GRACE IS EVERYTHING

By Pastor Mike Andrews

    There are 131 uses of the word "grace" in the ESV; 124 in the New Testament, 86 uses of this word, come from the apostle Paul. This means two-thirds of all the uses of the word "grace," in the Bible are in one author. It is no wonder that Paul is called "the apostle of grace." Grace is called "undeserved favor" "God's favor toward the unworthy" or "God's benevolence on the undeserving.". It's an essential part of God's character, closely related to God's benevolence, love, and mercy. Grace can be variously defined as in His grace; God is willing to forgive us and bless us abundantly, in spite of the fact that we don't deserve to be treated so well or dealt with so generously. The Bible repeatedly calls grace a "gift" First, anyone who has ever received a gift understands that a gift is much different from a loan, which requires repayment or return by the recipient. The fact that grace is a gift means that nothing is owed in return. Second, there is no cost to the person who receives a gift. A gift is free to the recipient, although it is not free to the giver, who bears the expense. Third, once a gift has been given, ownership of the gift has transferred and it is now ours to keep. Fourth, in the giving of a gift, the giver voluntarily forfeits something he owns, willingly losing what belongs to him so that the recipient will profit from it. Fifth, the gift and the act of giving have nothing at all to do with our merit or innate quality of you and me.

    What do we learn about grace in these passages?

    God is the source of Grace....... Psalm 84:11, 1 Peter 5:10

    God's throne is grace...... Heb 4:16

    Jesus spoke with grace....... Luke 4:22

    Grace came by Christ........ John 1:17, Romans 5:15

    Grace was foretold by the prophets........ 1 Peter 1:10

    This is most demonstrated in Christ......... Eph 2:7

    God's grace is described as?

    Great.........Acts 4:33

    Sovereign...... Rom 5:21

    Rich..... Eph 1:7, Eph 2:7

    Exceeding...... 2 Cor 9:14

    All-sufficient...... 2 Cor 12:9

    All abundant..... Romans 5:15-20

    Glorious...... Eph 1:6

    Grace is vital why?

    The gospel is a declaration of grace..... Act 20:24, 32

    It's the source of God's calling on one's life.... Gal 1:15

    The source of our salvation.....Eph 2:5-8

    The necessary means to the service of God.... Heb 12:28

    The believer should mature in....... Heb 13:9, 2 Peter 2:18

    It's the cause of our gladness....... Acts 11:23, 1 John 1:3-4

     
    Our ultimate desire at Calvary Baptist Church is first and foremost to bring glory and praise to the Sovereign LORD [Father, Son, & Holy Spirit] and to raise up mature believers so that we can fulfill the Great Commission. We will seek to achieve this by following the guidelines that God has put in place for prayer, worship, communion, Christian fellowship, Bible Study, and most of all the expository teaching of God's Word.  We desire to provide the proper teaching of God's Word so that fellow believers can grow together and edify one another with love and compassion.      Please come, and join us,     as we look into how God has composed a unique storyfor each of our lives.CBC is a place to call home as we ......Magnify the Lord, Mature the Believers, Make prayer a priority, Meet the lost with Christ

    Our Church Service Time @ 9:30am.

    We now broadcast on 97.5FM in your car or home, for those who are unable to come in person.

    We do encourgage you to attend if possible first!


    We are located @
    148 Queen Street,
    Killaloe Ontario
    613-757-1618      


    Online contributions can be made to:

    www.calvarygiving@outlook.com

     

     

    What Are the Signs that Legalism or Antinomianism
    May Have Crept into a Christian’s Life?

    Dr Derek Thomas

    What are the signs that legalism or antinomianism have crept into the believers’s life? I think that all Christians experience this phenomenon. I tell young preachers to avoid 1 John in the first ten years of their ministry because they’re almost guaranteed to preach all of those demands that John makes in a legalistic fashion. I think legalism in its essence is trying to obey God’s commandments or ethical demands upon our lives in order to win God’s favor. So, we have a sense that we’re not walking with God as we should and God is sort of frowning on us. And so we need to introduce a little more Bible reading, a little more prayer—with a little more fervency and that’ll make us feel good. But we’re operating then under a sort of works righteousness model that God rewards your obedience and therefore that you are justified—that your standing with God is based upon your performance.

    And that sort of performance mentality can very easily creep in. I think Christians in the past and present have tried to correct, make course corrections, in their pilgrimage by swinging from legalism. Okay, I’m now walking with so many rules and regulations and there may be rules and regulations that aren’t even in the Bible anymore. They’re rules and regulations that are imposed by others or imposed by ourselves. And therefore I need now a little bit of the opposite and you swing that the course correction for legalism is antinomianism. So I can let go for a season. And then the opposite is true that when you realize that you’re living a life that isn’t in obedience, that the correction to that is a little more rules and regulations. And I think both of those are mistaken because the answer to legalism and the answer to antinomianism is Jesus.

    Paul’s methodology in sanctification and holiness in the New Testament is constantly to ask the question, “Who are you?” And the answer to that question is, “If I’m a Christian, I am a man in union and communion with Christ.” So in terms of “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus” or “in the Lord,” and there are three or four different expressions that Paul uses—there are 150–160 uses of these. And it’s a reminder that the gestalt, the mindset of the Apostle Paul in thinking about gospel life, Christian life, is to remind yourself that you are in union with Christ and therefore to obey Him is the response of who you are. If I’m in Christ, I want to live in obedience to Christ. If I’m in Christ, I cannot live an antinomian, lawless life. And so having a relationship with Christ, walking with Him, fellowshipping with Him, talking to Him in prayer on a minute by minute basis, that I think is the corrective to a legalistic or antinomian way of life.

    Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is featured teacher for several Ligonier teaching series, including Who Are They?: Lesser-Known Characters of the Bible, and author of many books, including Heaven on Earth, Strength for the Weary and Let Us Worship God.