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.

Immanuel or God in our midst

I am posting my notes on Pastor Mike’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.

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.

Mike:

Exodus 32:1. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Immanuel - “God with us.” We were created to want God in our midst. Israel wanted God in their midst, but Moses was up on the mountain. They had lost God’s spokesman in their midst.

They were in despair. Their lack of God commanded their attention. The thing that commands attention in us is an idol or it is the Lord.

We can have God in our midst when we do what we do: job, dishes, school, driving, tests, etc. Or we can let whatever it is command our attention and he happy or despairing or frustrated by it. And it will be an idol to us.

Immanuel or an idol?

“I will drive them out before you little by little”

Exodus 23:20-33. NASB95
20 “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21 “Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My name is in him.
22 “But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23 “For My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them.
24 “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their sacred pillars in pieces.
25 “But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.
26 “There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27 “I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28 “I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.
29 “I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
30 “I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.
31 “I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
32 “You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.
33 “They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

This passage was shared on Friday night. It was used to illustrate several ideas about how God works in bringing change to an area. However, a long time ago, when I first became a Christian, the Holy Spirit quickened a part of it to me as a personal promise. I have not thought about it for a long time.

Exodus 23:29-30. “I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land.”

The Lord was promising that I would “be transformed by the renewing of [my] mind” [ Romans 12:2]. This is a process and it takes time. I want the whole land to be cleared NOW. But that is not how the Lord works. He had a lot of work to do. It was going to take time. And I needed to be patient.

CS Lewis writes, calling our bodies: “Those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that created the universe.” And this is true not just about our bodies.

I became a Christian in my mid-twenties. That “estate” had gotten pretty run-down. Its grounds were weedy and its buildings dilapidated. Transforming me from a fallen man into His image is the work of a lifetime.

One of the reasons God takes a gradual pace is that we do not get proud, believing that we somehow did it on our own. The gradual pace not only grinds down my pride, it shows me my true nature without the Lord. It shows my desperate need for Him and for His cross (last week was Good Friday and Easter). Only by repeatedly coming to Him about my needs, both for personal renewal and for what He calls me to do can I come to “experientially know” Him.

The Lord also brings me repeatedly to what seems to be the same place.

Strange play interlude:

Me: “Not the Perizzites again? I thought that we dealt with them last year.”

The Lord: “No, this is another village of them.”

Me: “OK, but this better be the last time.”

The Lord in an aside: “Bill, only 27 more villages of Perrizzites to go. But, next week there is a troublesome little village of Hivites that I have been wanting to deal with for DECADES.”

If I apply this to the Lord wanting to change the spiritual climate in a town, a county, a state or a country I realize that the Lord can take the same approach. He quietly deals with the strongholds in the life of community, until He has “broken through with a breakthrough ” [2 Samuel 6:8, margin note]. Then He can bring revival and renewal.

In church, we have something we regularly pray, that “The Lord would make it hard to go Hell from [home town].” Ideally, this will happen when the local churches (plural) are ready before the Lord to take care of all of the sheep that He has called. Or the local churches gradually “become fruitful and take possession of the land.” Of all of the land.

The Grace of God, Part 2

I am posting my notes on Pastor Tom’s teaching from Easter Sunday, April 16th. 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. I added some scripture references to things that Tom alluded to, but did not actually quote the scriptures. See brackets [].

The Grace of God, part 2

Now is “the acceptable time of the Lord” [2Cor 6:2] to look anew, afresh at the cross and God’s grace.

Prayer: “Father if you do not reveal, we cannot see.”

GRACE - God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

Christ’s expense was the cross, but the cross is meaningless without the resurrection. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But death could not hold Him.

Mark 16:9-11
9 Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
10 She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.
11 When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

Who was worthy to see Jesus first? It was the one whom He had cast 7 demons out of. The disciples, the apostles refused to believe her.

Do we believe? Are we hypocrites? Do we say we believe, but do not? I [Tom] am a hypocrite. And I know that I need Jesus.

I [Tom] get asked, “Is this Easter more relevant than any other?” [Given what has happened over the last year.]

Yes, Easter is more relevant to me this year than before, but not because of the events of the last year. It is more relevant to me because I breath. And I have to reckon with my sin and my desperate neediness for Him all the more.

We do not have what it takes to get where we need to be. Only grace can get us there.

Acts 1:3. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Jesus presented Himself alive. Jesus promised that He would reveal Himself to us alive.

Acts 25:18-19
18 “When the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as I was expecting,
19 but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive.

What got Paul in trouble was not that he presented a new religious ethic, but that Paul proclaimed that Jesus was dead and was now alive.

The gospel of John has several themes, but one of them is life.

God’s riches is not heaven, not freedom from sorrow or grief, but life.

Prayer: “Jesus, will you teach me of Your life. Holy Spirit stir something afresh in my life.” Renovation, rebuilding.

John 5:26. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself...”

Jesus had life in Himself. Our hope is rooted in the truth that Jesus has life and is risen from the dead. All the mess I have made of my life I surrender to You.

If I want hope, don’t look for hope, look for grace.

WWJD? - “What would Jesus do?” is the wrong question. We have a Bible full of things that Jesus would do. The right question is, “What will I do?”

The old hymn asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” It is a good question, but “Are you there..? is a better one.

Am I exploding with life, or yawning? Is there resurrection power in my life? Is there hope in my life?

Romans 5:17. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Transgression; grace and life. “Grace reigning” is a kingdom term. We did not buy grace, we do not own it ourselves. Grace is a gift.

We need the gift afresh today, life afresh today, hope afresh today. If we surrender afresh today.

And we are not going to see grace today without revelation.

The Grace of God, Part 1

I am posting my notes on Pastor Tom’s teaching from Sunday, April 2nd. 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. I added some scripture references to things that Tom alluded to, but did not actually quote the scriptures. See brackets [].

The Grace of God, part 1

Prayer: Show me about Your grace. Lord, we need to find your grace afresh.

What is grace? Well, we know a definition, but what is it really? What does it mean?

GRACE: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

God’s riches - all that He has for us.

Christ’s expense - the cross.

Grace: What is it? Where do we find it? How do I get it? How do I receive it? How does grace fit into the whole of the Bible?

In literature and other writings there is a “law “of first and last mention - What is mentioned first? First sentence tells you what the paragraph is about. The first paragraph tells you what the chapter is about, and so forth. The last paragraph/sentence summarizes the thought, the chapter, the book.

Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega.

In some of the gospels, the first thing Jesus says is “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” In Acts, just before He departs, He tells the disciples about the kingdom. The Lord’s Prayer begins and ends with “kingdom.” It must have been important to Jesus. “Kingdom” brackets everything Tom wants to say about grace.

Grace permeates the kingdom of God. Let’s take a look afresh at grace.

In the New Testament, the emphasis is on grace. In the Old Testament, the emphasis is on mercy. Mercy and grace are similar in meaning and connotation.
• Mercy means not getting what I deserve.
• Grace means getting what I do not deserve.

Luke 2:40
40 The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

John wrote both a gospel and the last book of the Bible. What does John say about grace?

John 1:1-18 (context)
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:15-17
John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ”
16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

How does John see Jesus? How is he representing Him?

Jesus, pre-existing as the Son of God, came among us, full of grace, wrapped up in the glory of God.

Tom related a story, the gist of which is that “grace is the base.” Everything we do is by grace, modified by grace.

John 1:16. “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”

Grace upon grace. Grace piled up into heaps of grace. Grace multiplied.

John 1:17. “ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

We need the law because we would not see our need for grace. The law shows us how we need His grace and mercy.

Where everyone (Pharisees, Sadducees, and the lawyers) got skewed was they tried to follow the law perfectly, to obey every jot and tittle,. The missed that the law was also supposed to show us God’s grace.

Revelation 22:21. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

This is the last verse in the Bible. The first and last in John’s writing is about grace.

Grace is not just poetry to sing about. There is something real about grace also. Do you want to look at grace in a new and fresh way?

John 1:17. “ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

Moses was the “mailman.” He delivered the law to Israel. Jesus came as the reality of grace and truth. Do I know the difference between law and grace?

Am I willing to look straight at the Lamb of God who is the embodiment of grace? Have I received His fulness? Grace upon grace?

John was the disciple whom Jesus loved, who leaned on Jesus breast. He understood grace.

At this point, Tom begins a run-through of the New Testament showing “first and last mentions” in many of the epistles. He sometimes just quoted the passages, sometimes he did more elaboration. I caught what I could.

Romans 1:5-7; 16:24.

1 Corinthians 1:3, 16:23. Corinth was a messy place. Tom reads these two passages and sees the “grace sandwich.” What is going on in Corinth? How does God’s grace change the church in Corinth between the writing of the first and second epistles to them?

Paul chose Corinth, of all the place he had ministered, to represent his apostleship, his seal [I Cor 9:2].

Re-read Corinthians to see how grace gripped them.

2 Corinthians 1:2; 13:14. Paul is bracketing what he is saying to the Corinthians by grace.

Galatians 1:3; 6:18. I want all the stuff in the Bible I hear about to work now. I want the reality now. And that reality has to be in grace, as I look to Jesus Himself.

Ephesians 1:2; 6:24. Grace is not a “heavenly ooze,” not a salve. We are not going to God to get something dispensed. Grace and reality comes as a result of loving Jesus.

Philippians 1:2; 4:23. Does the mention of grace bring a smile in any face? There is a joy in grace.

Colossians 1:2; 4:18. Paul was imprisoned. Grace in imprisonment. Grace is costly.

1 Thessalonians 1:1; 5:28.

2 Thessalonians 1:2; 3:18.

In all these letters, grace begins and ends, grace is the prevailing bent of everything Paul is writing.

Heb 2:9; 13:25.

John 1:17. “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

As we move towards Palm Sunday, Easter, and Pentecost, look as these events in the light of grace. Ask God to make grace real and fresh to us.

Ask God to show me “grace upon grace.” As you go, ask God, pray for these things: “grace upon grace,” “grace upon you.”