The Grace of God, Part 3

I am posting my notes on Pastor Tom’s teaching from Sunday, April 30th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995.

The Grace of God, part 3

Both Tom and Mike spoke this morning. Mike spoke first on Exodus 32:1. He was responding to a word from the Lord through Barth about rejecting our idols.

Then Tom picked up his idea and wove it into what he has been doing with grace.

Tom:

Are you willing to let the word of the Lord penetrate your life this morning. I ask permission to speak the word so we are all participants in the word of God. Not just hearers. I noted when I came in this morning a sleepiness and I want you to be awake to the word.

Isaiah 30:15
15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”
But you were not willing,

Do I ask God for rest? Do I ask Him like He is a vending machine, dispensing rest? Am I asking for it and not receiving it? Repentance comes first, then rest, salvation, quietness, trust, strength.

“But you were not willing.”

Isaiah 30:18-22
18 Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.
19 O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
20 Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.
21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
22 And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

The Good News: The Lord longs to be gracious to us.

Bread can look like deprivation when we are used to bounty. Even bread from heaven can look like deprivation. Water of oppression.

God has and can give them to us. Are we willing to receive these from God for the season that He gives them to us?

In grace, God will reveal Himself, teach us, and we throw away our idols. We will scatter them, they will be impure and rejected.

God wants to be a gracious God to us. But we need to change. What is valuable to me? What kind of idols do I have tucked away?

Amos 5:25-26. Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.

What do I carry with me, even as I acknowledge God as Lord? What is in my saddle bags?

Grace: Do we want radical grace? Do we want explosive grace?

Isaiah 30:23-26. After the repentance there is blessing, we come to abundance and to bounty.

Are you willing to see grace today? To see the wonderful compassion of God through His Son, Jesus Christ?

Grace in the book of Acts

Ask the Holy Spirit to tag this together, to connect the dots, to paint the picture.

Acts 4:32-33. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.

Grace is abundant, it is immeasurable and unmerited. This carcass, this flesh (Romans 7) is at war with the Spirit of God. I need abundant grace. When I do not see it, it is because my idols have blinded me.

Acts 6:8. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

The story of Stephen, the first martyr. Stephen was full of grace and power. Grace and power come as a package. If we want grace, we will need to grasp the power, too.

Acts 11:23. (Context, Acts 11:21-24). Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord...

The Church at Antioch. Barnabas witnessed grace. It was obvious. It was observable.

Acts 13:43. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

Grace is something to continue in. Grace is as good as I am walking in now. It is “instantaneous.” Grace is relationship. It is part of our love relationship with God.

Acts 14:3 (Context 14:1-3). Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.

The word of grace AND signs and wonders. Do we want the signs and wonders? Get rid of the stuff in the saddle bags. Ask God for grace. If we are testifying about grace, we see grace. And signs and wonders.

Acts 14:26. (Context 14:21-26). From there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished.

Paul had been commended to the grace of God. They had kept themselves in the grace of God throughout the missionary journey.

Acts 15:11. “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

Salvation by grace.

Acts 15:40. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.

Barnabas and Paul had a disagreement. Grace in a puzzling situation.

Acts 18:24-28. The story of Apollos. Apollos was mighty in the word, but he was missing something. Remember that grace is observable. When Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos, they saw that something was missing. They took him aside and explained things to him more fully. Then Apollos spoke with grace and power.

Acts 20:24. (Context 20:24-32) “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God."

The “gospel” is good news. But what is the good news? Elsewhere, it usually the “gospel of the kingdom of God.” But here, it is gospel of the grace of God. Mix “kingdom” and “grace” together. The kingdom involves scattering the impure things (back to Isaiah 40).

Acts 20:32. “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

The word of grace builds us and gives an inheritance.

Are we interested in being built up? In receiving our inheritance? Grace is necessary.