Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 18 June 2006 (morning) Scripture NIV and King James

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 18 JUNE 2006: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm: 147:4

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: Psalm: 31:1+17

Confession of faith: Nicene
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, or us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was Incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

And we believe one holy catholic* and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 73:12
Law
Psalm: 73:12

Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Amen

Psalm: 9:9+10
Scripture: Romans 5
Text: Romans 5:2

"… through whom we have gained access by faith in this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. "

To be a member of a church and to know that one day you will be in the eternal kingdom of God is only joy and grace.

Let us in this sermon examine what contents the Bible gives to the concept of grace.

We find mention of God's grace (or favour as it is also translated) early in the Bible in the days when mankind became so ungodly that the Lord decided to destroy all mankind.

The Lord then found one righteous man and his family whom He decided to save.
The Bible tells us – "But Noah found favour (grace) in the eyes of the Lord". (Genesis 6:8)

Grace (favour) means that this man's life was spared in the judgment of the Lord.

The first mention of the grace of the Lord shows that grace has two aspects:

Negatively it is the opposite of the Lord's wrath – death and destruction and eventually final rejection by God which is hell.
Positively grace encompasses all we receive from the Lord.
Grace is communion with the Lord and protection by Him.
There is grace when we are lonely or rejected by people and the Lord turns to you to assuage your loneliness. (Psalm 25:16)
The wife (husband) and children you have are gifts God has graciously bestowed. That is what Jacob confessed when Esau saw the woman and children with him and asked him "who are these with you?" Jacob answered: "They are the children God has graciously given your servant". (Genesis 33:5)

The Lord's grace does not descend on us like rain from heaven. We must pray for it. Of this the Bible has many examples.

Moses prayed the Lord his God for grace: "But Moses sought the favour of the Lord his God 'O Lord' he said 'why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?' (Exodus 32:11)
And he also said that the only way that they would know that the Lord was gracious to them would be if the Lord went with them: "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." (Exodus 34:16 King James)

"O Lord, if I have found favour in your eyes, he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance". (Exodus 34:9 NIV)

The Lord cannot be compelled to be gracious.

The Lord will be gracious to whom He wills.
This the Lord explained to Moses: "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." (Exodus 33:19 King James)

To receive grace we must show a change of heart and repentance.

We cannot beseech the Lord for grace if we do not show that we shall use it positively to the greater glory of the Lord.

In 2 Chronicles 33 we read of Manasseh. "But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites". (2 Chronicles 33:9)

The king of Assyria took Manesseh prisoner and shackled him and took him to Babylon.

When in Babylon he realized his wrongfulness and repented.
The Bible tells us that he prayed fervently, that he beseeched the Lord his God and showed repentance. "In his distress he sought the favour of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." (2 Chronicles 33:127 NIV)

Favour (grace) was the privilege he received to return to his country to correct his wrongs.

Manasseh repaired the altar of the Lord.
He sacrificed peace (fellowship) offerings on it.
He told Judah to serve the God of Israel.
To Manasseh it was grace that the relationship between him and the Lord was restored. (2 Chronicles 33:16)

The prophet Jeremiah writes that the same occurred with Hezekiah, the king of Judah.

After the prophet Micah had spoken to Hezekiah he served the Lord and prayed for grace.
The Lord then relented and did not bring the disaster He had pronounced against them. (Jeremiah 26:19 NIV) "Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did not Hezekiah fear the Lord and seek His favour? And did not the Lord relent, so that he did not bring the disaster he pronounced against them? We are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves!"

Ezra 9:8 also tells of God's grace.

Ezra is praying.
In his prayer he recalls all the sins of the people and the punishment for it.
Then he speaks of God's grace in allowing a small number to return to their homeland. "But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage." (Ezra 9:8 NIV)

Who is it that receives grace from the Lord?

The Bible tells us that the Lord will withhold no good thing from those who live righteously. (Psalm 84:11)
Those who live righteously do not only keep the Ten Commandments.
They keep an intimate relationship with the Lord.
They understand the meaning of Hebrews 13:9: "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them".

The Bible also teaches us what grace is not.

In Joshua 11 the wars waged by Joshua on the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites are described.
The Lord says that He, the Lord, hardened the hearts of these peoples to wage war on Israel so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy as the Lord had commanded Moses. (Joshua 11:20)

From this we infer the following:

The merciless killing and extermination is an act totally lacking in grace.
Lack of grace means a surfeit of hate and violence.
Lack of grace also means total absence of love.
To be without grace means that the judgment of the Lord will destroy you completely.
This kind of absence of grace points to the future and predicts the eventual and final destruction in hell.

We find something similar in Judges 5:23: "Curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty."

The words "curse bitterly" here mean the same as to curse eternally – that is unto hell.

The Lord sometimes withholds His grace from people in order to teach or discipline them so that in their pain they learn the right way. See Isaiah 26:10: "Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord."

The Lord's judgment of wicked people is harsh!

Even if good is done to the ungodly they do not learn righteousness.
The Lord knows that people would enquire: why not?
And the Lord provides the answer – they do not deal justly and refuse to acknowledge the majesty of the Lord.

If we bear all the aforesaid in mind we should know what the grace of the Lord means for us.

He should actually withhold all His grace from us.
Look at our lives and what we do.
Yet He does not do so.
He places someone else in our stead to bear his merciless wrath and punishment – His own Son.

The coming of Jesus Christ is announced as grace from the Lord. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people". (Luke 1:68)

Praise to the Lord alone.
Only He is worthy of mankind's praise and adoration.
The reason – He graciously visited His people and redeemed them. (Luke 1:68)

Jesus died on the cross so that we could be redeemed and return to the Lord's grace.

It is pure grace that we are made God's people.
"We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:11)
It was to extend grace to us so that our tears be changed to joy.
And also that our prayers be heard and answered.
"O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you." (Isaiah 30:19)
It is pure grace to be transformed for the better by the Lord.
It is pure grace that at the Last Judgment the Lord will be gracious to us and wipe out our sins. The prophet Micah says that the Lord will throw all our sins deep into the sea. "You will again have compassion on us, you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)
The apostle Paul puts it differently: "And are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus". (Romans 3:24)

These great benefits are out of grace.

The greatest benefit is that without meriting it in any way we are justified by the Lord's grace because of the redemption that came by the Lord Jesus Christ.
No wonder that the Lord warns us to see to it that no one misses the grace of God. "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many". (Hebrews 12:15)

Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 66:1+2

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
18 June 2006 (morning)
Scripture NIV and King James