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So we are going to start our Lenten journey in this idea of grace.

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We are going to look at kind of in a backdoor way, one of our confessions

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and the three forms of unity that we hold as a reformed church is the canons of

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Dort. And that is we know, a lot of us may know it as kind of the tulip analogy.

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And that is all well and good, but I am not a huge fan of that as far as everyday

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language and how we go about presenting it. And so Jim Osterhaus back in the 90s

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put out a kind of refreshed look at it where he got away from the tulip ideology

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and what that meant even though all of the things he used in his acronym faith.

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So it is the acronym faith. We are going to go kind of have that be the spine for

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us as we go through the book or go through the season of Lent. But if you

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are more, you just want to go tulip and you want to go canons of Dort while we

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go through this, you will not do wrong by doing that. But we will be using the

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acronym faith. There are many other acronyms out there. Some I think are good

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and some are not at all. But we are going to be going through this idea of faith.

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But I want you to complete these statements or these phrases as a culture.

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We kind of know them to be true. And I am going to kind of figure out and I am

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going to ask the question why we know these to be true. If something sounds too

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good to be true, it is or it probably is. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

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Why not breakfast and dinner? I don't know. No pain, no gain without pain.

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That makes more sense. Good. God helps those which is fairly unbiblical.

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And so we like to use it in the church. Feel free to ask me this week why I

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believe that it is. Break me off a piece of that. I am just wanting to see if

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anyone would do that. So I appreciate that. And so we learn these phrases kind

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of as these like many truths in life. We learn these phrases as kind of part of

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our culture, if you will, for whatever it is. That last one being a jingle.

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A lot of times we utilize kind of jingles. We could go through probably over 100

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commercials or different jingles for companies that all of us would know.

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And we never really think about it, but it is just something that gets

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indoctrinated into who we are. Right? I mean, all I did was that little bit of a

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Kit Kat slogan and most of you knew it, even though a lot of you were never

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going to say that or sing it in the church. And I respect that.

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But understand, it's something that you don't...when's the last time you thought

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about Kit Kats? Exactly. You don't, right? Some of you probably don't even like them.

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But it's something that you just know. Isn't that weird? That there are things

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that when you hear it, your mind just goes to it. For me, remember the Titan

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soundtrack. It has been so ingrained in who I am, right, that whenever I hear it,

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I automatically go to that movie. That we have these things that bring up kind of

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different either products or movies, scenarios, actors, all those kind of

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things. And you don't really spend a lot of time on it. You don't study it,

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but it just kind of becomes who you are. And today we're going to start the

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conversation about the word grace. And the thing about grace, it gets, in my

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opinion, sometimes overused in the church to the point where you have now this

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thing called cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks a lot about that in his

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writings that believers take this understanding of Christian liberty that

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because we are saved, we can do anything we want. And though it is in some ways

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true, as Paul says, everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial.

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But this understanding of cheap grace is that I know it's the prayer on a Monday

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that, Lord, I'm probably going to sin over the weekend, and I know you'll forgive

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me. And so it's this understanding of grace that we really need to align with

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when it comes to who we are as not only individuals, but as a church. And in a

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culture today where it's all about making it on your own. Our culture is all

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about you work your way, you earn the right, you climb the ladder, all of these

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things. We've talked about it before in different sermons. But one of the things

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that we have to really break through is this understanding that we have, let me

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find in my notes, is that when we work towards things, it's kind of like this

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work ethic that even we have this thing called the Protestant worth ethic that

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we will work towards the things that we want in order to earn, we will work for

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it in order to do these things, to climb the ladder, to put the notches in the

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belt, we will get whatever's coming to us if we earn it. I can look out and see a

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lot of very hardworking people that have that mentality. But in the reformed faith,

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in the Christian faith, that can be very damaging. That can be very dangerous if we

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have this kind of works righteousness, this understanding that we can work our

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way to the top of the cross. We can work our way to that vertical relationship

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with Jesus. And just basic Christianity, that is not the case. That there is this

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thing called grace. And we're going to look at grace and this thing of grace is

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so rooted in God's character that it really needs to be the center of who we

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are. That we should not only be people who have received grace, that we are

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people that should extend grace. And there's the rub. We love receiving grace.

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I don't know anyone that's like, no God, I don't need your grace. We love to

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receive it. We love to receive when those things are good things are happening to

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us. But the question I want to start today that's going to take us 40 days is

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what in fact is grace? What is this thing that we're talking about? Grace is a

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multifaceted diamond. There's no single definition to describe grace and what

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it's about. So over the next couple weeks we're going to look at different

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aspects of grace. One definition that I found is the definition of grace is God's

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unbelievable accepting of us. Someone else has said that grace is the

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completely undeserved loving commitment God has made to us. Fair. Another

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definition is God's love in action. Or grace is the face God wears when he

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looks at my failures. Those aren't bad. I don't know if they go all the way but

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it definitely gets us to an understanding that grace is something God

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gives. Grace is something we need. But how about some of you? How would you define

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grace? Any brave souls want to define grace this morning? Some guys may look and

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just point at their wives and that's very nice. You know that that is a great

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grace that you've been given in life. Absolutely. Anyone want to define grace

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today? Interesting. We're a Christian Reformed Church. Reformed theology is our

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base, right? It is our lens of reading the scriptures in the good, the bad, and

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the ugly and grace is all over what we believe. Yet if you're going to sit and

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try to define it, it's kind of awkward. It's kind of weird because I don't want

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to say something that's incorrect but I know in my heart that's what it is.

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It's kind of this understanding of I recognize it when I see it or I

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recognize it when I receive it or I recognize it when I extend it but there's

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an understanding here that I think we need. We need to be able to not only see

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grace in our lives, we have to understand grace in our lives in order to really to

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give grace, to expel grace in our lives to the world, a world that desperately

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needs God's grace. The world does not desperately need Jim's grace because

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Jim's grace is flawed but God's grace on the other hand is something everybody

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needs and here's the thing, whether they know it or not. So we're going to start

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Article 1 and this is a good place to start. This is from the Canons of Dort.

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Article 1, it says, since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the

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sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice

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if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the

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curse and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says, the whole

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world is liable to the condemnation of God, Romans 3 19. All have sinned and are

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depraved of the glory of God, Romans 3 23. And the wages of sin is death, Romans 6 23.

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So understand that in order to understand grace, we have to understand

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some pretty bad news about ourselves. Now I don't revel in the fact that I can

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just look out at everybody and say we're all depraved, we're all sinners though

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it's true, but the word that we're going to use and the word that Jim Osterhaus

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uses is the word fallen, that we are all fallen people. Now I think it's

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interesting just going back kind of jumping sermon series, last week we were

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talking about angels right in the last sermon series of whose sermon is it

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anyway and that's kind of where we ended with the fallen angels, Lucifer and his

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fallen angels and I know some of you had questions about that but we're not even

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talking about the angelic, we're talking about those made in God's image who are

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fallen. Ephesians 2 1 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and our

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sins. We're going to be in Ephesians 2 today, you can leave that one up there.

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That in order to understand what life is for the believer, to understand every day

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when you wake up is that you are dead in your trespasses and your sins. Now how we

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engage with this, how we live that out is case by case. I mean this is really bad

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news. I don't know anybody that can look at that and go yes, I am dead in my

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trespasses and my sins. The world kind of loves it because they don't define it

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that way, they don't recognize the good and the bad, they don't recognize the

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damned and the saved, they don't recognize any of that. We were dead in

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our trespasses and sins. Who can tell me the key word in that phrase? Were. It

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would look very different today if I said you, us, I, you, me, whoever are dead

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in our trespasses and sins. When the church of Ephesus heard this, this was a

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encouragement from the apostle Paul to remind them of something. And I think

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it's the reminder you and I need every day, that we were dead in trespasses and

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sins. I know that's not what you came to hear today, but everybody here was dead

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in sin, that had trespasses against God of thought, word, and deed as I prayed in

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the congregational prayer. You're dead in your sins, I'm dead in my sins, this side

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of the sanctuary, that side, the cars on Ridge Road, everybody was dead in

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trespasses and sin. This is the result of the fall and the blood that is in our

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DNA, or the sin that is in our blood, in our DNA, that we are all sinners. And

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isn't that how the story goes? Or how the song that we learned growing up, red and

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yellow, black and white, we are all dead in his sight? No? I don't think it seems

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like a good theological, good reformed song, right, to teach our kids. Lisa, are

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you here this morning? Are you gonna teach that to the light? Oh, they don't

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have light house today. But, I mean, that is really a song we should teach. Someone

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said, no. I'm gonna push back and go, but it is. Yeah, we don't probably want our

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kids going around singing that song, because it sounds like a 90s Green Day

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song, you know, that they did to some guitar riff, but understand that that is

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really the task at hand. That because of sin in the world, we were all dead

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without any hope of revival, any hope of having that relationship with the creator

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of God. Unfortunately, it's true. And we have to start there. There's an

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acceptance here that if you're gonna accept the grace of God, there is an

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acceptance here that you are a fallen human being and a bunch of you just

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tightened up. You don't like that. But you have to. I have to. We have to

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recognize that we were dead in our sin in order to understand what life really

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means. Because if we're not going to acknowledge that we are dead in our sin,

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then the life that we have in Jesus doesn't matter. Because here we're gonna

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do this on our own. We're gonna eat the apple, we're gonna do all the things. But

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on this side is the understanding that we have been saved by grace, which we'll

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get to in a second, that we were dead in our sins. We were done. But that wasn't

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the final plan or else this would be a very depressing sermon series. And quite

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frankly, I'd be out of a job. If that was the case and that was it, end of story, do

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not pass go, do not collect $200. What is the point of Christianity then? If this

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was you are dead, and that's it. End scene. I think we'd close up shop. What do you

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think this building could turn into if it wasn't a church? Bob, what do you think

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this church could be or what this building would be without a church in it?

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Could be a nice restaurant. Yeah, sure. That'd be some nice ambiance. But God was

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not done. God does not leave us in a fallen position. Ephesians 2, starting

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with verse 2. In which you once walked following the course of the world,

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finding the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in

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the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived, the passions of the flesh,

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carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children

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of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the

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great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made

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us alive together in Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with

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him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ so that in the

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coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in

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kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. So that's where we were and that's what God

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did about it. I'm going to read from Jim Osterhaus. We were dead in our

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transgressions and sin, but God made us alive. To underscore the point, let's say

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I am a teacher and you are one of my students. When you enter the classroom

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one day, you find me stretched out on the floor, very sick. Nevertheless, you

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ask me to bring you a glass of water. Although I am very ill, I managed to

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drag myself down the hall to the drinking fountain to get your water. It is

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very difficult to do, but I am able and I return to the classroom with your water.

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Now imagine that you enter the classroom, found me stretched out on the floor dead

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and said to me, Jim, go get me a glass of water. What would happen? Nothing. I would

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not be able to do what you asked because I was dead. I would be completely

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incapable of responding to your request. Humanities fall into sin is like that. It

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is so complete that it renders all people totally unable to respond to the

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message of salvation. That is what it means to be dead in our transgressions

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and sins. This is terrible news and the effect of sin is to make us totally

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unable to save ourselves. How can we possibly be saved? If we are spiritually

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dead, how can we be made alive? Here is the good news. God does it. So we have to

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understand that in this road of Lent, in this road of understanding grace, we have

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to admit that we have 0% to do with receiving that grace. We are going to talk

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about that tension. We are going to talk about it because there are some of us

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that love ourselves so much that we actually go, well, I just want 5%. I will

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give 95%. Jesus, you do the work. I really want that because we want it to have

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control. We want it so we can manipulate the system. We want it so we can say we

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had something to do with it. But if that is really what you want, then you have to

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take the good with the bad because in order for that grace to be poured on us

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every day of our life, for that relationship to be made whole in Jesus

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Christ, it took the cross. Spoiler alert, that is where we are going to end. That

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is where the season of Lent ends, that Monday, Thursday, which we will have a

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service. Good Friday will be online and then we will come together and celebrate

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Easter, Lord willing. In 32 days, we are going to come. That will be Monday,

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Thursday. Don't do the math, I already did it. Jesus is going to give the greatest

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sermon illustration of grace in the history of the world. That Jesus is going

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to use a ritual of marriage to understand what grace actually is. And come that

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Monday, Thursday, he will claim us as something and he will walk us to the new

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reality with the Last Supper. That that is going to mean something. And here is

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the kicker, we have absolutely no skin in the game. We can't do anything in it

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except to just receive it. And friends, I understand that is a struggle. I

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understand that some of you are going to struggle with this, this sermon series,

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in the next 40 days, because you think that you are that bad. That you think

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that there is nothing that you do in life that is deserved of God's grace.

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Guess what? You are right. There isn't. But you have not strayed so far that God

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is not right there with you. That the Father is not there ready to pick you up

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to declare that you are his and ask that you follow him. That you live your life

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with that grace. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. In of ourselves we would stay fallen.

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Ephesians 2 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not

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your own doing. It is a gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one may

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boast. Paul is there. This is the real he gets us. Right? I don't care about all of

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that Super Bowl commercial drama. This is the understanding. Because what would

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that look like? For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of

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your own doing. This is a gift of God. Not as a result of works. But he took that

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boast out. What if Paul didn't put that in there? I guarantee you that you and I

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would boast about it. Because we have that in our nature. It's the exact reason

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why we need that grace. For we are his workmanship. We are not our own

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workmanship. We have not created ourselves. We are created in Christ Jesus

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for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. So

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do you know and hear this today you are a good work. I am a good work that is

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still being worked on. That still has a job to do. That is still an active vessel

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for the gospel. For grace incarnate which is Jesus Christ. So for the one that

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comes today and says I am not a good work. I'm too far gone. I am too sinful.

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God can never love me. God can never engage. God can't. Stop. Stop fighting. Stop

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trying to do this on your own. It doesn't work. It's only gonna leave you

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exhausted. It's only gonna leave you burnt out. It's only gonna believe you

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resenting yourself. But receive that we are his workmanship. We are created in

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Christ Jesus for good works. We get Jesus right. Jesus dies for us. He is then

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illuminated, regenerated in our heart to do good work. There's no such thing as

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Christian passivity when it comes to just living out the life of Christ. That

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we get to work. We have jobs to do. We have a Christ to point to and grace to

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give out. And God knew all of this. That we would walk in him. I land the plane

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with this. We live in a world where we want to be in control of our own story.

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Our own rags to riches. To become our own ego monster. Another word for idol

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worshiping. Another word for idol worshiping sin is when we do that for

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ourselves and we think we can manipulate this system. We think we can do all of

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these things. Because we're always gonna have this thing inside of us. But we

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can't. And of ourselves we would stay fallen forever because we actually love

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being fallen. Ask that question of yourself this week. Why do I love sin

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so much? Why do I love being in a fallen posture in my life? The Bible makes it

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very clear that sin is so easily entangled in us. That it's actually part

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of the identity, and hear this, that we used to have. Thank God he doesn't leave

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us fallen. Thank God he picks us up. He dusts us off and does something

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incredible. More on that next week. Let's pray.