Another heart wrenching event in the United States… I still haven’t watched any news. Have yet to see any footage of the tragedy. I heard the story over the radio as I drove home from co-op.

Last night our Pastor preached through Romans 3:10-20. As he taught through these verses he showed the progression that God gives us in this passage. I had spent the week before pondering these verses that are all pulled from the Old Testament… and I asked God if there was a reason they were in the order they were.

You see I am one of those that believes every thing in the Word is significant… every but, if, so, then, therefore, every begot, every generation, every cubit, every name, every number, everything. So I just keep reading and praying and seeking and trusting that God will open my eyes and give me understanding.

He answered my ponderings Sunday night through my Pastor’s teaching.

There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12

As you study through the first three chapters of the book of Romans you see it clearly laid out that all of us are headed straight to destruction. Whether you be in the deepest darkest jungles of nowhere or whether you have attended the largest metropolitan megachurch since nine months before you born. All of us are guilty of transgressing the Law of God.

Apart from the grace of God we are all useless.

As we continue in Romans 3, with 13-18 we see the progression of those who still refuse to acknowledge God and turn away from Him… exchanging the truth of God for the lie.

“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We see first their throat. Their throat is an open grave. Nothing but death and decay within it. Apart from God we are all dead. Then, we see that death and decay begin to display itself…

Their tongues… their tongues are deceitful. My Pastor shared how this word for deceit can also be translated “fishhook”. A fishhook presents something that appears to be a meal… but it is meant to capture and make the one it captured the meal. It appears to offer life… but in the end it leads to death. Yes, that is indeed the way of deceit. It looks good, smells good, sounds good… but it is a lie.

Then we see it move to their lips and out their mouths.

Those that know God not speak cursings and bitterness. They rarely have anything good to say about anyone or anything. Their is no thanksgiving in their mouth. No praise to God for His goodness… because they are never satisfied.

When we make ourselves the center of our own universe then we will never be happy, as my Pastor shared, we are fallen… and fallen man always thinks more highly of himself that he ought. He will never have enough postion, money, health, fame… people will never be good enough for them or to them… life will never bend over backwards enough to make them happy… therefore their mouths are full of cursings and bitterness.

I have heard them.

Then their words become their actions… the death they spoke with their mouths that proceeded from within them now is played out in their hands and feet.

Just take a moment and think.

Think of all the news and movies and music and games… how much of it is centered and focused on bloodshed.

Just look at the events of our present day?

As our nation continues to turn her back on the Creator… look at the bloodshed.

Look at our nation. Look at our schools. Look at Boston.

God give us eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

There is no fear of God before our eyes…

At the ballfield tonight I watched some interaction between a father and son. The son was probably three years old. He was a handful to say the least. I think my mouth dropped open in stunned shock over his behavior at least three times.

I almost said something to the father… but didn’t.

The final straw for me was when the little boy was about to drop a toy off the top of the bleachers… the father had already said several times earlier to stop. The little boy then goes up again and the father says “Don’t you dare drop that again.” The boy doesn’t check up… he drops it. The father doesn’t even turn around, he just shook his head and let the boy go on.

The words of the father meant NOTHING to this boy. NOTHING.

That terrifies me.

The words of the father should mean something to the child…

The Word of the Father should mean something to the child.

Judgment begins with the house of God.

Have we gotten it all wrong? Have we built up walls for buildings to keep people out of the church? Have we built up walls for a building to keep the church in its place and keep it out of the walls of our homes? Are we worshipping behind walls when we should be worshipping before the world? 

Please come to Boston in the springtime… where death and bombs and destruction and calamity and confusion and despair are present. Where disobedience to the Word of God is exalted. Are we still so foolish as a nation to ignore the connection between disregard and death.

I don’t know if our nation will ever see revival… but I do know that as the dark gets darker… the light gets brighter. I am after those who will love the Light. I have nothing to offer those who love the darkness.

God’s Amazing Grace (Part 1) left us meditating on the beautiful thread of grace we see that flows from the book of Genesis to Revelation.  Today we will dig even more into the New Testament as we continue our study of the grace of our God.

In the books of the New Testament we can discover many beautiful truths about grace. So let us take some time to wipe away any preconceived notions we might have about grace… and let us look at the Word of God through clean and clear lenses. Let us take the Word at His Word.

Today we will focus on six truths about grace. 

1) Grace is free

to the praise of the glory of His grace,

which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:6

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For by grace you have been saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves, 

it is the gift of God; 

Ephesians 2:5-8

We do not work to gain grace… it is not a wage due us. It is a free gift from God. We can do nothing to earn it. We can’t buy it. We can’t sell it.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

Acts 8:18-20

2) It is by God’s free gift of grace that we are saved

being justified as a gift by His grace

through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus

Romans 3:24

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Therefore, having been justified by faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom also we have obtained our introduction

by faith into this grace in which we stand;

and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2

Remember we were dead before we were made alive in Christ… spiritually dead. A dead person cannot do anything… they. are. dead. It is by God’s free gift of grace that we are even able to be saved.

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 

Ephesians 2:5-8

3) It is by grace that Christ offers Himself and it is by grace that God even accepts this as propitiation for our sins

But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 

Hebrews 2:9

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But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 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 

Romans 5:15-17

Has it ever occurred to you that God didn’t have to accept Christ’s blood on behalf of you own? It was the grace of God that made the way and it was the grace of God that accepted the way. It’s my debt that needs paid… God doesn’t have to accept it from anyone else… it’s mine to pay. I owe it. Yet Christ stood in my place and put his arm up to me and said “I’ve got it“. He did this and God didn’t have to accept it, but He did.

4) It is grace that calls us to salvation

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him

who called you by the grace of Christ,

for a different gospel;

Galatians 1:6

It was by the very grace of God that you were called into salvation. Grace, this free gift, this grace of God is what saves us. Grace, this free gift that saves us, this grace is offered up by grace and accepted by grace and it is by this grace that we are called.

5) It is grace that covers our sins

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Romans 5:20-21

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even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 1:13-14

No matter how great the sin… God’s grace is enough.

6) All that we are in Christ is by grace

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 

1 Corinthians 15:10

All that we are, all that we ever hope to be, all that we ever were, all that we never were, all that we ever will be… it is all only by the grace of God. From the beginning to the end it is all wrapped up and wound up in grace.

 

God’s Amazing Grace (Part 3)