As a minister, whenever I preach about the Grace of God I always do so with a little fear. I am afraid that somehow, in conveying the message, I will somehow add a little of myself to the message and thus ruin that which is already Perfect. Man does that, you know. We take the Perfect and try to add our own words to it, our own views, and in doing so corrupt the Perfect with imperfection.
Grace is Perfect, a beautiful yet simple thread that runs
throughout our Bible. Just as a beautiful knitted fabric is composed of
unbroken threads woven together, God's Grace is woven throughout the entirety
of the Scriptures. As humans we love to add to the thread of Grace, to
make the simple message more complex. I was saved in a little holiness
Church when I was 17 years old. The message I responded to was, “Come to
Jesus, accept Him as your Savior, and you will receive eternal life”. But
after I was saved the message was amended to: “To keep your salvation you
must do this, and this, and that. Here is the Church handbook .. Follow
these procedures and you shall stay saved”. As I studied the Scriptures
the Lord showed me how these beautiful yet misguided believers were adding
to the message. When you add to the Word of the Lord, you corrupt that
Word.
Man has always had the tendency to want to add to the message of Grace. Though the word “Grace” is found 159 times in the Bible, and though it means “the Free Gift”, we just can't seem to believe that God would offer us such a simple solution to our spiritual problems. We just cant believe that God would have so much Love that He would say, “Just admit you are unable to save yourself. Believe on my Son, and I will give you the free Gift of Eternal Life”. It's just too simple: surely we must make it more difficult.
Genesis 3:7-10 “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. “
Adam misunderstood the Grace of God. When he fell into sin by disobeying that one commandment (do not eat of that one tree), Adam's first reaction was not to look up to the Father and say “Lord, I messed up. I sinned against you, I fell outside of your Plan. Please forgive me”. No, Adam's first action was to try and fix the problem himself. “....they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ” Let's cover up the problem ourselves, let's hide it from the Almighty, let's make it better. They didn't make it better, they made it worst. For when the Father came in the Garden to fellowship with them they hid themselves. You see, the answer to sin is not to cover it up. The answer to sin is to confess it to God, to rely on His Grace as sufficient. You cannot hide your spiritual state from God. You may be able to fool the preacher, you may be able to fool those around you, but you cannot fool the Lord. He sees your heart.
In our modern world the way we often try to become better people is to go to a psychiatrist, “open up” to the Doctor, and once we have exposed the problem areas in our life (my mom was too strict, I live in a bad neighborhood), seek out a human solution to our problems. This is no different from what Adam did in the Garden, and certainly no better solution. After he sinned and was caught Adam started blaming others for his act of rebellion.
Genesis 3:12-13 “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. “
Blaming others is no solution for your spiritual state. Had Adam said to God, “Lord, I messed up. Please forgive me for my sin”, perhaps we'd still be in the Garden today. God wants us to recognize that the problem lies within ourselves, that we are sinful, that we need salvation and are unable to save ourselves.
God showed Adam Grace in the Garden. He took away the feeble clothing that man made in an attempt to cover up his sin, and:
Genesis 3:21 ”Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
Yet man did not learn. After the Garden we still thought that when we sinned we could make everything better by our own acts of good. We thought that we could work our way into Heaven. Man ignored the simple thread of Grace and decided that, by his own hands, he could reach eternal life. So God said, “If you can do it on your own, then show Me. Here's the Law: Obey it perfectly, if you can.”
Galatians 3:21-26 “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
Mankind received the Law through the Prophet Moses, first the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), then the codes. The entire Law gave man over 2000 ordinances that we had to obey, 2000 things that we must keep perfectly. Included within the Law was a “Day of Atonement” where, once a year, all those who failed to keep the Law perfectly had to go before God and His Priests and say “Lord, I messed up. I didn't keep your Law perfectly, so please forgive me”. Every year every person who tried to follow the Law went to the Day of Atonement because man just cant make it on his own. We cannot save ourselves. The Law was a schoolmaster given by God to point that fact out to us. We are not righteous in ourselves, we must rely on His Grace.
Romans 3:20-24 ”Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”
Let me read that first sentence again: “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin”. The Law itself was and is perfect, for it came from our Perfect Lord. Yet we are imperfect, prone to sin, prone to do the wrong instead of the righteous. The Law was never meant to bring salvation, and never could bring salvation, not because it was imperfect but because we are imperfect. The Law was meant to be a Divine mirror, reflecting our sin back in our faces, making us realize that we cannot be good enough for Heaven on our own. Are you good enough to go to Heaven? No, absolutely not! Am I, a Minister of the Gospel, good enough to go to Heaven? No, absolutely not! So how then can anyone get into Heaven?
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
John 14:5-6 “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. “
There are two pathways you can take in this life, but
only one leads to salvation. There is the wide pathway. The wide pathway
has many options, many lanes, many branches that all lead to the destruction
of Hellfire. Some of the options of the wide pathway are:
The first item that came up for bid was the picture his son had drawn many years ago. The auctioneer said, “I want to open the bid on this picture at $20.00”, but there was only silence. After a minute someone in the audience spoke up, “Let's skip this and get to the real art. No one wants this silly picture.” But the auctioneer said, “No, we must bid on this picture first before we can go any further. The owner considers this picture to be the best piece of his collection, and we cannot go any farther until we auction this piece off”. One lady in the audience felt her heart soften, and said, “I’ll give you $20.00 for that picture”. All the others looked at her like she had just lost her mind: $20.00 for a simple picture? What a foolish waste of money!
The auctioneer said, “Sold”, picked
up his gavel, and said, “The bidding is now closed, thank you for coming”.
The people started shouting out, “What about the other paintings? Aren't
you going to auction them off?”. The auctioneer replied over the enraged
screaming, “The owner of this collection
decided, from the start, to give
his entire collection to the one who bought the picture of his son. This
lady just inherited riches beyond belief for $20.00, and you have nothing
because of your greed.”
You must enter into Heaven by the narrow way, by belief in Jesus Christ. It is this simple to be saved: First, admit you are a sinner, unable to do good without His power. Do what Adam should have done at the very start: “Father, I am a sinner. I have failed you in so many ways. I just cannot do it on my own.” Second, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior: “Jesus I believe you came to die for me. Father, please save me, in Jesus name I pray”. When we admit our fault and claim that simple thread of Grace, the Bible says:
John 1:12-17 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Which way will you choose this morning? The way of the world, the broad pathway, or the Way of Christ? I cannot make this decision for you. This is something between you and your Lord.
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