GRACE OF GOD SERIES PART 1 THE GRACE OF GOD2007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

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Date: 2007-11-18

Title: Grace Of God Series Part 1 The Grace Of God

Teacher: Jerry B Simmons

Series: 2007 Grace Of God Series

Teaching Transcript: Grace Of God Series Part 1 The Grace Of God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007.

He is laid upon my heart. And so before we go into Second Timothy, we're going to take a slight detour. We're going to take the scenic route back into Second Timothy and look at the subject of grace over the next several weeks. This week will serve as much of an overview of the things of grace. And then in the following weeks, we'll get more in detail into some of the things that we'll be talking about today. But

But the grace of God is so important for us to understand. And God has placed an urgency upon my heart regarding the grace of God and our need to know and remember that it's in his grace that we stand and that it's by his grace that we are saved. And all of all of the things that impact our lives because of God's grace.

And going along with this, as we'll be spending the next several weeks looking at the subject of grace, I would encourage you to pick up this book by Pastor Chuck Smith. It's called Why Grace Changes Everything. If you do not already have it, we can order it for you at the donut table. There's a sign up sheet and you can put your name down so we know how many to order. And I would encourage you to pick one of those up. It's eight dollars for the book.

And you'll be able to read along. And as God is speaking to us on Sunday mornings about grace, then in your own personal life, God will be even deepening that understanding of his grace towards us. Because it's something that we need to know. The grace of God is essential for us as believers. First of all, what is grace? What does that word grace mean?

Very simply, it means favor or acceptance. It also carries with it the idea of joy and thanksgiving that goes along with that favor and acceptance. It's from the Greek word charis or charis. And it's a word that is used throughout the scriptures to describe God's relationship towards us.

His favor, his acceptance towards us and the joy and thanksgiving on our part as a result of his favor and acceptance in our life.

Grace can be also defined as a favor that's done without expectation of return. It's something that's done without expecting to be repaid. It's not something that was done because, well, you know, the person already did something. And so that's this payback or it's not something. Well, I'm doing this because I'm expecting that you will return the favor. Instead, it finds its only motive in the free heartedness of the giver.

It's a favor. It's a gift. It's blessing, really, on God's part towards us without expecting anything in return. Grace has often been defined as unmerited favor and kindness. Or you could also put it this way. It's unearned and undeserved favor.

It's not something that can be worked for or deserved. It's not something that we can merit because of how good we've been or because we've stayed away from certain things. Grace has nothing to do with us, the recipients of grace. It has everything to do with God, who is the giver of grace.

Pastor Chuck in his book says it this way. Grace is God giving to me something that I cannot obtain on my own. Grace is being accepted by God, even though I do not deserve it. And even though I am not worthy of it. Grace is God accepting me.

even though I don't deserve it. And praise God for that. Grace is God counting me worthy, even though I'm not worthy. It's God blessing me, even though I'm not worthy to be blessed. It's God giving to me things that I'm not able to obtain on my own, such as salvation, such as sanctification, such as glorification that is to come.

All of these things I am not able to accomplish on my own. I cannot do them on my own. It's God who does them for me. Unger's Bible Dictionary says this about grace. He says grace rules out all human merits. How much human merits? All human merit. It requires only faith in the Savior.

He goes on to say any intermixture of human merit violates grace. Anytime there's a little bit of it where we are contributing or where we are helping as far as grace is concerned, well, it's no longer grace then. If it's because of something we've done, it's no longer grace. If it's because of how good we've been, it's no longer grace. Grace has everything to do with God and nothing to do with us.

The root word or the basic understanding of the word grace is favor. Favor. There's lots of examples that we can look at and that we will look at in the coming weeks. But understand, we can relate favor, because we are human beings, to the word favorit. Favorit.

Right. Your favorite is the one that you favor. So when parents have a favorite child, they favor a particular child. Not a good practice, but it takes place. And so what does that mean to the child?

Well, that child gets extra special things, extra special blessings or or more lenient as far as punishment is concerned sometimes or more privileges or or better responsibilities or or freedoms. There's lots of different ways that it can manifest itself. But the understanding of, hey, the person that I favor most.

is my favorite, or my favorite is the one that receives the most favor. They get the benefit of all of these things because, well, they're my favorite. Right? Everybody always hates the teacher's pet, right? Because, well, there's that favor that goes along with it. The favor and favorite relationship. Now, God does not have favorites. The Bible is very clear and repeats it over and over again. But, He does favor you.

You and I. He doesn't have favorites in the sense that he gives more favor to one person more than another. He favors us all. He favors us all equally. Although it doesn't make sense logically, every person is God's favorite person.

He favors us all equally. He treats us all as if we were his favorite. He relates to us all as if we were his favorite. He gives to us bountifully, even though we don't deserve. He forgives us bountifully, even though for sure we have not earned that. He delivers grace to us equally. There's not one that's favored more than another. Whether the person is Moses or

or David, or Paul, or Larry, or Carlos. He gives to everyone, to each one, favor because of his great grace. You cannot earn God's favor. You cannot work for God's favor. You can't work harder to be more pleasing to God. He already favors you. The only way to receive this favor, the only way to receive this grace, is by faith.

In Romans chapter 5, the Apostle Paul says that we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

The access that we have into grace is by faith, by putting our faith in Jesus Christ, by believing him, by believing that he is the son of God who died upon the cross for our sins, by believing that he took the penalty for us upon the cross. We have access into this grace, into the fullness of God's favor. We're not limited by any means.

Well, I'm just not a really good Christian, you know, and I struggle in these areas and I struggle in those areas. Well, those things have nothing to do with the grace of God in your life.

Well, but Jerry, if I'm living in sin, then God can't bless me. Hey, the grace of God, we have access into it, not by how good we are, not by how good we've been or the things that we've been staying away from. And we aren't excluded from it because of, well, I've been involved in certain things and I fell in this area and I stumbled in that area. No, the grace of God is available to us because of our faith in Jesus Christ.

We we receive God's grace by believing him at his word and nothing more is required. You say, how could this be? It's God. His grace is great. His goodness is without measure. His love for you and I demonstrated in the fact that he sent his son to receive the penalty for us. Grace has also been put this way. God's riches at Christ's expense.

Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. And if you take the first letter of each of those words, it spells out the word grace. It's a good way to remember. It's God's riches, his blessings, everything that he wants for you and I is based upon and centers around the cross of Jesus Christ.

That's the core. That's the whole central point of God's relationship with us. There at the cross, it was Christ's expense. And because of his expense, because of what he did upon the cross, we receive the riches of God's grace. All that he has for us. We receive the fullness of what God has for us. Because of Christ's expense there upon the cross.

Grace primarily has to do with relationship. No matter who we are, no matter what we have done, it doesn't matter if you've been in rebellion. It doesn't matter if you've stumbled in sin. It doesn't matter if you've been in prayer and attend church regularly.

We all have access to God, full access to God, the same access to God by faith because of his grace, because of what Jesus Christ did upon the cross for us. He paved the way and put us all on level ground because of the cross. He is able to pour out his grace and invites every one of us to full relationship with him, full access to him, to his presence, to

To his understanding, his word, his comfort, his power. God grants it to us, not because of our goodness. Remember when the apostles Barnabas and Paul, they were out ministering the gospel. And Paul, as he was sharing, he sees a man that's lame. He perceives that he has faith to be made well. And so he says, hey, stand up and walk.

And the guy stands up and walks and the crowd goes wild and they think, hey, the gods have come down. They call Barnabas Zeus and they call Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And they come running to these guys and they're trying to stop. The people are coming to sacrifice to them thinking, hey, the gods are here. And Paul and Barnabas are saying, look, it's not because of us. This is what we're trying to tell you. We don't have anything special here.

Don't look at us as if it was by our own goodness that we have done this. It had nothing to do with that. It's all about God's grace. God wants to work. He wants to reveal himself. He's anxious and he desires to reveal himself to us. And so he gives us full access, no matter what we've done or where we've been, by faith in Jesus Christ. We have full access to his throne, to his presence, to his power when he wants to work.

The grace of God is amazing. We see here in Titus chapter two, verses 11 through 14, eight different things about the grace of God that we'll just touch on lightly. We'll be getting deeper into these things as we go on in the coming weeks. But but let's just get an overview, a good understanding of what is it that the grace of God does in our lives.

The first thing we find is in verse 11, and that is that grace brings salvation. Grace brings salvation. Verse 11 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. The grace of God brings salvation. Salvation is not based upon works. It's not based upon things that you or I can do.

It's based upon God's grace. Now, this was a tough concept for the early church. Again, going back to the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas are ministering. God has sent them to the Gentiles. People are getting saved. They come back to Antioch where they were sent out from and God continues to work. And as the Gentiles are getting saved, those who are not Jews, they're believing in Jesus and they're getting on fire for God. And God's doing tremendous works.

Then there comes into the midst these Jewish believers and they begin to go to all these Gentiles and say, hey, well, you're saved. That's good. You believe in Jesus. That's wonderful. But but you need to get circumcised and you need to follow the law of Moses. It's good that you believe in Jesus, but but it's really not complete yet. In order to be saved, you really have to do these other things as well.

You have to follow the law of Moses. You have to begin by being circumcised and then you can really be saved. Acts chapter 15 describes this whole situation to us. And so what happens is the church begins to be divided and they decide, well, let's settle this in Jerusalem. So they send Barnabas and Paul again. They send them out to Jerusalem to establish the principle. Do believers in Jesus have to be circumcised?

Do they have to follow the law of Moses in order to be saved? And so they go to Jerusalem and they begin to share with the apostles there all the things that God is doing. And the Gentiles are getting saved. And there within Jerusalem, just like it happened in Antioch, then some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, they rose up saying it's necessary to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses. That's great. They're saved. Awesome. But they need to become one of us. They need to be circumcised.

And so it was a issue there at the church in Jerusalem. How is it that a person is saved? Do they need to be circumcised? Do they need to keep the law of Moses? Is that how a person is saved? Peter stands up and he begins to share with them what took place in Acts chapter 10 when God sent him to the house of the Gentiles, Cornelius. And as Peter was speaking, God poured out his Holy Spirit upon them.

And Peter concludes as he's sharing these things in verse 11 of Acts chapter 15. He says, Peter says,

That's not how we are saved. That is not the way which salvation comes. He says, we believe that through the grace of Jesus, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. In other words, there's no difference Jew or Gentile. Gentile does not have to become Jew in order to be saved.

But we're all saved on the same basis. And that is not our works, not our status as far as the Mosaic Law is concerned, but the basis for our salvation is on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2,000 years later, we're still fighting the same battle. There are those who say, well, you've got to be baptized to be saved.

If you're not baptized, you're not saved. And others say, well, not only do you have to be baptized, but it has to be with this specific formula. And if they didn't baptize you saying these specific words in this specific way, then it wasn't valid and it doesn't work. It's the same battle. It's the same battle. Others say, well, you know, in order to be saved, there's, oh, I don't know, let's say seven sacraments that you got to fulfill. And that's how you're saved. Others say, well, no, you're saved on the basis of which day you go to church.

If you go on Sunday, you're not saved. If you go on Saturday, you got it. You're in. Others say, well, if you eat these certain foods and you got to keep this diet and then you'll be saved. It's the same battle that goes on today. And it's the same thing that creeps into our hearts. But we need to remember, it's the grace of God that brings salvation. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. If you don't know it, learn it.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Salvation is by grace. It's by grace. It's not of works, lest we should boast. Our works don't save us. Our works don't make us more spiritual. Our works don't make us more holy. Our works don't draw us closer to God. Our works have nothing to do with our relationship with God in that sense.

Our salvation relationship with God is based upon God's grace and his grace alone. We can't earn it. We can't deserve it. We can't work for it. We can't add to it by our good works. It's by his grace that we have been saved. The second thing we see about grace here in this portion of Scripture is that grace appeared to all. First of all, grace brings salvation, but also grace has appeared to all.

Now, the point of this part of the verse is that everyone is able to receive God's grace. Since God's grace is not based upon merit, anyone can receive it. It's not based on how good we are and it's not limited by how bad we are. It's by grace. So everyone can be saved.

The grace of God that's necessary for salvation has appeared to all. It means everybody can be saved. Everybody can receive the grace of God. Everybody can become born again. In Romans chapter 4, verse 16, Paul makes this point saying, therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace.

So that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Whoever has faith receives grace and it's of faith. God designed salvation to be of faith so that it would be according to grace, that it wouldn't be based upon our merit, so that there wouldn't be people who would be excluded from the reach of salvation.

but that it might be sure to all the seed, to every person, to each individual, no matter how good or how bad. The worst person on the face of the earth is still within the reach of God's grace. By faith, able to put their trust in Jesus Christ and receive the fullness of forgiveness, fullness of blessings, fullness of relationship with God. We have the Apostle Paul as an example of this.

We went through this in 1 Timothy 1. As he was saying, hey, I thank God because he enabled me and he counted me faithful and he put me into ministry, even though formally, well, I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, I was an insolent man. In 1 Timothy 1, verse 14, he says, And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

He goes on to say, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. The worst sinner, the chief sinner, God saved. Why? In verse 16 of 1 Timothy 1, he says, for this reason, I obtained mercy. That in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Paul says,

is set before us as the pattern. If Paul can get saved, if God can do the work that he did in Paul, anybody, there's no limit, there's no exceptions, everyone can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what they've done, how long they've lived that way, how much they've known. It doesn't matter what race, what religion, what gender, it doesn't matter.

God is able to save the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. God saved Paul and set him as an example that we would know that there's no one outside the limits of God's grace. But everyone can believe and receive everlasting life. The third thing we find in this portion is found in verse 12. The third thing is that grace teaches us to reject sin.

Grace teaches us to reject sin. Verse 12 says, You know, there's many who fear the subject of grace. And they fear the subject of grace, not necessarily for their own selves, but, well, we don't have a whole lot of faith in the rest of our believing brothers and sisters.

The fear is that, well, if they know about God's grace, if they know that we cannot add to it by doing good works or by how good we are, if they know that salvation is not based upon our keeping God's word and our being obedient to those things, if they know that God forgives us because of his great grace and not because of our own selves, well, then they're going to continue to live in sin.

They're going to just go wild because why not? It's God's grace and he'll forgive us. And look at this great grace that we have. And so we can live however we want. And so many people shy away from the subject of grace as a result. Pastor Chuck in his book has a chapter entitled, Won't They Go Wild?

That's the thought. Hey, if we teach these things, if we learn about God's grace, then doesn't that mean that, hey, we can just do whatever we want and live however we want? Well, Paul says, no, the grace of God teaches us to reject sin. That's what he says. They're teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. God's grace teaches us.

To reject sin, to turn from sin, to deny our sinful nature. This is the issue that Paul is dealing with in Romans chapters 5 and 6. At the end of chapter 5, he tells us there, Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Where there's sin, there's much more grace. So, it begs the question,

Chapter six, verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? What's the answer, guys? Certainly not. Verse two says certainly not. A true understanding of grace will never produce the attitude in the heart that, well, I'll just go ahead and do it and God will forgive me. Or it's OK because we're not under the law, but we're under grace. No, a true understanding of grace will will produce the attitude of grace.

Returning from sin, rejecting sin. And if you have that attitude, understand that you don't know anything about grace. You haven't learned about God's grace. And what you understand is not grace because God's grace teaches us to turn away from sin. And we'll deal with this in more depth and more detail in a couple of weeks. But understand God's grace teaches us to turn from sin. It doesn't comfort us as we continue to live in it.

The fourth thing we learn, also found in verse 12, is that God's grace teaches us to live right. He says, teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Grace teaches us to live right. Just as a true understanding of grace will not cause us to dive into sin, a true understanding of grace will not cause us to neglect what is right.

So you learn, wow, God's grace. I don't have to do these things in order to be in God's favor. No, that's based upon his grace. Well, great. Then I'm not going to, you know, read my Bible anymore and no use, you know, being the good Samaritan and helping those who are in need. And why bother, you know, going to church and doing those things? You know, God's grace is so backward to how we think because that's kind of how we think, right? Well, let me do as little as I can get away with. But when we learn of God's grace...

A true understanding of God's grace. It will cause us to live rightly. It will teach us to do righteously and to live godly. See, we think, well, if I do this and this, then I'm spiritual. If I keep these things and follow these things, I read my Bible every day and

And so I'm spiritual. I'm pretty holy. And look at this person. He doesn't do those things. This Christian, you know, they say they're Christian, but they don't read their Bible every day. And they don't come to church every Sunday. And they must not be as spiritual as I am. We judge spiritualness and holiness based upon the things that we do. God doesn't judge that way. Well, I must be closer to God than them. God doesn't look at it that way.

God has a completely different perspective. He relates to us based upon his grace, not based upon our works. So does that mean we should just, well, why go to church then? Hey, I'm busy. And hey, we'll get into that in the coming weeks. Just understand for now, God's grace, a true understanding of his grace will not cause us to neglect what is right, but will teach us to do what is right.

We do not do things in order to earn God's favor. We have God's favor and it motivates us to live for him. But if it's based on our works, then it's no longer grace. In Romans 11, 6, Paul says, if it's by grace, then it's no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace. Otherwise, work is no longer work.

Grace is no longer grace if work is involved. And work is no longer work if grace is involved. The point is, it's of grace, which means your works add nothing to it. You don't get more of God's grace because of how good you are. But you do right and live according to God's word because you've been taught by his grace in your life. If it's not by works, we already have God's favor by faith in him.

And understanding his grace will help us to live the way that he desires us to live. God's grace teaches us to live right. Point number five, found in verse 13. Grace teaches us to look for Jesus' return. Verse 13 says, Grace teaches us to look for Jesus' return.

The return of Jesus Christ. It's something in the grace of God that we can look forward to. Because of God's grace, the return of Jesus is a blessed hope. We describe it as a glorious appearing. Now, on Wednesdays, we've been studying through the book of Isaiah. And we've seen some of the devastating effects of the wrath of God that will come upon the earth. And the multitude that will be wiped out upon Jesus' return.

There's great reason for a person to fear Judgment Day, the day that Jesus returns. But for the person who has received the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ, there is no fear. It's not a fearful thought. It's not a fearful day. Instead, it's an anxious expectation, a blessed hope, that glorious appearing when we will see him. For the one who understands grace...

The appearing of Jesus Christ is our great hope. That's what we long for. That's what we're running towards. That's the finish line that we're seeking to reach. Peter says in 1 Peter 1.3, Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For us as believers, this is something that we are to fully put our hope in. This is this is all we're living for. This is the whole point and focus of our lives. The return of Jesus Christ, the day that we will stand before him and stand with him.

When we understand the grace of God, when we understand that we are forgiven completely of all sin, when we understand that we are God's beloved, his special people, when we understand that God's grace is real in our lives, then we understand that there is no need to fear.

We don't need to be fearful of what is to come. We don't need to be fearful of the days ahead. We don't need to be fearful of the day of Jesus' return because of God's grace. Because I'm not going to be judged by him. Why? Well, it leads us into point number six. Grace is at Christ's expense.

Verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Grace is at Christ's expense. I don't need to fear because all of the judgment that I deserved, all of the wrath that was coming my way because of my sinful nature and my sinful lifestyle was

All of the penalty for my sin, past, present and future, was laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross. It was at his expense. There's no need for me to fear God or to fear his return. Because I stand before him blameless. My faith in Jesus Christ.

It's a blessed hope and glorious appearing because grace was at Christ's expense. Again, grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. And he spared no expense. He paid it all. He took care of it all. It's all been paid for. It's all been accomplished. He gave himself that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, Though he was rich...

Yet for your sakes and for your sakes, for my sake, he became poor. That you, through his poverty, might become rich. God's riches at Christ's expense. He became poor. He humbled himself. He laid aside. What does Philippians 2 say? He emptied himself. He emptied himself. He became a man. He became rich.

In the form of a servant. Became obedient. Unto the point of death. Even the death on the cross. He became poor. He paid the price. He suffered on the cross for you and I. That we might become rich. That we might experience the fullness of the richness of God. The exceeding riches. Of his grace. Of his goodness. We owed a debt that we could not pay. Richard always quotes this. I think it's from Great Glory. Christ paid the debt that he did not owe.

Because we couldn't pay the debt that we owed. We owed God a great debt for our lawlessness. We deserve judgment. We deserve death. You and I deserve hell. But Christ paid the debt. He took care of that expense. He took our place upon the cross. That he might taste death for every one of us. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9 tells us we see Jesus.

who was made a little lower than the angels. He emptied himself. He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. He, by the grace of God, tasted death for you and I. He took our place. He took the penalty. He received the judgment that was due you and I.

The only reason we can receive grace is because of what Jesus did for us upon the cross. Because he paid the price. If there was any other way, he would not have died. He was there in the garden praying. Lord, if there's any other way, there was none. We couldn't keep the law. We couldn't meet God's standard of perfection. Jesus Christ had to die. And because of his death, we get the benefit of his grace.

We're counted righteous in him. Our sins cast as far as the east is from the west. We're forgiven. We're cleansed. We stand righteous before God. Leads us into point number seven. Grace makes us his own special people. It's still there in verse 14. Says that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people. You're God's special people.

individually, you're God's special person. You have God's favor. Although he has no favorites and that he favors one above another, he treats each of us equally as his favorite. We have his favor. We are his special people. We have a special relationship with God as a result of his grace, as a result of the expense that Christ paid for us.

We have a special relationship with God, special access to God. We have the backstage pass. We have all access to God. In John chapter one, it tells us as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. The right on our own. We don't have the right to be called children of God.

Based upon our works, how good we are, we don't have the right to be called children of God, especially in our sin, because of our sinful nature and sinful condition. We don't have the right to

But as many as received him to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. We are God's special people. Now we have the right to be called children of God. We have a special relationship with God that can only be accomplished by faith in him. And it's the relationship of a child child.

And that's a good relationship to have. In Galatians chapter 4 verse 6, it tells us that God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. The special relationship between father and child. Not, there is a God and he's somewhere out there and I just hope that I don't, you know, cross him, otherwise he might strike me down. Not even, well, yeah, there's a father, but...

You know, dad doesn't like to show emotion. And so we don't really hug or show affection to each other. You know, we don't really talk that much. It's just that's my father. He provides. And that's the extent of it. No, Abba, Father. This is the idea that you and I can crawl into the lap of God. He invites us. There's no closed door meetings that we're not invited to. He says, come in whenever you want. Doors always open. I want to hear from you. I want to talk with you. I want to share your life with you. We have...

This special relationship because we're his special people because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We're God's children. We can cry out, Abba, Father. We also know because of our sonship, because we're his children, we're heirs of God. We'll get into that in a couple of weeks. What does that mean? What is this special relationship that we have with God? Oh, it's awesome. God invites us. He gives us full access to him and his presence, not because we're so worthy, but

Well, yeah, you know, God gives us full access, but man, I was on the freeway earlier and I lost my temper and I was yelling at this guy. You know, I got to wait a couple of days before I can really have full access to God again. No. No.

It's not based upon your works, how good you are, how bad you are. You have full access to God anytime by faith in Jesus Christ. Not because you're so worthy, not because you're so great, but because he's so great because of his grace in our life. We're his special people. We have full access to him. He invites us anytime, any place, wherever you are. He wants to meet with you. Finally, point number eight.

Grace gives us zeal for good works. That's the end of verse 14. Not only does he make us his own special people, but he makes us zealous for good works. Grace gives us zeal for good works. This is one of those amazing things about God's grace. Not only does God's grace mean that he has forgiven us, not only does God's grace mean that he counts us as righteous, but

But through his grace, he also gives us the opportunity to serve him, to meet the needs of others and to impact lives for eternity. He allows us to play a part in his kingdom. He gives us a specific place within the body of Christ, specific roles and functions to fulfill. So important and so critical that the body will not grow if we don't fulfill those functions. He gives to us great responsibility, right?

Honor and privilege of serving him. Every believer receives this by the grace of God. Not only that, but then he goes on to give us spiritual gifts to enable us to fulfill our role within the body, to do the thing that he's called us to do. He enables us and he gives us supernaturally that we might fulfill those things, that we might do what he's called us to do.

First Peter 4.10 says, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Spiritual gifts. Everyone has them. And it's a matter of stewardship because he has given gifts to us by his grace. God wants to use you. Well, I know God wants to use me, but you know, I really haven't been reading my Bible that much lately. And

Just, you know, just blowing it here and there and not doing that well. I'm not real spiritual right now, so I don't have spiritual gifts right now. It doesn't work that way. You have spiritual gifts. God wants to use you because of his grace, because of what Jesus did upon the cross, not because of how good you are. It doesn't matter how bad you've been. God wants to work in and through your life. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 as we close here. Ephesians chapter 2.

Can I have the worship team come on up and get ready to close us in a song too? We'll go out praising the Lord for his great grace in our lives. But here in Ephesians chapter 2, look at verse 4 through 7 with me. First of all, it says, Now let me back up for just a second. The first part of Ephesians chapter 2, your wretchedness.

You and I dead in trespasses and sins. The fullness of who we are without Christ. Wretched sinners. But verse 4. But God. No longer are we that way. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he hath loved us.

even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved 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 grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.