God's Amazing Grace #4 (What We Learn)
Text: Titus 2:11-14
I want to welcome everybody to the church that is made up of simple people who together
have done a lot of things we’re not proud of and have no reason to consider ourselves better
than anyone else but we have one thing in common by which we boast:
God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for all of us! Or, as the apostle Paul would
say
‘For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ.’
(Galatians 6:14- The Message)
As we have been looking at the past three weeks, we in our weaker moments desperately
need someone to simply stand up and say He will accept us and love even despite us and we find
that through His grace God does this. He is the Father of the prodigal who upon returning does
not find a Father who demands an explanation but simply celebrates the return of His lost
child.
As the people of God then we saw last week that of all the things we should be standing for,
our #1 work, our main job as a man or woman of God is to allow others to see God’s
glorious grace and experience it genuinely. The only way we can do this is if we are
experiencing it genuinely. I experience God’s grace genuinely when I come to the point in my
life that I don’t have to try to ‘earn’ His acceptance or ‘hide’ my wrongs from the past.
As a child of grace I understand that God knows my failings and still is head over heels in love
with me. When we look at our world aren’t there a lot of people who we see are hurting or
being destroyed by wrongs they have done and they simply need that message about God?
All we are about are people who have been welcomed by God in this condition and trying to
tell others that they too can be welcomed. God is not wanting to slam the door in their faces
or even shut it gently. God’s message to people everywhere who are running either scared or
away from Him is ‘come back and experience my love again’!
People say ‘but you don’t know what I did, the way I acted, the things I said, the perverseness
of my character’ and He says ‘Oh, but I do and I am hurting because you’re hurting and I
want to take that pain away’.
Or maybe we come to the point where we are in fact homesick for God’s house but we don’t know
if we can come back and God simply says you can always come home!
Then we came to a problem I mentioned last week:
doesn’t this mean that people just get off to easy?
Isn’t God like this doting grandfather who simply says don’t worry about the rules?
Let me ask you this:
what if God did?
Would it really bother us that much if God let’s people into heaven to easily?
Before we get into this let’s read a couple of passages together:
John 8:31-36, Romans 5:20-6:7, Titus 2:11-14
What we are going to look at this morning is a very important topic of what we do after
receiving the grace of God! What do we learn when God wraps His arms around us and says
welcome home my child?
The trap that many people fall into that we kind of want to steer away from is this:
okay originally coming to God and receiving acceptance is offered to everyone but once in the
house only those who ‘earn’ it can ‘stay in’ it.
Let’s ask two questions that we’ll try to examine:
Can we be good without God?
Now, this is an interesting question because sometimes people without God really in their lives
are decent moral people- it’s harder to answer though because would they be decent moral people
if the principles of God had been totally absent from the world?
Would you agree that nobody enters a life of wrongs looking to destroy themselves?
That most people do things, even wrong things and even drastically wrong things, with the
thinking that somehow life will improve! Think about that, even the most basic lie is usually
told with a better end in mind. We don’t tell a lie hoping that eventually it comes out and we
have to go through a time of suspicion or punishment or even live our lives having to make up
for that lie.
Now, God gives us His instructions that although at times may seem to run counterproductive
to our thoughts of life’s improvement but are actually designed to keep us safe, healthy &
whole. Deut.30:19,20 & Romans 7:12
As Jesus said when we commit sin we become the slave of it. It is a heavy burden for us to
bear.
So, when we come to the commandments of God and pursue a mindset that says I am going to
live according to this law in such a way that my God will be pleased we learn some things:
- What to avoid!
The Law tells us what to do and what not to do. We need to understand these things for two
reasons:
- which way is the better way to go?
- why I might be hurting others or myself?
There is a problem with this.
A man was taking his 16 year old to a parking lot to teach him how to drive. In the middle of
this big parking lot there was only one pole. The man’s instructions to his kid were clear:
don’t hit the pole! Guess what the kid ended up doing? Why?
We focus so much on what we can’t do that we are drawn to it. Why would Adam & Eve focus on the
one tree they couldn’t touch in the Garden of Eden?
The fruit is never so tempting as when it becomes forbidden. Romans 7:7
When we do wrong- punishment is coming!
Jesus said- you are not free when you commit sin. Do you think that kid after hitting the
pole felt good about his dad sitting next to him? Why did Adam & Eve hide from God after
eating the forbidden fruit and then put blame on somebody else?
Fear of punishment. You listen to someone who can only feel good about themselves by being
either better than others or worthy on their own and sure enough they can’t handle the thought
that they have done something wrong or they must always have an excuse for it.
The only reason we do things is because it is our duty and we have to!
The reason I don’t lie is because I will be punished if I do. The reason I make my bed in the
morning is because I will be punished if I don’t. Punishment is a great motivator but it
doesn’t make us feel good about what we are doing. Our desire tends to be driven by I would do
this if I could get away with it or be allowed to do it. We are an elder brother who stays at
home only so we deserve our inheritance.
We’re loyal but not joyful.
Eventually we come up with this kind of answer ‘I always do what is right’ or in today’s less
prideful language ‘I know I may have some mistakes but no one can tell me what they are.’ This
is the person by the way who has a hard time loving others who don’t measure up!
Now, in thinking about that question that people usually do things thinking life will
improve and then end up hurting because of it. Instead of seeing God’s commands as a way to
earn His acceptance, but seeing them for what they are a teacher of what is better and
realizing that we fall short but are still welcomed into His presence by grace
(God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense) and hence live our lives
not so God will be pleased with me, but live my life because my Father is in love with me we
learn different things:
- What to long for!
The elder brother in the prodigal son couldn’t find happiness with the Father but only with the
Father’s things. Notice when that son came home and the Father hugged him & threw a party for
him, that guy could be happy with the Father. I don’t think the son cared about the Father’s
things now that he knew the Father was going to take care of him and nurture him and forgive
him. The person who is welcomed back by God so freely learns to desire the Father. We desire
what the Father desires. We find happiness with God because we know what it is like living
apart from God. If you took everything God brought to this world out of this world what kind of
place would it be?
Some of us have tried to live life that way and life can be exciting for a while but it
eventually brings us down. Paul said to Titus this grace that brought salvation teaches us to
live properly in this world-
we can’t continue in the things that drove us away from the Father.
- We look forward to a hope.
Instead of seeing punishment in everything we do, we see hope. We long to be with God so our
lives are ordered around being in the Father’s presence and we live in hope- a certain hope
that one day I will live forever in heaven with God- where nothing that troubles can come. We
don’t look at God as going to punish us for the wrongs we did and still do- we see Him as the
Father who runs to us and takes care of us. Think about all the work that the son would be
upon returning:
malnourished, unsavoury in character, not used to orderliness- all these things would be a lot
of work but every morning and every night he would find himself in the same spot- in his bed,
in his room at his father’s where he belongs.
- We do things out of duty-
not because we have to but because we want to! As a child of grace I do things now because my
Father has been so good to me- Phil.2:14,15- do all things without grumbling.
Here is the biggest thing that makes repentance easier:
The reason we want to do right is because the Father loves us so! What is a better motivator:
the fear of punishment? or the gift of love?
For a child it might be punishment because they have yet to learn the true depth of sacrificial
love, but for adults there is no grey area here. How did the Father demonstrate His love for
us?
Jesus describes it as the Father who runs to the far-gone son. In another parable he said it
was the shepherd who searched for the one lost & doomed sheep. What Jesus was telling us in
those stories and what he demonstrated in his death on the cross was that to bring us home-
grace cost heaven everything it had- when we come home could you really not care about that?
Romans 6:17.
When you love someone dearly it is much easier to submit to something! I’m a lot different than
I was at 20 and the main reason is love. At 20 I loved myself and my own. When you know you
are loved- Oh, how different to live your life.
2 Cor.5:14- the love of Christ compels us…
‘Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in
everything we do.’ (The Message)
We understand grace when we understand love. We can’t do things to make God love us- we do
things because He loves us. What can I get away with is not a question that someone who loves
another asks. You see, this is why we can handle making mistakes and not worry at night if I
have been perfect enough- because the Father loves us and we love that about Him!
I can listen to the melody of grace that God is playing because I’m not worrying whether or not
I sing all the notes good enough. Because of this we don’t go on living as if nothing has
happened to us but through the power of God’s grace He can change the worst of us into men and
women of God!
“There used to be human sacrifices offered on the isle of Formosa. Governor Goho ruled for
40 years and tried to make them abandon human sacrifice. But after this period of time, the
people became restless. They demanded a sacrifice. He said, ‘Tomorrow go to the forest. There
you will find a person tied, wearing a red robe and a mask. Kill him, and offer him.’ The
next day when they went to the forest, they saw this figure in the red robe and mask. In their
haste, they killed him very quickly. They removed the mask. It was their beloved Governor
Goho! And it is said in Formosa there was never offered another human sacrifice.” 1
The wrongs we do were so tragic that God allowed them to kill His own Son on the cross.
And as we removed the mask we saw the face of Jesus as the one they killed. Out of that great
love for us where God accepts us through that cross- we find the greatest teacher of all to
now do what is right. I don’t lie to my kids because I love them so much. I strive to live
for God because He loves us so much.
What do you think the answer would be the next morning after that son was welcomed home and
the Father said is it better here or living with the pigs?
Next week we are going to now look at the concept that if we learn from grace what we should
learn- how do we go about giving grace to others. You see even after sons return home to the
Father there is still a problem with elder brothers- how can we avoid becoming an elder brother?
1. Charles Hodge, Will God Run? (Dallas, TX: Christian Publishing Company Inc., 1965) p.56
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