From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Today we want to go into the classroom with grace because Paul says to Titus that the grace of God instructs us. The grace of God is the gospel, the gospel of the grace of God. The grace of God is this huge subject that you can't really get your arms around because it is so big. Grace is what saves us, grace is what sustains us, grace is what pushes us on, and we're going to learn today in the classroom with grace.

Announcer: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today as we continue to learn from the series, Beyond Amazing: Understanding the Grace of God, and the lesson today called "In the Classroom with Grace."

Now, today he's going to reveal three key insights about God's grace and how God created us and therefore desires for us to reflect His glory in all that we do to honor Him. Now we're in the message today, "In the Classroom with Grace," one of seven from this series. You can find out how to get this series for a gift of any amount when you go to fromhisheart.org. Right now though, open your Bible to the book of Titus chapter two. Here again is Pastor Jeff to take us into the classroom with grace.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Titus chapter two, beginning in verse 11 says this, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you."

Paul is telling Titus these things are important. He left him in Crete to set up the church and to put in order that which remains, and he said, these are the things that you need to emphasize in the classroom with grace. Here's the question: Have you learned the key lessons of grace, of the gospel of the grace of God?

Lesson number one: the grace of God saves us. What do we learn from grace? Well, we learn that the grace of God saves us. For by grace you have been saved through faith. Now God's grace, when he says in verse 11, "For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men," he's probably talking about the incarnation, when God the Son took on flesh and became a man.

You know, we always go back to John one because John one is so rich. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

And the Bible says, "Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. So it's the grace of God and the God of grace who saves us. Now Jesus came to save undeserving sinners, and how does He do it? He does it by His grace. For by grace, Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast."

The most well-known verse in the New Testament by far is John 3:16. I mean, when we had Tim Tebow and others put the black under their eyes and they would write scripture verses, Tim Tebow was huge at writing scripture verses and people would look up that verse. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." That verse has been called the gospel in a nutshell. So many people are familiar with John 3:16.

But they stop at verse 16 and they don't go on to verse 17. What does verse 17 say? "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him." Remember this about God: He longs to save, He is eager to save, and He is reluctant to judge.

God is so skewed to the good. I still remember my seminary class, my first semester in seminary and I was taking Old Testament Survey class, and the professor was talking about the self-revelation of God when He speaks to Moses and He declares His goodness. "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands," or as some translations say, "for a thousand generations."

"Who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation." Stephen Andrews, my Old Testament professor, said, "Do you see how God is so skewed to the good? He keeps lovingkindness for a thousand generations and He visits the iniquity, the twistedness of sin, on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

God is a good God. He longs to save, He's reluctant to judge, and He came into this world, the Lord Jesus, to save undeserving sinners by His grace. That's how He saves. Now think about this, we talk about Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." How do those things work together? Well, at your house, I'm assuming at your house you have electricity. The electricity comes into your house. When we have a power outage, boom, there's no electricity in your house, nothing works that you have to plug in because all your plugs are dead.

Grace is the electricity that comes into a house. Faith is plugging in to the electricity that comes to your house. Most mornings I have a piece of toast with peanut butter on it, I like that for breakfast, and so I'll have that. But you know, the toaster doesn't work unless you plug it in. And the toaster even plugged in doesn't work if you're having a power outage and there is no power to your house.

So the only way the toaster works is if the power is on and you plug into the power. What is grace? It's the power, the electricity of God that is available to all men, that gives the invitation that you can plug into God's grace, you can plug into the power source. See, when you fall into the pit and you can't get out of the pit, the Lord comes by and He falls down in the mud and the muck and the mire at the mouth of that pit and He puts His hand of grace out to you and says, "If you will put your puny little hand of faith in My great big hand of grace, I will pull you out of the pit."

The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. Jesus came to save undeserving sinners, and Jesus died for all sinners, but only saves those who respond in faith. The toaster only works when you plug it in. You're only saved when you put your puny hand of faith in God's great big hand of grace. You have to respond to the Lord.

And so John 3:17 says the Father didn't send the Son into the world to condemn the world. He sent the Son into the world to save the world, that you might be saved through Him. God didn't have to send the Son at all if He was just going to condemn you. The law does that. The law says the soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death. That's what the law does.

And so the Son came into the world not to tell you that there's no way out for you, there's no hope for you, you're going to die. He came to say, "I am the way out, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but through Me." And so John 3:18 says, "He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Do you want to escape judgment? Put your faith and trust in the Son. For by grace you've been saved through faith. Plug in, put your hand, puny little hand as puny as it may be, put your puny little hand of faith in His great big hand of grace and He pulls you out of the pit.

Now you have heard perhaps the teaching of Calvinism. And in Calvinism, one of the tenets of Calvinism, the TULIP, that they use the little acrostic to see about the five points of Calvinism, the L in TULIP stands for limited atonement. Limited atonement says that Jesus didn't die for everyone, He just died for the elect. That's limited atonement. And the thinking is, well, why would God waste a drop of the blood of His Son? And so Jesus didn't die for everybody, He just shed His blood for the elect.

Now, we would say of course the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. That doesn't mean that all men are going to be saved, they're not going to be saved. But there is the opportunity for all men to be saved. Why? Because there's no power outage in heaven. The power is on and everyone can plug in when they understand what it means. They can plug in, put their puny hand of faith in God's great big hand of grace.

Announcer: What a glorious thought, honestly incomprehensible to imagine the big hand of God. You're listening to the message "In the Classroom with Grace" from Pastor Jeff Schreve's series Beyond Amazing: Understanding the Grace of God. Pastor Jeff returns on From His Heart in just a moment. Just about everyone is familiar with the song "Amazing Grace," oh how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Those words were written by John Newton, a former slave ship captain who experienced the unmerited love and forgiveness and favor of God through Jesus.

Newton was saved and he never got over it until the day he died. He was singing of God's unfathomable grace. And in this series, Beyond Amazing, Dr. Jeff Schreve shares biblical insight into God's grace, the grace that is truly beyond amazing. To get your copy of this seven-message series in the format of your choice, go to fromhisheart.org or simply call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE. Pastor Jeff believes this study will deepen your understanding of God's grace and encourage your heart for years to come. Please request your copy when you make a gift to From His Heart this month of any amount. You can call us or go online. And remember, From His Heart is here each and every day to reach the world with Christ, telling them about the amazing grace of God through the truth of God's word. Thank you for being a part of that. Now let's conclude part one of today's message, "In the Classroom with Grace."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: When I first started as pastor here in 2003, there was a concert that was given on a Sunday night by a musical group—I'll not name their name—but they were very Calvinistic obviously. And I still remember the guy, he was singing and he was looking around and he said, talking about the wonders of heaven, and he just said, "Well, I hope you're elect, because it's going to be a great time for the elect, and if you're not elect you're going to miss out."

There was no hope there. It was just like, "Man, I hope I'm elect too, but how do I know if I'm elect? Maybe I'm not elect, maybe God didn't pick me, and so I'm just destined and doomed to spend eternity in hell." You know, that doesn't sound like what the Bible has to say. You know, the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, it puts it like this: "And the Spirit and the bride say 'Come.' And let the one who hears say 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

Romans 10:13, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." We have a hymn that many of us have sung over the years, "Whosoever Will May Come," based on Romans 10:13. Whosoever will, whosoever will, send the proclamation over vale and hill. 'Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home, whosoever will may come. The Spirit and the bride say "Come." If you want to be saved, you can be saved, and you can plug into God's grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast.

Now I think Revelation chapter 20, that speaks of the final judgment, the last judgment of all, is when God has to judge. Remember, He's eager to save, He's reluctant to judge, but when God has the final judgment, it's called the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15. Very interesting. Death gave up the dead which were in them, and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. Death has the body, Hades has the soul, they come together and every unsaved person stands before the Lord, every Christ rejecter, every Christ neglecter stands before the Lord to give an account, to have his or her day in court.

And it says the books were opened, which were the book of deeds. You know, God records everything that we do, and at the Great White Throne Judgment you're going to be judged according to your deeds. So ironic, people think they can get to heaven by their good works. No, that doesn't get you to heaven, that's how you're going to be judged because you're going to find out how terrible a sinner you actually are. The books were opened, which are the book of deeds, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

That's kind of strange. You say, "Well, why is that strange, Jeff?" Because everyone at the Great White Throne Judgment is an unbeliever. Everyone at the Great White Throne Judgment is lost. No one at the Great White Throne has his name in the Book of Life. But another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And it says if a man's name, if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That's the second death, the lake of fire, that's what we know as hell.

And the Lord brings the Book of Life to that judgment even though no one's name that's going to appear before Him is in the book. Why does He do that? It's to show every single person that Jesus died for them, that salvation came to all men but that they rejected it, that they neglected it, that they insulted—as it says in Hebrews 10—the Spirit of grace. They trampled underfoot the blood of God's own Son.

And He's going to show every single person: I died for you, your name could have been in here, but you said no to Me. You wouldn't plug into My grace, you wouldn't put your puny little hand of faith in My great big hand of grace. You said, in effect—this is God talking to the sinner at the Great White Throne Judgment—you said in effect, "God, not Your will, but mine be done." So now I say to you with a broken heart, "Not My will, but yours be done." And every man's name and every person's name who was not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Hey, in the classroom with grace, we find out that the grace of God is what saves us. Second lesson, key lesson from the grace of God: it's the grace of God that sanctifies us. Not only saves us, but sanctifies us. Look at it again, "For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men," and what does it do? It teaches us, it instructs us, "instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age."

Now, what we see in the passage in Titus 2 is we see the three tenses of salvation. You know, we talk about being saved. "Hey, have you ever been saved?" But then the Bible talks about the fact that you are being saved. "Work out your salvation," the scripture says, "with fear and trembling. Work out what God has worked in. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." There's the past tense, there's the present tense, and the present tense of salvation is called sanctification.

Sanctification is the process by which God makes us like Himself. See, God saved us to live a life of holiness. He didn't just save us to get our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life and says, "I'll see you when you die and you're good to go." It's like, "Well, what's He doing in the interim?" He says, "Well, now I'm working on you to make you more like Me."

The little song I've shared with you before that we teach kids is a good song. "He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. Took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me." So God saved us to live a life of holiness. He wants us to look like He does.

This is what the scripture says in First Peter chapter one: "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, for it is written, 'You shall be holy for I am holy.'" What does it mean to be holy? To be holy means you're set apart. To be sanctified means you're set apart. You're God's special treasure, God's special possession, God's people in the world.

And the Lord says, "I want you to look like Me." And we talk about sanctification as the process of Christlikeness, looking more and more like Jesus, acting more and more like Jesus, responding more and more like Jesus. It grieves the Lord's heart when we're His children but we're not obedient children, we're disobedient children, and we know Him but we don't reflect any of His attributes.

See, God wants us to reflect His glory by our actions and reactions. God wants for people to look at our lives and say, "That person is a follower of Jesus Christ." We were reading a book in staff meeting about discipleship, and one of the things that the author of this book said was, "You know, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, are you following Him? If you're not following Him, you're not following Him on the path of righteousness and your life doesn't look like His, how can you call yourself a follower? You're a professional."