We are continuing our section on grace. Remember that grace operates when our heart
desires to do the right thing. Yes, when
we sin we do it willfully and mean to do it but if our general character is a
desire not to sin, that is where grace comes in. Grace is the unmerited, unearned, undeserved
favor of God. The stuff is not the
blessing, it’s the fruit of the blessing.
The blessing is operating in a place where we are open to receive, but
we are not seeking stuff. If we’re not operating blessing to blessing, we
are experiencing a breakdown in grace. John 1:16 says that the law and grace
and truth are opposed. The law was not
God’s ultimate plan for us. The law came
through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ. Numbers 20:7-12 and on tells the story of Moses’s
mistake in bringing water to the Israelites.
He struck the rock twice instead of speaking to it as commanded. Exodus 17 tells the story of the Israelites
getting water when Moses strikes the rock after being commanded to do so. Despite Moses making a mistake, the people
still got the water out of God’s mercy. The
punishment seems pretty harsh, but we’ll explore this together.
The promised land was a physical place in the Old
Testament. It was the life God had for
them, not just a place they went. For
us, the promised land is not a place we have to go, and it is not heaven. It is the promised life, the life God has for
us to live. It requires a lot of work,
applying principles, fighting off the enemy in order to obtain and keep it,
just like with the Israelites. The law
could not get the Israelites into the promised land. Joshua was the one who got them there because
of the faith he and Caleb had in God’s ability to give them the land. Faith gets us into the promised land.
Romans 4:1-13 says righteousness was not attainable until the
law came, and until it was given as a gift in Christ. There was no vehicle by which to obtain
righteousness in Abraham’s time except to believe. The man who does not work to obtain salvation
but trusts God obtains it. There is
nothing we can do to be justified before God, except to believe. This requires
faith (faith in His grace) because it makes no sense to us. The law was created to give definitions for
sin. The Mosaic law was meant to be an
accurate interpretation of the Law (God’s law).
In Galatians 3:1-6, Paul addresses a group of Christianized
Jews and addresses their desire to go back to the law as their reference point for
attaining God’s favor rather than receiving grace by faith. He again references Abraham and the fact that
we can inherit Abraham’s blessings. We
have to receive this by faith.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on
online media. To learn more about Living
Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
