Growing in Grace

Good afternoon, brethren, on this very wonderful Sabbath afternoon. Beverly and I are just very, very delighted and very excited to be here for this very special weekend and very honored to be asked. Actually, Beverly is the one who is honored to be asked. I'm just coming along with her on this weekend. The music certainly was very inspiring and set the theme already or set the tone for the women's weekend. We do want to thank the Elliots for their hospitality and for letting us stay at their home.

Also, Mario and Katya Siegle, whom we have known for a long time, along with the Elliots, we have really appreciated having this time to be together, to talk, and to fellowship with one another. And I appreciate very much the presentation that John already had about loving and deed. My wife Beverly and I were here four years ago. It was four years and two months ago. And at that time, John Elliott was in Kenya, so we did not have the opportunity to see him, but we were right here in this room and met many of you.

And the people who we meet most are our Minneapolis brethren. I mean, we had a Minneapolis little focus group there in the hallway, and you see the Nettles. A lot of you didn't know what he was doing here. I know I'm going to miss a lot of people, the Shulers. Is that Mr. Wickworth? Is that you? Okay. You look a little bit younger than I expected you to. So anyway, it's... I didn't quite recognize you. Anyway, it's just been so wonderful to see everybody here.

Of course, Mrs. Paisley. And I know I'm going to miss more people here, but it's just very, very good to see all of you here. John had asked me to say a few things about an area that I work in before I give the sermon. And just as he works in East Africa, in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and perhaps a few other places, I have been assigned to work in Eastern Europe. But that area now that I oversee includes, as of about two years ago, Scandinavia.

And we find that it's hard to even call it Scandinavia because it's... that there's a different way to define what Scandinavia is, because the Finns don't consider themselves to be Scandinavians, and the Scandinavians, the others don't consider the Finns to be Scandinavians. Anyway, it's a long-standing war that only Minnesotans would know. But our area actually extends now from Greenland, which is a province of Denmark, to about 20 readers of the good news in Iceland, to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Baltic Republics, which is Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and then all of Eastern Europe.

And it's an area that's really up and coming, although they are facing serious financial issues far more serious than here, because they have risen very fast, and they are falling very fast as well. Some of the economies got overheated and have gotten up in this worldwide spiral to where the United States looks like it's in boom country right now as compared to what's happening in Eastern Europe. The Russian economy has been completely based upon the price of oil, which when it was going up to $140 plus a barrel, was the economy. And now with the economy and budget being set for those figures and oil at $40 a barrel, it has completely upset the economic apple cart in Eastern Europe.

I wanted to tell you a few of the stories about some of our recent individuals who have come into the church, or who are coming into the church, because it is an inspiring story about Estonia, Denmark, Norway. We had a young man, a year and a half ago, who wrote to us and said that he wanted to talk to somebody about the United Church of God. Of course, we have people who write in for the Good News magazine.

You don't know where they're coming from and how serious they are. But we met him as we take our rounds through Scandinavia. Met him at the bus station in Oslo, and he took us to his home, a very young person, and we got to talking to him. And he said, and we asked him, well, how did you find out about us? Well, I typed it in Google. I typed in, where is the true church? And I thought, boy, this is an approach that we just haven't taken yet, you know, as far as evangelism. How easy can it be? So what he did get, though, was an old article by Herbert W.

Armstrong about where is the true church. From there, he followed his path through various groups. And he read material from those groups over a period of about a year and settled in on the United Church of God, which he felt had the most comprehensive material of all. And this last summer, we had a summer gathering, as we called it, in Sweden. In fact, Mr. Noreheim's daughter was there from Stavanger, Norway, she and her husband, that we baptized him.

And it was just a very, very happy moment about how God is working in people. The other three stories are also Internet-based. We had a young man who we met just two months ago. He's a Russian living in Estonia. He went to Google and he typed in, what is the purpose of life?

And once again, he got some of our material along with others. Believe me, we're not the only ones who pop up, you know, it's not that easy.

And he went through this church and that church and everybody else. He said there were many churches, there were a number of churches, he said, that had a very similar type of material. But yours was the most family-sounding. It was the most family-oriented and the most friendly sounding. It didn't shout at you, it didn't force you into anything. It was the most compelling of all. But now he wants to be baptized, and we look forward to baptizing him. A third one is one that just is this past week. It's a woman who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, part of our area. And she wrote to us, in fact, she's written to the German office, she's written to the office in the United Kingdom, and she's written to us.

But here's a letter that was forwarded to me from Germany yesterday because she wrote there, I had called her last week and she couldn't get my last name and lost my contact information, so she contacted Germany. And she writes this. This is one thing that happened to me, that after I finished reading Evolution versus Creation, the booklet, which is written by Mario Siegli, who's the author of that booklet, which is, by the way, our number one piece of literature that we send out in Eastern Europe. People there are very, very interested in that subject. They have come from atheistic communism, most of these countries, and they have never heard anything about God or about a creation.

It goes back to having been totally devoid of any religion. In the Western countries, religion has been around, but in those countries it really hasn't. But that's by far our number one booklet in Eastern Europe. My wife and I did a mailing from Estonia two months ago, actually in late January, and we had a whole stack of those. That was our biggest booklet even this last month that we sent out.

She said, I became a believer in the Creator after 45 years of believing in Evolution. This is the Danish woman. I took it for granted that man came from the ancient ape. I believed that until four years ago when I had a large change of thought. This is handwritten, so it's a little hard to read. The publication convinced me that there is a grand, intelligent designer or Creator God that is responsible for man. Charles Darwin was wrong. The fossil records simply can't be found anywhere for the intermediary species. Many scientists feel that the cell is also too complex to have happened by chance.

It was a huge change that I took, changing my whole thinking for 45 years. The publication, Creation versus Evolution, was so well written that it became obvious that there is a Creator God, not a chance, happenstance. Do you have any other publications that speak of evolution or creationism? Anyway, I'm convinced at any rate. We're very happy. She actually has finished the 12 Lesson Bible Study Course and wants to be baptized.

She's written to Germany, she's written to England, and she's written to us. That's part of our area. We look forward to baptizing her the next chance that we get to meet her. The fourth story is a group of people in Latvia. We got a message one time, kind of a very low-key message, from Robert Schulz. He wrote and said that I have been reading your literature. Could you please identify some individuals that I could come into contact with? He said that we've been reading your material for nearly a year. Well, so he left his contact information, and I called him. And wow, what a story I heard!

He was a Baptist minister who had served a congregation of about 30-some people of the Union Baptist Church. It's a branch of the Baptist Church. The church building there is over 100 years old, and he's the current pastor. And he said that his wife, Alita, had come on to a Messianic Jewish site in Riga, in Latvia, who had a big, obvious link to the United Church of God. And so she clicked on that, and she found a cornucopia of knowledge.

Now, both of them speak excellent English. He speaks outstanding English. In fact, being a pastor is only a thing that he does on one side. His job is with the lumber industry, and before that he was the official craft food distributor head for craft foods in Latvia. So he told me that for an entire year they'd been downloading literature and translating it into Latvian, and he's been preaching from it all year long.

And he said that his whole church now has come to observe the Sabbath, or at least 25 of the 30-plus people in his congregation. And he said that his bishop came by, and he said that, you know, I had a talk with my bishop, you know, and he said that the bishop actually was okay with the Sabbath. He said, there are Seventh-day Baptists, you know, and I understand your position, you know, I understand your outlook on this, so that was okay.

Because I'm concerned about where this is going, you know. That's the last word he had gotten from his bishop.

Anyway, in this past year, now they've gone through the entire cycle of Holy Days, from the Passover to the last great day, from all the festivals of God. We found out, too, that they had stopped keeping Christmas 10 years ago, which was very surprising. Because last year, when Bev and I traveled there, not this last December, but the December before of 07, the way our travels took us, we were really coming to them on Christmas Eve. And Bev says, that's not a good day, you know. What can we do? And they said, oh, no problem, we don't observe it, haven't been for 10 years. So that was no problem at all. But this past year, they've kept the entirety of the days. Last year, they came, the last time we had the feast in Estonia, which was 07, they came to the first day and the last day of the feast. They live only 90 miles away from where our feast site is. But this year, 23 of them are coming to the feast. They're keeping the second tithe. We're going to help them a little bit above that. But the people really have done exceptionally well. And if you noticed in the December issue of the United News, there was an article written by one of their individuals, a lady called Antra, who wrote an article about how they have kept all the holy days, including the Feast of Tabernacles, which they kept locally and the last great day. The pastor and his family went to the feast in Germany and kept it there. But we've been so pleased with the progress there and are looking, wondering again, where this is really leading ourselves. But again, these are three, all four stories are internet-based stories, except for the Scandinavian woman, the Copenhagen woman. I'm not sure how she got into touch with us because she doesn't even have an email address. So that was very, very interesting to us as to how all this has developed. This year, we're going to be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles again in Estonia. We've had a remarkable and outstanding response to it. So in a way, while I'm talking about it, my wife will probably be scared if I say, hey, somebody may want to consider coming. We do have a lot of people who already signed up, but you know, not for sure. But if you're interested, let me know. But we're kind of wanted to hold it to about 95 people or so this year. But we'll be holding it in Tartu, Estonia, for half the Feast, and on the island of Sarama, the largest island in the Baltic Sea. All the Lithuanians, or pardon me, the Latvians, are coming. We're having people from Norway and Sweden and Finland coming as well as our few Estonians. So it should be a very, very exciting Feast. We've had Mrs. Fogelson and Mrs. Paisley come to the Feast of Tabernacles there. It really has been, as they know, it was just a very, very wonderful experience. But even the places we're staying at are better.

And one of the little windfalls of this bad economy is that, of all things, the American dollar has really advanced against the currencies in Western Europe, including the euro, by a factor of 25 percent. And so we have costs there that have, we're 25 percent higher two years ago, you know, are just very, very nominal. We have outstanding rooms at the Spa Hotel for $65 on the island, which is just unheard of for just a very luxurious place. We really call it luxurious because it is really a beautiful place on the island of Sarama. So this may be while it's still there, we don't even want to consider, you know, coming or considering Estonia for the Feast. It's listed in the United News, the current United News. There's a write-up about it, and you can send an email to me there in the United News about the Feast in Estonia.

But today I want to talk to you about a subject that is very near and dear to me, especially as I get older and as I get closer to facing my maker, as all of us are getting older and facing our maker. It is a subject that I believe we can grow in, as we are instructed, that we're to grow in this subject. And I truly feel like over the past years that I've been preaching about it, that I have come to understand more, not everything, but more about a subject that is very, very vitally important to Christians. As Paul said, I want you, in Ephesians chapter 3, he said, I want you to understand the total width, breadth, and depth of Jesus Christ. Not just what you hear first time, but I want to have you understand everything in the depth of what Jesus Christ is. The subject I want to talk to you about is grace, the grace of God. Honestly, it's a subject that I would love to know even more about, but it's one that I've done a great deal of thinking of, and I'm sure you have, too. It's a subject that's vital for our spiritual well-being, but it's been a subject that's been sometimes feared and had its controversy, even in our history of the church. It is feared because some may think that just because we're talking about God's graciousness and goodness to us, that it may lead us to permissiveness, that it may lead us away from doctrinal adherence, from the keeping of the law, from strict adherence, which we feel also is very important to God's law.

Some of this thinking has produced a very limited understanding of the subject of grace. The word itself and the teaching and the doctrine is laced with baggage.

That I feel like if we can get rid of that baggage, understand the depth and the width of what Jesus Christ is, the full dimension of Jesus Christ in it, we will come to a spiritual euphoria, the spiritual happiness that really can't be described, because I can honestly say that I have learned a great deal just in the last three or four years about this subject.

Now, what is your understanding of the word and of the teaching, the concept of grace?

If you were to say it's unmerited pardon from God, you would be absolutely right.

But that's only a very small part of what grace is. If you were to say grace is the forgiveness of sins, you'd be absolutely right. The bell goes off again. You're right. But again, that's only a small part of the understanding of the subject of grace. But this is not all that can be said about that. And for some people, if we're to go around a room, that may be all that they know about grace. That may be all that they can articulate about grace, or about what God is to them, or what God gives them in the form of grace. One thing I found is that the subject in the biblical study of grace is not theological rocket science. It is not complex at all. There's only one word for grace in the Old Testament. There's only one word for grace in the New Testament. And their definitions are quite straightforward. It is really not complex at all.

The subject of grace is not found only in the New Testament. It appears as early as the very first pages of the Bible in Genesis 6. The first place grace is found is not in the New Testament as something that Jesus Christ brought, but it's found numerous times in the Old Testament, the first being in Genesis 6 and verse 8. Genesis 6 and verse 8. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So the subject is introduced back before the flood.

Noah was the object of God's grace. Now, what is the definition of this word?

In Hebrew, the word comes from a very simple word, C-H-E-N, hen, cham. I'm not sure how it's pronounced exactly, which means kindness, favor, even beauty. It means graciousness, being pleasant, and being well favored.

How can we describe God's relationship to Noah or Noah's relationship to God?

It's an application for how we look to being under grace, what God means.

Some examples of this graciousness and having been found in favor with God, we can apply in our personal lives in any number of situations, in very simple situations and very relevant situations.

You know who I want to be found in favor with, probably more than anybody else? Beverly.

You want to be found in favor with your mate. That means to be on their good side. And you know what that means. If you're on their good side, all kinds of wonderful things happen. All kinds of wonderful things happen. All kinds of things are possible. Things happen easily.

And you know that's no different than Noah being found in grace, having found grace with God. Noah was on God's good side. And perhaps that's the simplest way to describe it. But it's a very true and accurate way of depicting what Noah's relationship was with God. Obviously, the world was not on God's good side because he was about to flood it out.

That it rejected God. That it didn't pay attention to him. The world was filled with wickedness, and God had to do a restart on his plan for mankind. But Noah found grace in God's eyes. Was Noah perfect? No. We have examples of imperfection, of weakness.

We also see a great deal of strength in Noah, and we see a faithfulness to God, and a stick to it of working on a project for 100 years, being the object of derision, and a project that really did not bring about mass conversion. But basically, getting his family in the car and taken off, you know, at the very end, in the ark. We want to be found in favor with our employer. And you know that on the job, and you know, we've all had different kinds of bosses, but I've had wonderful bosses. I've had good relationships with bosses where everything worked out so well. Nothing could go wrong. He liked me. I liked him. And our jobs went well. Did I make mistakes? Yes. But did he make mistakes? Yes. But things worked out because I was on his good side. You also know that when you have not been found in favor by your boss, and we've all had them, I've had them myself, where things don't work out. He doesn't like you. And then nothing works out. Even things that you bring to him in a planned way is something that he finds fault with.

And he picks it apart because you're not under grace with him. You're not in his favor.

Something is wrong. But when you are in his favor, the simplest things and the most complex of things happen. And it's under grace that good things happen. What is a friendship? What is a friendship?

Like I have with John Elliott or with Mario Siegle, it's based upon this favor.

Believe me, if John Elliott didn't like me, we probably wouldn't be here, because he would conveniently overlook us. You know, pick somebody else. You know that. People who are in favor, things happen. People who are not in favor are of the out crowd. You know, they're just overlooked. They're passed over. You go on to others. And friendships are based upon a spirit of grace, of graciousness between people, of kindness, of overlooking things.

You know, my friends, they know my faults. I know their faults. But am I ready to bring their faults to their attention? No, because we're friends. We overlook this. We see a broader, bigger picture.

They're under grace. I'm under grace. And we have a good relationship. So simply being under grace means to be on someone's good side, even though they have faults. Dallin, who was just born, those beautiful little pictures, he's under grace by his parents, even though his chief function right now is to fill his diapers and cry. But they love him dearly. They overlook that. They see a broader picture. They see something wonderful and great in this little sun that brings happiness to his parents and probably even more so, I don't know, grandparent myself, to grandparents. You see John talking about that. I was just chuckling to myself because that's exactly how I feel with my two little granddaughters who I love so very dearly. I can talk about them. I'm so excited about them. And I talk about them in a very, very happy way. Noah was on God's good side.

It's a broader definition. It's more than just the forgiveness of sin. It's more than just unmerited pardon. We all want to be on God's good side. And when you are on God's good side, you're under grace. Now, perhaps that's oversimplifying it because there's reasons why God puts us in a condition of being favored. And we'll get into that as well. In the New Testament, there's one word for grace, as I said. It's very, very simple. One in the Old and one in the New. Makes this subject actually very, very simple. The word is charis. Charis, I'm not sure exactly how to be pronounced in the Greek. But the words charisma, charity come from it. The word love comes from it as well.

And also gift. The word gift is something that is given. The definition in a dictionary or even in a theological dictionary for charis is maybe a little bit muddling, but I'll read it anyway.

Grace is graciousness of manner or act, abstract or concrete, figurative or spiritual, especially the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life, including gratitude.

You've got to think about that a little bit. But it means, again, to be acceptable.

It is something that is beneficial and favored. It is a gift. It is liberality from the standpoint of generosity that's extended and thanksgiving as well. A side note. Most of us, maybe there are more than just a few here that understand other language. Maybe Spanish is the number two language here. But when you have a definition of a word in another language that you are used to understanding, it helps to build a broader understanding of a concept. And grace is no exception. In the Russian and Ukrainian languages, the word for grace is blago daz, which means the giving of good. It means the giving of good.

The word blessing, which is blahoslava, means the saying of good things.

Just the saying of good words. That's a blessing. But blago daz, blago, which is good, daz, give, is the giving of good. The problem with definitions is that oftentimes it can be very, very restrictive and narrow. And with the subject of grace, one of the problems with grace is that they pit concepts one against another. And that's where the theology, and consequently the practice of the term, comes to a breakdown point. To something which is beautiful and can be expressed in a much broader and bigger way, becomes convoluted, and becomes even a source of contention. An important principle of biblical hermeneutics, which is the way that you study the Bible, is that when you read the Bible and it says one thing in one place, and it says something else about the subject in another place, it is not automatically a contradiction. In fact, the scripture cannot be broken, so what should we assume?

The Bible says one thing about a thing in one place and something else about it in another, both are true. Both have their application, and that brings about a broader understanding of the subject. For example, the Bible in the book of Proverbs says that we are to answer a fool.

Well, then another place, which is right next verse, we're not to answer a fool. So which is right?

They're both right. There are times when you shut up, and there are times that you speak up, but it depends upon the circumstances. There's a certain tyranny in the ore, and we've seen articles and we've seen subjects that I saw a sermon one time.

Do you want Jesus Christ, or do you want the law? Oh boy, I want Jesus, but the law of Jesus. You know, I mean, I don't know. I'm confused. Why not Jesus Christ and the law?

Do you want grace or law?

A person becomes confused and can be unwittingly led to reject one, because the two concepts are pitted against one another. Do you want a car with an engine, or do you want one with a transmission?

Oh boy, I want an engine! No, no, transmission! No engine, you know! You've got to have both!

If people could take a look at theology in that way, it would be much more beneficial.

And in the same way, that subject comes alive and true regarding grace. We find other places where God speaks of giving grace in the Old Testament.

In fact, it's quite liberally used. Not often quoted, but very well understood. In Psalm 84, in verse 11, Psalm 84, verse 11, for the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Just the way we extend goodness to our children, and we favor our children. And believe me, we favor our children over other children. We're usually not very fair about it, either, because we favor them so much. We overlook their faults, and we see only the good. Well, God is the same way. God loves His children, except that God extends His grace to all mankind.

And He is willing and He is desirous, and He wants to so very badly to extend His grace in a very rich way towards all mankind. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Now, I want to live my life knowing that that's true and that's fact, and that's the way God looks upon me and upon my family and my future and my destiny and my eternity. When we think of grace as only something that, well, God kind of cleaned up after us one time with the forgiveness of sin, or just kind of an unmerited pardon, where, you're bad, you're bad, but okay, I'll take you. Instead of, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Isn't that a much broader and better way of looking at grace? It doesn't violate anything we've believed before. In fact, we'll take a look at a couple of passages that had led us to get tripped up on those points. There was a point, there was a time in our history, our modern history of the church, where grace was, perhaps by some, used as license, or that the law was minimized and put into the tyranny of ore and pushed aside. And so, to counteract that, we came back with a very strict interpretation and definition, which may have been absolutely true, but not fully expanded to the full meaning of grace.

I'm taking nothing away from the law of God. In fact, one of the aspects and one of the good things that God gives us, and one of the greatest gifts that God gives us, is His law.

I contend to say that the law is part of God's grace. What a wonderful code of ethics. What a wonderful set of rules. What a gift! Thank you, God! I'm glad I'm not a gentile to figure out for myself that, you know, stealing is not good, because it makes your neighbor mad, that committing adultery really doesn't work, that killing people is not appreciated, but that God gave me these laws in a beautiful code that not only expressed a relationship of human beings one to another, but respect for human individuals, plus in their expanded sense, this entire spirit of getting along and being peacemakers and also developing a relationship with God in the first commandments. The more you study them, the more you see what a wonderful gift the law of God is. It's part of God's grace. Proverbs 3 and verse 32. For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord. Proverbs 3, 32. But his secret counsel is with the upright. Verse 34. Surely he scorns the scornful, but he gives grace to the humble. And this is quoted by James in the New Testament.

God gives grace to the humble. So there are certain conditions, if you will, as our children grow up and as relationships develop, the favor of parent to child or friend to friend or mate to mate is based upon the behavior and attitude of one to another.

I'm very happy to say that my wife, I mean, in her grace most of the time. I would say 100% you wouldn't believe me and you would be right.

But I know that when I'm in her grace, I fully understand and know that she is totally knowledgeable of my shortcomings that take a long time to overcome.

And the things that I don't do is I should or maybe have done and slipped back in.

But also I know that overall I'm in her grace in her favor.

But you know something? If I had absolutely no respect for her, if I would show total disdain towards the cardinal aspects of our relationship, towards my work, towards my God, towards my church, that grace would erode. That favor would erode.

But she knows that I'm trying. She knows that I, you know, am quick to apologize.

Or that I really don't like the things that I do as much as she doesn't like the things that I do.

She understands. That's the way God understands us.

That's the way friendships develop.

You've heard so many stories about what friends are one to another.

Those stories have to do with overlooking things and what a, not more than just a fair day friend is.

There are friends that are very good for sunny days, but when the first sprinkles of rain come in a relationship where something doesn't go wrong, out you go.

True friendship is when you can be a friend, in spite of a person's shortcomings.

Shortcomings. However, if those shortcomings are such where there's disdain, disrespect towards you, betrayal, on and on it goes, believe me, you're out of favor and you're no longer in grace.

In a similar fashion, that's the way it works with our relationship with God.

Let's take a look at a few more places. Proverbs 4, verse 9, speaking about the subject of wisdom. She, which is wisdom and understanding, the subject covered in the sentence in this passage chapter, will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory she will deliver to you. That if you have wisdom, if you say smart things, if you do smart things, if you think smart things, you'll be in favor. So wisdom grants us grace.

Here's another one, Proverbs 22, verse 11. He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. A person who is able to show favor and graciousness in the way he talks is going to have friends. It might be a slightly different expression of the subject of grace, but basically grace is good relations and being in favor and being on God's good side.

And we want to be on God's good side. We want to be on the good side of those around us.

Strong churches are based upon everybody being on everybody's good side in church, which doesn't always happen, because when people start grumbling and when people are on people's bad sides and people talk against one another, the graciousness index drops down. But when one more people are on each other's good side and are supportive and helpful and encouraging to one another, stimulating one another, compassionate, as was brought out in the other sermon this afternoon, that the whole spirit of grace rises.

Jeremiah 31 verse 2, a reference back to the people of Israel as they went through the Red Sea.

What was their condition? The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. The whole experience of being ripped out of Egypt, having gone through the Red Sea, and having found refuge in the wilderness, later the promised land, the people were under grace. They were under God's protection. They were on God's good side. The New Testament. Let's take a look at a few places.

Luke chapter 2 and verse 40, talking about Jesus Christ.

And the child, Luke chapter 2 verse 40, the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. As Jesus was growing up, believe me, the favor of God the Father was very near and dear upon Jesus Christ, who proceeded from God the Father.

And believe me, this is obviously a far more expanded definition of grace than all.

God the Father's special interest, involvement in attention and focus upon Jesus Christ from the time he was a child. Obviously, this is far more than unmerited pardon, and this is far more than the forgiveness of sin. In fact, that factor is not even there.

I'm talking strictly about God's unmerited... talk about God's favor upon him.

Now, let's take a look at a few passages that may have caused difficulty.

John 1, verse 17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Now, does this mean that the law here is done away with because grace and truth came through Jesus Christ? Here, both statements are true. They are not competing. There was a period in history when the law was given to Israel. There was also another period in history when Christ poured out His grace upon mankind and opened the floodgates, so to speak, to anybody who would come to Him.

And as the church grew very quickly in those days, and believe me, there'll be even a greater period of grace that'll come in the future as God opens His kindness, mercy, and favor upon all mankind.

Acts 4, verse 33. Talking about how the church expanded and grew in its first months and years.

Acts 4, verse 33. Talking about how God viewed His church and the work of the apostles in the formative first months of the church. Acts 4, verse 33.

And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The church was really growing. The apostles were so excited about the work they were doing. They were eyewitnesses of Jesus' death, and also they were eyewitnesses of His coming alive and meeting with them many times after His resurrection and also upon His ascension.

And great grace was upon them all. God's grace was upon the church and the work of the gospel at that time. What a wonderful event. It was a great gift from God as the knowledge and the power of God was being passed on. And one thing, brethren, that we can pray for, that God's grace be upon us in the church as we do the work in preaching the gospel, so that the same spirit that the apostles had, we can share. And God says, good job!

And God's goodness, favor, be upon us, and things happen.

Now, we had the four cases I mentioned to you the last year of our working with people in Scandinavia and the Baltic Republics. Truly, I feel every single one of those openings, even though it was one here, one there, that was God's grace opening up the minds of these people.

And I thought, well, if this is Robert Schultz who was kind of incubating for a year studying our literature, and John Wenstrom, who's been studying our literature for over a year, how many others are there out there that are ripening, so to speak, and are ready to ask for what do I do next? Where do I go from here? I'm praying for that grace of God to come upon us as well.

Romans chapter 5 and verse 17. Romans 5 verse 17, for by one man's offense, death reigns through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one. This is kind of a stylistic way of saying that, you know, just as man's big boo-boo at the beginning, his big mistake led to death. So much the gift of grace and righteousness through Jesus Christ will fix that problem. That's a very wonderful passage to think of. There was no need for grace unless man put himself into position of needing it because of his mistakes. Romans chapter 11 and verse 5. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now this section here, Romans, and that's a book that we're going through in our church in a serial fashion here in our sermons. These chapters deal with God's expansion of his grace not only to a few chosen but to the Gentiles and to the entirety of the world.

He says that there's an election of grace, and that was being extended onto the Gentiles.

But the fact that God is bringing people and electing them and bringing them into the process of salvation is an act of his grace. Where the allotment for salvation is being increased. That's always a very wonderful moment when God opens the door for more minds to be converted, for more people to come to the point of having certain things happen in their psyche to where they no longer are enemies of God but accept him and want to be in a relationship with him.

But then he goes on to say in verse 6, and if by grace, the longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. If it is of works, there is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work.

Grace inherently is not earned. The word means gift.

When you give a gift to somebody, it's not because they earn it.

It may be because you want to give them because you love them and you want them to have it.

As we give gifts to our children or as we give gifts to our friends or as we give something to somebody to enhance a relationship.

With flowers or whatever kind of a gift. It is not something that they earn, but it's something that you want to give them. And that's all that's being explained here. It is not something that you pay for. You cannot buy grace. It is something that is given because you prepare yourself for it and you make yourself and put yourself into position of being one who receives grace. The Apostle Paul speaks of grace, and I won't be able to go into all the passages that I have here.

But the subject of grace is one that should be motivating us to make changes in our lives and not one that leads us to further permissiveness. In Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, the Apostle Paul made this very, very clear. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, 4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long suffering?

Do you ignore, reject? Do you minimize God's goodness, forbearance and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God or the grace of God leads you to repentance?

The grace of God does not put you into a privileged situation to where now you can do anything you want and you're above or outside the law. God's goodness puts you into a position to where you are led to repentance, to understanding more about what you should be doing and stop doing those things that you shouldn't. See, when you're in a true state of grace with God, you are going to want to repent. You will want to please Him. You will want to do those things that are right. You will want to stay on His good side. If you're in a state of being favored by a friend or your mate, you're not going to do those things that annoy, aggravate and show disrespect.

And a mature person will have his behavior and attitude be tempered in such a way where it will lead him to respond and reciprocate with obedience, with respect, with kindness, and with the same charisma, if you will, the same love back towards God. God's grace leads us to repentance.

But the Apostle Paul also knew that his teaching, which sounded so like it took bonds off a person, like it opened a person to new thinking and new thought, also said this in Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Hey, if you think that by the fact that you can get grace, that you can get forgiveness of sin, that you can get a bail out every time that you make mistakes, that that leads you to sin, to further sin, and not to repentance? Certainly not, he answers in verse 2.

How shall we who died in sin live any longer in it? I think that this primer, and I really call it as a very simple understanding of grace ought to be one that is a guide to direct us towards the fullness, the full depth, breadth, and height of who Jesus Christ is.

I truly believe the early apostles understood this to the full. When the Apostle Paul spoke of it, when Peter spoke of it, such as in 2 Peter 1 and verse 2, in his opening of the book, introduction or his salutation to the people he was writing to, grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Or, as we also know, grow in grace and knowledge, showing the subject as one that is open to further opening in 2 Peter chapter 3, 18. So, don't think, and even now, that you know everything about grace.

But that is something that, as we talk about ourselves as Christians as to what we should be growing in, one very important area is not just love, it's not just being more generous, it's not just being more patient, but it's understanding more about the concept of grace.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I want to, five years from now, understand even more about this.

But not just understand it, because understanding often comes with the application of it.

And coming to a point that we are Christ-like, we think like Christ, we act like Him, we react like Him. God did not create robots to where He just made us do certain things in a pre-programmed way.

That's why life is the way it is, and that's why we have to go to the trials that we do, because we have to learn things and come to a point where we do things because we want to do them, and because we do them voluntarily. In our relationship with God and the whole universe, in the whole future, we are based upon this volunteer, willing way in which we respond to Him voluntarily, in a gracious way. Grow in that grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's learn everything that we can, possibly, about Christ. And this time before the Passover season, I like to think about grace. How much have I grown? How much has our congregation grown in this subject? What has it motivated the congregation to do? And hopefully, it's motivated them to become more like Jesus Christ. Grow in grace and knowledge.

While you're putting your butch and bibles away, just a few final announcements.