[Gary Antion] One of the apostle Paul's favorite ways to begin his epistles was, "Grace to you," or, "Grace be with you," or, "Grace be with you all." And in all his epistles, he starts out by wishing them grace except for Hebrews, which I believe was written by Paul. But Paul talks at the end in Hebrews 13:25 and says, "Grace be with you all." These must have been bad churches. He's always wishing them pardon, "May you have lots of pardon. You're a bad church."

See, in the early days, we thought that grace was very much limited to unmerited pardon. And while pardon for sin is certainly part of grace, it's not the only meaning, far from it. And yet I know sometimes Mr. Kubik, when he finishes his message, he'll say, "I wish you grace." How does that sit with you? Sometime you think, "He's talking about grace." Because what we always heard was, "It's grace. It's grace and not law. Grace and law can't coexist. And if you believe in following the law of God, you can't certainly have grace. And if you have grace, you don't need the law of God." That's the thought. So we would always kind of bristle and feel a little bit uncomfortable if somebody wishes you grace. And if somebody talks about grace, and the title of this sermon is "The Grace of God." The Grace of God. Do you understand what grace is? Do you know you cannot be saved without grace? By grace are you saved through faith.

Do you understand that you don’t... can't conjure up grace of God by yourself? That the grace of God comes from Him? That God is a gracious God. He even says in the Old Testament, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." Grace carries with it tremendous meanings for us. And in fact, how important is it that it's used 170 times in the Bible? In fact, about 60 of them or 70 of them in the Old Testament alone. In the Old Testament, grace was known. In the New Testament, 131 times grace is used, grace. Not always is it the grace of God, sometimes it's the grace of humans. Sometimes humans are gracious toward the other person, that's grace. They gave you favor, which is one of the meanings. So there are a lot of meanings in grace. It's a subject that's enormously important because it does… it is the means to our salvation.

And yet grace has been distorted. The apostle Paul addressed that in the book of Jude when he said, "They have… these men who've come in unawares among you are turning the grace of God into license, into blatant immorality." Licentiousness or lasciviousness, license to do wrong. It's okay, you can be wrong. And I'll read you that quote in a moment, or in another part of this sermon. But it can be distorted and has been distorted. And we shy away from it because of the way it's been used. We shy away from it, or we think, "Well, you know, I wouldn't want to wish somebody grace because then I'm wishing them that they've sinned, they're sinners, they need more pardon." If that's true then how did Jesus Christ grow in grace? Jesus Christ increased in grace with God and man. Luke 2 brings that out.

So in this sermon, what I'd like to do for you is explain to you what grace is and what grace isn't, and urge you, and I'll spend more time on what it is than what it isn't, and urge you to pray for the grace of God in your life. Without grace, you are dead.

There are two systems: keep the laws, stay righteous, God's going to bless you. Salvation, as such, was not promised in the Old Testament. Blessings were. If you went the way of law, and there were people who were very good. You know, the apostle Paul says, "Touching the law, he was blameless." You couldn't describe to him "You broke the Sabbath, you did this, you did..." You couldn't describe that to Paul. All the ritual and things, he was a student of the law. And yet you know what he said? "All that I've ever done, I count as so much dung. So much manure because it's my own righteousness."

If you decide to go the system of law, the first time you break the law and remember what sin is, the transgression of the law, 1 John 3:4, the moment you break the law, you're dead. How do you get forgiven? Grace. Grace does not do away with the law, grace helps establish the law. If you don't have law, you don't need grace. Why do you need grace if you don't have law? Because one of the meanings of grace is forgiveness, but not the only meaning. But applying it the way we have always understood, and I've heard this when I went to Ambassador College, that's what I heard, is unmerited pardon, unmerited pardon. And that's basically the only thing you ever hear it is. It's not what the meaning of the word is, it's charis in the Greek. And in the Hebrew, it's chen, C-H-E-N, pronounced kahne, like K-A-H-N-E… K-A-H-N-E, and it's pronounced...it's chen, it's C-H-E-N, but it's pronounced kahne. They both mean favor. They both mean thanksgiving. They both mean thanks. They both have to do with attractiveness. They have to do with graciousness. They have to do with pardon.

It's not just pardon. You as an individual is supposed to grow in grace, right? 2 Peter 3:18. "But grow in grace." "Okay brethren, go out and sin more so I can give you more grace." Is that how you grow in grace? How do you grow in grace? By being gracious, by being gracious. What is being gracious is being like God.

I had an opportunity to practice graciousness yesterday evening when my… I was hit a second time in the back of my car. Rear-ended twice. I've driven a car for almost 60 years, various cars, never ever been rear-ended. Last month, we were rear-ended in my white car, did $10,000 worth of damage, and it's still being repaired. This time we're driving our older black car down Highway East 71, Interstate 71, about a mile from the interchange of 275, it's touch-and-go, stop-and-go traffic and bam! My wife started crying. "Not again." We pulled off to the side of the road, the person who hit me pulled off behind us. We were in about the second or third lane, managed to negotiate to the outside. I checked myself, I was okay, my wife was okay. We were a little bit sore but okay. Got out of the car, walked around. This person got out of the car carefully because cars were whizzing by four or five lanes at that time on Interstate 71.

And she walked out, and she was tears in her eyes, and, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." And she was just shaking. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." I said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to yell at you. I'm not going to scold you. I'm okay, you're okay. Our cars are okay. Take it easy." And she must have hugged me three times in the process. I didn't yell, I didn't say, "Oh, you know what? By the way, we just were banged again a month ago." But I somehow or another was able to give her grace and be gracious toward her. Carefully took her name and everything down. She didn't even have her driver's license. I said, "You know, if we call the police, they probably will cite you or arrest you." But she was a really nice person. I discerned her from being with… about 18, or 19 or 20 years old, maybe 17. She was just shaky. So I just took her information. I said, "That's okay."

So I'm going to try to work it out where she doesn't have to put it through her insurance, or her family, or her parents' insurance. So I called the parents and talked to them. But we're okay, we're just getting over our aches and pains from a month ago, and other aches and pains are there again a little bit, so I'll have them checked out. But the car wasn't damaged that badly. I don't think. So I have to take it into the same place that's repairing my other car and not quite finished yet. Have them look at it and tell me how much it's going to be and then I'll let them know. And if they want to pay me the money, give me a cashier's check, I'll let them out of it. And if they don't, then I'll put it through their insurance. I had a chance to be gracious. Thank God that His graciousness to me enabled me to be that way toward her.

So in life, we have a chance to express the grace of God. Grace is a wonderful blessing that we all need. We all need it in our lives. We need it regularly in our lives. The Greek word, as I said, it's charis, C-H-A-R-I-S, you know, like charisma, charis. Charis is the 5485 in the Strong's Concordance, and it means “favor, graciousness, thankfulness, pardon.” The Hebrew word, chen, C-H-E-N is number 2580. You can check them all up, similar to charis in meaning.

Now, in Psalms 84:11 and I hope your fingers are all warmed up because I'm going to take you through a few proof texts. I'm not going to dwell lots on any one scripture, but I believe in letting God speak about grace and not me. So I'm going to turn to the Scriptures and let you see it. Psalms 84:11, we read this, "For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory." The Lord will give grace and glory. "No good thing will He withhold from them who walk uprightly." If we want grace in our lives, what must we be doing? Walking uprightly. And in fact, in James, he says, "God gives grace to the humble." God gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves that He may give you grace. So grace comes from God and He gives it to us.

But let us back in Genesis 6:8, do you know that Noah, your father on this side of the flood, your patriarch on this side of the flood, received grace on the other side. Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of God… of the Lord." Grace was not in the Old Testament. Noah found grace. Grace from God. God favored him. God looked down and said, "This person's walk according to My way." God blesses those who walk according to His ways.

God blesses those that He favors. It's not like He favors them because of any type of partiality. "I like the way they look, I'll give them grace. I don't like the way they look, I won't give them grace." I was nice to that young lady because I could see she was humbled about it. I was nice to her because I see she didn't come out and say, "Well, you stopped too soon for me." And I didn't stop too soon. That was touch-and-go traffic. I didn't hit the car in front of me, but she banged into me. There was no justification. She was shaking. "How are you? Are you okay?" And she was shaking. I could tell. She was a nice young lady and I was willing to give her grace.

If you walk with God, you're walking in His way. He gives you grace. He gives you strength. It can mean strength. It can mean power. It can mean help. You'll see that in a moment. But Noah received it. So in the Old Testament grace was known. So did Moses. Look at this example in Exodus 33. I'll spend just a little bit of time here because I think it's instructive. Exodus 33:12-17, and the word chen is used in both places. In Exodus 33:12 “Moses said to the Lord,” because he's trying to bring these Israelites out of Egypt and bringing them through the journeying, through the wilderness. And “Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, You say to me, “Bring up these people.” And You've not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have found grace in My sight.”’” Moses, the one that's looked to as the lawgiver was one who found grace in the sight of God.

Verse 33 [13], “'Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.’ And God said to him, ‘My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.’" And in verse 15. “And he said to Him” Moses said to God, "If You don't... if Your presence goes not with me, don't take us up from here." In other words, if Your grace, if Your presence does not go with me, I don't want to go.

And in verse 16, "For wherein shall it be known here that I and the people have found grace in Your sight, if it is not that You go with us." Grace, God paying attention to you. God paying attention to me. Giving us concern. Giving us attention. Giving us care. Giving us help. Giving us pardon. Giving us favor and blessings that comes from Him. Moses says, "I don't want to go if you're not going to go. I and my people from all the people upon the face of the earth.” he said, "So shall we be separated." You made us special. And verse 17, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.’" "I know you, I know who you are. I know what you do. I know what you're all about."

Chapter 34, 9, we read this. “And he said,” Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth in worship “And he said, ‘If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray You, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity. If we find grace pardon us and our sins, and take us for your inheritance.’" "If we find grace, pardon us." He asked it for all the Israelites, "Pardon us." So yes, grace was known in the Old Testament, but not nearly so emphasized as it is in the New.

So look at John 1:14. When Jesus Christ came into the world, God is the giver of grace. Jesus Christ came into the world, who was He? God in the flesh. God in the flesh. He came from God and He knew He would go back to God. John 1:14. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." How was Jesus Christ able to do all those miracles? How was he able to deal with all those situations with those crabby, beady-eyed Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes all trying to find something relative? How was he able to negotiate all that? The grace of God. He was full of the grace of God. How did He heal people? How did He forgive their sins? The grace of God. He was full of it. You could have the grace of God, too. I can have the grace of God, too. And we can express it because you see we're supposed to grow in grace and knowledge.

I can ask you and you could think about it. How gracious are you? Are you a gracious person? Are you a nasty person? Are you a mean person? Are you an unthankful person? Are you an entitled person, "Well, I deserve all this," or are you gracious? And remember who does God give grace to? Those who humble themselves. Those who humble themselves. Those who say, "I can't do that, I need You. I need your help, Father. I need You to guide me and lead me and help me."

Acts 4:33. We see that great grace was given to Jesus Christ's followers. Not just average grace, great grace. Acts 4:33, "And with great power gave the apostles..." This is verse 33, Acts 4:33, "And with a great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all." They had great power because they had great grace. God's graciousness to you. God's favor upon you gives you power. You'll see that when we talk about Hebrews 4, where we're supposed to go to the throne of grace. Why? That we might obtain help in time of need. That we might receive the power, and majesty, and strength of God to help us through. Acts 4:33.

Acts 20:24, Acts 20:24, notice what Paul preached when he went. Paul preached the gospel of grace. How can you be in God's Kingdom? Acts 20:24. Let's see if that's what I want. Maybe it's 24, 20. Let's see. Yes, it is 20 verse 24. I always check my scriptures doubly before I come, but sometimes I might write the wrong number. Acts 20:24. "But none of these things move me," Paul writes, "neither do I count my life dear to myself that I might… so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus." What Jesus taught me to bring out, to emphasize, to teach. Notice what he says, "To testify the gospel of the grace of God." Good news that we can have grace.

See, you don't have to die because you've sinned. Wages of sin is death, Roman 6:23. But the grace of God gives you eternal life. Why? Because God can forgive you. It's a system. Do you belong to the system of law? Do you belong to the system… “I want grace, I don't want law. Am I against law? No.” Law is very important. Law is a standard by which God wants me live, the standard by which He wants you to live.

And in fact, if I'm breaking the law of God, I'm not going to receive grace. If I'm out there just deliberately walking against it, but it is not my means of salvation. The means to our salvation comes from God being able to give us strength and power, forgiveness and help so that we may walk His ways. That we may improve and grow in them. That we'll have more of the character of Jesus Christ and less of our own character. That one day we can be in God's Kingdom and He will change us at the end and make us perfect. We won't be perfect by ourselves. But without grace you're dead. Without the grace of God in our lives, we're all dead because the moment you slip and stumble once you have sinned. You've transgressed the law. Now, how do you stop, get out of that? The grace of God. We need the grace of God.

Galatians 1:6 and 15. We're called, we're called to receive grace. Galatians 1, Paul writes a lot about it because it's so urgent, it's so important, but do we really understand it? As I say, and I've studied this before and I've written about it. I've taught about it in my General Epistles class. But you know what? When somebody says, "I wish you grace." “This is rude, this is… it kind of makes me feel uncomfortable.” Why? Why if somebody wishes you the means to salvation do you feel uncomfortable? Because we're not used to using that term. If somebody says, "You need to obey God's law." "Oh, okay." "I wish you grace." “Ooh.” How do we see grace? Do we understand it? Do we understand its fullness? Galatians 1:6 look what Paul wrote to the region of Galatia. He said, "I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, into another gospel.” “You're moving away from the truth because you don't understand the grace of God. You're moving away."

Verse 15. He says, "But when..." Paul writes, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace…”. Your calling, and your drawing is because God favored you. He said, "I'm going to give them a chance. I'm going to call them now." You know, many are called and few chosen. But He gives a lot of people an opportunity to be called. But we are called and drawn to God by His grace. That's pretty awesome. That's important to us for grace.

Romans 11:5-6, we didn't earn our calling. Romans 11:5-6, the apostle Paul and Romans has a lot to say about grace and he has a lot to say about law. And you have to understand, the law tells you what is right, the good, right way to go. The law also tells you when you go wrong because if you go contrary to it, you've sinned. The law exposes you to what's right and what's wrong. Grace rights you when you go wrong. Grace puts you back in the right category again when you go wrong. Romans 11 and verses 5 and 6. He says, "Even so then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." There is a remnant of people that are following this according to their choosing the election of grace, God's grace. And verse 6 he says, "And if by grace, then it is no more of works." You can't earn grace. I can't earn forgiveness, I can't earn mercy.

I was just throwing away a number of my things and my… I had to go through my notes or whatever I had, my papers and gas receipts for my car. I've had it for 12 years now. Since 2004, yeah. So I was going through and throwing a lot of these out trying to just get what's up to date and current because of this accident that happened. So I was throwing it away and I came across one. Guess what it was. It was a warning. I was doing 55 on Tealtown Road or whatever, doing 55 in a 40-mile zone. And the guy said, “Okay, I see you’re…” I said, "Nobody was here and I went… I'm flying in this..." In fact, I made a turn on Schoolhouse Road to go toward our house and the police officer came behind me. I said, "Oh, that's really nice the police officer is driving behind me." And then I see his cherry go on. You know, light up and pulled over. And he said, "Did you know you were doing this?" I said, "Sir, I'm sorry. I didn't know that. It was Friday afternoon, I'm trying to get home and it was late and I have no excuse, I was speeding.” He said, "Well, I'm going to give you a warning."

He gave me mercy. He gave me grace. And that was like seven years ago. So I still had that warning in my notebooks reminding me, "Don't speed." And that note was still in my glovebox. Grace. I couldn't earn that. I could have said, "Well, but I did stop at this stop sign. I did make this curve. I made the turn and I stayed in right side of the road." “Tough bananas, tough bananas. That's not good enough.” “Well, I drive good normally.” “Tough. You broke the law.” He could have given me a ticket, but he didn't. Unlike Canada, I never ever got a break.

I said to this one police officer, "Don't you ever show mercy?" "You're going to get a ticket." And sometimes it's a very simple thing making a left-hand turn where they used to be able to allow. They put a sign up, but I didn't see. Recently, turned… I see this police car coming at me. “What a nice thing. Maybe my lights were out in the back, maybe I didn't realize it.” I've left my family off in one of those little restaurants and I pulled into the parking. He pulls in beside me. He said that "Did you know you made a left-hand turn where there was a no left-hand turn?" I said, "Where?" He said, "It was right back?" I said, "That hasn't been up there for like..." "You're right, but you're going to get a ticket." I said, "Officer, don't you ever give mercy to anybody?" "Nope, you're going to get a ticket." I was nice. I wasn't mad or bad. "Don't you ever show?" No, he didn't. But God gives you mercy and grace because when we break the law, we can't earn grace. He says, "If it's way of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work."

The effort you put forth to be a Christian doesn't earn you grace. It's when we can humble ourselves and say, "God forgive me." When we can humble ourselves and say, "God, help me," God gives us grace. The grace of God is awesome and it's wonderful, it can help me to have more grace. And you know what? When He gives us grace, He doesn't expect us, "Oh, good, I've got this bank full of grace here now so I can be forgiven for this, and that, and the other thing." You know what He expects us to do? To use that grace toward others. He gives us manifold grace. He wants us to be good stewards of how we use it. It's not just about us, it's about what we do with it too. We'll see that scripture in a moment.

Titus 3:7. Paul writes to this young evangelist. I think he was young, relatively. Everybody is young to me these days. Titus 3:7, Titus 3:7, "Being justified by His grace." There you have it. Grace does justify us. God favors you, God hears your belief and your repentance, and God forgives us. “That we're being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” So we're justified. We're made right, we're put on the right path by grace so that we may walk into God's way toward His Kingdom.

Notice also chapter 2 and verse 11, chapter 2 and verse 11. "For the grace of God that bring salvation has appeared to all men." Anybody can have it if, if they're willing to humble themselves and ask. If they're willing to seek it sincerely. If they're willing to walk in the ways of God. But that doesn't earn you anything. It doesn't earn me anything. Repentance doesn't earn me anything. Repentance depends on the grace of God. Belief depends on the grace of God. So understand that we need His help, we need His guidance, we need His grace.

Ephesians 4:29, our words could be gracious. That's one way we can use graciousness. Ephesians 4:29, "Let not corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister" what? "Grace to the hearers." When we speak to others, do we speak to them graciously? Even when we get out of sorts can we speak graciously toward our spouses, toward our friends, toward our co-workers? And we get a grumpy “aarrgh,” growl at you. And growling does have an effect if it pushes people away and it tells them, "Stay away, I'm a mean guy. Don't cross my path." The person who throws a temper tantrum around you at work, you will tiptoe around them because that's an ugly scene. So they don't throw the temper tantrum. See, they've trained you. They depend on your graciousness, but grace is no reason for us to be nasty. Graciousness, do you have it or not? Are we manifesting the grace of God toward us? Because we also can give grace because we have it to give from God.

You can be a gracious individual, a gracious person. And grace is also used just on a human-to-person, person-to-person level as well. And a person may not be using the grace of God. And maybe they're ingratiating themselves with someone else. Not “engraciating” but ingratiating. They're trying to win something, they're trying to be nice to get some support from somebody or get something from them, or gain something from them. Colossians 4 says, "Let your speech be seasoned with grace." Colossians 4:6.

Let me also give you a scripture. It's 2 Corinthians 9:8, we see that we can receive abundant grace. And that abundant grace God gives us for what? Just so we could have it? "I've got a bank account of grace. Well, I've got a lot of grace in this bank account. And if I can sin a lot then I can have this grace to cover it." Is it all about you? 2 Corinthians 9:8. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." So God is willing to give us abundant grace. "I can make grace abound toward you. I can give you lots." But God doesn't want us to put it in the bank, He wants us to use it.

In verse 14 notice what He says here, "And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you." So God wants us to do every good work, and He wants us to do it because He gives us the strength to do it. The exceeding grace, lots of grace. Why? Verse 8, "That they may abound to every good work." Not to every work because some work is not good, but to every good work. It gives us strength. It gives us help. It gives us power. It gives us some control.

We also can receive hope and consolation. Notice 2 Thessalonians 2:16. Are your fingers tired yet? I can give you a break. 2 Thessalonians 2:16. I don't want to just give you my words, I want God to tell you. I want you to read them. 2 Thessalonians 2:16. "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation." Do you want consoling in times of difficulty? Do you want helping times of crisis? “Giving you everlasting consolation and good hope…” how? “Through grace.” By His graciousness, by His favor, He helps you understand. To have hope. He helps you have comfort. He helps you have consolation through grace.

And in 1 Timothy, Paul writes to the young evangelist, 1 Timothy 1:12. He writes this. He says, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, for He has counted me faithful, putting me into His ministry." Notice verse 13, you'll get to the grace part, "Who was before a blasphemer…” “I was blasphemer. I was a persecutor. I was injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. I didn't deliberately try to do these things. It was just done out of my belief system at that time.” But verse 14, "And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus." “And though I had messed up a lot, God had exceeding grace for me.” God has exceeding grace for you to help you, to strengthen you, to guide you, but not to put in a bank account.

You know, in Canada, and I was… for the first four years I was the operation manager, whatever you want to say out there. You can only keep a certain amount of the money that comes to a charitable organization in the bank. You have to show them that you're spending 75% of all the money that comes in. You can keep 25%. We could never keep even 25% at that time just starting out as a fledgling organization. But you can't just bank it all. You have to use it. And the grace of God, we can't bank it either. We have to use it. We can't just store it up. "Oh. I've got lots of grace coming." We can't just do that. We must use it. Use the grace of God in our lives. Grace to overlook and forgive Paul, even though Paul said all the things that he had done. "God gave me grace to oversee it."

2 Timothy 2:1, God doesn't want us to just be average in grace, he wants us to take it. He wants us to be strong in it. 2 Timothy 2:1, "Be you, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." Be strong in it. Use it for positive means, use it for good means. Exercise it in your life, toward others, and toward God. Hebrews 4:16 is the scripture I wanted to share with you. It shows it's much more than just forgiveness because Hebrews 4:16, after verse 15 he said, "We have not a high priest. It cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore,” because we know we can come to somebody who knows what we go through, somebody that knows what our feelings are and our trials are.

“Let us come boldly to this throne of grace,” why? “To obtain mercy” Yeah, that's forgiveness, “and find grace to help in time of need.” I need you, God. I need your grace in my life. I need you to help me. I need you to strengthen me. I need you to help me be like you. Isn't what we heard from Mr. Nelson? You want to be reflecting God's glory and you want to be reflecting God's grace. God is gracious to me, therefore, I need to be gracious to others.

Sometimes we love the grace coming our way. We're not so willing to extend it to others. Are we? Because by nature we tend to be selfish. 1 Peter 5:10 on this first part of what grace does for us. 1 Peter 5:10. We're urged by Peter, 1 Peter 5:10. And I'll touch briefly on what it is not. 1 Peter 5:10, "But the God of all grace," that's the grace that He gives, "the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, will make you perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you." The grace that God can give establishes, strengthens and settles you. And he said in verse 11, "To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Verse 12, "By Silvanus," or Silas, "a faithful brother to you as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand." That's a true grace of God. If some people perverted the grace of God, now let's look at what it is not.

Turn to Jude 3 and 4, Jude verses 3 and 4. It's only one chapter. Jude verses 3 and 4. "Beloved," Jude writes. Peter writes this, too, in 2 Peter similarly. "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation," we're talking about salvation that's common to Gentiles and Jews. "It was needful for me to write to you. I needed to write to you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend." So Jude writes this. Paul isn't writing this to Jude. Jude is writing this to the brethren, but it feels like Peter does. "You should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." You need to be following those body of beliefs. He's not talking about whether you believe God is, but rather the body of beliefs, the faith which was once given. Verse 4, "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to that condemnation…” didn't God prophesy that? Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy 18, false prophets, Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 13. A lot of false prophets were prophesied. God says, "These ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness."

Let me read to you what Barclay says in his commentary on that section. He's what he says on page 180. "Letters of John and Jude" by William Barclay. This is in the older edition page 180. "They perverted the grace of God," on this section, "They perverted the grace of God into an excuse for blatant immorality. The Greek which we have translated blatant immorality is a grim and terrible word, aselgeia." Aselgeia, it is. A-S-E-L-G-E-I-A. "The corresponding adjective is aselges. Most men try to hide their sin; they have enough respect and respect for common decency not to wish to be found out. But the people who have this attitude, the aselges is a man who is so lost to decency that he does not care who sees his sin. It is not that he arrogantly and proudly flaunts it; it is simply that he can publicly do so that he can do the most shameless things, because he has ceased to care for decency at all… They believed the grace of God,” they took the grace of God, “was wide enough to cover every sin, a man could sin as he liked.”

Since God promises us grace, let's give Him reason to use it. The more he sinned, the greater the grace, therefore why worry about sin. Grace was being perverted into a justification for sin. The grace of God. And that's why many times we kind of bristle. "Whoo, is he trying to wish us grace? What do they mean by that?" The apostle Paul talked about grace in Roman 6. He said, "Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound?" If we're going to be forgiven, justified, we need grace. “Yeah, the more I sin, the more God gives me grace.” You know what his answer was? "God forbid!” You know what he said, later on, he said, "You're not under the law, but you're under grace." But he still talked about people walking in God and following and doing the right things. Because you're under the system of grace does not mean you throw the law away. It means you walk with it, you walk in it. And when you do not walk in it, when you slip and stumble, not deliberately, God is there with His grace to forgive us if we want Him to. He's there to forgive us. The grace of God is there to cover us. It's Romans 6:1-2.

Romans 5:20-21, we have grace to cover our sins. Romans 5:20-21. We have grace to cover our sins. Notice, "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound." If there's no speed limit on Tealtown Road, I can go 55 miles an hour. Unfortunately, there is a speed limit. It's 40. And if I go 55 miles an hour, I have broken the law, haven't I? So, Romans, he said, "The law entered that the offense might abound." When the law was there, I was an offender. “But where sin abounded, grace did abound much more.” When you do a big sin through weakness temptation, can God forgive you? Yes. Grace can cover that. If you deliberately are doing it, that's another matter. Hebrews talks about that. You've trod underfoot the Son of God. You've shamed, you've taken the grace of God for granted. You've abused it. The grace of God is for us to use, to have, but it's not for us to abuse. Big difference.

Verse 21, "That as sin reigned to death, even so my grace reign through righteousness…” The strength to walk in God's way, the strength to walk in the paths of righteousness. And what is righteousness? According to the Bible, Psalm 119:172, "All your commandments are righteousness." So God's grace gives us the ability to reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What did Jesus Christ tell the rich, young, nobleman who said to him, "What good thing may I do to have eternal life?" And Jesus Christ said, "Keep the commandments." And he said, "Which?" And Jesus started to enumerate them. And he said, "This is what I've been doing all my life." He's was Jew. And Jesus said, "You really think you have? Then go sell all you have and come follow Me." The man walked away because his idol was his money. And Jesus knew it. The man walked away. Grace can cover any sin. Grace can cover all sins if we sincerely want it and if we're humble enough to accept it in our lives.

So the grace of God, the same apostle Paul who wrote so much about grace still said he had to keep himself in check, 1 Corinthians 9:27. "I have to keep myself in check. I have to fight and resist myself, Satan, and the world. I have to keep myself in check, lest after I have preached to others. I should be a castaway." That's the apostle Paul, the same one who wrote all about grace. He says, "You know what? I've got to watch myself." Yes, you do. Yes, I do. We have to make sure we're walking on the right path. With the grace of God, we can. With the Spirit of God, the strength of God, we can.

So don't say, and I have a whole sermon I'll give one day, on what does God do for you and what do… what is your part at it? Because salvation is not buying a ticket on the salvation train. Going to your bus, sitting down on your plush seat and putting your feet up on whatever the pop-up footrest… leg rest, and waiting for the people to come and serve you some little snack while you're on this train, and waiting to arrive in heaven, or in the Kingdom. That's not what salvation is about. Salvation is about walking with God. Salvation is about overcoming. “Him that overcomes I’ll grant to sit with Me on my throne.” It's not about staying the same. It's about not being a part of this world. It's about Romans 12 where it says, "Do not be conformed to this world." It's about resisting Satan the devil, resist him, humble yourselves that the grace of God may come to you.

So it's not a matter of, "I'm under grace now, I'll just sit back and let God swoop me into the Kingdom." That doesn't work that way. God wants us to battle. He wants us to ask for His grace. We need to. We need to ask Him for grace, that we may be gracious. 2 Peter 3:18, "Grow in grace and knowledge.” “Help me, Father, to be more gracious. Help me, Father, to use Your grace in my life, toward others, toward You. Help me to be gracious in how I act. Gracious in what I do. Gracious in how I speak."

1 Peter 4:8-10, two more scriptures and I'm finished. 1 Peter 4:8-10. This is the scripture I mentioned before. God gives us grace not to put into bank. 1 Peter 4:8-10. Here's what we read from the inspired word of the Bible from Peter's writings. "And above all things have fervent love among yourselves, ‘for love shall cover the multitude of sins.’" How do you have the love of God? By God's Spirit being in us. "Use hospitality one to another without grudging." I'll scratch your back, you scratch my back, that kind of thing. “Oh, you're not scratching my back I'm not going to scratch yours anymore.” Right? And verse 10, "As every man has received the gift," the gift, "even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." God has grace to cover every aspect, manifold grace of God, multicolored. It can cover any problem. It can cover any difficulty. It can cover any sin. But he says, "We need to be good stewards in how we use it toward others."

It is interesting that the last chapter in the Bible and the last verse is telling about what God thinks of the grace of God. We should read it. Revelation 22:21, the last verse in our Bible. The last opportunity of the inspired word of God as we understand it and believe it. What does God leave us with? He says, "Testify these things, ‘Surely, I'm coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus, come!” That's verse 20. Verse 21, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." I hope now you have a better understanding of the grace of God.