(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Biblical Doctrine of Grace. The Biblical Doctrine of Grace. What does the word grace mean? You hear a lot of different definitions for that word and sometimes the words that we use the most often are sometimes words that we don't stop and think about what they mean. And I've heard a lot of different definitions for grace given. I've got the dictionary here which lists like 30 different definitions of grace. And when we go through the Bible obviously we can look at the context and see how God uses the word grace in order to get the best definition. But that's what we're going to do tonight is go through the Bible and I'm actually going to start at the beginning in the book of Genesis and just start looking at every mention of the word grace in the Bible to see what the Bible actually teaches about this. Now a lot of you may know that Calvinism is usually referred to as the doctrines of grace. They usually don't like to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is usually something that opponents of that doctrine would call it. It's Calvinism. They say, well we believe in the doctrines of grace. Well we're going to go through and look at every mention of grace and see does this line up with the so-called doctrines of grace that Calvinism teaches. Now let's start out with just some definitions of grace that we've heard through the years or that we've heard growing up in church. You know I've heard it put this way, God's riches at Christ's expense. You know the acronym G-A-R-A-C-E. Usually you hear a definition like unmerited favor or sometimes I've heard it as mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve of punishment and grace is when you get what you don't deserve as far as the gift of eternal life. And I think that all of those definitions have merit. They do have their place. But the doctrine of grace is more complicated than that in the Bible simply because the word grace is used in various ways throughout the Bible. So we really have to study grace in scripture to get the full picture. Although those definitions do definitely fit in a lot of context, let's see what the Bible says. Now if we go to the dictionary first of all, definition number one, I just went to dictionary.com. Definition number one for grace is elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion or action. It gives the example we watched her skate with effortless grace across the ice. Now this is not the biblical definition of grace usually. Rarely the Bible will use grace in this way, but this is not what we're talking about tonight, being graceful or smooth. Number two, a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment. He lacked the manly graces. That's what it says in the dictionary, so they must be talking about Pastor Polkadot. Definition number three is where we get into what the Bible actually typically means when it says grace. Definition number three is favor or goodwill. This is usually what the Bible means when it talks about grace. When we talk about the grace of God, we're talking about his favor or his goodwill, okay? And then it lists a whole bunch of other definitions I'm not going to get into. And then it says theology. Here's the theological definition according to the dictionary. The freely given unmerited favor and love of God. Number two, the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them. Number three, a virtue or excellence of divine origin. And then the condition of being in God's favor or being one of the elect, okay? So this is what the dictionary says. But again, the dictionary is written by human beings. A lot of times it's talking about things that don't pertain to the Bible. So we really need to get into the Bible itself, don't we? Now here's the main thing I want to start out by saying before we get into our first reference is that according to Calvinism or the so-called doctrines of grace, God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. God basically just chooses certain people and he bestows his grace upon them. And it's not based upon anything that they do. It's not based upon any virtue that that person has. It's not because they have faith. It's not because they did right or anything like that. It's just because he just chose that person. Just in his will that we can't understand, he just picks certain people and doesn't pick others. Now we do not believe that, okay? We believe that there is a condition to receiving God's grace in regard to salvation. We believe that we have free will and that the condition that we must meet in order to receive God's grace is that we must believe on Jesus. So we believe that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, the Bible says, not of works lest any man should boast. So salvation is not of works but salvation is by faith. Salvation is the gift of God but we do have to believe on Christ in order to receive that gift. So we don't believe in unconditional election or unconditional grace. We believe that there is a condition on God's grace and in regard to salvation, that condition is that we believe on Jesus Christ. And if you would flip over to Romans 5, we're going to go back and start at the beginning in Genesis but I just want to point this out so that you'll understand what we're even talking about here when we talk about Calvinism versus what we believe, what the Bible actually teaches. Okay. Look at Romans 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So it is faith that gives us access to God's grace. We are justified by faith. We believe on Jesus Christ. We receive the grace of God. That's what grace is in regard to salvation. But obviously the subject of grace goes beyond salvation and we want to just understand what is the grace of God in general. Now as we go through starting in Genesis and look at all these mentions of grace, you're going to see some serious patterns develop. You're going to see some things just over and over and over again and if you approach it with an open mind, you're going to see that calling Calvinism the doctrines of grace is ridiculous. Go to Genesis chapter 6 verse number 8. This is the first time grace is ever mentioned in the Bible. Genesis chapter 6 verse 8 and of course up to this point in the chapter, the Bible was just talking about how bad the earth had become and it was filled with violence and there were all these problems. And it says in verse 8, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But look at the next verse. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God. Look at chapter 7 verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Now keep your finger there and go to Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament. So we see that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord but it also says that Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations. Perfect does not mean sinless. It just means that he was a complete, well-rounded individual that served God in all areas of life. And then it says that he was seen righteous before God in that generation. Go to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7, the Bible says, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Now let me ask you a question. Did God just pick a random person just according to his will and just say, you know what, there's all these people in the world. I'm just going to pick a guy according to my unknowable, undiscernable, unexplainable will. I'm just going to pick Noah and bestow my grace upon him. Is that what it said? No. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he was a just man. Because he had the faith to build the ark, he was the one that was seen as righteous because he had faith, because he was a just man. Now let's go to the next mention of grace in the Bible, Genesis chapter 19 verse 19. And you know, we're just going to go through and look at all these mentions and you tell me, I mean, what's the Bible saying here in regard to grace? What does it mean to find grace in the eyes of God? Does it mean that he's just picking somebody through no merit of their own, through no act of their own, through no faith that they have or anything? He just picks a guy and that's just his grace. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. Noah was picked for a reason. Now look at Genesis chapter 19 verse 19. It says, Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercy. So you can see how grace and mercy go together. He said, Thy servant has found grace in thy sight, thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life and I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me and I die. Let me give you the context of this verse. This is Lot. We talked about him a little bit this morning. Lot is living in Sodom and Gomorrah. If you would flip over to 2 Peter chapter 2, keep your finger in Genesis. But Lot is a just man. Lot was a righteous man but he lived in a very wicked place. He made a bad decision to raise his family in an exceedingly wicked place to pitch his tent toward Sodom and God showed mercy on him. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord and what did that mean? That meant that God actually pulled him out of Sodom before he destroyed it because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And what does grace mean? Favor or good will. So God had favor or good will toward Lot in rescuing him and not allowing him to perish with the Sodomites so he pulls him out of there. Okay. Well, what does the Bible say in 2 Peter? Let me get there myself. 2 Peter 2 which refers back because it's always good to let the New Testament be the commentary on the Old Testament. In 2 Peter 2 it says verse 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly and delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. Watch this. That righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. So why did Lot find grace in the eyes of the Lord to be pulled out of Sodom? Is it just God in his sovereign unknowable will just decided to just pull somebody out of Sodom? No. He pulled the guy out who was a just man. The guy who was a righteous man. The guy who was a godly man. That's who got pulled out of Sodom. That's what the Bible says. Go to Genesis chapter 32 verse 5. Genesis chapter 32 verse 5. Genesis chapter 32 verse 5. Now this has to do with Jacob getting back together with his brother Esau after being apart from him. And last time he saw or heard anything about Esau, Esau wanted to kill him. But 20 years have gone by. He's hoping that Esau is ready to bury the hatchet and that it's going to be water under the bridge. So he wants to find grace in the eyes of Esau is what he keeps saying over and over again. Look at chapter 32 verse 5. And I have oxen and asses, flocks and men servants and women servants. And I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy sight. Flip over to chapter 33 verse 8. So you're going to notice this phrase over and over again. Find grace in thy sight. Find grace in thy sight. Look at chapter 33 verse 8. And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. Now stop me if I'm wrong, but if he's bringing a bunch of cattle and giving them to Esau and saying, I'm giving you this cattle so that I can find grace in your eyes, it sounds to me like grace comes as a result of some condition. In Noah's case, there was some condition that caused him to find grace in God's eyes. There was some reason why Lot found grace in the eyes of the Lord, to be pulled out of Sodom. And there's some reason that Jacob thinks he's going to find grace in the eyes of Esau because he's giving him cattle, that I can find grace in your eyes. And so when we talk about grace being unmerited favor, that's a good definition, but it's not unconditional favor. And this is where people get mixed up. They hear, oh, unmerited favor, that means it's just based on nothing. It's just unconditional favor. It's just the grace of God based on nothing. No, there's a condition. When it comes to salvation, that condition is what? You got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you receive grace. You receive the gift of eternal life. But there is a condition. Unconditional election is a false doctrine. There's a condition. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's a condition. Ask any computer programmer, they'll tell you that if then is a condition. So it's not unconditional. There is a condition to it. Look at verse 10. And Jacob said, may I pray thee if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand. For therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. So another idea behind grace or being in God's grace or finding grace in God's eyes is that he's pleased with you. Because we talked about, again, the dictionary definition being favor or goodwill, which is a good definition when you study the Bible. Favor, goodwill, or God being pleased with us is also a good definition for the grace of God. Being in his good graces, you've probably heard that expression. Look at verse 15. And Esau said, let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, what needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord. Look at chapter 34, verse 11. We're looking at every mention of grace. We're not going to get through the whole Bible tonight, but we're going to get through as much as we can here. Just looking at what the Bible says about this word grace. Just letting the Bible teach us what this word means by going through verse by verse. Look at chapter 34, verse 11. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. This is, of course, the guy who wants to marry Dinah. He says, hey, let me find grace in your eyes. What's he saying? Have goodwill toward me. Be favorable toward me. Be pleased with me. That's what he means, right? Let me find grace in your eyes. Look at chapter 39, verse 4. Chapter 39, verse 4 is the next mention of grace in the Bible. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him. Let's see if Joseph finding grace in his sight comes out of a vacuum, okay? Look at Genesis chapter 39. It says in verse 2, and the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand, and Joseph found grace in his sight. So why did Joseph find grace in Potiphar's sight? Because everything he's doing is prospering. Because God's blessing him. Because he's doing a good job. Because he's making the boss happy, he finds grace in the boss's sight. What does that mean? The boss is pleased with him. The boss has good will toward him. The boss favors him. Is this just the boss just picking an employee? I'm just going to pick an employee to bestow my grace upon. No. Let's go to chapter 47, Genesis 47. Genesis 47, verse 25. And they said, thou has saved our lives. This is the Egyptians after Joseph has saved them by laying up the grain for them during the time of famine so that they can have something to eat. And they said, thou has saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. Genesis 47, 29. And the time drew nigh that Israel must die. And he called his son Joseph and said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. Go to Genesis chapter 50, verse 4. And when the days of his mourning were past, while you're getting there, Genesis 54. And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, if now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying. And of course, he goes on. But the point is here, finding grace in someone's eyes, their grace on you means that they are pleased with you. They favor you. They have good will toward you. That's pretty clear that that's the definition of the word grace as we go through the Bible here. Now go to Exodus chapter 33. I'm trying to hurry through these so we can get to as much as we can here. Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter number 33. And we also see that this grace is being given as a result of what people do, and as a result of what they are, what their character is, what they're like. It could be the result of faith, or in the idea, or in the case of Potiphar, it was just a case of he did a good job, so he found grace in Potiphar's eyes. So look at Exodus chapter number 33, verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, see, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. What's he saying here? He's saying, how am I going to know that you are pleased with me? How am I going to know that you have good will toward us, that you want to do good unto us, that we're your people, that you're our God? So again, the definition fits. Go to chapter 34, verse 9. And he said, if now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. Flip over to Ruth. I'm going to hurry through some of these for sake of time, because there's a lot of repetition, isn't there? It's a lot of the same idea over and over again. But I'm just going through all these, because I just really want to drive this in, because we talk about grace all the time. It's good to know what that means, and what the word is actually being used for in the Bible, and then it'll help us get a better context when we talk about grace in the New Testament by just looking at it throughout the Old Testament, because it's used in much the same way in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament. Obviously, the New Testament definitely brings new meaning to grace and a deeper understanding of grace, but we're building on a foundation here in the Old Testament of what this word means. So you're turning to Ruth, but it says in Numbers 32, verse 5, Wherefore said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants per possession, and bring us not over Jordan. Judges 6, 17, and he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Ruth, chapter 2, verse 2, And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him, in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. So she wants to go find somebody who will let her glean in his field. Gleaning is that after the reapers come through and take the harvest, they spill a little bit and they leave a little bit behind, and a woman who's poor like Ruth could come behind and pick up whatever's left behind and have some food for her and her family. It's called gleaning. And so she's going to find someone who will pity her, be merciful to her, let her do that. That's what grace means here. Look at verse number 10. Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? You know, why is it that you chose to pour out your grace on me? Oh, it's just the mystery of my sovereign will. It's just that I just choose one to show grace on, and I withhold my grace from another, and there's just no reason. It's nothing about you. I just chose to show my grace to you. Is that what the Bible says? Well, let's read. And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been showed unto me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband, and thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, unto whose wings thou art come to trust. Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord. And favor is synonymous with what? Grace. For that thou hast comforted me. Why did he show her grace? Why? Because he said, Hey, I heard about how you left Moab, and you came here, and you've put your trust in the Lord, and you're taking care of your mother-in-law, so that's why you found grace in my heart. That's why I'm pleased with you. That's why I have good will toward you. That's why I'm showing favor unto you. You know, I just pick one, and I show favor. No, that's not what grace is. Go to 1 Samuel, Chapter 1. 1 Samuel, Chapter 1. I want to hurry and get through as many of these as I can. 1 Samuel, Chapter 1, Verse 18, and she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. Now what's the context of this mentioned? This is Hannah when she's praying, and Eli sees her praying, and he sees her mouth moving, but no words are coming out, and he thinks she's drunk. So Eli, the preacher, says, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. And she says, No, whoa, you know, I'm not some daughter of Belial here. I'm not here drunk in church. She said, I'm praying. I've anguished apart. And so then he answers her in Verse 17, Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of me. And then she said, Let thy handmaid find grace in thy sight. Basically she's saying, I don't want you to think that I'm a bad person here. I'm not drunk. Thank you for favoring me. Look at, if you would, I want to hurry through some of these. Look if you would at Ezra Chapter 9, Ezra Chapter 9. While you're turning around, I'm going to crank through everything in between because I'm leaving no stone unturned. There's nothing up the sleeve. I'm not hiding any mentions of grace here. You know, we're actually seeing what the Bible says, just going verse by verse and looking at how this word is used in the Bible to test the definitions that we've heard and the teachings that we've been taught on grace. The Bible says in First Samuel 20, Verse 3, And David sware moreover and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes. And he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there's but a step between me and death. Now what's the context? David here is saying to Jonathan, You know what? Your father Saul, he knows that I found grace in your eyes. When did David find grace in Jonathan's eyes? When did Jonathan start liking David? When was Jonathan pleased with David? When did he start having good will or favor toward David? When David killed Goliath. And when David killed Goliath, Jonathan saw that and his heart was knit to the heart of David and the Bible calls that, of course, that David found grace in the eyes of Jonathan. Jonathan liked him. Jonathan was pleased with him. He favored him. He had good will toward him. First Samuel 27, 5, David said unto Achish, If now I have found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town or country that I may dwell with there. For why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Second Samuel 14, 22, And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. He's saying, You know what? Now I know I've found grace in your sight because you're doing what I want. Because Joab had been David's servant and David was pleased with him, so he gave him his request. Second Samuel 16, 4, Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king. What you'll notice here is that grace is something that people are often asking for. Is anybody demanding grace? Is anybody saying, You owe me grace. You owe me this. I've done X and now you owe me Y. Is that what it is? No. That's why grace can be defined biblically as unmerited favor because this is not something that these people deserve. It's something beyond what they deserve, but it is something that's given to them for a reason though. They still had to do something in order to find grace in the eyes of whoever is bestowing grace. And it's different in each situation, but they still had to do something in order to receive grace every single time. It's never a random person. I mean, we've gone through a lot of different stories here and it's pretty consistent. Look at Ezra 9, verse 8, and now for a little space, grace hath been showed us from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. Let me ask you this. Was this grace that the Lord showed the children of Israel in the book of Ezra, was it unconditional? Was it just unconditional? No. Because they had to do what? They had to get right with God in the land where they were taken captive and God said that if they turn unto him, he'll bring them back into the promised land. And that's what he did, but it was not unconditional. Yeah, just keep on worshipping false gods and I'll just bring you back into the land anyway. Is that what he said? Because it's just my grace. I mean, I just choose one and bring him back. No. There was a condition placed upon it. They had to fulfill their end of the bargain. Flip over if you would to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. While you're turning there, Esther chapter 2 verse 17 says, And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight, more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. This is a man who's king and he has multiple wives and he chooses one and she finds grace in his sight, meaning that he was the most pleased with her. He gave her the most favor and good will. Psalm 45 verse 2, Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Go to Psalm 84-11. Psalm 84-11. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Psalm 84-11 says, For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory to people that he chose before the world began based on nothing, based on no action that they performed, based on no virtue that they have. It's just unconditional election. Is that what it says? No. The Bible says here, The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Is there a condition here? There's a condition, isn't there? Go to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1. Look, we're going through every verse. We're leaving no stone unturned. We're halfway through the Old Testament. We've gone through hundreds and hundreds of years of God dealing with mankind, book after book, chapter after chapter. I don't know about you, but I feel like God's usage of the word grace has been pretty consistent up to this point. I think it's been pretty consistent that you can see that it means favor, goodwill, him being pleased with you, whether it's a human giving their grace or whether it's God giving his grace. It seems pretty obvious that that's what it is, and it's never coming out of a vacuum. It's never just selecting a person based on nothing. There's always some condition or something that's being pointed to as a reason why that person found grace or a reason why they're asking for grace. It's always based on something about that person who finds the grace, right? Where did I turn? Proverbs chapter 1 verse 9. It talks about God's word, the commandments, and so forth. It says, they shall be an ornament of grace under thy head and chains about thy neck. I think this is kind of similar to that dictionary definition number one of being graceful. An ornament of grace here, I think, is just something that makes you look good, right? A graceful ornament on your head, something like that. Look at Proverbs 3.22. It's the same thing. It says that so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. The illustration here is how wearing a necklace might make your neck look a little nicer. It's adding grace to your neck. It's causing your neck to be more favorable or pleasing or look nice. This is that kind of look nice definition. Definition number two from the dictionary, a pleasing or attractive quality. The Bible rarely uses the word grace this way, but I think these two examples that we looked at are examples of it being used in that way. Now look at verse 34 of chapter 3. Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Now at this point in the sermon, someone might stop and say, Pastor Anderson, you need to get out of the Old Testament. You need to get out of the New Testament. And look, eventually we're going to make it to the New Testament, okay? But you can't say that grace means something totally different in the Old Testament than it does in the New Testament because this verse is quoted in the New Testament because what does God say in the book of James? It says God resisteth the proud, but he gives grace to people that he randomly chooses. No, it says God resists the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble. He gives grace unto the humble. Then in 1 Peter chapter 5, he says it again. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Who does it say he gives grace to? The lowly. That's the same thing as being humble. That is a quote or a reference to this verse where the New Testament is saying, wherefore he saith, back in Proverbs, God gives grace to the lowly. This is one of the places where God says something like that, that he gives grace to the humble. So if you're a humble person, you're going to get the grace of God. Look, you don't have to roll the dice on getting God's grace. Man, I just hope I'm getting grace. I just hope I'm one of the elect. I hope so. Wrong. You know how anyone can get grace? Anyone. Any Christian today can receive the grace. You say, I want more grace from God. Be humble, and God will give you grace, fact. There's no question. It's not, as John Calvin called it, a mystery. This is not a mystery, okay? Let me solve the mystery for you. If you're humble, God gives you grace. That's what the Bible says. So here's a condition being placed upon receiving the grace of God, being humble. Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Look at chapter 4, verse 9. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Again, I believe this has to do with the beautiful appearance definition of grace. Look at chapter 22. Verse 11, he that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. Again, I think this is that beauty definition that we saw a little bit in Psalms and a couple times in Proverbs here about beauty, okay? Now go to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. We're almost there. I just got a couple of verses to rattle off from the Old Testament, and then we're going to be into the New Testament here. So we've made good time. We've made good progress. We've cranked through a lot of scriptures, and I know we're looking at a lot of verses tonight. I know we're turning a lot of pages, and I know this might seem a little bit redundant. You know, I could have just cherry-picked some verses on grace and just explained to you what grace is, but I wanted to do this because there are just so many sermons out there about grace. There's so much talk about grace, and everybody's got their slant coming at it from a different angle. I just thought, you know what? Let's just look at everything. Let's just put it all out there. Let's just lay it all out on the table, and let's just see what the Bible says. And you know what? Let's let Christians who are sitting in their pew tonight look at it and decide and say, you know what? I see it myself. This is what the Bible's teaching. This is what the Bible says. So your turn to Luke 2. I'm just going to give you the last couple of Old Testament mentions. Jeremiah 31, verse 2, Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Zechariah 4, verse 7, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before is the rubbable, thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Zechariah, excuse me, 1210, And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Of course, that's referring to Jesus Christ being crucified when it says, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. It says in John that that was fulfilled when they put the spear in Jesus' side. The scripture was fulfilled. They shall look upon him whom they have pierced. And so we'll get into that spirit of grace and so forth as we get into the New Testament mentions, because we're going to get into more of that as we go forward. So Luke chapter 2, verse 40. Now this is about Jesus, okay? So this is interesting that as we get into the New Testament, the first time we run into the word grace, we didn't see the word grace in Matthew. We didn't see the word grace in Mark, but we get to Luke chapter 2, and this is the first time we see the word grace in the New Testament. And interestingly, it's about Jesus. And the Bible says of Jesus, and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Now that's interesting, isn't it, that the grace of God is upon Jesus. Now that's why I'm saying that some of the definitions that we've heard could be a little oversimplified. You know, God's riches at Christ's expense certainly doesn't apply here. Getting something that we don't deserve certainly doesn't apply here, because is Jesus getting something that he doesn't deserve when God's grace is on him? You know, unmerited favor, does that really fit necessarily here? No. But if we take the definition that we've been using, what's the definition that we've been using as we went through every mention of the Old Testament, we said grace is what? Grace is good will, favor, or basically if someone's pleased with you, then you find grace in their sight. Okay, well does that make sense in this verse, that the grace of God was upon Jesus? Well, what does that mean? That means that God was pleased with Jesus. God's favor was toward Jesus. He had good will toward Jesus. Isn't that what he said? This is my beloved Son in whom I've well pleased. So that's what it means when it says that the grace of God was upon Jesus. Makes perfect sense. Amen? Go to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. So there's not a lot of mention of grace in the Gospels by name. Obviously the concept is there all throughout the Bible, but it's mentioned in Luke and it's mentioned in John chapter 1, and then it's not mentioned again until Acts. And then in the epistles of Paul, it's mentioned a lot, and in Romans is where we really learn a lot about the grace of God. But in John chapter 1 verse 14, it says, and the word was made flesh and dwelled among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Bible says here that Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, was full of grace and truth. Verse 16, and of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now here's where we don't want to misunderstand. Some people will twist this verse and say, oh well, there's no grace in the Old Testament because grace came by Jesus. Didn't we see a lot of verses about grace in the Old Testament though? Okay, well if you're going to use that logic, then you say there's no truth in the Old Testament. Does that make any sense? Oh, okay, well then I guess God's law, the books of Moses, no truth in Genesis, well because the law was given by Moses, but truth came by Jesus. See how that's a dumb interpretation? So grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that, well until Jesus came along, there was no grace, there was no truth in the days of Moses. Of course that's ridiculous, right? Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the source of grace and the source of truth. And what we have to understand is that Jesus Christ has always existed. Because in this very chapter, what does it say in verse 1? In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. God's word is truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. Jesus is the word made flesh. Grace and truth came by Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was all the way back in the beginning with God, and he was God. So the grace of God goes back to Jesus all the way back to the beginning. Because Jesus Christ was there in the beginning, Jesus is the creator, etc. So when we see that Jesus is full of grace and truth, and that Jesus Christ is the source of grace and truth, and that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, that shouldn't surprise us at all. But we don't want to misunderstand that that grace is a new thing. Otherwise truth would be a new thing, which is obviously ridiculous. Go to Acts chapter 4, Acts chapter 4 verse 33. So when we get into the book of Acts, we see a lot of mentions of grace about, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 different times that grace is mentioned in the book of Acts. And then Romans is where it really gets clear. Acts chapter 4 verse 33 says, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Now the question is, has the definition of grace suddenly changed from the other hundred times we've seen grace, just over and over and over again? Is this some new definition, or is this the same definition of grace that we've always had? I mean, think about it. Great grace was upon them all. What does that mean? Well, I believe what it means is that God is very pleased with them. God has good will toward them. God is blessing them. I think if you saw a church where great things are happening for God, where people are being saved, where lives are being changed, where the power of God is present, you know what you could say? There is great grace upon that church. The grace of God is resting on that church. What does that mean? God's pleased with them. God favors them. God has good will toward them. Now, does that mean that that church has earned that, or that they deserve that, or they can demand that? No. But does it mean it was just bestowed on them for no reason? No. Obviously, a church that's obeying the Lord, a church that loves the Lord, reads the Bible, follows his commandments, you know, that's going to be the church where great grace is upon them, and a church that disobeys the Bible, rejects God's word, doesn't listen to his commandments, obviously, that church is not going to have God's grace on them because they're doing all the wrong things, or if they believe all the wrong doctrine, there's not going to be great grace upon them all. Look at Acts chapter 11, verse 23. Here's the next mention, Acts chapter 11, verse 23, Acts chapter 11, verse 23, and let's back up and get some context from verse 21. Look what verse 21 says, and the hand of the Lord was with them. Now, isn't that similar to having God's grace upon you when the hand of the Lord is with you? What? God's pleased with me. God's on my side. His hand is with me. He has good will toward me. He wants me to succeed, okay? That's what it's saying here. So, verse 21, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things, or news, came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. What did he see when he saw the grace of God? He got there and saw what? That the hand of the Lord was with them, and that many people were getting saved. He said, wow, I can see the grace of God at work here. You know, God's spirit is at work here. God is pleased. God is working here. God is using you. Look at chapter 13. This one's really interesting. Look at chapter 13, verse 43. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Now what in the world sense does that make? If God just chose before the foundation of the world, okay, you are going to be the target of my unconditional grace. You're going to be the target of my irresistible grace. You know, through some mystery of my will, I've chosen one and not the other. And why would you have to persuade somebody to continue in the grace of God? Look what the Bible says. He persuaded them to continue. Hey, I know you have no control over it. I know you have no decision in the matter. I know you have no free will. But would you please, for crying out loud, continue in the grace of God, please? I don't, what do I do? You know, I can't. Either I will or I won't. Calvinism isn't biblical. And you know what? You can take Calvin out of the name and say, oh, well, let's just call it the doctrines of grace. That's funny because I'm just not seeing it. Is anybody seeing it? Because I'm not seeing it. I mean, I'm opening my Bible to Genesis. I'm going through Exodus. I'm going through the entire Old Testament. I can't even find anything close to it. Because it isn't there because that's not what grace means, okay? Look if you would, and this is, look, this is a pretty powerful verse here, 1343. When people are being persuaded to continue in the grace of God. You know what that tells me? That you can either continue in the grace of God or you can not continue in the grace of God. And you know what that means? That means that if you stop doing the right thing, you know what? God's not going to be pleased with you anymore. God's not going to have good will toward you anymore. God's not going to be favoring you anymore. Now he's still going to love you as a son. But look, if my son disobeys me, he's going to be out of my good graces. Now look, I still love him. He's still my son. But I'm going to discipline him. You say, well, I'll show him some grace. Yeah, but he's doing all the wrong things. He's not going to get grace. He's going to get a whipping, okay? Now look, this is not about salvation. Grace is not always about salvation. As we've seen all these mentions of grace, most of them had nothing to do with salvation, okay? Look, you're saved by grace because grace is given to you. You have faith and then, okay, God favors you with his grace to allow you to go to heaven because you believed in him. He gives you eternal life. Okay, that's one aspect of grace. One aspect of grace is, hey, I believe on Christ and I receive the gift of eternal life which I don't deserve, so I find grace in his eyes in the sense of being allowed to go to heaven. But do you see how when we study the Bible, we find that's only one small part of grace. There's a lot of other grace that has nothing to do with salvation where God looks at a church and he's pleased or he's displeased, okay? We find grace in his sight or we don't, and he says, look, you guys need to continue in the grace of God. Must not be automatic. Which makes perfect sense because, I mean, if I said to my kids, hey, continue in my grace, that doesn't mean keep being my child. They're going to be my child anyway, but there's still grace or no grace. You think there are times when I give my children grace, maybe where I show them mercy and other times where I cloud up and rain on them? What's it based on? Well, kids, it's based on the mysteries of my will. You know what I mean? Like, you better just hope that you're one of the elect for dad to go easy on you and not to pour out his wrath on you. Or is it based on something about them? And our salvation is based on whether or not we believe in Christ. And after we're saved, whether God's pleased with us is based on what? What we do. Our obedience, our love for him, our faith in him. I mean, it's pretty clear when you study the Bible. So we don't want to get carried away with this unmerited favor and then morph that into an unconditional favor. Oh, no, that's not biblical at all. Look at chapter 14, verse 3. Again, we're leaving no stone unturned. I've got to hurry. I'm almost out of time tonight. I want to get as far as I can. A long time, therefore, abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Basically, he's confirming that what they're preaching about God's grace, the word of grace, that it's actually true. He's doing miracles and showing them that it's true. Chapter 15, verse 11. This is an interesting one. Acts chapter 15, verse 11. This is where there's a discussion because of some false brethren that have crept in and they're trying to tell people that they have to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. And then they're just trying to decide whether they have to be circumcised and do all these things and they're talking about this. And they're talking about the Old Testament saints and it says in verse 11, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. So they say, we believe that we're going to be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ just as they were. And I'm going to get into the salvation by grace a little bit later in the sermon here. But look at verse 40. And Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. Basically, they're being recommended under the grace of God saying, hey, we're putting you in God's hands. He's pleased with you. He's going to favor you. He's going to have good will toward you. He's going to take care of you. Look at Acts chapter 18, verse 27. Acts 18, 27, when he was disposed to pass into Achaea, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace. Now this is where the Calvinist will grab that. They believed through grace. See it. God just picked a random person and he bestowed grace upon that person, you know, the mystery. We don't know why he picked that person. He bestowed his grace upon them and that's why they believed. You know, they say, except the Father draw you, you can't be saved. But here's what they're forgetting, that Jesus said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. And here's what they're also forgetting, that the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Did you hear that? Titus chapter 2, verse 11, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. So, does the grace of God bring salvation? Amen. But guess what? That grace is available to all men. That's what the Bible actually says. Now this makes sense when we understand grace as being good will, favor, because what did the Bible say about the birth of Christ when the angels met the shepherds, keeping watch of their field by night? He said, peace on earth and good will toward men. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Look, the fact that Jesus Christ came into this world is an act of the grace of God. It's good will toward men. It's God's love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. What motivated God to send the Son to be the Savior of the world? That's his good will toward man, right? That's him blessing us with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the grace of God. Okay, do we as human beings just deserve and demand Jesus to be sent, get down here and save us? Do we have the right to say that? No. That's an act of God's favor, God's good will toward us. It's unmerited, it's undeserved. He sends that down. But the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. The question is, how do we respond to it? We have to choose to believe on Christ or not. The Bible says in chapter 20 verse 24 of Acts, if you go there, you see, what is it that makes us believe? Of course, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So obviously it's the Holy Spirit working through God's word that even allows us to believe in the first place. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. But the difference is that it's not just something that we just passively sit back and it just happens to us. No it's something that's offered to everybody. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. That's the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Jesus said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. You choose how you respond to the grace of God. You choose how you respond to his good will toward you when he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and to be buried and to rise again. And when the Holy Spirit works in your heart or when you hear God's word, you know what? You have to choose how you're going to respond to that. Whether you're going to resist that or whether you're going to embrace that. It's up to you. What chapter are we in? Chapter 20, verse 24, but none of these things move me, neither can I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And then it says in verse 32, and now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. This is a great phrase, the gospel of the grace of God. Go to Romans 1. We're going to finish in Romans. Romans is a great place to end this sermon because Romans is a powerful book on the grace of God. It's going to really tie it in. But what does it mean the gospel of the grace of God? What's gospel mean? We just did this last week. It means the good news, right? So the gospel of the grace of God. You know the grace of God is pretty good news. Why? God is a holy God. We are sinners, okay? We're all as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. God is holy. God is righteous. You know, we have a lot of problems, don't we? We're sinful. Isn't it good news that God could actually be pleased with you? What's grace mean? It means favor. It means goodwill. Look, isn't it great news that God up in heaven, the creator of the universe, has good thoughts toward you? He has good will toward you. He wants to save you, or hopefully he already has. You know, most of the people in here are already saved. But if you're not saved, he wants to save you. He loves you. He died for you. This is good news. It's the gospel of the grace of God that God has good will toward you, that God favors you of all people, right? Or me of all people. It's like, what? God is actually willing to save me. He loves me. He has good feelings and good will. And he can actually be pleased with me? Now how's God going to be pleased with us? You know what? When we believe on Jesus Christ, we're in the family. We're saved. And you know what? God can be pleased with us. But they that are in the flesh, the Bible says, can't please God. So without the grace of God, without Christ and the gospel, we can't please God. But the gospel is that, yes, you can please God because of Jesus. You believe in him, you'll be saved, and now you're pleasing to God. Now you have God's will toward you. Okay, Romans 1. Let's just crank through Romans and we'll be done tonight. I hope that this is edifying to you and that it'll help you understand when you're reading your Bible and you'll be looking for grace and understanding it a little more deeply when you read the Bible and run into grace. Romans chapter 1 verse 5, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. You know, Romans chapter 1 here is talking about the fact that the Gentiles, and this is another thing about the grace of God that comes up and about the gospel, is that it's not just the Jews that God's pleased with. It's not just God favoring the Jews or God having good will toward the Jews, but actually God has extended his grace to who? The Gentiles. So we are partakers of the grace of God. So by Jesus, we have received grace and, in Paul's case, apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations, not just Israel or Judah or Samaria, but all nations. Among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, he's blessing them saying, look, I want God to be pleased with you. I want you to have peace. I want you to have God's grace and peace upon you. I want God to favor you and have good will toward you. Here's a powerful verse, Romans 3.23. Let's flip over a couple pages. Romans 3.23 says this, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So look, is it based on how good we are that we're going to heaven? No, we've all sinned. We all come short of the glory of God, but we're justified freely by his grace. He chooses to favor us, to bless us, to have good will toward us. Now, is it based on our own merits? No, because we've sinned and come short. This is where that definition unmerited favor comes from. Which I said, look, that is a good definition in many contexts of what grace is referring to. And really, all throughout the Old Testament, all those verses we saw, a lot of people receiving things they didn't deserve. Now, they still did something, but they got more than they deserved. They got special blessing. Well, here in this passage, it says, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's keep reading, though. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness. So look, is it our righteousness that gets us to heaven? No, it's his righteousness. So why is God pleased with us? Because grace means what? Favoring us, having good will toward us, being pleased with us. Why does God favor us? Why does God have good will toward us? Why is God pleased with us? Is it because we're such wonderful people? No, it's because of the righteousness of Christ. But how do we get the righteousness of Christ? By believing in Christ. We believe in Jesus. So it says here, To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So the grace of God is that we're justified only by simple childlike faith in Christ. We're justified by faith, not by the deeds of the law. It's not by works of righteousness what we have done. It's just by believing in Jesus. That's the conclusion. Verse 29, Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it as one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. Then we get into Romans 4. And it says, What shall we say then, that Abraham our father has pertained to the flesh and found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Watch this. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. His faith is counted for righteousness. Now, what's the Bible saying here? And I know, don't lose me now at the end of the sermon. I know it's kind of a deep sermon tonight, and we're digging in a little bit deep. But hang with me, we're almost done, and this is kind of the most important part here as we get into the book of Romans. But the Bible is saying here, to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Let's go back to Ruth as an illustration, okay? Boaz had some workers, and he hired them, and said, You go reap that field, and I'm going to pay you, right? They go out there, they work all day, and they get a paycheck. Was that grace? It's not grace. It's not like, Well, I'll pay you because I have good will toward you. I'll pay you because I'm pleased with you. I'll pay you because I favor you. No, no, no. You'll pay me because you owe me. That's the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. What about Ruth? Ruth, on the other hand, he doesn't owe her anything. I mean, couldn't Boaz have just said, Hey, woman, go somewhere else. I don't want you in my field. This is my property. You're trespassing. Leave. Couldn't he have done that if he wanted to? He could have just said, Hey, I don't like you. I don't like your face. Okay? He didn't have to, you know, have her around. She found grace in his sight. He decided, You know what? It's my stuff. It's my field. I'm going to let you take as much as you want. I'm going to let you come here every day. I'm going to let you glean behind my rippers. And in fact, he even told his reapers, spill stuff on purpose. He said, Leave handfuls of purpose. Spill on purpose. And then Ruth comes home and her mother-in-law's like, Wow, you are an awesome gleaner. How did you get so much? Because they're spilling stuff on purpose, right? Look, he's doing that. It's a gift. Okay? He's letting her get that, even though she doesn't deserve it. Okay. But does that mean that she didn't have to do anything? No, because we do have to do something to be saved. And what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But see, this so-called doctrines of grace of Calvinism says, Oh, faith is works. Faith is works? The Bible says we are saved by faith, not by works. So how can they be the same thing? How can faith and be works be the same thing when he says, You're saved by faith, you're not saved by works? They're obviously two very different things, aren't they? But they say, Oh, well, you know, faith, I mean, you had to do that. So that must be works. Or they'll say, Oh, calling upon the name of the Lord, that's works. You earned it. Because, you know, if you tell people, Hey, you got to ask the Lord to save you. Oh, that's works. What a stupid doctrine. That's like saying, if I go down to the welfare office and ask, give me my welfare check. Oh, you just earned it. You just worked for it. Right? I mean, Oh, you picked something up off the ground. You earned it. You worked for it because you had to pick it up. That's dumb. No, look, there is something that you have to do to be saved. You got to believe on, you got to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Now look, is that you earning it? No. Is that you working for it? No. But there's a step that you have to take. And you know what? Calvinism is a lie. It's a fraud. It's garbage. And it certainly isn't the doctrine of grace that the Bible teaches. To him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is count for righteousness. Look at verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Romans 5, 2, we already talked about this wonderful verse. Romans 5, verse 1 said, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. How is it that we stand in God's good favor? How is it that he's pleased with us and has good will toward us? Well, we have access by what? What's the access code that gets us there? Faith. Faith gives us access to the grace of God, the Bible says. Verse 15, But not as the offense, so also as the free gift. Salvation's a free gift. Amen? Amen. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. For if by one man's offense, verse 17, death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Look at Romans 5, 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace. Now we often refer to grace as tying in with mercy. We saw that all the way back in Genesis, right, that there was a connection between grace and mercy. Why is that? Because if somebody's pleased with you, has good will toward you, or favors you, they might go easy on your punishment, which is what mercy would be, right? Going easy on a punishment. So the Bible says where grace abounded, or where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. What the Bible's saying is that the more we sin, the more God's grace is there to cover our sin, okay, to allow us to still get to heaven even though we've sinned. So then he says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Should we just say, okay, well, there's nothing I can do to lose my salvation. I have eternal life. I'm saved forever, not by my works, but just by the grace of God. I'm saved. He promised me eternal life if I believe in him. I have everlasting life. Should I just go out and sin now that grace may abound? Look, stop and realize that if we sin, grace will abound. He just said that. If we sin, grace will abound. But should we do that? Obviously not. God forbid. How should we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And on and on. I'm not going to get through all this because it's already late, but let's just finish into chapter six. We'll get to at least chapter six here. But in chapter 11 is where we want to get to. So I'm going to read you a couple of verses in six and then we'll get to 11. Verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. Verse 15, what then shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. So just because God's pleased with us and we're part of his family and we don't deserve it, that doesn't mean we should just go out and do whatever. Just like my kids shouldn't just go out and do whatever. They'll still be my kids but that's not a good thing to do. Let's close here in Romans 11 five. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. So we see here that when it comes to the grace of God in the New Testament, he's saying look, we're not saved by works. If you're saved by works, it's not grace anymore. Now ironically the Calvinist says, oh, we believe in the doctrines of grace but then what do they say? Well here's how we'll know whether you got the grace if you got the works. Isn't that what they say? They say, well God's grace is the thing that empowers you to do works and then if you do those works then we know you're saved. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says to him that worketh not but believeth his faith is counted for righteousness. If it's by grace, it's not of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. And if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. Now you say, well what's this about the election of grace? Here's what it is, is that God chose, what does elect mean, chose. God chose the Old Testament nation of Israel to be his people. And at the beginning of this chapter he says, you know, did God cast away his people? No, because there's a remnant according to the election of grace. See God in the Old Testament chose who to be saved. Well let me rephrase that. God didn't choose who would be saved because he wants all men to be saved. Who did God choose in the Old Testament to be his chosen people? I should say. I misspoke there. The children of Israel, right? He chose the physical nation of Israel, okay this is my elect, these are my people. Who did he choose to be his chosen people in the New Testament? The saved believers in Christ. So in the Old Testament he chose the physical nation of Israel not to be saved, I misspoke, but to be his chosen people. And in the New Testament he chose Christians, believers, saved people to be his chosen people. So that's the election of grace is where he chose those that are saved by grace to be his people in the New Testament. Okay, so in the Old Testament it was the physical nation of Israel, in the New Testament it's the saved. But did God choose individuals to be saved? No, no, he chose the saved in general. He chose to save all those who believe and he chose that all those who do believe and are saved would be his chosen ones, his people. His elect. In the Old Testament he chose Israel, physical nation. In the New Testament he chose a spiritual nation, okay. So again I don't have time to go through the whole Bible with you but we've gone through much more than half of the Bible here. We went through the entire Old Testament and we went through every mention of grace all the way from Matthew chapter 1 all the way to Romans chapter 11. We got pretty deep into this subject and I think I've made my point. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word Lord and Lord we thank you for your grace. Lord we don't deserve for you to favor us. We don't deserve for you to be pleased with us. We don't deserve the good will that you show us, the gift of salvation that you've given us. And Lord we don't deserve the gifts that you give us every day. We don't deserve the blessings that you've bestowed on our church. We don't deserve the favor that you've showed Faithful Word Baptist Church. But we're thankful for it. And we know that it's all by your grace that we have anything. That our church is blessed at all. That we're saved. It's all through your grace Lord. Thank you so much for bestowing your grace upon us Lord. We realize that you know yeah we had to believe but still you've bestowed upon us for more than we could ever deserve through your grace. We just pray that you would help us as we study our Bibles to understand your word and be able to teach others. Help this insidious, evil doctrine of Calvinism never to creep into our church. And Lord I just pray that if anybody out there is mixed up in this doctrine and been deceived by these lies of John Calvin and Augustine and others Lord, I just pray that they would just embrace the simple truth of your word and get off that man-made wicked doctrine. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.