Sermon Tone Analysis

| *Understanding and Applying Grace*!

Romans 3:19-31

May 7, 2006 19We know that the law’s commands are for those who have the law.

This stops all excuses and brings the whole world under God’s judgment, 20because no one can be made right with God by following the law.

The law only shows us our sin.21But

God has a way to make people right with him without the law, and he has now shown us that way which the law and the prophets told us about.

22God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ.

This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same: 23All have sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory, 24and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift.

They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

25God gave him as a way to forgive sin through faith in the blood of Jesus’ death.

This showed that God always does what is right and fair, as in the past when he was patient and did not punish people for their sins.

26And God gave Jesus to show today that he does what is right.

God did this so he could judge rightly and so he could make right any person who has faith in Jesus.27So

do we have a reason to brag about ourselves?

No! And why not?

It is the way of faith that stops all bragging, not the way of trying to obey the law.

28A person is made right with God through faith, not through obeying the law.

29Is God only the God of the Jews?

Is he not also the God of those who are not Jews?

30Of course he is, because there is only one God.

He will make Jews right with him by their faith, and he will also make those who are not Jews right with him through their faith.

31So do we destroy the law by following the way of faith?

No! Faith causes us to be what the law truly wants.

*PRAY**Scripture Memory:*Romans 3:26 – God gave Jesus in order “to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

*Intro:*Following the Civil War, there were many people who had exchanged all of their US currency for Confederate currency.

Imagine, for a moment that you were one of these people.

Everything you owned has been destroyed by the war and you are forced to move to a northern city with nothing but the clothes on your back and the worthless Confederate currency in your pocket.

To make matters worse, you find out that, not only is the currency worthless, the mere sight of it tends to make people furious, as if you were to blame for the cost of the war.

You need to find a place to live and you find a place that you might be able to buy over time.

Then you find out that the place is owned by a man who has helped you out numerous times in the past and to whom you already owe a huge debt.

Since your currency is worse than useless, you can’t even begin to repay your old debt, no less buy a house from him.

Then a strange thing happens.

The wealthy land-owner hears that you have moved to town with only the clothes on your back the reminders in your pocket of the losses suffered from the war, and he seeks you out.

Despite the fact that you were already deeply in debt to him, he cancels your debt, gives you the house you desired, completely furnished, with utilities and maintenance paid for life.

This is a picture of how grace operates.

1.

Grace and need2.

Grace and humility3.

Grace and merit4.

Grace and cost5.

Grace and effect 1. Grace and need*Some wrong views of grace: *·   “Grace makes up the difference between what we can do and what we cannot do”·   “We are saved by grace, but we must live by our spiritual ‘sweat.’”

*Some right views of grace:*Isaiah 55:1 – Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who [don’t have enough money] have *NO* money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.[vv.

22b-23 – There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.] Understanding grace begins with an understanding of 3:23 – ALL have sinned.

We are ALL in the same desperate condition apart from Christ.The preacher who went to visit the poor woman with some financial help… – She was desperate, but to fearful to open the door.

We are not so, on the contrary, we are not desperate enough.

We feel that we will be able to pay somehow, or else that whatever we CAN pay SHOULD be enough.There is NO difference between us in this – the Jew and the Gentile, the Educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, the religious person, and the non-religious person, the most decent moral person and the most degenerate – ALL HAVE SINNED and fallen short.When we think of the reality that we will* ALL*, one day, stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we have different strategies to provide some hope of heaven:·    Some try to measure upSome of us may truly TRY to measure up to God’s standards, like Martin Luther – but this is rare·    Some assume that they are doing enoughMany of us just *assume* that what we are doing is sufficient to merit Heaven.

We compare ourselves favorably with many others and see no reason why we should NOT merit heaven.·

Some assume that *EVERYONE* will go to heavenOthers assume that *EVERYONE* will go to heaven, that there will be no judgment or accountability in the end, or at least, the only people who WON’T go to heaven are REALLY bad people.

- Mormonism·    Some feel that we are all *entitled* to heaven…As in our introductory illustration:We might assume that since we have a need, and the rich landowner has the means, we are *ENTITLED* to a house.We might assume that we COULD pay for it if we were only given the opportunity – It just wouldn’t be FAIR for God to exclude us, merely because we didn’t believe in Jesus.Like the people who heard Jesus famous parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector, most people are “confident of their own righteousness.”

We may concede that we are not perfect by any means, but we consider ourselves to be basically good.The parable of the church go-er and the convicted murderer – (the Pharisee and the tax collector) Lk 18:9ff – Not that EITHER one was a better person than the other…[9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13“But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’]

– look at the prayer which the tax collector prayed – The 1st word: /God/ – the last word: /sinner/.

This is where it must start and end for us.

We must come to GOD for mercy, never forgetting our need for His mercy and grace.The problem is that we have a wrong view of sin.

Do we see our sin in terms of /wickedness, rebellion, willfulness, despising, defying, etc./?It is not simply that we do not deserve grace; rather we DO deserve Hell! (C.

Samuel Storm) 2.

Grace and humilityGrace and humility go hand in hand.When we are humbled, we are painfully aware of what we DO NOT deserve.

Grace assures us that God will not withhold His love and blessings because of what we have or have not done.

“The self righteous person imagines that God scoops grace out of a barrel, giving much to the person who has sinned much and needs much, but giving only a little to the person who has sinned little and needs little.”

(Boice) Others of us feel so sinful, so dirty, that we have a hard time really believing that God could possibly not have given up on us.

Both responses condition grace upon our obedience or lack thereof.

– In other words, both show a serious misconception of grace which, in practice, denies it.The fact that being humbled is a painful experience for most of us is a reminder of our need to be humbled.We know that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6) and yet we are SO proud!

And pride is SO subtle!Are we WILLING to be humbled, if only we might truly know God’s grace? 3.

Grace and merit“Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit….

Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit….

[Grace] is treating a person without the slightest reference to desert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.” (C.

Samuel Storm)“To the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life.”

(Jerry Bridges)God does not OWE us anything, at least not anything good!

When we begin to think that it is UNFAIR that some should be condemned while others saved, merely and completely by God’s grace, we are falling into the trap that He somehow has an oblige-tion to us, that He somehow has to answer to OUR standards.When we find ourselves comparing ourselves favorably against someone who is reaping the fruit of wrong choices, we are not living by grace.When we find ourselves wondering if God really loves us, knowing in our hearts how unlovable we really are, we are not living by grace.When we find ourselves wondering if our striving after obedience to God was really worth it in the face of some disappointment, we are not living by grace.

4.

Grace and costF    Grace may be free, but it is not cheap (3:24-25a)24All need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift.

They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ.

25God gave him as a way to forgive sin through faith in the blood of Jesus’ death.What is the difference between /free/ and /cheap/?/Free/ has to do with what it costs us./Cheap/ has to do with it’s value.The grace of God does not cost US anything.

But it DID cost God the highest price imaginable, his only begotten Son.Redeeming what has been lost – or better, redeeming what has been sold into slavery… “a sacrifice of atonement” (3:25 NIV) ~/ /propitiation/ (NASB)– “presupposes… a wrath [of God] that needs to be appeased or turned aside” (Boice)F    What does grace cost us?“There’s

no such thing as a free lunch.”The

gospel is free… and yet it is notThe matter of “counting the cost”Luke 9:23-24 (New Century Version) - 23Jesus said to all of them, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want.

They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me.

24Those who want to save their lives will give up true life.

But those who give up their lives for me will have true life.  5.

Grace and effect/Vain/ grace2 Cor.

6:1 (NIV) – As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

*What does it mean to “receive God’s grace in vain”?*

F    To relegate it to a past event which has little or no bearing upon the present.

F    To deny the ongoing effect which God desires it have on the lives of His children*What impact does the grace of God have on people?

**What impact should the grace of God have on us? *F    It causes people to trust God rather than themselves.

F    It enables people to move on in faith rather than be paralyzed by fear in the midst of unknowns.

F    It brings us to see ourselves in such a light that we can bear with our brethren to a degree far beyond our natural capacity because we understand our own need of it.Grace, when properly understood produces confidence before God, but it also produces weeping and humility.If we do not examine our lives in the light of the grace of God, we are in danger of nullifying the effect it could have on our lives if we immersed ourselves in it.

*Summary ~/ Review:*Grace has noting to do with what we do or do not do, except for the amazingness of it applied to our unworthiness.

We will not understand grace until we understand our sin, until we come to grips with the truth that we have absolutely NO moral or other currency which could purchase God’s favor.We must ask God to open our eyes to the weight of our unworthiness before Him that we might see the glory of His grace applied to our lives.

We must not allow ourselves to wallow in self-depredation as though we were somehow unworthy of His grace.

Nor can we allow ourselves to see ourselves as more deserving then anyone else of this grace, as though anyone else might need more grace than we do.We need to ask ourselves, “Are we WILLING to be humbled, if only we might truly know God’s grace?”Do we desire to grow in our appreciation of the glory of God’s grace?

Do we understand the price He willingly paid for us?Is our confidence in God’s grace, in His unconditional love for us rather than in our abilities or other resources?

Are we able to extend this grace to others because we are so amazed at His grace in our lives?

A Truth to Remember: God loves those who see and acknowledge their unworthiness of that love.

His love is unconditional and is seen in the sending of Jesus to die in our place.

A Challenge to Consider: Are you willing to be humbled enough to discover the freedom and confidence that comes from a thorough understanding and application of God’s grace?

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