What Did Grace Mean to the Early Disciples?

Well, it's been a momentous week, if you will, in history and in the world. I talked in my letter yesterday about, you know, the, I guess I'll use the word assassination, the assassination of the Iranian general over there in Baghdad. And if you watched the news yesterday, you saw some of the fallout of that, and you've heard Iran make threats against the United States and the protests against the United States that are there. And it took, you know, people by surprise, you know. No one really knew what was going to happen, and apparently this general, you know, had a lot of things in the, in the works we hear about wars that could start.

And so, uh, he was interested in, he was anti-American, reportedly had a number of Americans killed. But it put the world on notice that, you know, as we've seen over the last few years, the animosity between the Middle East and the United States, you know, continues to grow. And this is an incident that could amount to nothing, or it's an incident that could spur a lot of things happening quickly in the world. You know, Bible prophecy talks about what the world will be like at the time before the return of Jesus Christ. And in the next few weeks, we'll talk more about that. But it's a, it's a time for us to watch.

You know, and I heard about this, this that was happening, it reminded me of World War I, and the history that you all know about World War I. I looked it up yesterday, and World War I began because of the assassination of this Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at that time. And what it did was set a signal in the world that people began to seek alliances. You know, the Austria-Hungarian Empire had ruled the world for a while.

The Serbians were not happy being under their domain. And so they're the ones who saw that this guy was assassinated because they were looking for independence. And what happened, and it didn't happen immediately, Austria-Hungary sought out allies, other places sought out allies, and within no time, I shouldn't say without no time, what it led to was World War I. You know, World War I, 16 million people died. So as you look at things like this that happened, you know, they're hallmarks of something that could happen, and this could spur, this could spur something in the world that's been brewing for some time, because it will continue to take steps toward the prophesied end that Jesus Christ talked about and that we know about.

It's time for us to, you know, pay attention, pay attention, and we will talk about that more here in the next few weeks as we talk about prophecy. But it should spur us something more, too, as we see these events happen in the world that could change everything and bring about the time that Christ prophesied about. And that's what we need to look at ourselves. We need to look at ourselves and see, are we doing what Jesus Christ wants us to do? You know, you all know the verse where he said, watch. Watch what's going on in the world. And he meant watch what's going on.

And sometimes in the world today, we have to watch and not just watch the world news that's on our network TVs, because everything there is clouded. You don't hear about any of this except the, well, the assassination, but everything that's going on behind the scenes, we need other places to look at. And the prophetic times that we send out each week, you know, has some things about what's happening in the world. And there's other places you can look, and we try to keep you oppressed of those things.

But Jesus Christ also meant, look at yourselves. And as we see the day approaching, you know, and we see those leaves on the tree that indicate that summer is near. You know, it behooves all of us to take a good hard look at ourselves and understand what God has called us to to, and making sure that we're doing what Jesus Christ wanted us to do.

And so, you know, I know, you know, we need to look at a few things. And I brought this booklet with me today that I've talked about on grace. And I've, you know, I've read through that booklet, well, a couple of times, many sections of it now. And there are things in it I have never heard about grace before.

But it has opened my mind to what God has done for us. Okay? And I want to talk about that today. In case some haven't read it, I want to take a couple of sermons and one today, and then later on, you know, at another time, and just look at a few of those sections so that we understand the magnitude of what God has called us to.

Because it is amazing when you see what God has given us to do. And I don't know that we all understand it. I don't know that I understood it, or still do. But it's time that we pay attention to God and see the magnitude of what He's done. Let's turn to Ephesians.

Ephesians 3. You know, Paul, the Apostle Paul, he did get it. He did understand the magnitude of what God has called us to. He understood the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He understood what grace was, and you can see that in his writings. And what he wanted for people then, and he wants us for today, is for us to understand the gravity and the magnitude of that as well.

In Ephesians 3, as the chapter begins here, you see in verses 2 and 3, that he says God gave him this grace to understand these things and to give them to the Gentiles, as God extended grace to them and began to open up their understanding.

But then in verse 14, then, as he sets the tone of what he's saying in this section of his epistle, in verse 14, he says, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend.

And I had to underline that word, may be able to comprehend. We all know what God has done for us. We all believe it. But do we comprehend the magnitude of it? That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height.

That you get it. That you understand what God has done and given to us. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And what Paul was saying to them and us is spend some time. Think about it. Don't take it for granted. We all, you know, some of us have been in the church for 30, 40, 50, 60 years. Others are newer.

Don't take it for granted. Don't let it become common. Don't let it become something that is just there as part of our life that we don't pay attention to. You know, God distinguishes between the holy and the common. The things that are of Him and the things that are common in everyday life.

You know, Satan has done a really good job of making the things of God common. Right? All we have to do is listen. I don't think there's a day that we go by, whether we work outside or not, that we don't hear someone taking God's name in vain. It's just a matter of expression. We can hear it on news. We can hear it in TV programs. We hear it from our neighbors. We might hear it from the people that we work with, but we always hear it. And so you can hear the name of God and the name of Jesus everywhere, but it's just a common expression, no different than any other expression that we have. In fact, using the name of God in Jesus Christ has become so common that even the euphemisms you don't hear anymore. You hear just people using God's name. And Satan has done well at making that name too common. Too common. And the commandment that God gave is, I am the Lord your God and have no one before and no other God before me. And don't take my name in vain. It is something to be held in reverence. It's something to be held that when we hear it and when we speak it, it should have the fear and the reverence and awe of God that it is. And I hope every time we hear God and Jesus Christ that the reverence and the awe that we should have for Him and the fear of Him and the love for Him would register in our minds. And I hope every time we hear someone taking it, just flippantly and using it as an everyday expression, that it cuts us a little bit to the bone and think, you just don't get it. You don't realize God has literally done everything for us.

Well, you know, there's other things that Satan has made common as well, but let's go back to Leviticus 10. Leviticus 10, and here in his instructions to the priests of old as they worked in a physical temple, he made a distinction between the holy and the unholy because he knew that people could begin to take things for granted and things could just be common. But there is a distinction between the things of God and the things of everyday life that we shouldn't be there, that we shouldn't just take for granted. Leviticus 10 and verse 9, you know, the things that he gave to the priests of old, you know, in the time of a physical temple, we can apply to ourselves as well and learn some lessons from it. Leviticus 10, verse 9, it says verse 8 says, you know, it was the eternal who spoke to Aaron. He didn't send it through Moses. It was the eternal who spoke to Aaron saying, don't drink wine or intoxicating drink. You, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die.

Now, there's nothing wrong with wine, nothing wrong with intoxicating drink.

But God said to them, you know, when you go into the tabernacle, when you go into the temple, don't cloud your mind. Have your mind clear and open. Don't drink wine before you go in there. Don't drink intoxicating drink before you go in there. Go into the temple with your mind crystal clear. Don't let anything create a barrier between you and God. And sometimes substances can affect us in a way that we just don't get it. And so God makes this interesting, interesting claim here, interesting command, and accentuates it, lest you die. Now, today we don't have a physical temple, right? But we all come into God's presence. We all study the Bible at home or read the Bible. And if we were going to take that and make it into a modern-day thing, we would say, you know, before you come to church, don't drink wine or intoxicating drink.

Come there with a clear head. You don't need that before you come there. It's okay if you have a drink when you're fellowshiping with people. If you want to drink with dinner, that's fine. Don't do it. Don't do it, he says, because when you come before God's presence, that is holy, special time. Not like the every other time that you would have that. So it's interesting that he would be that. And then he says, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Have this be one of the things that you do forever. And in verse 10 he tells us, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy and between clean or unclean and clean.

You know what? It's okay to do it at other times, not when you come to the temple.

If we fast forward here to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 44, the millennial temple, the millennial temple at the time that Jesus Christ is king of kings on earth, and the kingdoms of this world have become his own, we find the description of that temple in Ezekiel 40-48. And here in chapter 44, as God is giving instructions on how that temple will run, to the people who will be manning and serving him in that temple in those days, he makes a similar command to them. Let's pick up a few more verses here than verse 20, 21, and 23 that I want to go to.

Let's just pick it up in verse 17 and see what God says about coming into his temple, into his presence. And this will remind some of you of a discussion we had last week in the Bible study about linen and wool. But in verse 17 of chapter 44, it says this, It shall be whenever they, okay, the priests enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments. No wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. God says, when you come to my house, this is what I want you to wear. Wear linen, don't wear wool. They shall have linen termons on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies. They shall not close themselves with anything that causes sweat. So it was very teal-tailed in how they should approach. When they go out to the outer court to take to the outer court to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments. And in their holy garments they shall not sanctify the people. Those garments are for the service that they do to God at that time. Verse 20, They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. Isn't that interesting? That even God would say that today. Here's how the ministers should, here's how the people serving in his temple will be, you know.

Verse 21, going back to what we read in Leviticus 10, No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.

It's a holy place. And what we do that's in common time doesn't happen when we are in holy time. Verse 23, And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. That they understand when they come to God there's a time for our common life, but there's a time for our holy life, and it's different. There's supposed to be no blurring. There's not supposed to be any kind of blurring of the two. There's holy time when we come into God's presence, and there's common times that we would do these other things. If you look at verse 23 there, when it talks about between the holy and the unholy, I think it's the Old King James Version, but where it says the unholy, I think the Old King James Version uses the word profane. Profane, if you look up the original Hebrew there, profane can mean common, but they've taken holy and unholy, but it's the word common. Profane today has a meaning that's much more evil, I guess, than what it was back then, but profane is we kind of not treat the things of God the way we should. We profane His name, we make it common. If we go back just a couple chapters to 42 and verse 20, we see the same word translated unholy there in chapter 44 and verse 23 translated as common here. As He's talking about the measurements of the temple, it says He measured it on four sides. It had a wall all around 500 cubits long and 500 wide to separate the holy areas from the common.

Well, that would be unholy if we wanted to use the same translation, but it's the common areas where where people could be. Let's go back to Ezekiel then 22. Just look at one more thing here where God talks about keeping the holy distinguished from the common and not blurring the two. Ezekiel 22 and verse 26. In Ezekiel 22, as you read through the chapter there, you see that He's talking about false prophets and false ministers in the time leading up to the time, you know, before Jesus Christ's return, and they mislead the people. They teach them false things and and the land has become common and not holy. Verse 26 of Ezekiel 22 says this, her priests, not true priests, but her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and common, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, so I am profaned among them.

What I want them to do, they don't pay any attention to. I become profaned among them.

I'm just a common thing that they do. So God tells us, you know, the things of God pay attention to. When we think about them, when we think about His name, reverence that name. Don't allow yourself to become, you know, like the world, using it just flippantly, or using a euphemism that means that in that way. Too many times in the world today, Satan has been very good at leading the world to just make God's name common.

Grace. Grace falls into that same category. You can hear the word grace everywhere, right? I mean, and there are all sorts of things about it, and it doesn't have the meaning and the magnitude of what the Bible talks about. Grace in the world today, you know, is something that has its root in the Bible, but it has been changed, and it has been minimized and all one-sided. Let me just read here from any number of websites you could talk, you could look at. I just picked out one when I put in, What is Grace? And this came up from one church. It says, Grace is favor, unmerited favor. Salvation comes by grace. Grace is, therefore, God's unmerited favor. His goodness toward those who have no claim on nor reason to expect divine favor. The principal manifestation of God's grace has been in the form of a gift. That's a pretty good definition. It goes a little bit toward what it is saying, because indeed the grace of God is a gift, a very important gift, very important gift, and as we will see and as you read in the booklet here how important that is, but not at all what the world says, because it's been so much left out of what that word means. And when people in the first century, when people at the time of the apostles heard the word carise, that we translate grace, they had a far, far different idea of what that meant than you and I do today. No matter how long we've been in the church, we have heard about grace and what the world teaches about grace probably has had an effect on our minds, that we minimize it and we don't understand it. And I'll tell you, you know, this booklet I think is so, so much inspired by God, and it was years in the making, and it's a testament to when we really seek what God is doing, He will show us what it means. And if you haven't read it, I would encourage you to sit down and read it. I want to talk about just one of the sections in there today. And what did grace mean, or carise, the Greek word that's translated grace, what did it mean to the people of the first century? You know, we've talked many times that we learn, we learn a lot about the spiritual from the physical, right? Jesus Christ and the Bible will talk about things, and we have to, as we talked in the Bible study last week, sometimes we have to go back into the culture of that time and see what did it mean to those people. What did that word mean back then? What did it have to do with them? They were living in an agricultural society, so you know, Christ would talk about grapes and grapes being pruned, and we learn what it means to us spiritually. He would talk about sheep and shepherds, which, you know, all over the landscape back then, they had sheep and shepherds, and they knew when He talked about, oh, sheep do this, they need shepherds to lead them. Very important. When He gave the parable about, you know, finding God, that if you were going to look for treasure in your backyard and someone told you you had hidden treasure in your backyard, you would give up everything to find that treasure.

Everything. And the pearl of great price. That had an impact on them. Now, we've talked about, you know, the word pihadea. I spoke about it at the feast. We've talked about it here. The training system that the Greeks had for their youth that God compares to what He has us involved in, so that we become the elite people who are able to function in the society and kingdom that He is looking, that He is developing. It's the same thing when we look at the word carrisse and grace.

What did it mean? Because the Apostle Paul, as God opened his mind and began to call him, he saw the similarity or the analogy in modern day life, and there in Rome, of what it meant. So let me just read here from pages 72-73 of our booklet, and it's under one of the insets that is titled, How Grace Was Understood in the Time and Culture of the Apostles. And in this section, they give several sources, at least one of which I'm going to be going out and buying, and the one I'm going to be quoting from here is a book called Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. It was written by Randolph Richards and Brandon O'Brien, published in 2012. And in it, they give some of the background of many things, apparently. One of them is grace. What does grace mean? When Paul said the word grace or carrisse, what did the people of that time think of? Did they think of the same thing that you and I think of? That you can hear on TV? That you can hear when you're talking with people? And that the world thinks of today? Well, in it, they give an example of what carrisse meant in the time of the first century when Paul was talking about it. Let me just read through the scenario they give, and we'll pause here and talk about those things. And I think you'll see the similarity between our lives spiritually and what was going on physically back at the time of the first century. Okay. It says, imagine a young baker named Marcus in the town of Philippi. Marcus learned to bake bread from his father. The family business stretched back to the founding of Philippi for generations back. So, different than our time today, family businesses were there. That was their type of living. They couldn't just leave one job and go to another place and whatever. That was their that was their livelihood. And for five generations here, this family baked bread. It was their livelihood. Marcus's family was, consequently, one of the founding members of the Baker's Guild.

When his father was young, I remember it wasn't him, but his father, okay? When his father was young, a fire destroyed the family bakery. Marcus's father went to a wealthy widow, a cloth merchant who was also from the province of Lydia, to seek help. Julia Lydia loaned his father the money to rebuild the bakery. Thus began an enduring relationship. So, we have this family business baking bread. Years and years ago, the businesses burned down. Marcus's father didn't have the resources to rebuild the business. The family was in disaster. They were in crisis mode. What do they do? They went to this wealthy widow, talked to her, and she gave them the resources to rebuild the bakery. Her gift was known as Carice. She gave them what they needed to continue in life. She in essence rescued them from the fate that had befallen them, that they would just be destitute and without any kind of livelihood from then on out. She knew when she gave Carice that it couldn't be repaid. The family wasn't ever going to be able to repay her back. It's not like going to a bank, writing down a mortgage or a loan, and so much every month you're going to do that. It was going to be something that she gave. And when she did that, it became an enduring relationship.

Lydia, Julia Lydia in the story, she was known as the patron. She was known as the patron. She was a lady who had wealth and who was able to help people like this. And Marcus, Marcus's father actually, was the client. He received the Carice. She provided the Carice, and he accepted it. And when he accepted it, there was the expectation and the norm of society that an enduring relationship would develop between the two. So here's Marcus, years later after it happened, still in a relationship with Lydia because it was an enduring relationship that they entered into.

Let me go on with the story. Today, so today, okay, years after, Lydia gave the resources to the father. Today, Marcus sells all his bread to Lydia, including all the members of her extended household, plus all her other friends, the various merchants with whom Lydia does business. These customers give Marcus all the business he and his young sons can handle. He sells his bread at a reasonable price, and his family makes a good, though modest, living. Lydia ensures that no one takes advantage of anyone. So you have this now that Marcus, who is heir to the father, he's still in this relationship with Lydia. When he entered into the relationship and he accepted the carise, the payment to build his business back, he knew, and the sons knew, this was a relationship that lasts forever, and they had faith in Lydia that she would provide for them, and they became part of her circle of friends. You notice it said he sold all of his bread to her friends, her other friends, her other clients, gave all the business to them, and he made a good living. But everything was done in that they became part of a family, if you will, of the patron of Lydia. It was kind of the way things worked in Rome, in a society apart from banks and the things that we have today. And Lydia washed over everything. She washed over everything. It says here, Lydia ensures that no one takes advantage of anyone. So to be a patron in that day, you had to be a unique person. You loved and you cared for and you washed out for everyone that was in your domain that you had given Carice to. Now what they were doing, they were pleasing you.

They were living by your rules. And when everyone lived by those rules, things went very well. Marcus was taken care of. All the other people were taken care of. But they were no longer part of the circle they used to be. When they accepted Carice, they became part of Lydia's circle. Let me go on with the story. Three years ago, the barley sellers raised their prices. All the bakers panicked. Naturally, Marcus asked his patroness to help. She invited the patron of the barley merchants to dinner. During a civilized meal, Lydia mentioned her friend Marcus and his difficult situation. The two patrons discussed how they could best help their friends, arriving at a fair price for barley flour. Lydia did what was appropriate as the patron of Marcus the baker. So the relationship was created at the time Marcus's father took the Carice. Through the years that ensued between the father and the son, they were loyal to Lydia. They abided by her rules. They became part of her domain, her society, if you will, her body, if you will. But the end of it wasn't just when the bakery burned down. Now there's these things that come up during the course of time. Now, here's something they didn't foresee. Barley bakers from another place were raising prices. That jeopardized everyone in the family. And so what did Marcus do? He went to his patron. He went to his patron and said, what do I do? This thing has occurred in life that I don't know what to do, but he knew she would be able to fix it. And so part of that body and part of that relationship was it was an enduring relationship where the patron was always watching out for the client. They were there to help through the good times, the bad times, the rough times. Whatever unforeseen thing happened, Lydia was there as part of that Roman society and what went on. Now I hope you're beginning to see what caries means. When Paul would give the story and use the word caries in the minds of people back then, they knew exactly what it meant. They knew exactly what a patron was. They knew exactly what a client was. They knew exactly what was expected of them and what the patron and the client did. Going on. So of course such relationships were two-sided. Last year, one of Lydia's slaves awakened Marcus in the middle of the night. Lydia needed a favor. She had received special guests, and she was planning an elaborate dinner party for some wealthy families of Philippi, for which she needed special bread to serve at this important banquet. She needed Marcus to cook something special. How could he refuse his patroness? It took all night, but he made sure the bread was ready. He knew he would go through his life. He would be loyal. He would be faithful. And there would be times when he was called on to do something above and beyond the normal. He didn't complain about it. He didn't say, that's too much. What did he do? He stayed up all night to get it done, because it was that important to him. And he remembered Carice, and he remembered what she did for him, and that he would do anything for her, because she was always there to provide what he needed. And so we see these situations that come up, even in our lives, right? Things where we've accepted Carice, and what that means. Things that happen in the life after we've accepted Carice, where we can go to our patron in the story, and he'll provide.

We can see Lydia, who has the best interests of her clients at heart. Well, let me read here from another section of that book, that same book, as he explains this parable, if you will, a little bit. He says, the rules for what was expected of a patron and a client were not painted on Roman city walls. The rules for the truly foundational institutions of society, like family and patronage, went without being said. Everyone knew what the proper behavior was. A good patron solved the problems of his or her clients, assisting with trade guilds, business disputes, refinancing loans, and easing tensions with city elders. The patron did favors for his clients, who then fell under the circle of influence and protection. In return, the client was expected to be loyal or faithful, and was sometimes asked to do things for the patron. So back in Roman times, if we said the word grace, if it was an English society, they would have a different view of what grace is than we do today. It wasn't just our patron, and I don't think I have to go through all the verses to show the analogy there that Jesus Christ is our patron, and he did so much more than the physical for us, right? That he canceled the debt that we can't possibly repay, because we've all sinned. We've all earned death, and not one of us could pay it no matter what we did, but he paid it. And when we accept that chorise from him, it wasn't just a he did at all. There was an enduring relationship and an expectation on our part, on the client's part, to have faith in him. So oftentimes when you read about grace in the Bible, chorise, you'll also find the word pistis, the Greek word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S. Pistis is translated faith. And most of the times you read the word faith in the New Testament, it's this Greek word pistis that talks about loyalty, that talks about faith, unwavering faith in the patron, if you will, which we should be able to easily make the the the jump to who it is that we're talking about. And when Paul used the physical, used the physical analogy of chorise, the people in Rome knew exactly exactly what he meant. Let me read from one more run more part here.

Page 70 of the same book, last section that I'll read here. And this comes from a book called Paul and the Greco-Roman World, a handbook written by Paul Sampley, or he's the editor. This is on page 206. It says, once that social contract, chorise, okay, when someone's accepted chorise, once that social contract was established, a new set of dynamics came into play. The new client was expected to show respect and gratitude to the patron, to render certain services to him, and to support his political, economical, and social activities. Whatever he thought before, when he entered into that relationship, his line set had to change. He had to accept, and be sure he was willing to accept, what that patron believed and what he stood for.

What did the patron do for his client? The influential patron protected the client's economical, social, and legal interests by letting him profit from the patron's social connections and by allowing him access to the patron's resource. In short, the new client might receive needed funding or other important benefits, but he was now in a lifelong relationship with the patron, who expected a certain mindset from his clients, as well as acts of gratitude in return. So, contrary to what so many believe grace is today, that it's a one-sided thing where Jesus Christ paid for our sins, and all he did that, and he did it out of love. And it's a magnitude that I think sometimes we just need to sit back and contemplate. What did Christ do to realize that we earned death? This life that we live without Jesus Christ is just meaningless and futile. And when we die and understand that when he came and died for our sins, he gave us the opportunity for eternal life. He offers us that. And those of us who are sitting here today, and the people that God has called, he's offered us carise. Here's the payment. Here's the rescue for your life, because your life is meaningless, and you're going nowhere. If you accept this carise, if you accept this carise, there's a responsibility that goes with it. You must become loyal to the patron. You must be grateful to him. You must adopt his mindset. You must be part of his circle of friends. You must participate in that, and you must become in that for the rest of your life. And as we look at the example, even the rest of your family's life to be that loyal to it.

Well, Paul would have had that expectation. So let's go back to the little book of Romans and look at something here at the end of the book that tells us that he understood, and the people back then understood, what a patron was and what a client was. Let's look at the ending of his book in Romans 16. Romans 16 and verse 1. As he's wrapping up his epistle here to the Romans, in which he talks about salvation. How it comes about? It's a treatise on salvation, going from becoming sinners to Christ paying for our sins to what we need to do in response to him. But in chapter 16 verse 1, he says, I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Sancria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a worthy manner, in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. Whatever she asks you to do, assist her, for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also. Now the Greek word translated helper there in verse 2 and in the Old King James it's translated sucker, er, S-U-C-C-O-U-R-E-R. Helper is actually from Strong's 4368. It literally means patroness, defined as a woman set over others, a female guardian, protect us, protect us, caring for the affairs of others, and aiding them with her resources. So here we have Phoebe. She was a patroness. She was similar to the person in our story. She had helped people in the church back then. They understood what Carice was because she had offered them Carice. Some had accepted her Carice. Paul said, I've, no, she's offered that to me as well. And through the New Testament, you know, you don't see church buildings. You see people who were opening their homes to the church at that time. They were helpers of the people there. They were a family that were there. And so Paul concludes his epistle by drawing recognition to this woman who was a patron in the church in Rome there. But let's go back now to the very first chapter of Romans as he begins his epistle, if you will, to the Roman church at that time who would be very well aware of what Carice is and what society understood when they heard and understand the Carice and Paul's spiritual application of it. Let's just pick it up in verse one and read through the first five or six verses here. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. He was, he was, that was his calling to do that, which he promised, which God promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received Carice. Through him we have received grace. Through him we have received this payment that we couldn't possibly repay. He offered it to us. Through him we have received Carice, an apostleship, for obedience to the faith, and there's the great word, pistis, for obedience to the pistis among all nations for his name. We received Carice. We received this grace. That's more than just forgiveness of sins. It includes, as we see, everything in our lives from the time that we accept it. And along with the Carice, he's given it to us and the expectation of us is that we will have the obedience to the pistis among all nations for his name. He offered. We accepted. Our response is to have faith and to obey him. He goes on in verse 6, among whom you also are the call of Jesus Christ. He's offered the same Carice to you with the same expectations that he has of everyone.

In verse 7, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, Carice to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Carice to you. God's offered it. Our job to accept.

And the expectation is to go along with it. Chapter 5 of Romans.

Read through the first. You know, with the understanding that I hope is coming across of what Carice meant and what it meant when God put this in the Bible and Paul spoke it and God inspired it. What it means. Let's read through the first 10 verses here. Chapter 5, verse 1.

He's talking in the chapter before this of Abraham and the faith, the pistis, that Abraham had, because Abraham believed God. He was loyal to him. Whatever God said to do, he did. He knew that was his rightful thing to do. Therefore, having been justified by pistis, our faith in God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by pistis into this carice in which we stand. This grace in which we stand. It's not just a one-time thing. It's not forgiveness of sins. It is unmerited pardon. It is unmerited favor, but it is a lifelong favor in all areas of our life. Everything we do when we accept Carice, God is aware of, and God knows exactly what's going on with us, and it's all part of the grace under which we live. Notice how Paul makes the transition here even to bring in the not-so-pleasant things in our life that we may humanly call not-so-pleasant, through whom we also have access by pistis into this carice in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we have glory and tribulations. Well, that isn't something we expected from our patron, but our patron has our best interest at heart. He knows that there are things that we have to develop in order to become who he wants us to become. Not only that, we have glory and tribulations knowing the tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. Now, hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us, part of His grace, part of His grace, part of what we accepted when we said we will accept your gift.

He gives us His Holy Spirit.

For when we were still without strength, weak people with no hope. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man one will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He paid the price and He offers that to us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we will be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by His life. When we accept the chorise, we're justified before God. He gives us the hope of eternal life. There's expectations of us. Let's drop down to verse 21, the same chapter. And it draws a distinction between our past life, life before the patron, life before Carice. If we go back to the story of Marcus, his father, when everything burned down, you know, he may have lived his life one way, but he went to Lydia and she said, this is the rules. This is the rules of association. This is what I do. And he knew what his what his job was, followed by those rules. Become part of that family, become part of that association, and be a benefit to everyone. So that, verse 21, as sin, okay, former life, life before Carice, so that as sin reigned in death, because our former lives would only result in death, eternal death, just like Marcus's father, if he didn't accept the chorise, their livelihood was over. As sin reigned in death, even so, Carice might reign through righteousness, to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin reigned in the former life. Now that we've accepted Carice, righteousness must reign. Now we know what righteousness is. That's living by God's will. That's living by His commandments. It's the appropriate response to accepting the Carice.

It's the appropriate response to live by every word of His if we understand the magnitude of what He's given us. Continue on in chapter 6 here. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, this former way of life, that Carice may abound? That's silly. That's silly in the physical sense. No one would say, hey, I'll accept this gift from you, this Carice from you, Lydia, but I'm going to kind of do things the way I used to do them, or whatever, and whatever. There's no way she would have given it to him. There's no way that it would have stood. Shall we continue in sin that Carice may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin, who those who rejected us, rejected that way of life when we accepted Carice, live in, go on living in that way? Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? Because when we're baptized into him, we're accepting his Carice. We're saying our old way of life is done, and I will follow you. The appropriate response to your Carice, what you've offered me, and I've accepted, is I no longer live the way I used to live. Now I'm part, and I do things the way that you say do them. Now I'm not a part of my old associations. I'm a part of your association. Now I work with you in everything that you do with everyone that's a part of your association. Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. I have accepted the Carice. I get the magnitude that I am nothing more than a dead man without Jesus Christ, without accepting his Carice. I have no future. I don't have to hope. There is no hope without Jesus Christ. There is no other answer than to accept the Carice when God offers it to us and we understand it. And for those of us in this room and all the others that God has called and opened our minds to, that's the appropriate response, is to accept it. But along with that is this enduring relationship that spells the way we live and what we do. Walk in newness of life. Let's go over to Colossians.

Because throughout Paul's epistles we find grace and we find this concept of him understanding what exactly it meant and what exactly it means to us as well. In Colossians 3, verses that we sometimes read before the days of unleavened bread, which are the next set of holy days ahead of us, the Passover and days of unleavened bread, we find Paul talking about this newness of life that we must now live once we accept Carice. Chapter 3 of Colossians in verse 8. He says, But now you yourselves are to put off all these. This is the way you used to live. This was a part of you before that. Put off all these. Wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Don't lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

You've accepted Carice. Now you need to become like your patron. He wants you to become.

Who created you in the image of him who created him where there is neither Greek nor Jew, all part of the same family now, all part of the same association, if you will, the same body. We're no longer going to say, I'm not going to talk to that person because they're a Greek. No. If they've accepted Carice, they're equal with us. There is neither Greek nor Jew. There is neither circumcised nor uncircumcised. There isn't barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in is all and in all. They're part of his body. They've accepted his Carice and should all be working as part of that body to please him. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering. These may not have been characteristics of your mindset in the past. They need to be part of your mindset now if you've accepted Carice. And if that Carice is motivating you, the way it motivated, I think, the people in Rome, if it motivates you to please your patron, these are the things that you will now put on, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, working together as a body. Not thinking it's just you alone from the patron, but understanding, just as Marcus did in that, what he did was benefit all that association. He breakbed for all of them and kept the prices fair, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another. Even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do. But above all these things, put on agape, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body and be thankful. And so he goes on, and you can read the rest of that yourself. Let's go back to Ephesians, then, where we began, but this time a chapter back in Ephesians 2. And continue down through verse 10. Ephesians 2 verse 4. God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by cariese. You've been saved from death.

And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his cariese. We don't see all the benefits today. We understand a little above them, but in the ages to come we will see all of those benefits by having accepted that. The exceeding riches of his cariese in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by cariese you've been saved through pistas, through faith.

Now, many of the people in the world would just want to stop there. We are, you know, for great grace you have been saved, period. Listen to what the Bible says, you've been saved by grace through faith, through belief, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So there are good works that are expected. Just like in Roman cariese, good works were expected, an enduring relationship was there. And so for us, when we remember cariese, as it says in verse 11, as Paul reminds them, a word, we need to stop, I think, and remember what God has done for us. Contemplate it. Therefore, remember, he says, what you were before. Remember that you were going nowhere before. Develop that appreciation of where you were and who you are now and what God has given you. Don't take it for granted. Don't make it common. Don't misunderstand that God has done it all for us and expects nothing of us that it's an enduring relationship until the day we die. That we continue to be grateful and through faith honor that gift of cariese that he's given us by the things that we do. In Romans, Paul, who understood and who comprehended what cariese was and what God had done for him, because he remembered and he would often go back and say, look who I was before.

Look where my life was going before I was the least worthy of anyone to be offered this gift of cariese from God. And that motivated him to do whatever God asked him to do.

Awful things when we look at the things from a human standpoint that he did, but he was willing to do it all. It motivated him no matter what God asked, he was willing to do it because he kept in his mind-set, I've been given cariese, and if I accept that, I must do what it is. So he could write in Romans 12 verse 1 something that we can maybe understand the magnitude of it. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. If you understand that you were going nowhere, that you were just dead men, and God has rescued you from this life of ignominy and destruction and death, understanding he's your patron and you cannot possibly repay what he has given to us, you should be willing to sacrifice your entire lives to do whatever he wants you to do, understanding that he's given life, eternal life. And so when you look at cariese, it isn't just a one-sided thing. It has the expectation of what we do, and throughout the Bible, that's there. I could go on and on and on, but we don't have time for that today, but you have the time. You have the time to look at the Bible. You have the time to read this booklet and see the magnitude of what you read in this booklet and see the magnitude of what God has and allow yourself to see what God has offered, and to understand it from the perspective that Paul wrote it. Grace is an all-encompassing life that God puts us in. It's something in which we stand. It's not just one-time forgiveness of sins. It encompasses the whole thing. It encompasses repentance. It encompasses faith. It encompasses the Holy Spirit. It encompasses the way we change and the commitment that we have to become what God wants us to become. It is all there. It encompasses the fact that Jesus Christ says, when you run across these problems, if you read Psalm 103, He forgives our sins. He heals our diseases. He gives us the thing that satisfies everything that you need. I'm there when you run across these problems. Come to your patron. Come to your patron in faith, in belief, living the life of a client, of a recipient, so we can see what it is. Let's conclude here in 2 Peter.

2 Peter 3.

verse 17.

Peter, who also came to understand the concept of grace and carise.

In verse 17, concluding his second epistle, he says, You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Don't let the world lure you away. Don't let things that are holy become common. Hold them in high esteem. Hold God in high esteem and the things of God in high esteem. And remember who you are and with the gift that God has given. And grow.

Grow in the carise and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and forever.