Transcript: Discover the Gift of God's Grace for Eternal Life

Music Music Our subject in this message today, for which I am very excited to be speaking about, is talking about the grace of God, which is a gift to sincere, faithful, and obedient children of God. God the Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, death, burial, and resurrection. This wonderful grace of God alone leads the believer in Jesus Christ to eternal life through one's faith in the one who gave his life on the cross to make salvation possible for those who live in him and love him with all of their hearts. First, we need to establish what it means to live in Christ. Living in Jesus Christ is likened to an analogy of the branch being connected to the vine, which Jesus spoke about in John chapter 15 beginning in verse 4. Our Lord begins by saying, Dwell in me, and I will dwell in you. Live in me, and I will live in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself with abiding in being vitally united to the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me. Verse 5. I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him bears much abundant fruit. However, apart from me, cut off from vital union with me, you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in me, he is thrown out like a broken off branch and withers. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and they are burned. Verse 7, if you live in me, vitally united to me and my words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you. Wow. Verse 7 tells us that if we continue to abide vitally connected to our Lord and his words remain in our hearts that we may ask what we will and it will be done for us. But, but, I wonder how many people skip to the last part of this verse and think in their ignorance that just because they've gone to the altar and given their life to Christ now they can ask whatever it is in their little old heart's desire to wish for. Truth is, many have gone to the altar in vain and never had entered into true understanding of salvation and living their lives in Jesus Christ. Some in their request to God desire things of the world and all of its glamour and fair. Some desire more money to buy everything that they ever wanted. Some want bigger homes because they think this will make them happy. none of these desires are in Christ's offer of salvation or living in him Jesus has commanded that we come out of this world dear listener when we see that Jesus Christ is the vine the true vine we see that it is an example of the humility that he is pleased to speak of himself in such a low and humble comparison let's not forget that he is the creator of the universe who spoke all things into existence he is the bright and morning star and he is the sun of righteousness he is the way and the truth and the life who meekly and subserviently compares himself to the vine he is the vine planted in the vineyard he is not a spontaneous byproduct planted in the earth. He is the Word who was made flesh and came into this world for the salvation of mankind. By identifying himself as a vine, he claims that participation in the kingdom of God is possible only for those who remain in him. Those disciples or followers who do will bear much fruit. Scripture tells us that this true vine had nothing that people should desire him. Christ had no form or comeliness, we are told in Isaiah chapter 53 verses 2 and 3, which tells us, For the servant of God grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of the dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, royal kingly pomp, that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a man of sorrows and pains, acquainted with grief and sickness, and like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not appreciate his worth or have any esteem for him. Since believers are branches of this vine imagery, which then concludes that Jesus Christ is the root of the vine also. How many of you know that the root of the tree goes very deep and supplies the whole tree with water and sap which keep it alive. Believers like the branches of the vine are weak and insufficient to stand by themselves, but they are held up and made alive in Christ, who supplies everything they need as they remain attached to him and are obedient to his commands. Dear listener, the whole responsibility of this analogy or figurative description of the vine for the believer is to bring forth fruit in order to remain or abide in Christ. We must be fruitful. Just think, in the natural, we look for grapes. When we plant a grapevine, the grapes are the fruit of this vine. This speaks of the analogy that the responsibility Christians must have and must produce is having fruit. Again, this tells us that none of this is possible without the grace of God, which is again a gift to sincere, faithful, and obedient children of God, through God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, death, burial, and resurrection. This wonderful grace of God alone leads the believer in Jesus Christ to eternal life through one's faith in the one who gave his life on the cross to make salvation possible for all those who live in him and love him with their whole hearts. And this is made possible because the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to all true believers in Christ who have repented in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of and the release from their sins. just as Apostle Peter declared in Acts chapter 2 verse 38. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is revealed in Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 through 25 and tells us that true sincere believers should be producing and demonstrating this fruit daily in their lives. Verse 22, But the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the work which his presence within accomplishes, is love, joy, gladness, peace, patience, and even temper, forbearance, kindness, goodness, benevolence, faithfulness. 23. Gentleness, meekness, humility, self-control, self-restraint, continence. Contenance. Against such things there is no law that can bring a charge. And those who belong to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, have crucified the flesh, the godless human nature, with its passions and appetites and desire. If we live by the Holy Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit. Hallelujah! So the scripture in verse 25 tells us that if we live or have our life in God, let us walk in the Spirit being controlled by Him. This does not happen overnight by our willing it to happen for us. this happens by the grace of god because his holy spirit who is called the spirit of grace sees the earnestness and sincerity of the believer who longs to be made in the image and the likeness of christ's righteousness who is their pattern in galatians chapter 5 beginning in verse 16 we see what they were exhorted to overcome and have to a great degree have overcome since the gift of the holy spirit was imparted in their lives by the grace of god almighty verse 16 i say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another. So that you do not do the things that you wish. Verse 18. But if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. They are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresy, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in past time, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. All the things which will prevent anyone from entering the kingdom of God are called the works of the flesh, which are opposite of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. we must honor God and do good and exemplify the purity and power of the doctrine of faith that we profess and this is called producing good fruit also living in Christ is also likened to a tree that bears good fruit in Matthew 7 verses 17 through 23 which declares even so every healthy sound tree bears good fruit worthy of admiration but the sickly decaying worthless tree bears bad fruit worthless fruit a good healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad diseased tree bear excellent fruit worthy of admiration verse 19 every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire therefore you will fully know them by their fruit not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, we'll enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and driven out demons in your name and done mighty works in your name? And then I will have to say to them openly, publicly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who act wickedly, disregarding my commands? In Matthew's gospel here, we see Jesus was warning his disciples about the wolves in the midst of them who are planted to deceive people into air and lead them astray. He is telling them by their fruit you shall know them. By having followed their master and his teachings while he was with them, he said that this fruit will be found in their person, in their words, in their actions, and of course in their conversations. You will know if they are right or not by observing how they live. Their works will testify for them or against them. If people pretend to be prophets or teachers and are immoral. This proves them wrong and liars in their hypocrisy and show that they are not true friends of the cross of Christ in whatever they profess and whose God is their belly and whose mind is on earthly and lustful fleshly things. In John 8, verse 12, Jesus addressed the crowd. He said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the light, which is life. Jesus was addressing this crowd who had turned a deaf ear to what was said, and yet he spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. It must be known deeply in every regenerate soul that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Jesus brought the truth, which was to be illumined within the hearts and souls of those who would choose him as their savior and captain of their salvation. He says these that do live in him will not walk in darkness of the unregenerate, not knowing where they are or where they are going because they are spiritually blind. But those who do now see, they know in whom they have believed, and that they are in Christ, and walk in his grace and in the love of God. Apostle Paul, in his epistle in Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 through 28, gives us additional insight into the phrase, in Christ, and what it means. He says, since they have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. To be baptized into Christ means a literal baptism at the time a person gives their life literally to live for Jesus Christ, which is an outward sign that they had dedicated their lives to Christ, but also that they are now identified with Christ by having left their old sinful lives and fully embracing the new life in Christ now. How many of you know that salvation is not a once-saved-always-saved doctrine that we find in the Word of God? This error was taught by John Calvin and has led many people astray who believe it. Salvation is an ongoing process until the very end of our lives where we need continual grace and forgiveness of our Father in heaven. Jesus, in Mark, chapter 8, beginning in verse 34, called to these people a throng with his disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after me, let him deny himself, forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interest, and take up his cross and joining me as a disciple and siding with my party follow me continually cleaving steadfastly to me verse 35 and whoever wants to save his higher spiritual eternal life will lose it the lower nature the temporal life which is lived only on earth and whoever gives up his life which is lived only on earth for my sake and the gospels will save it his higher spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to forfeit his life in the eternal kingdom of God? Verse 37. For what can a man give as an exchange, compensation or ransom in return for his blessed life in the eternal kingdom of God? For whoever is ashamed here and now of me and my words in this adulterous, unfaithful, and preeminently sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in glory, in splendor and majesty of his Father with the holy angels. So to be in Christ means we have accepted Christ's blood sacrifice as payment for our own sins. You see, no amount of self-cleansing makes us pure enough to warrant forgiveness in a relationship with the Holy God. This is called self-righteousness. And we're told in Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 that this is likened to filthy rags or like a leper because all of our best deeds and righteousness is like a polluted garment, which is totally unacceptable to God. The Bible says that in our natural sinful state, we are enemies of God in Romans 5, verse 10. Even still, in saved or our unsaved, unregenerate self, we will all face the judgment of God as told in Revelation 20, beginning in verse 11, which declares, Then I saw a great white throne, and one who was seated upon it, and for whose presence and from the sight of whose face earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. Verse 12. I also saw the dead, great and small. They stood before the throne, and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged, sentenced by what they had done. their whole life of feeling and acting, their aims and endeavors, in accordance what was recorded in the book. Verse 13, and the sea delivered up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades, the state of death and disembodied existence, surrendered the dead in them, and all were tried and their cases determined by what they had done according to their motives, aims, and works. Verse 14, then death and Hades, the state of the dead or disembodied existence, were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found and recorded in the book of life he was hurled into the lake of fire As was stated we will all face this judgment one day as our scripture says But for those who are in Christ Jesus and are truly living in his commands and precepts there is no need to live our lives in doubt and fear. We have the hope of salvation. Jesus himself tells us in Matthew chapter 24 beginning in verse 11, that in the last days there are many false prophets that will rise up and deceive and lead many into error. And the love of this great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity. Verse 13, but he who endures to the end will be saved. Please understand. verse 13 does not say try to endure to the end as an offer to be tried out but it is a command that leads to eternal life by the grace of almighty god endure means to bear up under trials persecution to suffer to abide the day of judgment will not be a burden for the individual who truly loves the Lord Jesus Christ with a fervent passion and devoted, adoring love. In John chapter 5, verse 24, Jesus declares, I assure you most solemnly, I tell you, the person's ears who are open to my words, who listens to my messages and believes and trusts and clings to and relies on him who has sent me, possesses now eternal life. He does not come into judgment nor incur a sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation, but he has already passed over and out of death into life. Dear listener, this should either convict your heart or you should be filled with deep inner joy, no matter what things happen in our good times or deep valleys or trials that we go through. The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ through our faith. And again, I repeat, the grace of God is a gift to sincere, faithful believers, obedient children of God, the Father through his Son Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. This wonderful gift of grace of God alone leads the believer in Christ to eternal life through one's faith in the one who gave his life on the cross to make salvation possible for all those who live in him and love him with all of their hearts. Can I tell you all of these wonderful selfless sacrifices of our precious Savior on our behalf, which include his priceless blood, are now freely poured out to all of those who live in him and obey every command laid out in his book of life. So now we speak about grace in the New Testament and we learn that it was Apostle Paul who makes this wonderful news about this subject very clear to our Christian understanding. Paul urged his followers to make their speech gracious or attractive and referred to his visit to Corinth as a grace which would bring them pleasure. He said in Colossians chapter 4 verse 6, let your speech at all times be gracious, pleasant, winsome, seasoned as it were with salt, so that you may never be at a loss to know how you ought to answer anyone who puts a question to you. and Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29 declares let no foul or polluting language or evil or unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth but let such speech that is good and beneficial to spiritual progress of others as fitting to the need and the occasion that it may be a blessing and give grace God's favor to those who hear it Hallelujah You see, Paul's sense of grace owed much to his experience of being turned from the harasser and persecutor of the church to Christ's missionary to the Gentiles. In 1 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 12, Paul declares, I give thanks to him who has granted me the needed strength and made me able for this. Christ Jesus our Lord, because he has judged and counted me faithful and trustworthy, appointed me to the stewardship of the ministry. Verse 13. Though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and was shamefully and outrageously and aggressively insulting to him, nevertheless I obtained mercy because I had acted out of ignorance and unbelief and the grace unmerited favor and blessing of our Lord actually flowed out super abundantly and beyond measure for me accompanied by faith and love to be realized in Christ Jesus. Paul was so convinced that this was all the will of God's doing it and not his own merit that he could describe his apostolic calling as coming even before his birth when he said in Galatians chapter 1 verse 15 but when he who was called and chosen me set me apart even before I was born and called me by his grace his undeserved favor and blessing saw fit and was pleased to reveal to unveil disclose his son within me hear that he disclosed his son within paul and this is what we are talking about today that by the grace of god that his son jesus christ is being disclosed within every true believer in jesus christ today so that paul says so that i may proclaim him among the gentiles the non-jewish world as the glad tidings the gospel immediately i did not confer with flesh and blood did not consult or counsel with any frail human being or communicate with anyone praise god paul was an apostle solely because of god's grace and his entire ministry and teaching were due to that divine grace to fulfill the will of God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in verse 9, Paul humbly declares, for I am the least worthy of the apostles who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God, oppressing it with cruelty and violence by the grace of God, unmerited favor and blessing of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not found to be for nothing, fruitless and without effect. In fact, I worked harder than all of them, the apostles, though it was not really I, but the grace, the unmerited favor and blessing of God, which was with me. Paul had too profound a sense of human sin to believe that a person could ever earn God's acceptance when he said in the beginning of Romans chapter 3 verse 23 since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives all are justified and made upright and right standing with God freely and gratuitously by his grace his unmerited favor and mercy through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus. As a Pharisee, he sought to do that by fulfilling the law. But now that he had come to see that it was not a matter of earning God's acceptance, but rather of coming to accept God's acceptance of him through Christ Jesus. So now he came to see a sharp contrast in opposites between law and grace. dear one the grace of our lord jesus christ must be accompanied by faith a person must trust in the mercy and favor of god even while it is undeserved as he spoke in his gospel of romans chapter 4 verse 16 which tells us therefore inheriting the promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith in order that it might be given as an act of grace to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants not only to the devotees and the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham who thus is the father of us all so all in all Paul's zeal to defend the law. He was met and blinded on the horse that day by his Lord Jesus Christ, who changed his passion and enthusiasm into a calling that calls him a champion for a cause and leads many into the understanding of God's grace, which leads to salvation and ultimately to eternal life. Hallelujah. You see, the law is a way of self-help of earning one's own salvation. But grace is God's way of salvation totally unearned by anyone or anything we could do to merit it or earn it or to credit it to ourselves. The grace of God is appropriated by faith in what God has done in Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. in Romans chapter 5 verse 20 Paul declares but the law came in only to expand and increase the trespass making it more apparent and exciting opposition but where sin increased and abounded grace God unmerited favor had surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded Verse 21 so that just as sin has reigned in death so grace his unearned and undeserved favor might reign also through righteousness, right standing with God, which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ the Messiah. So it is through Christ's atoning work on the cross that God's grace comes to us, setting us free of the bondage of sin and has the power to lead us into eternal life as we continually keep our eyes on the one whom our hearts love, just like the maiden in the Song of Solomon as she learned through her journey of searching in her quest of finding her beloved bridegroom. How many different ways could we possibly say this or speak about of the benevolent grace of our Lord Jesus Christ before we truly understand the depth and profoundness of what our Christ has done and sacrificed on our behalf to call us his child. God's grace is so bound up with and in Jesus Christ that Paul could speak of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ When we read in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, when he says, For you are becoming progressively acquainted with and recognizing more strongly and clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, his kindness, his gracious generosity, his undeserved favor and spiritual blessing, in that though he was so very rich yet for your sakes, he became so very poor in order that by his poverty you might become enriched abundantly supplied someone may be asking at this point in this teaching today what difference is there between mercy and grace well god was merciful to paul the day that he blinded him to announce himself and call paul out of the extreme darkness that he was operating in at the time and mercy according to the Bible dictionary means having a compassionate disposition to forgive someone or to offer aid, assistance, or to help someone in need. Now, closely connected are such concepts as grace, goodness, loving kindness, compassion, and patience, and love. These are all connected with grace. Mercy is an essential quality of God demonstrated throughout Israel's history by which God faithfully keeps his promises and maintains his covenant relationship with his chosen people despite their unfaithfulness. God's mercy is more than punishment being withheld. It actively helps those who are miserable due to circumstances beyond their control. This is demonstrated in Jesus healing the blind and the lepers while he was on the earth. The parable of the prodigal son shows how God is the father of all mercies and the God of all consolations. And the parable of the merciless servant in Matthew's gospel in chapter 18, verses 23 through 35, puts this holy quality of God in perspective of his divine judgment for those who refuse to show mercy to others. God's merciful faithfulness is most evident in his sending Jesus Christ and saving his people his mercy will be manifested at the final judgment God is merciful and expects his children to be merciful so grace and mercy we see interplay and interact with one another now grace according to the Bible dictionary even though we have been speaking about it much throughout this teaching today. But grace means favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it in spite of what a person deserves. Grace is one of the key attributes of God. In Exodus chapter 34 verse 36 tells us that the Lord God is merciful and gracious and long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. That always cheers me and makes me very happy. I don't know about you all, but that makes me very happy. Therefore, grace is almost always associated with mercy, love, compassion, and patience as a source of help and with deliverance from distress. now although the grace of God is always free and undeserved it must not be taken for granted grace is a gift given by God and the gift is received by man through repentance and faith grace is to be humbly sought and through the prayer of faith according to Malachi chapter 1 verse 19 which declares now then I Malachi I beg you priests, entreat God earnestly that he will be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand as a defective animal for a sacrifice, will he accept it or show favor to any of you? Says the Lord of hosts. So we need to understand, dear ones, that the grace of God was supremely revealed and given in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not only the beneficiary of God's grace, but he was also its very embodiment, bringing it to mankind for salvation, according to John 1, verse 14, which tells us, And the word, Christ, became flesh, human incarnate and tabernacled, fixed his tent of flesh, lived a while among us, and we actually saw his glory, his honor, his majesty. Such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace, favor, loving kindness and truth. By his death and resurrection, Jesus restored the broken relationship, the broken fellowship between God and his people, both Jew and Gentile. The only way of salvation for any person is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly, dear listener, the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ is graciously given to human beings for their salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of Grace. the spirit of God is the one who binds Christ to his people so that they may receive forgiveness and adoption into sonship and newness of life as well as every spiritual gift or grace that will lead to salvation of their souls Hebrews chapter 10 verse 29 declares how much worse sterner or heavier punishment do you suppose will be judged to deserve who have spurned and thus trampled underfoot the Son of God, who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated, common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting and outraging the Holy Spirit, who imparts grace, the unmerited favor and blessing of God. So it is the Holy Spirit who imparts grace as an absolute blessing and favor of God. And as the Spirit of grace, you must know and be aware that he infuses us with a heart of caring and concern and love for others. Precious Holy Spirit governs the attitudes and actions of the believer who has learned to walk in dependence on him. We will walk in his grace and obedience and fulfill what the scripture tells and requires of us when we yield our hearts completely to him. I know at times this message may have sounded repetitive in many ways but as one who has a degree in education it is always taught at least way back when when I was at the university as a student majoring in education in the 60s that repetition was the best teacher and that was in the natural realm but we can see well throughout the epistles of Paul that repetition is used over and over as he describes and teaches us on the subject at hand that we are coursing through today called the grace of God is a gift which leads to eternal life. This is a pregnant and full subject which can't be covered in one setting, dear ones. But God's will was made complete when Jesus brought the gospel of grace into this world. John 1, verse 17 declares, For while the law was given through Moses, grace unearned deserved favor and spiritual blessing, and truth came through Jesus Christ. Truth came through Jesus Christ. May you always think of this and remember that when you accepted your waymaker and your Savior into your heart to begin your salvation walk. Your dear Lord imparted, implanted into your soul his precious Holy Spirit of grace who will change you into the same image and likeness as the one who died for you upon the cross 2,000 years ago. May he be glorified, praised and adored forever and ever. Hallelujah. Thank you.