1
T’was Grace that Taught My Heart to
Fear
Subject: The
fear of the Lord.
Theme: The
place God’s grace plays in the fear of the Lord.
Proposition:
God’s grace is not a license to get away with sin, but the enabling of God to
overcome it.
Introduction:
This week we are going to look at the relationship between the fear of the Lord
and the grace of God.
I have a question for you
this morning, what is grace?
According to Eph 2:8-9 grace
is pretty important. Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. NKJV
Text:
Phil 2:12-13
Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was
with you. And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into
action God's saving work in your lives, obeying God with deep reverence and
fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the
power to do what pleases him.
NLT
Transitional
Sentence: In today’s message, let us
look at the truth that God’s grace is not a license to get away with sin, but
the enabling of God to overcome it.
I.
What is grace? vv. 12
A.
Earlier I asked you what
is grace, and these are some of the answers I received. Undeserved favor,
Unmerited favor
B.
The definition of grace
is in the text. And now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action
God's saving work in your lives. What is God’s saving work in your life? Grace! You are
saved by grace through faith (and that not of yourselves but it is the gift of
God.
C.
Expound on the moment of
conversion.
2
1.
The Bible says in
2 Cor 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV
2.
The moment I put my faith in
Jesus: I believe in Him and what he did in His death and resurrection, and I
receive Him as my Lord, then God does something in me.
3.
He recreated my spirit in His
image after His likeness, and that is where we get the term born-again or born
from above.
4.
This is not something we work
for or something we can buy. God does this for us by His favor, just because we
believe.
D.
Paul said I am what I am
by the grace of God. Paul said imitate me as I imitate Christ.
E. Illustration: Remember the old television show called
The Millionaire? Each week an anonymous millionaire would give a
one-million-dollar gift to someone. The gift was always free-but the gift always
made a big change in the recipient's life. That's how grace is. You don't change
in order to receive God's grace: you change as a result of experiencing God's
grace. Grace is like corrective surgery. We are helpless-but God gives us grace,
and God's grace changes what we ourselves cannot change.
F. Application: The only thing required to experience God’s
grace is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. How does grace express itself? vv.
13
A.
13 For God is working in you, giving you
the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.
1.
This is the Biblical
definition of grace.
2.
God working in me, giving me
the desire to obey and please Him.
B.
Perverted grace,
Rom 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By
no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? NIV
C.
Illustration: Overhead of
the bulls eye target.
31.
Sin by definition is missing
the mark or the target.
2.
Grace is the power of God
working in us to be able to hit the target.
3.
Perverted grace believes I
don’t even have to aim at or even come close to the target and it’s not a big
deal.
4.
Example from scripture,
Rom 8:12-13
So, dear brothers and sisters, (Paul is
addressing believers) you have no obligation
whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if (this word is conditional) you keep on following it,
you will perish. But if through the
power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.
NLT
5.
Example from scripture,
1 John 2:1-2
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you
do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ,
the one who pleases God completely.
2 He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but
the sins of all the world. NLT
a.
Who is writing this? John is,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
b.
Who is the Word? Jesus is.
c.
What is the purpose of the
Word? So that you will not sin.
d.
The bulls eye is the mark we
are aiming at. If we miss the mark, which we sometimes do, Jesus is there to
plead for us before God.
D.
Illustration: Grace
cannot wipe out the law of sowing and reaping. -Rod
Parsley
1.
Gal 6:7-8 Don't be misled.
Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap
what you sow! 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will
harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the
Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. NLT
2.
Jesus said if you do not
forgive, you will not be forgiven.
E. Application: A perverted view of God’s grace says that
if I do not forgive then God’s grace will cover that. A Biblical4
view of God’s
grace says, “By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit within me I
will forgive that person.”
1.
One says God’s grace lets me
circumvent the Word of God and the other says God’s grace will enable to perform
the Word of God.
III.
What about the fear of
the Lord?
A.
obeying God with deep reverence and
fear.
B.
A quote from R.T.
Kendall, “All of us must come to terms with the unchanging fact: none of us is
above God’s Word. We all like to think we are God’s favorites. Even David, a man
after God’s own heart, was not exempt from God’s awesome jealously for the
truth.”
1.
Paul tells us in 1 Cor 6:9-10 Don't you
know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who
indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes,
homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers — none
of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. NLT
2.
How many of you have
witnessed the downfall of someone because of alcohol, or the breakup of a family
because of an affair?
C.
God’s discipline
1.
The Bible says God
disciplines those that He loves.
2.
Why do we discipline? For one
reason and one reason only, to change behavior.
3.
1 Cor 11:31-32 But if we examine ourselves, we will not
be examined by God and judged in this way. 32 But when we are judged and
disciplined by the Lord, we will not be condemned with the world.
NLT
4.
Example of Jim Bakker: Jim
said if he would have kept living like he was even though he knew the Lord he
was on his way to hell.
5.
Jim lost the fear of the
Lord; he was not making good decisions. Unless he changed, the way he was living
he was going to be lost for eternity.
5
6.
Application: Everyone who
falls, either has lost or has never had the fear of the Lord.
IV.
A sobering thought
A.
If we believe that we can
live, anyway we want to and disregard the Word of the Lord we will be in for a
rude awakening.
B.
Not everyone who calls
Jesus Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt 7:21-23 "Not everyone
who says to Me,' Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does
the will of My Father in heaven. 22
Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your
name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I
never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' NKJV
1.
They prophesied, cast out
demons, and did many miracles in Jesus name.
2.
You might be saying they were
never saved nor had a relationship with God.
3.
The seven sons of Sceva could
not cast out the demons.
4.
The point being: For these
people to do miracles and cast out demons there had to be some anointing of the
Holy Spirit on them.
C.
The Sower sows the seed.
1.
Matt 13:18-23 "Now here is
the explanation of the story I told about the farmer sowing grain: 19 The seed that fell on the hard path
represents those who hear the Good News about the Kingdom and don't understand
it. Then the evil one comes and snatches the seed away from their hearts. 20 The rocky soil represents those who
hear the message and receive it with joy.
21 But like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep. At
first they get along fine, but they wilt as soon as they have problems or are
persecuted because they believe the word.
22 The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News,
but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life and the
lure of wealth, so no crop is produced.
23 The good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God's
message and produce a huge harvest — thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as
much as had been planted." NLT
6
2.
The Word was sown to four
different people. 1 out of 4 received the Word correctly. 25%
3.
Many are called, few are
chosen
D.
How the church operates
today. Rom
10:9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. NLT
1.
We believe in the church
today if we say this prayer, we are locked in.
2.
No matter what happens I am
in.
3.
In the church today we have a
multitude of people who have said the sinners prayer, and because of that they
live anyway they want to. They have relationships that do not honor God, they
live immoral lives, they watch things that a Christian should not watch, and
they believe it is okay because they have said the sinner’s prayer.
4.
What does Jude have to say
about it? Jude 3-5 Dearly loved
friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all
share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to
defend the truth of the Good News. God gave this unchanging truth once for all
time to his holy people. 4 I say this because some godless people have wormed
their way in among you, saying that God's forgiveness allows us to live immoral
lives. The fate of such people was determined long ago, for they have turned
against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 I must remind you — and you
know it well — that even though the Lord rescued the whole nation of
Israel from Egypt,
he later destroyed every one of those who did not remain faithful.
NLT
E. Is it possible to know God receive His Holy Spirit and
eventually be lost for eternity?
7
Heb 6:4-6 For it is
impossible to restore to repentance those who were once enlightened — those who
have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who
have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come
— 6 and who then turn away from
God. It is impossible to bring such people to repentance again because they are
nailing the Son of God to the cross again by rejecting him, holding him up to
public shame. NLT
F. Application: This is not a I’m locked in kind of gospel,
live however I want, do whatever I want. It is an obeying God with deep reverence and
fear.
Conclusion: The
Gospel message has always been the same, from John the Baptist through Jesus and
his apostles. Repent turn from your sins for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Heb 10:26-31 If we
deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and
of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the
law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29
How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has
trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood
of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again,
"The Lord will judge his people."
31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
NIV
Alter
Call: This morning I invite you down to
the alter, if your life is not right with God you need to repent and seek His
forgiveness.
Powerful Last Sentence: 1 Peter 4:17-18 For the
time has come for judgment, and it must begin first among God's own children.
And if even we Christians must be judged, what terrible fate awaits those who
have never believed God's Good News? 18 And
"If the righteous are
barely saved,
what chance will the
godless and sinners have?"
NLT
Let
us be the ones that are able to say with the Apostle Paul I am what I am by the
grace of God.
