So we are going to start our Lenten journey in this idea of grace.
We are going to look at kind of in a backdoor way, one of our confessions
and the three forms of unity that we hold as a reformed church is the canons of
Dort. And that is we know, a lot of us may know it as kind of the tulip analogy.
And that is all well and good, but I am not a huge fan of that as far as everyday
language and how we go about presenting it. And so Jim Osterhaus back in the 90s
put out a kind of refreshed look at it where he got away from the tulip ideology
and what that meant even though all of the things he used in his acronym faith.
So it is the acronym faith. We are going to go kind of have that be the spine for
us as we go through the book or go through the season of Lent. But if you
are more, you just want to go tulip and you want to go canons of Dort while we
go through this, you will not do wrong by doing that. But we will be using the
acronym faith. There are many other acronyms out there. Some I think are good
and some are not at all. But we are going to be going through this idea of faith.
But I want you to complete these statements or these phrases as a culture.
We kind of know them to be true. And I am going to kind of figure out and I am
going to ask the question why we know these to be true. If something sounds too
good to be true, it is or it probably is. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Why not breakfast and dinner? I don't know. No pain, no gain without pain.
That makes more sense. Good. God helps those which is fairly unbiblical.
And so we like to use it in the church. Feel free to ask me this week why I
believe that it is. Break me off a piece of that. I am just wanting to see if
anyone would do that. So I appreciate that. And so we learn these phrases kind
of as these like many truths in life. We learn these phrases as kind of part of
our culture, if you will, for whatever it is. That last one being a jingle.
A lot of times we utilize kind of jingles. We could go through probably over 100
commercials or different jingles for companies that all of us would know.
And we never really think about it, but it is just something that gets
indoctrinated into who we are. Right? I mean, all I did was that little bit of a
Kit Kat slogan and most of you knew it, even though a lot of you were never
going to say that or sing it in the church. And I respect that.
But understand, it's something that you don't...when's the last time you thought
about Kit Kats? Exactly. You don't, right? Some of you probably don't even like them.
But it's something that you just know. Isn't that weird? That there are things
that when you hear it, your mind just goes to it. For me, remember the Titan
soundtrack. It has been so ingrained in who I am, right, that whenever I hear it,
I automatically go to that movie. That we have these things that bring up kind of
different either products or movies, scenarios, actors, all those kind of
things. And you don't really spend a lot of time on it. You don't study it,
but it just kind of becomes who you are. And today we're going to start the
conversation about the word grace. And the thing about grace, it gets, in my
opinion, sometimes overused in the church to the point where you have now this
thing called cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer talks a lot about that in his
writings that believers take this understanding of Christian liberty that
because we are saved, we can do anything we want. And though it is in some ways
true, as Paul says, everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial.
But this understanding of cheap grace is that I know it's the prayer on a Monday
that, Lord, I'm probably going to sin over the weekend, and I know you'll forgive
me. And so it's this understanding of grace that we really need to align with
when it comes to who we are as not only individuals, but as a church. And in a
culture today where it's all about making it on your own. Our culture is all
about you work your way, you earn the right, you climb the ladder, all of these
things. We've talked about it before in different sermons. But one of the things
that we have to really break through is this understanding that we have, let me
find in my notes, is that when we work towards things, it's kind of like this
work ethic that even we have this thing called the Protestant worth ethic that
we will work towards the things that we want in order to earn, we will work for
it in order to do these things, to climb the ladder, to put the notches in the
belt, we will get whatever's coming to us if we earn it. I can look out and see a
lot of very hardworking people that have that mentality. But in the reformed faith,
in the Christian faith, that can be very damaging. That can be very dangerous if we
have this kind of works righteousness, this understanding that we can work our
way to the top of the cross. We can work our way to that vertical relationship
with Jesus. And just basic Christianity, that is not the case. That there is this
thing called grace. And we're going to look at grace and this thing of grace is
so rooted in God's character that it really needs to be the center of who we
are. That we should not only be people who have received grace, that we are
people that should extend grace. And there's the rub. We love receiving grace.
I don't know anyone that's like, no God, I don't need your grace. We love to
receive it. We love to receive when those things are good things are happening to
us. But the question I want to start today that's going to take us 40 days is
what in fact is grace? What is this thing that we're talking about? Grace is a
multifaceted diamond. There's no single definition to describe grace and what
it's about. So over the next couple weeks we're going to look at different
aspects of grace. One definition that I found is the definition of grace is God's
unbelievable accepting of us. Someone else has said that grace is the
completely undeserved loving commitment God has made to us. Fair. Another
definition is God's love in action. Or grace is the face God wears when he
looks at my failures. Those aren't bad. I don't know if they go all the way but
it definitely gets us to an understanding that grace is something God
gives. Grace is something we need. But how about some of you? How would you define
grace? Any brave souls want to define grace this morning? Some guys may look and
just point at their wives and that's very nice. You know that that is a great
grace that you've been given in life. Absolutely. Anyone want to define grace
today? Interesting. We're a Christian Reformed Church. Reformed theology is our
base, right? It is our lens of reading the scriptures in the good, the bad, and
the ugly and grace is all over what we believe. Yet if you're going to sit and
try to define it, it's kind of awkward. It's kind of weird because I don't want
to say something that's incorrect but I know in my heart that's what it is.
It's kind of this understanding of I recognize it when I see it or I
recognize it when I receive it or I recognize it when I extend it but there's
an understanding here that I think we need. We need to be able to not only see
grace in our lives, we have to understand grace in our lives in order to really to
give grace, to expel grace in our lives to the world, a world that desperately
needs God's grace. The world does not desperately need Jim's grace because
Jim's grace is flawed but God's grace on the other hand is something everybody
needs and here's the thing, whether they know it or not. So we're going to start
Article 1 and this is a good place to start. This is from the Canons of Dort.
Article 1, it says, since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the
sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice
if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the
curse and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says, the whole
world is liable to the condemnation of God, Romans 3 19. All have sinned and are
depraved of the glory of God, Romans 3 23. And the wages of sin is death, Romans 6 23.
So understand that in order to understand grace, we have to understand
some pretty bad news about ourselves. Now I don't revel in the fact that I can
just look out at everybody and say we're all depraved, we're all sinners though
it's true, but the word that we're going to use and the word that Jim Osterhaus
uses is the word fallen, that we are all fallen people. Now I think it's
interesting just going back kind of jumping sermon series, last week we were
talking about angels right in the last sermon series of whose sermon is it
anyway and that's kind of where we ended with the fallen angels, Lucifer and his
fallen angels and I know some of you had questions about that but we're not even
talking about the angelic, we're talking about those made in God's image who are
fallen. Ephesians 2 1 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and our
sins. We're going to be in Ephesians 2 today, you can leave that one up there.
That in order to understand what life is for the believer, to understand every day
when you wake up is that you are dead in your trespasses and your sins. Now how we
engage with this, how we live that out is case by case. I mean this is really bad
news. I don't know anybody that can look at that and go yes, I am dead in my
trespasses and my sins. The world kind of loves it because they don't define it
that way, they don't recognize the good and the bad, they don't recognize the
damned and the saved, they don't recognize any of that. We were dead in
our trespasses and sins. Who can tell me the key word in that phrase? Were. It
would look very different today if I said you, us, I, you, me, whoever are dead
in our trespasses and sins. When the church of Ephesus heard this, this was a
encouragement from the apostle Paul to remind them of something. And I think
it's the reminder you and I need every day, that we were dead in trespasses and
sins. I know that's not what you came to hear today, but everybody here was dead
in sin, that had trespasses against God of thought, word, and deed as I prayed in
the congregational prayer. You're dead in your sins, I'm dead in my sins, this side
of the sanctuary, that side, the cars on Ridge Road, everybody was dead in
trespasses and sin. This is the result of the fall and the blood that is in our
DNA, or the sin that is in our blood, in our DNA, that we are all sinners. And
isn't that how the story goes? Or how the song that we learned growing up, red and
yellow, black and white, we are all dead in his sight? No? I don't think it seems
like a good theological, good reformed song, right, to teach our kids. Lisa, are
you here this morning? Are you gonna teach that to the light? Oh, they don't
have light house today. But, I mean, that is really a song we should teach. Someone
said, no. I'm gonna push back and go, but it is. Yeah, we don't probably want our
kids going around singing that song, because it sounds like a 90s Green Day
song, you know, that they did to some guitar riff, but understand that that is
really the task at hand. That because of sin in the world, we were all dead
without any hope of revival, any hope of having that relationship with the creator
of God. Unfortunately, it's true. And we have to start there. There's an
acceptance here that if you're gonna accept the grace of God, there is an
acceptance here that you are a fallen human being and a bunch of you just
tightened up. You don't like that. But you have to. I have to. We have to
recognize that we were dead in our sin in order to understand what life really
means. Because if we're not going to acknowledge that we are dead in our sin,
then the life that we have in Jesus doesn't matter. Because here we're gonna
do this on our own. We're gonna eat the apple, we're gonna do all the things. But
on this side is the understanding that we have been saved by grace, which we'll
get to in a second, that we were dead in our sins. We were done. But that wasn't
the final plan or else this would be a very depressing sermon series. And quite
frankly, I'd be out of a job. If that was the case and that was it, end of story, do
not pass go, do not collect $200. What is the point of Christianity then? If this
was you are dead, and that's it. End scene. I think we'd close up shop. What do you
think this building could turn into if it wasn't a church? Bob, what do you think
this church could be or what this building would be without a church in it?
Could be a nice restaurant. Yeah, sure. That'd be some nice ambiance. But God was
not done. God does not leave us in a fallen position. Ephesians 2, starting
with verse 2. In which you once walked following the course of the world,
finding the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in
the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived, the passions of the flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children
of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the
great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made
us alive together in Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with
him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ so that in the
coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. So that's where we were and that's what God
did about it. I'm going to read from Jim Osterhaus. We were dead in our
transgressions and sin, but God made us alive. To underscore the point, let's say
I am a teacher and you are one of my students. When you enter the classroom
one day, you find me stretched out on the floor, very sick. Nevertheless, you
ask me to bring you a glass of water. Although I am very ill, I managed to
drag myself down the hall to the drinking fountain to get your water. It is
very difficult to do, but I am able and I return to the classroom with your water.
Now imagine that you enter the classroom, found me stretched out on the floor dead
and said to me, Jim, go get me a glass of water. What would happen? Nothing. I would
not be able to do what you asked because I was dead. I would be completely
incapable of responding to your request. Humanities fall into sin is like that. It
is so complete that it renders all people totally unable to respond to the
message of salvation. That is what it means to be dead in our transgressions
and sins. This is terrible news and the effect of sin is to make us totally
unable to save ourselves. How can we possibly be saved? If we are spiritually
dead, how can we be made alive? Here is the good news. God does it. So we have to
understand that in this road of Lent, in this road of understanding grace, we have
to admit that we have 0% to do with receiving that grace. We are going to talk
about that tension. We are going to talk about it because there are some of us
that love ourselves so much that we actually go, well, I just want 5%. I will
give 95%. Jesus, you do the work. I really want that because we want it to have
control. We want it so we can manipulate the system. We want it so we can say we
had something to do with it. But if that is really what you want, then you have to
take the good with the bad because in order for that grace to be poured on us
every day of our life, for that relationship to be made whole in Jesus
Christ, it took the cross. Spoiler alert, that is where we are going to end. That
is where the season of Lent ends, that Monday, Thursday, which we will have a
service. Good Friday will be online and then we will come together and celebrate
Easter, Lord willing. In 32 days, we are going to come. That will be Monday,
Thursday. Don't do the math, I already did it. Jesus is going to give the greatest
sermon illustration of grace in the history of the world. That Jesus is going
to use a ritual of marriage to understand what grace actually is. And come that
Monday, Thursday, he will claim us as something and he will walk us to the new
reality with the Last Supper. That that is going to mean something. And here is
the kicker, we have absolutely no skin in the game. We can't do anything in it
except to just receive it. And friends, I understand that is a struggle. I
understand that some of you are going to struggle with this, this sermon series,
in the next 40 days, because you think that you are that bad. That you think
that there is nothing that you do in life that is deserved of God's grace.
Guess what? You are right. There isn't. But you have not strayed so far that God
is not right there with you. That the Father is not there ready to pick you up
to declare that you are his and ask that you follow him. That you live your life
with that grace. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. In of ourselves we would stay fallen.
Ephesians 2 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not
your own doing. It is a gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one may
boast. Paul is there. This is the real he gets us. Right? I don't care about all of
that Super Bowl commercial drama. This is the understanding. Because what would
that look like? For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of
your own doing. This is a gift of God. Not as a result of works. But he took that
boast out. What if Paul didn't put that in there? I guarantee you that you and I
would boast about it. Because we have that in our nature. It's the exact reason
why we need that grace. For we are his workmanship. We are not our own
workmanship. We have not created ourselves. We are created in Christ Jesus
for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. So
do you know and hear this today you are a good work. I am a good work that is
still being worked on. That still has a job to do. That is still an active vessel
for the gospel. For grace incarnate which is Jesus Christ. So for the one that
comes today and says I am not a good work. I'm too far gone. I am too sinful.
God can never love me. God can never engage. God can't. Stop. Stop fighting. Stop
trying to do this on your own. It doesn't work. It's only gonna leave you
exhausted. It's only gonna leave you burnt out. It's only gonna believe you
resenting yourself. But receive that we are his workmanship. We are created in
Christ Jesus for good works. We get Jesus right. Jesus dies for us. He is then
illuminated, regenerated in our heart to do good work. There's no such thing as
Christian passivity when it comes to just living out the life of Christ. That
we get to work. We have jobs to do. We have a Christ to point to and grace to
give out. And God knew all of this. That we would walk in him. I land the plane
with this. We live in a world where we want to be in control of our own story.
Our own rags to riches. To become our own ego monster. Another word for idol
worshiping. Another word for idol worshiping sin is when we do that for
ourselves and we think we can manipulate this system. We think we can do all of
these things. Because we're always gonna have this thing inside of us. But we
can't. And of ourselves we would stay fallen forever because we actually love
being fallen. Ask that question of yourself this week. Why do I love sin
so much? Why do I love being in a fallen posture in my life? The Bible makes it
very clear that sin is so easily entangled in us. That it's actually part
of the identity, and hear this, that we used to have. Thank God he doesn't leave
us fallen. Thank God he picks us up. He dusts us off and does something
incredible. More on that next week. Let's pray.