Three Signs of Grace After the Flood

Introduction

How many of you have ever decided to read through the Bible? I mean straight through. Not some OT readings and NT readings and getting through the whole Bible that way. No, I mean Genesis to Revelation, without skipping ahead. How many of you have at some point said, “You know what, I’m going to do it. I’m going to read the Bible straight through!”?

Now, second question: How many of you have actually gotten all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation? It’s okay if you haven’t, no shame.

But I’ll venture a guess as to what happened if you didn’t make it all the way through. You probably got through all of Genesis, all of Exodus, and about three chapters into Leviticus and you were like, “Alright, back to my devotional book.” You got into all the laws and the rituals and the sacrifices and it seems to foreign to you that you just sort of gave up.

Well, I’ve been there too. You can take comfort that you didn’t go as far as a guy named Marcion did. There’s an image for you on the screen for those of you who are visual learners. Marcion lived in the second century AD, and he was probably the most infamous false teacher who ever lived. What made him so infamous, you ask? He hated the Old Testament. For Marcion, it wasn’t just that he skipped past the books he didn’t like. He actually took those books out.

What exactly did he believe? Marcion believed that the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, is not the same God as the God of the New Testament. The God of the OT, Marcion said, is a lesser god, an evil God, a god of wrath. The God of the NT, he said, well he’s a God of love and grace and mercy. That’s what he believed and that’s what he taught. And he acted on his beliefs. He decided to make his own Bible by taking out all the books that he thought portrayed this evil God of the OT. So he took out, of course, all of the OT. And he took out a good part of the NT too. Instead of being 66 books in two testaments, Marcion’s Bible had 11 books - ten letters of the apostle Paul and the gospel of Luke (Lato6urette pp. 126-27).

And he didn’t just keep this to himself. People copied and transcribed and circulated his version of the Scriptures. He formed churches, some of which were still around three centuries later. He had a cult following.

And his ideas are still around today. It’s common today to hear people say, “Oh, the God of the OT is angry and wrathful and vengeful, but the God of the NT - He’s merciful and gracious - He’s a God of love.” Even Andy Stanley started heading in this direction about four years ago. Many times when people say this they think they’re being very progressive and forward-thinking when, in actuality, they’re just picking up an idea that was put forward and then discredited the better of 2,000 years ago.

And what they overlook, of course, is that you can’t divide the OT and the NT that way. You can’t say OT equals wrath and the NT equals love. You can’t say that because Jesus and the apostles talked about hell and punishment and judgment in the NT. But most importantly for our purposes this morning, as we see in the passage before, God in the OT is not solely a God of wrath and judgment. He is primarily a God of love and mercy. He is a God of grace.

The title of the sermon today is “Three Signs of Grace After the Flood”. The title says it all. So will you notice with me the first sign? The grace of provision. The grace of provision.

#1: The Grace of Provision (vv. 1-4)

The first thing we see as Noah and his sons and their wives and all the animals exit the ark is we see God once again blessing His creation. Adam and Eve were given and a blessing and a commandment.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And so the first thing we find is God essentially repeating the same blessing and commandment He first gave to Adam. Now He gives it to Noah, and to his sons.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 9

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

This is an unqualified command to multiply. To procreate. It’s interesting. In the other flood accounts, the reason given for the flood was that the earth was overpopulated. There had been too much procreation happening. People were getting a little too excited for the “gods” to handle it, and the flood was supposedly the gods attempt to wipe out all these people crowding the planet. And after the flood, the gods then sterilized the women so they couldn’t overpopulate the earth again (Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, p. 143). You can see these pagan cultures trying to make sense of the flood within their own theological framework.

But because the God of the OT, the God of the Bible, because He is a God of life, He has given us the ability, the desire, and the command to marry and have babies, and have lots of them. God is saying, “Fill this newly cleansed earth with little boys and girls! Fill this earth with little boys and little girls who will become men and women who love me and love one another! ....And, go!” And then look at this, look at verse 7. Verses 1-7 are a unit, a paragraph. And what do we find at the end of the paragraph? We find the same thing again.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 9

“As for you, be fruitful and multiply;

Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

God repeats it for emphasis. It’s an unqualified affirmation of the goodness of marriage, the goodness of sex within marriage, the goodness of children and childbearing. All of these things are blessings God has given us to enjoy. Today in our secular society, children are looked at as hindrances to living a fulfilling life and career advancement. But God says, “No, it’s good. Enjoy it.” And this is despite our sin. This is despite the curse! God may have judged the earth in wrath, but now He begins anew in grace. Why? Because He is a God of grace.

But what we do know is that sandwiched in between those two commands to be fruitful and multiply, God also provides for Noah and his family in terms of food. After all, if you’re going to that busy making babies - and let’s just be honest, that’s what God is saying - if you’re going be that busy, you’re going to need sustenance. And so he tells them how He will provide food for them.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 9

The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. 3 Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant

Now, do we have any vegetarians in the room? I know we have a pescatarian. You might be disappointed with this one. In Genesis 1, God apparently only gave Adam and Eve the right to eat plants. But here, you noticed the emphasis. “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you,” He says. “I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.” Why the change? Why did Adam and Eve only get to kale salads and spinach and artichokes and tomatoes? Some say, Well God probably didn’t forbid the eating of meats before the flood. But now he’s just making it explicit that they can eat meat. But that doesn’t fit well with verse where God says “I give all to you, as I gave the green plant” - in addition to the green plants, God is saying, now you can eat the meat of animals.

Ultimately we aren’t told why the change. But I think it has something to do with how the flood permanently changed things for humans on earth. You know how people are saying COVID19 is going to permanently change this world and how we live in it? It already has, right? How could it not? Justice Samuel Alito talked about this in a speech last week. He said, "We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020” (https://www.npr.org/2020/11/13/934666499/justice-alito-pandemic-has-brought-unimaginable-restrictions-on-freedoms, accessed November 14, 2020). His point was that COVID has created conditions that might not go away when COVID is over, and that this is going to stress-test our constitution. Are our government leaders really committed to the freedoms enshrined in the constitution?

It makes sense that things would change permanently after COVID. It also makes sense that something as cataclysmic as a worldwide flood would permanently change the world. Something else is different, too. Did you notice verse 2? “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky” (Gen. 9:2a). Something has even changed in how human beings and animals relate to one another. We know that in Genesis 1 Adam and Eve, and we too, were given dominion over the earth, including the animals. We are here to serve as God’s representatives to rule over the earth in His behalf. It’s an amazing responsibility that we hardly ever think about. And I think that before the flood the animals were naturally submissive to human beings. Everything worked as it should.

But the serpent, one of the creatures, overstepped his bounds in deceiving Adam and Eve who were placed over him. Adam and Eve received their curse, and apparently the animals received theirs too. If animals would not be submissive to their human masters before, now they literally have the fear of God within them, put there by God Himself. It was still God’s intention that Adam and Eve and us should have dominion, authority, over the animals, and by placing fear in the animals that is an act of grace toward us. Part of that dominion now includes, apparently, being able to kill animals and eat them.

This does not mean we have the right to abuse animals. We are to reign over creation in God’s behalf, in other words, to rule over the animals as He would rule over the animals. We commend places like animal shelters and organizations that place rescue animals with families. We ourselves have a rescue cat. We care for animals. We protect animals. We provide for them, feed them, nurture them, give them shelter if they need it. And very often, we hunt them and kill them and eat them. But even then, we don’t kill them for fun. We might really love to hunt, and that’s okay. But when we hunt we don’t take special pleasure in seeing the animal. Hunting isn’t about the suffering of the animal; it’s about the skill and the art of hunting, the thrill of the chase. I’m not really a hunter myself, but my dad was, and I went with him alot, and I have a lot of friends that hunt and it’s fine. I do think that when we hunt, we should hunt for food. We should eat what we kill.

I believe, church, that if we are stewards of God’s creation, if we are His vice-regents tasked with ruling over creation as God Himself would, that is significant authority that God has vested in us. And God takes abuse of power very seriously.

But the point is that God is providing for Noah and his family. And He’s providing for them abundantly, richly. Think of the delicacies that have come from meat. I’m not really a steak person, I would rather have a good prime rib. But I love good burgers - not McDonald’s burgers, but Angus burgers, quality meat, juicy, tender, all that. It’s okay if you’ve chosen not to eat meat, or to only eat fish, or to be vegan. I respect that choice, and I believe God does too. But look with me at 1Tim. 4:4-5. There were some people teaching in the church at Ephesus who said Christians couldn’t eat meat or get married.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 4

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

God is a God of abundance, a God of provision! God may not always provide what we want when we want, and for some of us God may deny things like food and shelter or marriage and companions. There are places where Christians are malnourished and starved. What about them? Well, I believe their testimony would be that Christ is enough for their souls even as their body wastes away. I believe that when God denies us bodily needs, He satisfies our hearts with Himself in a way most of us probably don’t experience. After all, when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”, he wasn’t talking about literal bread. “I am the bread of life”, Jesus said, and goes on to say, “he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who comes to me will never thirst” (John 6:35 NASB). He was talking about Himself, His beauty, His grace, His glory, His death on our behalf for our forgiveness. And that’s what will satisfy us when earthly needs are withheld. This is the grace of provision.

There is one caveat, though. Just as the Lord gave Adam and Eve access to every tree except one, here He gives Noah all flesh except that flesh which still has its blood in it. He tells us why. The blood of the animal is its life, or its life poured out in death. It is sacred. It is sacred because it will be the blood of animals - and supremely the blood of Jesus - that secures our redemption - His blood poured out in our place, on our behalf, that we might enter into relationship with God. So even as God withholds animal meat with blood in it, even there we see the grace of God’s provision, because it points forward to God’s greatest and highest provision: salvation, and eternal life. This is the grace of provision.

Notice with me next, the grace of protection.

#2: The Grace of Protection (vv. 5-9)

Have you ever really, truly been in danger?

Ill. When I was much younger, one of my favorite ways to spend my time was going fourwheeling. I never had one of my own, but my uncle who lived beside us would let me ride his anytime I wanted. And in fact, it was my uncle who introduced me to fourwheeling. He would take me up in the mountains near our house and we would go riding for hours. As I got older, he would let me drive, and as I became still older, he would let me take it by myself. Ill2. When I was 15, I was invited by a couple of older guys from marching band to go fourwheeling with them. To get an invitation like this from these guys was a dream come true, and I thought, “Hey, these are cool guys, they know how to ride, and they’re pretty popular - this ride might even boost my popularity.” Such are the things you think about at 15. So naturally I said that, yes, I would go. Ill3. The day I had dreamed about finally arrived. To this day I remember the exact date: September 12, 1995. I came home from school and was all ready to go. I just had to wait for the guys to come pick me up. But when I got home from school, I noticed something very disturbing on the kitchen table – it was a large, bulky upper body chest protector. I said to my dad, “I hope you don’t think I’m wearing this.” To which he replied, “I hope you don’t think you’re going if you don’t wear it.” We argued back and forth, and I was so angry! But I really wanted to go with these guys, so I bit my tongue and took it with me.

Ill4. Fast-forward about two hours. IMy buddies are in front of me, both on dirt bikes. I’m heading up the rear on the fourwheeler. We’re riding on some old CC roads on the northern side of the South Mountains. we’re riding along and everything is going fine. It was fun. This old logging road had periodically these wash-outs - ditches in the road that you could go down into and come back up the other side and get some air. But I rounded a curve and saw a giant washout in the middle of the road about three feet deep and three feet wide. Let me be clear – this was not just a little ditch in the road – it was a hole, and it stretched all the way across the road. I had no time to really stop the fourwheeler. I don’t know what the guys in front of me did when they saw it, but obviously they did something I didn’t do, because the last thing I can recall is letting up on the throttle and standing up on the fourwheeler so my legs could absorb the impact.

Ill5. Here’s how I have reconstructed what happened. Somehow the fourwheeler and I separated from each other, and I went careening across this rough road, on the ground, and I came to rest on the side of the road. The fourwheeler was apparently airborne, landed on me and then bounced two or three times and rolled over a time or two and finally came to rest on its side fifty yards away from me. The guys I was riding with noticed I wasn’t behind them anymore and they came flying back to see what happened. Ill6. Meanwhile, I remember thinking: “Okay, I can breathe. I’m alive.” But as soon as I tried to get up, I realized that I was actually pretty badly hurt. I couldn’t move without severe pain. Now, keep in mind, there were no cellphones back then, this is 1995. And there were no houses nearby for us to call for help. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. So I had to mount that fourwheeler for that two-hour ride back across the mountain with a pelvis that was broken on both sides - extremely painful. That chest protector – the one I argued and grumbled and complained so much about having to wear it – it was practically ruined, it was scratched and scarred beyond recognition. The emergency room doctor said if I hadn’t had been wearing it, a broken pelvis would not have been my most serious problem. My parents were looking out for me. My dad insisted I wear it. And through their wisdom and insistence, ultimately my heavenly Father protected me. My life was important to Him - important enough for Him to move my parents to buy something as simple as a chest protector that might’ve saved my life.

We see God’s concern for protecting human life in these verses. God takes the initiative in setting the ground rules. God forbids the innocent shedding of human blood. We see that in verse 5. “Surely I will require your lifeblood.” What does that mean? It means blood that has been shed in the taking of an innocent human life. Three times he says I will “require” it. That word can also mean to “demand” or to “pursue.” It’s an aggressive term. The NIV says “For your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting” - in other words, when a human life is shed, God always takes notice, He always hears, He always sees. When Cain killed Abel, the Lord said to Cain, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10 NASB). Crying for what? Crying out for justice. God is a just God, and He will by no means take the shedding of innocent human life lightly.

I was really surprised when I saw this next part of verse 5. In fact, I had to read it a couple of times and look at it in the Hebrew to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding it. “I will demand an account from every animal.” Somehow animals are held to account when they are responsible for a human life. How do I know this is what it means? Because he’s still talking about the shedding of human blood. That’s the topic of verses 5-6. In some mysterious way that He has not revealed to us, even animals are somehow held accountable when they are responsible for the killing of a human being.

Why? The answer is the sanctity of human life. Human life is sacred - set apart, special, unique, of incredible value. What’s so special about human life? Why not assign the same value to animals too? There are some animal rights groups that say that animals should be considered persons. Aside from being just absurd and obviously untrue, that’s an extremely dangerous position. They think they’re raising animals to the level of the value of human life, but the way that would work itself out in practice is that humans would be considered no more valuable than animals.

Why can we say that animal life is not as valuable as human life? Verse 6: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.” This reads like a poem, and in reality it is. It’s short, it’s memorable. You can see on your screen. In the original Hebrew, the second line is written exactly in reverse of the first line, so that the two instances of the word “man” are side by side. The point is that when a human being sheds innocent human blood, that guilty human being must be killed - and God wants humankind to do it. This is clear Scriptural grounding for capital punishment. But it also pertains to abortion.

Abortion is one of those things that a pastor has to talk about whether or not his church wants to hear it, and whether or not they agree with him. Now, if you’ve had an abortion, Jesus loves you and the Father accepts you no less than anyone else. If a woman who has had an abortion comes into our church, she better be loved, not shamed. And if a church is truly pro-life, we will also be pro-mother, meaning we will come alongside her and provide what she needs. Alot of women who have abortions do so because they see no other way out, and if we’re going to ask them to have the baby, we’d better be there beside her every step of the way. I know of some couples whose ministry is having pregnant women stay in their home. They love them, support them, talk to them about Jesus and the gospel, and help them learn how to care for their new baby. What a wonderful ministry opportunity for retired couples with money to spare and room in their hearts and homes. That is what it really means to be pro-life.

But having said that, I unapologetically maintain that abortion is the murder of an unborn human being; it is the intentional shedding of blood of a human being who even in utero is crafted in God’s image. I do not call it reproductive freedom. I do not call it women’s healthcare. I call it murder. Our secular culture worships at the altar of absolute personal freedom, the freedom to do exactly what I want and only what I want. Salvation for our secular culture is being liberated from every responsibility that I don’t want to have. And do you know what abortion is? Abortion is the blood sacrifice secures that freedom. Unborn babies are the most vulnerable class of people in our society. And a society that will not protect the rights of its most vulnerable members, is a society that will not protect my rights or yours.

But church, the blood of those babies - who cannot speak for themselves, who are the most vulnerable members of our society precisely because they are not seen or heard - the blood of those babies cries out to the Lord of hosts for vengeance, and He takes note of it. Why? Because human life is sacred, and because God has a special place in His heart for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Why is human life so sacred? The answer is found in the second part of verse 6:

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 9

Whoever sheds man’s blood,

By man his blood shall be shed,

For in the image of God

He made man.

Human life is sacred because human beings are walking, talking, breathing, living, visible, tangible reflections of the invisible God. We represent Him. And because of this, an attack on a human being made in the image of God is really an attack against the God in whose image they are made. When Cain killed Abel, he was saying he would kill God if he could. When Lamech killed the little boy, he was saying he would kill God if he could. And so with every murder throughout history - the murderer may not consciously be aware, but he or she murders out of a heart consumed with hatred toward God. That hatred of God manifests itself as hatred toward others, and it culminates in the taking of a human life. Why is why Thomas Aquinas said

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church Only Love of God Makes Us Love Enemies

But nothing save the love of God can make us love our enemies; for we love them because they are His creatures, made in His image, and capable of enjoying Him.

When we see God initiating the foundation for capital punishment, it might be hard to see it, but if we’ll look closely enough we’ll see His grace shining clearly. We’ll see His protective heart. We’ll His fatherly heart. As a parent, you’ll do anything - anything - to save your child’s life. The Lord is no less protective of His own. This is why the psalmist could sing,

We see the grace of protection. Next notice with me the grace of covenant faithfulness.

The Grace of Covenant Faithfulness (vv. 8-17)

Look with me at verses 8-17. Don’t check out now. Give God’s word your best mental effort for the next 10 minutes and I promise you it’ll be worth it.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 9

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Ill. Shannon and I got married on May 20, 2006. On May 20, 2006, we stood in the sanctuary of my home church, as our friends and family watched, and we committed ourselves to each other for life. We didn’t do the thing that’s so fashionable now - we didn’t commit ourselves to each other “as long as love shall last” - we said “until death do us part”. We included all the traditional language - in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for sowrse, etc.

Why? Because marriage is not a contract. Marriage is a covenant. It’s unconditional. My commitment to Shannon can never be based on her fulfilling certain obligations toward me. Why? Because that’s how a contract works. But marriage is a covenant. A covenant is a relationship marked by loyalty, by unconditional love, and it stands the test of time because it isn’t based on how the other person performs; it’s based on a commitment to enter into a relationship with this person for good. It’s also public. There are witnesses present. At a wedding you make promises, you swear fidelity. And you commit yourself to certain duties and obligations, part of which is to love your spouse regardless of whether they fulfill their obligations and duties or not. That’s what marriage is, and that’s what a covenant is.

The word “covenant” appears seven times in nine verses, but it is found all throughout the rest of the Bible - 284 times to be exact. God made a covenant with Israel, the old covenant. Now God has made a covenant with us, the church, based on our faith in Christ. When God makes a covenant with us, He is basically entering a relationship with us (Gentry & Wellum). When God makes a covenant with us, He is essentially pledging Himself to us for eternity - to be our God and for us to be His people. I said this sermon is a sermon about grace in the OT - a covenant the main example. God is binding Himself to certain promises He makes toward us.

Here God is entering into a relationship with Noah. And just like marriage, it is totally unconditional, it is purely of grace. What does God promise? Notice some things with me about this covenant.

First, it is universal. God made covenants with individuals and nations later in the OT, but His first covenant is with all creation. He says in verse 9 that this covenant is made with Noah and with Noah’s sons and all of Noah’s offspring, which includes us, and not only with Noah but with every creature that came out of the ark. It includes everyone and everything.

Second, God promises that He will never again flood the earth, and that He will never again make the earth destroy every creature with a flood.

Third, the covenant, like all covenants in the Bible, it has a sign to remind us of the covenant. It’s a rainbow. You want to know something really cool? The Hebrew language does not have a word for rainbow. The word here is simply “bow”. The NIV and other translations translate with “rainbow” because that’s the meaning in this context. But the Hebrew word is literally a bow, and every other time this word is used, it is used as a weapon of war - a bow and arrow. That is significant. Isn’t it just like God to choose a sign that previously symbolized a weapon and turn it into a sign of grace? Wellum & Gentry, p65) Because that’s exactly what He’s doing. When it rains and you see a rainbow, you are seeing a reminder that God has laid down His weapon and instead has pledged Himself to us in love never again to destroy the earth the way He did. God promises in verse 15, “I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every again. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” He could do that again and be perfectly just and right in doing it. But once was enough for the God of all grace.

Conclusion & call for response

This is the grace of God, on full display. Far from being a collection of 30-some odd books that portray an angry God, we see a God who after showing wrath now displays mercy. We see His grace in His provision, His protection, and HIs covenant faithfulness.

The apostle Paul wrote,

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 2

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

We’ve seen some instances of His grace this morning. So here’s the question? Do you know the grace of God? Notice I didn’t ask, Have you experienced the grace of God, in the past. I’m asking whether you know His grace now, in the present. Do you experience God’s grace? Do you know it as a daily reality? Do you rely on it, trust in it, rejoice in it?

[CUE MUSICIANS]

If you don’t, you are missing out! God’s grace is not just for the unsaved who need to get saved. It’s for all of us. We never move beyond the reach of grace. God doesn’t save us, forgive our past sins, and then leave us on our own. No, when we trust in Christ, He grants us blanket forgiveness for sins past, present, and future. Not only do you never go beyond the reach of grace, you also never grow beyond the need for it. No matter how good a Christian you are - no matter how faithfully you attend church - regardless of how much and how often you give your time and money and service - none of that is sufficient to make you right with God. You still need God’s grace. Let me give you three quick ways you can experience God’s grace on a daily basis.

Confess your sins immediately. Don’t wait until the end of the day and offer a blanket confession. When the Spirit makes you aware of your sin, confess it immediately. Say “Lord, that was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have said that or thought that. Will you forgive me?” And knowing that He will, trust that He has. Choose to believe that every time you sin, your Father receives you with open arms. Maybe even visualize yourself going to Him and confessing your sins and letting Him embrace you. Confess your sins immediately.

Think often about the cross. Grace doesn’t come to us in a vacuum. Grace is concentrated in a person, Jesus, and grace is found at a particular place: Calvary. Picture Jesus suffering not for humanity in general but specifically for you, in your place, as your substitute. Hear Him forgive His enemies as He suffers and hear those words directed toward you. Think often about the cross.

Read the Bible. God gave us His word not just to study and know it but to experience His grace as we read it. Read passages like John 3:16. Read the gospels and see Jesus’ tenderness toward sinners. Read Paul’s letters like Romans chapter 3 or Ephesians 2 and think about them and ask the Spirit to apply them to your life and to work in your heart.

Have you experienced the grace of God? You can, this morning. As our musicians play and we sing, ask God to show you how He would have you respond to what He’s shown you about Himself this morning. Confess your sins, ask for His forgiveness, commit to follow Him again, and let’s worship the God of grace together.