Why Grace Is a Place to Which You Can Cling

We have heard about the grace of God. One of the first verses that you ever learned is ‘by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We’ve heard of it, but do we understand it. You know, it’s not so easy to grasp. Chuck Swindoll and his wife Cynthia were on vacation at Sea World with some of their children and grandchildren. These are his words about that trip. “It is always amazing to watch those brave men and women who dive in the tank with Shamu the whale and other big creatures. I thought, “That whale is so gracious not to put them into eternity with just a nudge of her nose.” You get the feeling at times that they are fed handfuls of fish just to appease them, to keep them in an excellent mood so that when the trainers get in the tank, they’ll be able to get out of the tank a little later. And I watched as they hung on to their fins and tried to get their arms around those big bodies. The subject of grace is like that—a big subject to try and get your arms around or to get a hold on.” ¹ We are talking about grace today: Why Grace Is a Place to Which You Can Cling — that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.

This weeks’ Call to Action’ is:

Thank God today for His great grace in your everyday life. As the songwriter says, ‘Count your blessings — name them one by one./callout]

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Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question of the Day: What have you learned that you can share about the Grace of God in your own life? Please share in the comments section below./callout]

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 42 years ago. He has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 38 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

Podcast Notes

Walked According to the Course of this World

We are headed over into the area of the Grace of God.
We previously did a podcast on the ‘why we can be thankful for God delivering us out of the ginormous mess of sin.’
If you haven’t gotten a chance to listen to that podcast, there is a link above.
In that episode, we focused on the phrase ‘you who were dead in trespasses and sins, especially we set our sights on the ‘spiritually dead’ part.
That was the core of that podcast but, we didn’t finish talking about all that God delivered us from — we just ran out of time.
So, let’s head out that way because when we are finished, you are going to see what a tremendous distance God brought us from, and in the end, it’s all nothing but the grace of God.
Do you remember something that Jesus said concerning a certain woman, a prostitute?
You find that account in Luke seven.

Luke 7:37–39 (ESV) — 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

The religious leaders were not too keen on this woman being in their midst because they thought they were so holy.

Luke 7:39 (ESV)— 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

Note Jesus’ response.

Luke 7:44–47 (ESV) — 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Understanding how much you have been forgiven becomes a tremendous anchor point of praise and thanksgiving unto God.
Jesus turned to this woman and said, your sins which are many, are forgiven.
It’s the same with you — your sins, which are also many, are also forgiven.
Why? Because of the grace of God.

Grace Made You a Leader, Not a Follower

Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

So, you were dead — now you understand the concept of spiritual death a little bit better.
The scripture goes on to say that you were dead in trespasses and sins.
Another word for trespasses is transgressions.
Transgressions are the action of going beyond or overstepping some moral boundary or limit.
The same can be said for the word ‘sins.’
Trespasses and sins are synonyms – they mean the same.
Again, Colossians, the sister book to Ephesians, uses the exact phrase and concept.

Colossians 2:13–14 (ESV) — 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Now, trespasses and sins are part of the ‘course of this world.’
The Greek word ‘course’ means the age we are in or an era.
It’s a period of history having some distinctive features.
The distinct feature to this age — this age that began with Adam’s transgression and continues until now — is ‘transgressions and sins.’
All of which makes this an ‘evil age – an evil era.’

2 Timothy 3:1–4 (ESV) — 1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Paul is talking about the characteristics of the last days.
How long have we been in the ‘last days?’
Back to Acts two!

Acts 2:15–21 (ESV) — 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

So, way back in Acts 2, when the spirit of God fell on the day of Pentecost and people were wondering what this was, Peter stood up and said, this is what the prophet Joel said will occur in the last days.
So, the last days include the day of Pentecost and going forward.
We’ve been in the last days for at least two thousand years.
But this whole era where men have lived and soaked in trespasses and sins dates to Adam.
This era or age is six thousand years old.
You were a ‘follower’ of this age.
A follower is a person who accepts the leadership of another.
You accepted transgressions and sins as your leader.
You’ve heard the phrase, ‘Take me to your leader.’
Your leader was sin.
All of which means that you were not calling the shots.
Leaders call the shots.
No, you were a follower.
You followed someone else — you followed the Prince of the Air.
The prince of the power of the air — that’s the devil — that’s Satan — that’s demons.

Following an Evil Working Spirit

You followed a spirit – that spirit is a working spirit.
That spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience is how Paul said it.
Obedience to God is vital — it distinguishes you from that other fellow.
Devils are spirits that engage in disobedience.
But not only do they engage it, but they also influence others to follow suit — they cause disobedience to multiply.
They encourage it.
That’s one of the main definitions of what a leader is or what leadership is.
One of the best definitions of leadership is influence.
And that’s what demon spirits do.
They influence others to disobey God.
That’s what our life was apart from God.
We all followed — we all engaged in transgressions and sins.
We followed in and acted on sinful sexual passions.
We acted on greed and dishonesty, lying our way across the spectrum of our relationships.
We lied — we stole — we cheated — we committed idolatry — we dishonored parents — we murdered, and the list goes on and on of what we did.
That’s the result of following.
We weren’t leaders of righteousness but followers of unrighteousness.
Now it’s different.
Because of the grace of God, we get to set an example now.
We get to be in an example now, and it’s all because Jesus delivered us out of the ginormous mess that we were in.
So, instead of following the course of this world, we get to chart our course.
We get to say ‘No,’ and our ‘no’ works.
It sticks.
Our words mean something.
Because of the grace of God, the new course that you are charting for your life starts with the words of your mouth, a mouth that’s hooked up to your heart — to your spirit.
A spirit that has been fed and built up by the Word of the Lord.
And now, instead of the tongue setting on fire our bodies with sinful passions — instead of acting on our fleshly impulses — carrying out the desires of the body and the mind — a mind that feeds off the whispers of the enemy, we now chart our path.
It’s a course that has been laid out by the Spirit of God and not the spirit of this age.
I’m telling you that you have choices that you didn’t have before.
You can say no to transgressions and sins and the course of this world.
And it’s all because of Jesus.
But there’s yet more that the grace of God delivered us from.

By Nature, Children of Wrath

Ephesians 2:3 (ESV) — 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Did you hear that?
You were, by nature, children of wrath.
What does that mean ‘nature?’
The Greek word ‘nature’ means a condition determined by birth.²
This definition is vital to understand.
The reason we need to come to Jesus is not because of sinful acts – sins and transgressions.
Sins and transgressions are by-products of a wrong nature.
This part of man’s redemption is vital for us to understand.
It’s not individual sins that are the issue at hand.
Men don’t go to hell for what they do.
It’s not murder or adultery or theft or rape or genocide or any of the heinous sins that we see men commit on planet earth that punches a one-way ticket straight to hell.
That’s not what sends them there.
What sends them and there is that their nature is wrong.
And because their nature is wrong, they must be incarcerated.
Because their nature is wrong, that’s the reason they do the heinous things that they do.
So, if you get man’s nature right on the inside — the outside will take care of itself.
So, the phrase that we ‘were by nature the children of wrath even as others’ is a highly significant point.
Jesus didn’t come just to forgive men of their sins.
He came to do way more than that.
Jesus came to give men a new nature.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation with a new nature.
The old nature brings fruit unto death; the new nature brings fruit unto life and righteousness.
Listen to Jesus here talking to the peddlers of unrighteousness.

John 8:44 (ESV) — 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

I want to repeat it: men don’t go to hell because of what they do.
They go because of who they are.
When a person says yes to Jesus — God gives him a new nature.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) — 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

That’s what we are thanking God for today— that God’s grace paved the way for our deliverance into a new life.
The new creation life — the Jesus life — is a life of peace and joy where the old nature does not have to dominate us any longer.
We’ve laid out a big ginormous mess that described your life and mine.
You were lost — without God — led a life of transgressions and sins — you were a sinful follower bound by a wrong nature instead of a spiritual leader.
Your nature was wrong.
Verse four of Ephesians chapter two is the capstone.

Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV) — 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

But God!
Despite the mess, ‘God’ was doing something that He planned to do all along — set you totally free from your lost self.
He made you alive together with Christ.
You’re alive — you are not dead in trespasses and sins.
He delivered you — He set you free, and He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
And all of this came by grace — now that’s what we need to find out next.
What is grace?

By Grace, You Have Been Saved

Ephesians 2:5–9 (ESV) — 5 … by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In this passage that we just read, Paul mentions God’s grace in connection with the momentous change of your nature three times.
We need to know what grace is.
With that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.

The Definition of Grace

Grace refers to the condition of being given or shown favor, especially by someone in a position to exercise goodwill by meeting a particular need.³
So, lock the word ‘favor’ into your thinking.
Grace is favor in its most basic form.
Favor is something done or granted out of goodwill.
It’s a kind act.
Dictionary.com has favor defined as excessive kindness or unfair partiality.
How about preferential treatment?
Can we say it that way?
It’s good to say it differently because it strikes your spirit and your mind differently.
Treating someone with favor is the opposite of treating someone with neglect. *You may have heard the term ‘random acts of kindness.’
You’re doing something for someone you love — you care about.
Now, the Lord didn’t show you a random act of kindness because there’s nothing ‘random’ with God. *God’s ways are all pre-planned with infinite forethought.
He loved you while you were yet in your sins.
So, grace is favor, but it can also refer to the manifestation of such a disposition of kindness in the form of material benefaction, including the giving of gifts, the approval of one’s request, the granting of freedom or mercy, and the deliverance or salvation from evil or harm.⁴
Grace is more than just a sentimental feeling.
If I am showing you grace, it’s an action — if I am showing you favor, I am doing something for you.
Listen to Jacob as he is talking with Esau in the book of Genesis.

Genesis 33:11 (ESV) 11 Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it.

‘God’ has dealt graciously with me’ is Jacobs’s testimony.
‘Has dealt graciously with me’ is all one word in Hebrew.
It’s a 3-letter word as so much of the Hebrew language is, and it means to have or to implore favor, to show or be shown compassion.
So, favor and compassion are the two core word meanings of grace in Hebrew.
But the word is also used in other ways.
Listen to this passage in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 28:50 (ESV) — 50 a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

The same three-letter Hebrew word here in Deuteronomy means to show mercy.
So, mercy is a part of grace.
If you want to understand grace, start with favor and add to that compassion and mercy.
Let’s look at another use of this same Hebrew word for grace.

Psalm 37:21 (ESV) — 21 The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;

So far, we have favor — we have compassion — we have mercy — and now add to that the word ‘generous.’
Showing someone ‘grace’ means being generous — generous means — willing to give and share lavishly.
It means to be liberal or philanthropic.
So, here is one thing that we all need to see — to receive pardon for our sins, we must receive God’s grace — God’s liberality and not try to generate liberality as a means of acquiring a clemency.
You must accept God’s version of generosity not to try to establish your righteousness on your version of generosity.
So, men go to hell because their nature is wrong — they go to heaven because God’s nature is right, and that’s the nature you receive via God’s generosity that produced salvation through Jesus.
God’s dealing graciously with Jacob means that God in Genesis 33:11, which is where we started, means that Jacob had enough; he had more than enough.
So, grace means God provides the means of escape because you couldn’t do it for yourself.
You saw the ginormous mess you were in — there was no way that you could get yourself out.
You needed help — you needed Jesus — you needed a Savior.
And because God loved, he favored you; He had compassion on you — He showed you mercy, and He was generous and provided what you needed to become a child of God.
So, you must eradicate from your thinking any thought that there is something so extraordinary about your work ethic, or remarkable about your morals, or fantastic about the philanthropic endeavors that you could on your impress God with all of that.
And God is so impressed with you that He just has no choice but to let you into heaven.
That’s not grace. — that’s works.
With that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

To seek to earn, merit or purchase salvation is to insult the Giver. Imagine yourself invited to a banquet in the White House by the president of the United States. You are seated at a table that is filled with the choicest foods. Every effort is made to give you a most enjoyable evening. At the end of a lovely visit, the president stands at the front door to bid you goodbye. What do you do? As you leave, do you press a dime into his hand and say, “Thank you very much for your kindness. I have enjoyed the evening very much. I realize it has cost you a lot of money, and I want to help you pay for the meal”? Is that the proper response to his kindness? On the contrary, it is a rude and insulting gesture. So, it would be with God’s grace.⁵

You can’t pay for it — don’t even try.
If you are trying, quit it because you are nullifying the grace of God.
We must understand these things.

WHEN a person utterly understands that oxygen is a gift, they will not smoke. If a person comprehends that good health is a gift, they are not going to abuse drugs. When a Christian understands that grace is a gift of God, they will make the choice to say no to wrong and yes to right. If a Christian loses sight of grace, then they become irresponsible with the life given to them by God.⁶

All Grace Is All God

Grace is entirely God’s domain where your salvation and your day-to-day existence are concerned.

Psalm 84:11 (ESV) — 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

The Lord bestows favor and honor.
He does that – He is the doer of it.

Psalm 112:4 (ESV) — 4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

If you put all these things together that we’ve talked about today, you can readily grasp the fact that by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
You guys have a great God-week in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

What is Significant About 490 Years in End-Time Events?

__________
References:

Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 249. ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1069. ↩
Jonathan W. Lo, “Grace,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014). ↩
ibid ↩
—William MacDonald, The Grace of God, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes ↩
Tony Evans Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More Than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Grace, Appreciation Of) ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Why Grace Is a Place to Which You Can Cling

Podcast: Light on Life Season 8 Episode 48

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Walked According to the Course of this World

Grace Made You a Leader, Not a Follower

Following an Evil Working Spirit

By Nature, Children of Wrath

By Grace, You Have Been Saved

The Definition of Grace

All Grace Is All God

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the book of Ephesians by clicking on the links below.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Walked According to the Course of this World

Grace Made You a Leader, Not a Follower

Following an Evil Working Spirit

By Nature, Children of Wrath

By Grace, You Have Been Saved

The Definition of Grace

All Grace Is All God

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