Grace Upon Grace Part 1
Grace Upon Grace • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 16 viewsNotes
Transcript
Goodness and Grace
Goodness and Grace
“And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
One of the most misused and abused words in western theology is the word “grace”. It is not misused and abused by non-believers but professing believers. However, grace is an attribute of God Himself. So, to misuse and abuse this attribute is to redefine the nature and intent of God.
In our current day grace seems to mean whatever a professing Christian wants it to mean. It is often used in the context of antinomianism or justified moral lawlessness. It is sometimes used as hedonism or justified fleshly pleasures or materialism that we call faith.
Regardless of how you define it, if it is not how God has defined it you have perverted it. There are three primary words used in the Hebrew for “grace” that will hopefully encourage you to know and live in the grace of God. We find them all in the prophecy by Zechariah.
Here, God says that He will give salvation (Yesha יָשַׁע - ample space for deliverance). Through Yeshua יְשׁוּעָה, the deliverer, God gives each of us ample space for deliverance. It makes a way for you to accept, receive and learn to live in the freedom of a life free of sin and shame. But you have to receive it and embrace it. I did not say it would be easy or happen over night. God can deliver your soul in a moment. The moment you sincerely accept Christ as your Savior, your sins are washed away. But to make Him Lord of your life and to be delivered from the life you once lived in sin often takes a process of hard choices and life changing challenges. This is where we need sufficient grace and unmerited favor that only comes from the Lordship of Christ over every day, every moment and every situation.
God tells us that His glory will fill the tents of Judah. Yeshua, Jesus Christ, brought salvation through the house of Judah and the house of David. It is through Jesus that God’s glory has made you the dwelling place or tent of His presence. And where His presence is, so is His favor even to the weakest, feeblest or most in need. God says that even the weakest and poorest who make Him Lord shall be like David and the house of David like that of God Himself. God was saying that He would give a might and strength to conquer, that can only come from Him. The same strength, courage and might to overcome, that God gave David to kill giants, is the same strength through the power of the same Holy Spirit that God will give you to overcome the giants in your life, if you will but trust Him with your whole heart as did David.
The strength that the Lord gave David to conquer lions, bears, giants and the oppositions he faced in life came through the power of the Holy Spirit but they were rooted in grace, supplication (pursuit of God) and a repentant heart.
The Hebrew word תַּחֲנוּן tachanun means to plead for grace and mercy as in Psalm 86:6
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.
The Hebrew word חֵן ch’an means simply grace or favor. But this word is used in conjunction with another Hebrew word you should be familiar with and that is the word טוֹב tov which means that which is good. Good grace, God’s grace.
So, what does all this mean. In the prophecy given by God through the prophet Zechariah, we see all three of these used by God to express His desire for you. God declares that He will pour out on you, Jerusalem (the place where God chooses to make His presence dwell), a spirit of grace (ch’an) and cries for His mercies (tachanun) and you shall receive His goodness (tov). But what is His goodness spoken of here?
It is yesha ישׁע (ample space for deliverance; to accept help) through Yeshua יְשׁוּעָה (deliverance; the act of salvation; victory; Jesus Christ). This is the goodness and grace of God, to allow you to not only receive His salvation through His death on the cross that you might die to your old life, but to now be given the opportunity to allow His Holy Spirit to change your life and live His new resurrection life freely given. This is true grace. Grace is not Christ crucified and resurrected so that I can continue to live my old sinful life but feel good about it. Paul says this way of living is to crucify Christ again and deny the power of the cross of Christ. Christ calls us to live a life where we deny the old self of it’s sinful desires and discontentment, to take up this new life in Christ and live as He lived. This is what it means to follow Christ. I cannot follow you but go my own way? If I don’t get lost we at least get separated. To follow Christ is to live His way. It is to pattern your life, your heart, your thinking, your choices, your morals, your values, your desires, to pattern everything after the pattern of Jesus Christ.
The ample space and opportunity to do just this, is what God calls grace and it is indeed a reflection of the nature of God and His goodness. This is the grace of God that was revealed to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Hosea, Esther, and all of Israel time and time again.
Consider the Israelites as God parted the Red Sea delivering them from thier old life of slavery in Egypt. With their enemies pursuing behind them God makes a path of escape, holding back the waters, giving them Yesha, ample space and time to be delivered. This is God’s grace, this is Yeshua, an act of God’s salvation and deliverance.
In the Garden of Eden, man became discontent with God and all He had provided. Once they realized what sinful life outside of God’s sovereign authority was like (naked, ‘erom עֵירֹם, helpless), God gave them ample space for deliverance (yesha), opportunity to confess, repent and be reconciled. Right there in front of them God was offering Yeshua, the very best of His nature. But instead, they chose to reject this help and take on a victim mentality blaming others for their pitiful situation. The Apostle John declares in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word.” And yet, still today people, in their stubborn pride, would reject the help of the Almighty.
In the Garden of Eden, the Ha Satan (adversary of the will of God) had convinced them with one word (opposing word; humanistic word) of deception that God was unmerciful, unforgiving, and graceless. He does the same today. And if that does not work, he convinces people that either there is no way of escape from their sinful life or that God is so tolerant that He doesn't even care enough or have the power to deliver them but to just make a grand excuse for living sinful. All of these are from the same liar. God is both just and merciful. He is gracious and He is good. And He desires you to not only know salvation from sin but be delivered from living continually a life enslaved to sin.
So many Christians today need deliverance. By that I mean, they have accepted the salvation of Christ but not the deliverance of Christ. They want the benefits of salvation but want to hang on to their old fleshly nature. They want to live in the Promised Land but continue to live like the pagans. Christ paid the price for salvation but your deliverance from your old self will cost you. It must be laid on the altar by you and surrendered to Him once and for all. It must be left behind and you to never return to it.
Consider Lot’s wife, who while being delivered by God from the perversion and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, could not help but look back still being pulled in her soul by that old lifestyle.
Often we think of deliverance as just the casting out of demons through some process of exorcism. There is a Hebrew word for “deliverance” that is נצל natzal which means to escape, strip away, tear away from or withdraw and be secure. Listen to how the Apostle describes it to the Christians in Ephesians.
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The church has too many professing Christians who have received salvation but have yet to be delivered from the old self and into the fulness of the newness of life in Christ. Some of you have called yourselves Christians for years but continue to struggle walking in the fulness of the maturity of the stature of Christ. In all your years of attempting to live fro Christ in your flesh your spiritual growth has been stunted. You have this concept of trying to live for Christ instead of Christ living in and through you. It is not about performance but about absolute surrender to His pattern living. It is about stripping away everything contrary to His way and embracing His holiness or complete consecration to His pattern of living.
Some of you the biggest demon you have in your life is you! Your flesh, your pride, your refusal to allow God to make changes in you and your life. You live Christ like artificial sweetener. You want sweet Jesus and His benefits without the bitterness of His death. I am not preaching fire and brimstone. I am telling you how to truly be free and live Christ. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Too many think they are living Christ but they have never quit living self.
For example, you cannot harbor offense Christian. How are you justifying your offense in absolute rebellion against the divine instruction and command for reconciliation? Do you not know that Christ Himself said if you do not forgive you cannot be forgiven. You cannot receive what you refuse to give. How then do you follow the Christ? How do you expect to receive His grace and goodness?
So many want His grace apart from living His goodness. Or they want His goodness without dabak דבק or cleaving to His grace. So many have been taught incorrectly that we can live in His grace apart from His goodness.
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
You cannot just stop here. You must take it in context. The word actually used here in the text is not “grace” but חֶסֶד chesed or lovingkindness. It also means joint obligation. So, how did they translate it as “grace”? Because it was because of God’s lovingkindness that He took on the obligation of your sin that you might be in joint covenant with Him. This is graciousness. This is God giving ample space for you to repent, be reconciled and be delivered. He filled the void or gap where Adam did not seize the ample space for repentance and reconciliation. Christ filled that gap so that you could no longer live ‘erom or helpless to sin but be truly delivered from it’s grip. This is the goodness of God to you. This is grace upon grace.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
This Yesha through Yeshua was in the beginning in Genesis and this was all from the beginning according to John.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus Christs was the Word of God that filled the void of emptiness. He was the one who put life where there was only death. He is the one who brings light where there is darkness. He is the one who is the way of escape into a life of righteousness where you once lived enslaved to sin.
What man whose death sentence was commuted would instead prefer to live life in prison rather than be free. Who told you this was grace? Grace is living the life you were delivered to not continuing to live the life you were delivered from. To separate living with God’s grace apart from living in His goodness is like trying to have a dark candle in a room filled with light. Candles don’t put off darkness, they only give light. Live by His grace, but let’s live in His goodness. His goodness has a name and it is Yeshua. Receive deliverance from justified dark living and live in the light, for this is true and eternal life.
