Necessary Grace

In Robert Lowry’s revival hymn “Nothing but the Blood”, the simple question is asked, “What can wash way my sin?” and answered, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus”.  Nothing could be more simple, straightforward or theologically correct.  We have a need.  We are doomed sinners.  In loving grace God sent His Son to die for our sins.  There was no other way, absolutely no other way, by which we could be saved from our sin and our doom.  What God did in grace was necessary for us and our eternal destiny.  Grace is necessary. 

It is not that man hasn’t tried to reach God without grace; it is just that man has and always will fail in the attempt to do so.  Adam and Eve bought into the satanic lie that we could be like God or equal to Him.  We have kept that same egoistic mentality for all the history of humanity.  Men have attempted to be gods by self declaration.  They have created gods more amenable to their own condition to feel more able to measure up to a godlike expectation.  Even when they consider the one true God they remain futile in their imaginations by assuming that they be worthy in themselves of His approval and acceptance.  All of this is a fantasy and leads to failure, death and doom. 

But, that is not the outcome desired by God.  We can never, we must never, forget the words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son!”  Our church choir sang that yesterday as a beautiful reminder for us all.  Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  To restore men to fellowship with Him; to save them; to redeem them from the enemies possession; God had to do something.  It was necessary and He did it.  He gave His only Begotten Son.  It was the only way to buy back man from sin and its condemnation.  God’s grace excels all other graces in that He has done what is necessary even at the cost of the cross of His own dear Son Jesus Christ. 

It was and is necessary grace.  Nothing else can ever satisfy God’s demand for justice and righteousness. Ask it, “What can wash away my sin?” Answer it, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”  When nothing else can do, then that particular something is necessary.  Grace is God’s necessary response to our need.  Praise Him for it today.  Sing these lasting words of praise, “O Precious is the flow that made me white as snow; no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”  

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

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Matchless Grace

Samuel Medley’s beautiful hymn of worship and praise, “His Matchless Worth”, concludes with this magnificent declaration, “Triumphant in His grace, Triumphant in His Grace.”  Haldor Lillenas in his epic hymn “Wonderful Grace of Jesus” begins his chorus, “Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus”.  What can compare to the grace of Jesus?  What can stand alongside it and say, “I am just as good as that.”  What else could gain eternity for sinful man and bless him on his way?  Nothing! Absolutely nothing!  The grace of Jesus Christ is matchless.

The author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 11 that there are passing pleasures of sin.  The King James Version calls them “the pleasures of sin for a season”.  They look all shiny and bright.  They beckon us from every TV ad, every billboard, every magazine or computer ad we see.  They shout out, “Come to me and be satisfied.  I will meet your need.  I will make you happy.  You deserve me.”  People pay thousands of dollars on seminars to learn how to be happy.  The things break.  The next seminar comes along with a new idea because the old one just didn’t work that well after all.  They all offered things to the flesh and the flesh perishes and all that feeds the flesh will also perish.  They look good.  They sound good.  But they don’t match up to their hype. 

Jesus isn’t like that at all.  His offer is matchless.  He surpasses all expectations.  He never fails.  He never breaks.  His truths don’t need an update.  Jesus does not perish and those who come to him will never perish either.  Every promise that He makes is a lasting promise.  They are heaven guaranteed promises.

The things of earth are bought with a price.  The more we value them the higher the price.  Jesus gave a matchless price for us.  Peter says that we have not been redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold (how odd that what we covet God calls corruptible) but with the precious blood of Christ.  Don Aldridge in his song “It Wouldn’t Be Enough” includes this line, “And I couldn't pay the price for one single drop of blood that was shed for my salvation.” Why wouldn’t it?  The triumphant and priceless grace of Jesus is truly matchless.  Not gold nor silver nor the passing pleasures of sin for a season are enough.  The wonderful grace of Jesus is matchless.  

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Lifting Grace

Among the many of Charles Gabriel’s hymns and Gospel songs is the stirring “He Lifted Me”.  The chorus comes to a crescendo as it sings, “O praise His Name, He lifted (hold that note) me.”  The song begins, “In lovingkindness Jesus came (and we saw kindness yesterday), my soul in mercy to reclaim.  And from the depths of sin and shame, through GRACE He lifted me.”  Praise God for lifting grace, our “L” in alphabetizing grace.

In a long past and forgotten America I used to wend my way around the country using my thumb.  People would stop and crank (yes, crank) down their window and say, “Do you need a lift?”  I would hop in the car and away we would go somewhere toward my destination.  Without that “lift” I would make very slow progress.  I even “thumbed” it to candidate for my first pastoral position.  Believe me; I always appreciated the “lift”.

In life we are all on a road to eternity.  Everyone starts out on the wrong road, the broad way that leads to destruction.  That road, while seemingly filled with the glitter of promise, has very dark skies and many horrible terrors.  We find no real peace, joy or hope on that broad way.  We are all hitchhiking to hell.  We need someone to pick us up, give us a lift, and drive us to a different destination.  We all want hope, peace and joy.  We need a driver who can really take us there.  Jesus is the One who can do that.  He came to seek and to save that which was lost.  He has died that we might have the peace of forgiveness, rose that we might have the joy of justification and lives that we might have the hope of a real heavenly eternity.

 Jesus has commissioned us to ride along with Him picking up the lost.  He has commissioned us to go before Him and pass out notices to others on the broad way that He is coming along that road to give them a ride to somewhere where promises are real.  He died to give a true and eternal “lift” to a lost and truly hopeless humanity.  He did it all in grace. As Charles Gabriel put it so beautifully, “From sinking sand He lifted me.  With tender hand He lifted me.  From shades of night to plains of light, O Praise His Name, He lifted me.”  

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Kind Grace

Keith and Kristyn Getty begin “Compassion Hymn” with these words, “There is an everlasting kindness You lavished on us.”  That is indeed what we find in the wonderful grace of God – kindness.  Kindness is such a simple idea but such a powerful and transforming act.  We have been transformed by God’s kindness to be kind.

Paul wrote the Ephesians, “But be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” (4:32) As a pastor of nearly 40 years I can testify that one place that sees far too little of the kindness that Paul describes is the church.  Of all places where it should be easiest to manifest the kindness of God, it should be in the house of God.  It should be where we hear of His grace and are strengthened in the walk of grace.  We need to practice kindness in the church.

In Luke 6:35 Jesus uses this same word to describe how God is to those who are unthankful and evil.  Kindness is an integral part of the great grace of God.  It is a manifestation of His grace that we can participate in daily. Think of those to whom Jesus was kind.  There was the outcast leper who no one would help but Jesus.  There was the woman caught in adultery that the Pharisees wanted to unlawfully execute.  There was Syro-Phoneician woman who was a despised Gentile whose daughter Jesus healed.  There was Matthew the tax collector, Mary Magdalene the prostitute, the Mad Man of the Gadarenes and we cannot forget Peter after he denied Christ.  He was kind to them all.  Do we know many people who are “worse” than these?  We need to show the kindness of Christ to needy people in streets of our life each day.

Peter also uses this word “kindness”.  When we find it in I Peter 2:3, however, it is translated “gracious”.  The idea of the words is truly inseparable.  I would like to add another verse to Kate Wilkinson’s lovely devotional hymn “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior”.  Sing this with the same tune.  “May the grace of Christ my Savior flow from me for Him each day; that the world may see my Jesus, find in Him the way.”   

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Joyous Grace

Whether it is the classic hymn by Henry Van Dyke “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” based on Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony or J. Edward Ruark’s Gospel song “You May Have the Joy-Bells”, there are a lot of songs and hymns based on joy.  The simple Scripture chorus “Rejoice in the Lord Always” based on Philippians 4:4 gives a brief and easy way to remember to sing about the joy that God has given us.  Today we will use joy for our “J” in alphabetizing grace.

In the Greek New Testament, from which our English one is translated, the word “joy” is a derivative of the word “grace”.  If there were a family tree of vocabulary words then “Grace”, that beautiful woman we met at the start, is the mother of “Joy”.  Grace has other beautiful children we will meet along the way as well.  It is not just linguistically, however, that grace and joy are connected.  It is the very essence of the truth of grace that we should be filled with joy because of it.  John Newton wrote, “I once was lost but now I’m found.” What profound joy to be found after being lost!  What ecstasy in being safe!  Imagine being lost in the mountains, or on the vast ocean or in a dark forest for days.  Hope is all gone.  Then out of seemingly nowhere a rescuer finds you and returns you to hearth and home.  Joy!  We are lost in sin and our rescuer is Christ.  What absolute joy to be found! 

 Now, what would you do for that person who rescued you?  Would you walk away from them with indifference?  Would you send them a thank you by email?  Would you hug them and remember their name forever?  If they were ever to ask for your help with a real simple task, would you give it?  It would be your joy, your great joy, to put their picture on your mantle.  It would be your joy, your great joy, to go to the reception given in their honor.  It would by your joy, your great joy, to help them if you could.  Joy, like her mother Grace, becomes an action, not just a sentiment.  Oswald Smith expresses this joy in his wonderful hymn “There is Joy in Serving Jesus”.  He uses such rich phrases as “Joy that throbs within my heart”, “Joy that triumphs over pain”, “Joy that never will depart”.  This is the joy of grace.  This is joyous grace. 

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Infinite Grace

We return today to Julia Johnston’s hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”.  As we continue to alphabetize the various ways we can see grace, we come to the fourth stanza of this hymn:  “Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace!”  For today we will choose Infinite for the letter “I”.  Infinite grace is quite a grand thought.

The question has been asked by the world for many ages, “How big is God”.  Philosophers pose the question to ridicule Him.  Atheists insist that since He can’t be seen He must not be big enough to believe.  The hurting want to know if God is big enough to meet their needs.  The Bible answers the question with clarity.  The psalmist says there is no place we can go to escape Him.  That is just one place we see His omnipresence.  God challenges Job to match His ability to lay out all the heavens and control the affairs of all the earth.  That is just one place that teaches His omnipotence.  God tells Isaiah that He knows the end from the beginning.  That is just one place that teaches His omniscience.  The answer to the question, how big is God, is that He is big enough to be all present, all powerful and all knowing.  This is the God of grace.

Grace then is as big as God is.  God is infinite in scope.  Grace is infinite in scope.  There is not a place where God cannot extend His grace except hell.  Those who have rejected His grace will never have another chance.  God has elected to exclude hell from His grace, but He pours grace out freely so that no one need go to hell.  Grace is as infinite as His omnipresence.  There is no need so great that in omnipotent grace He cannot meet it.  Grace is as infinite as His omnipotence.  There is no need so deep or vague that in omniscient grace He cannot understand it and care for it.  Grace is as infinite as His omniscience. 

Stuart Hamblen’s country classic, “How Big is God” is a fine way to think of how big God’s grace really is.  Hamblen points out that God is big enough to do everything.  God is also “small enough to live within my heart”.  That is where we find God’s infinite grace so precious, “within my heart.”  Sing the praises of God’s infinite grace today.  

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Holy Grace

When I grew up I thought the first song in every hymn book was Reginald Heber’s classic “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  There is such majesty in those few words.  The angels in glory cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy” and their eternal song is recorded for us in both Isaiah and Revelation.  God, the Lord God, the Triune God is holy, holy, holy.  The last lines of the first and fourth verses of this hymn also declare Him to be “merciful and mighty”.  Yes, the Holy God is the merciful and gracious God.  The grace of God is holy grace. 

Being a holy God, Our Father cannot tolerate sin.  Sin cannot remain in His presence.  It will be cast out and driven into everlasting hell.  All mankind are sinners.  Because of that mankind can not dwell with God.  His holiness demands that sin be removed.  But God is also merciful and gracious.  In His mercy and grace He devised a way that man could be accepted in His presence.  Man’s sin could be removed if there were to be a perfect sacrifice made to atone for it.  So our holy and gracious God sent His own Son, who is also perfectly holy and gracious, to come to this world and live a completely sinless life.  Then His Son died a merciless death on the cross of Calvary and God accepted that death as our own.  Instead of our sin He gave us the very righteousness of His own Son in order for us to live with Him.  That is holy grace.

Our permanent standing with God in heaven is the holiness of Christ.  God also wants us to live with a standard of holiness before men.  In Leviticus God charged the people to “be holy for I Am Holy.”  That same commandment is given to us again in the New Testament in the book of I Peter 1:15-16.  “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I Am Holy.’”  The holy grace of God that saved us calls upon us to walk in His grace by living a holy life.  After worshipping God today by singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”, add a little time of silent reflection while also singing William Longstaff’s well known consecration hymn “Take Time to Be Holy”.  Reflect on the holy grace of God today. 

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