Merritt Title: Jesus Over Paid Song: #343 I will Sing of My Redeemer
Scripture: Ephesians 2: 8
When Mother was dying and facing eternity, she said she was not good enough. When older brother Paul was dying and entered hospital for his last days, he said, “I am not deserving of God’s grace.” George’s brother was a spiritual warrior who knew his bible, studied theology inside and out, yet felt undeserving to stand before God. Many of us struggle with feeling unworthy of salvation and we never feel good enough to go to heaven, especially when we face death. Psalm 51:5, Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
We are lost because of what our first parents Adam and Eve did. Their offense brought sentence of death. All of us followed their path into sin. The health board closed down a Chinese restaurant in Massachusetts for various violations. Most serious, said officials, was the restaurant's practice of draining water from cabbage by putting it in cloth laundry bags, placing them between two pieces of plywood in the parking lot, and driving over them with a van. Said Health Director Ted Dumas, "I've seen everything now!"
But there is Good News. Romans 5:15, But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the One Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! The obedience of Jesus restored us to God’s favor. Jesus gives us right and title to everlasting life when we accept Him.
Romans 3: 24-28, “Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. For we maintain a man is justified by faith APART from observing the law.” This was written by Apostle Paul who used to be a Pharisee, ready to kill anyone to promote demands of the Law. After meeting Jesus, Paul changed.
We recognize we come to God apart from works of the law, but once we belong to God, we start worrying again if we are good enough. Then it’s easy to fall into Satan’s trap that salvation is dependent on our goodness. It never was dependent on our goodness, it never will be dependent on our goodness, salvation could never be dependent on our goodness, otherwise we would still be lost! Hebrews 8:10, I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. God does in our lives by His grace what the externals could never do. God writes His love in our hearts.
SONG: GOD IS LOVE
2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” By beholding Him we become changed. We must keep beholding Jesus. Mostly when we come to church, we spend our time looking at what I must do, what I must change. But we need to look at Jesus in everything and especially in church. Look for Jesus behind every religious book. If we miss Jesus, we miss the whole point! 1Corinthians 2:2, For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
What does it mean to obey? Is 75% obedience enough to get saved? Who's to say? If you sin even once, the Law says you must die. If 100 % obedience is required for salvation, then there is no one who is saved, not King David, Moses, Abraham, or Noah. Under the law we can never know for sure we’re submitting enough to Christ. This eliminates all security and assurance IF salvation is by obedience. This makes assurance conditional and the best anyone can hope for is to have enough good works to be somewhat confident of salvation. Emotional damage is done when a man feels he is accepted on a conditional basis. It’s a contradicting message, “I love you, but first you must do this.” Grace is opposed to ideas most have about earning our way in the world, about people getting what we deserve, about “fairness,” about independence. Because of backgrounds and religious training, many Christians believe their performance is a factor in salvation. People develop negative, self-critical, judgmental beliefs that have resulted in guilt and insecurity. This sets people up for failure, and guilt is overwhelming.
Guilt is produced partly by conviction of the Holy Spirit and partly by one’s own conscience. Conscience is molded by what parents, teachers, church, and Bible say, but even that’s influenced by OUR interpretation. No two consciences are exactly alike. When we are over conscientious, over dutiful, perfectionist, always striving, we become angry with ourselves, which results in depression. Bedouin camel drivers in mid-East know camels are moody. Their moods are legendary. From time to time a camel-driver senses his camel is fed up with all the hard work. Wanting to head off explosion, owner will hand his own coat to the camel. The camel will bite, spit at, and trample the coat into desert sand, until all left is threads. Once camel’s anger is spent, relationship can continue. People struggle with fear of committing unpardonable sin. We are called to rest in Jesus’ works, and that’s what Sabbath really means.
Christians become neurotic if we feel keeping salvation is conditional. God does not want us to live with guilt. G.R.A.C.E. is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, one of the most hated teachings because it opposes all human pride. Grace teaches we’re unable to save ourselves, to help in our salvation, to do anything to merit salvation. Saved totally as the act of God. Those that are saved are equally if not more deserving of Hell! No one in our human race deserves consideration from God; we are all sinners. God could rightfully have sent the entire human race to eternal punishment long ago! However, God has shown His Grace toward us in Jesus. God says it and we believe it. We may not FEEL saved; we’re saved by Christ, not by our feelings. We stand on God’s Word and God cannot lie.
SONG: CHRIST ALONE
There are only two types of belief, Works and Grace. There seem to be many differences between world religions, but they’re all the same, all center around human works. All involve humans accomplishing a task to receive reward. Tasks may be different, the goal has different names, reward may be called Heaven, Paradise, Nirvana, but YOU must do this to get the prize. Swallows Hotel in Gateshead, England, offered 11 chronic snorers a free night's stay so they could test if their rooms are soundproofed. The hotel staff tape-recorded the sounds coming from the rooms and promised the LOUDEST snorer a prize.
In world religions, heaven is earned by what you do. Religions based on human effort are many that go by name Christianity. When we push Law, we’re saying grace plus merit equals salvation, that we must do to receive, that we must pay our debt. True Bible Christianity, faith once delivered, is totally Grace. Salvation is 100% work of God; we are unable, because of our bondage to sin, to do anything meriting God’s favor. God reaches down to save, He conceived the plan, He sent His Son, He accomplished it, He makes 100% possible beginning to end.
Apart from God's grace, no one follows Jesus. And that not of ourselves, salvation does not proceed from ourselves. Faith comes out of grace. First we must see how God is love, how God is good, then we have faith and trust Him. Faith is not of man's willpower, not of our initiating, not of our performing, but a gift from God. All boasting is out. We CANNOT save ourselves by our own works, goodness, attempts to keep His laws. Bellevue, Washington: Police broke up a disturbance between a couple arguing over which one was drunker. Both were arrested and taken to Hospital. The police charged them with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, but not assault. They each injured themselves and not the other. It seems, according to police and witnesses, that the couple were taking turns bashing their head into the drywall in order to prove they were so drunk they couldn't feel pain.
Martin Luther, after years of striving to be righteous, after years of psychological pain, discovered marvelous meaning of grace. That’s Reformation. Christians tell others to give their lives to Christ. But God does not need you to give- simply receive. God has already made atonement. Power to live Christian life is by Holy Spirit. Without His power, all actions are based on human willpower. John 1:13, Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Moscow, Russia: First it was a flight in a MiG fighter jet. Then 30 seconds of weightlessness in a cosmonaut-training device. Soon thrill-seeking tourists may be able to ride in a Russian submarine, tank or missile ship. Pressed for money and burdened with surplus weaponry since end of Cold War, Russia is pioneering a military tourism. As plane goes into dive at 30,000 feet, passengers in its padded zero-gravity chamber suddenly rise from aircraft's floor. The price for floating free for just half a minute: $4,000. We cannot pay for heaven. It is miraculous power of God!
SONG: SINNER SAVED BY GRACE
During trial in a small Missouri town, the local prosecuting attorney called first witness, a proper well-dressed elderly lady. She was sworn in to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, on the Bible, so help her God. The prosecutor asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?’” She replid, “Why, yes I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy and frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, cheat on your taxes, manipulate people and talk badly about them behind their backs. You think you’re a rising big shot when you haven’t sense to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper-pushing shyster. Yes, I know you.”
The lawyer was stunned. He pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?”
She said, “Why, yes, I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster too. He’s lazy, bigoted, has a bad drinking problem. The man can’t keep a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of worst in the state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. Yes, I know him.”
Laughter mixed with gasps thundered through the courtroom on verge of chaos.
At this point, the judge brought the courtroom to silence, called both lawyers to the bench, and in a very quiet voice whispered, “If either of you morons asks her if she knows ME, you’re going to jail!”
God's idea of saint is not self-righteous, sinless perfection. It's a sinner saved by grace, who has no perfection, no righteousness of his own, but is dependent on Jesus! Philippians 3:9, And be found in Him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. Apostle Paul is saying, “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather I am righteous through faith in Christ.” Faith is not a work, because it involves no ability on our part. That is the hard thing to understand, faith is not an action, it is surrender, holding up our hands saying, “I can do nothing in myself. I trust God.”
People like to keep account. We ask, “How many times can God forgive our sins?” If we keep account, we realize sins on our account are longer than books, but the good news is they are paid by Jesus’ blood. In fact, Jesus OVER PAID. Jesus is worth more than our whole world.
Can we put anything in the column saying Good Works Done by us? According to the Bible, we have none! Under column of Good Works we write “Supplied by Jesus’ Righteousness.” Grace is to stand before God with all accounts paid, clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. This is the Christian doctrine! In Christ alone. If the message excludes grace, or mingles law with grace, it is a DIFFERENT gospel. Galatians 3:2-3, I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Lee Lively thought he was doing the right thing when he shot a drunken driver who had beaten up a policeman. Lee saw Puentes grabbing for the officer’s gun. The cop managed to knock it away, but ended up with Puentes sitting on him, beating his face. Lee said he leaped out of his truck and raced to the gun. As Puentes ran away, Lee said he shouted twice for him to stop, then shot him in the legs. His faith was shaken when Mr. Puentes demanded $1.7 million for his wounds. But the jury said Puentes is the one who must pay $1.75 million in punitive damages to court and $1,000 for the policeman’s injuries.
The Gospel is not a call to amending our ways, to make penance for sins, or promise to do better in the future. The Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Don’t mistake the Gospel as call to duty, call to reformation, call to better our condition, to behave in a more perfect way. Gospel is not a demand that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and cultivate good ones. You may do ALL these things, yet never be saved like the Pharisees. In the Bible the answer to "What must I do to be saved?" was simple. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Acts 16:31. ONLY Jesus saves.
Song: LOVE WAS WHEN GOD BECAME A MAN