turn to Isaiah 30, kind of summarizes this whole aspect of God's grace in an interesting way. Isaiah 30:18 is where we'll pick up the story. Isaiah 30:18. Now, here this passage it says, "Therefore the Lord will wait.” What is He waiting for? Of course, this is interesting. A millennial passage, this is the way, walk in it. Pointing to God's patience, His love. It says “wait, that He may be gracious to you; therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him."

Of course, as we read this in our King James or a New King James, maybe not quite as clear as other more contemporary translations may be. If you look at verse 18 once again, we were to read this in the voice translation, here's what it says verse 18, "The Eternal One yearns to give you grace and boundless compassion; that’s why He waits. For the Eternal God is a God of justice. Those inclined toward Him, are waiting for His help. And they will find happiness.” You see, those are the ones that have allowed grace to be that catalyst, to be that stimulant, to be that motivation and encouragement to change." And so we've got to be sure we're resolving not to miss it, to take that grace in vain. Because so many stories in the Bible point to those that missed the boat. They kept on that road and went over that bridge. And time, after time, after time, that story is told. Whether it's the story of Joseph and his brothers, they missed the boat. Whether it's the story of the 12 spies, they were spying out the Promised Land and only Caleb in Joshua got the point. Those spies came back. They came back with an evil report. And yet this was the land of milk and honey. This was the gracious land that God was giving them. They didn't see it.

What happened to Israel? Forty years in the wilderness. What about Adam and Eve? God poured His grace upon them and yet when they were tempted, what happened? And Israel itself, 720 years in the Promised Land. How did God treat them? With mercy and love. How did they respond? With apostasy. Terrible sins, violating God's covenant. We can't be like that, we can't be like a Solomon, the wisest man who couldn't see it. He couldn't see it. God tolerated and blessed him in so many ways, designed to bring Solomon to change, but he didn't grasp it. And they all, in these instances, refused to repent. Ultimately, by failing to see the goodness of God. It doesn't have to be that way with us. It doesn't have to be that way. We can determine to be different. We can stand fast in God's grace, and learn the lessons of grace, that grace reveals God's great love. And the fact that grace reveals our sin as well. And so we can use that inspiration, that incentive, and it should bring about repentance and change. And so let's let the goodness of God motivate us and recognize the fact that grace is the catalyst.