Introduction.

Do you recall the following report in the newspaper ‘Aboriginal elder and opera singer Auntie Delmae Barton lay at a bus stop near Brisbane's Griffith University for five hours after suffering a stroke before a group of Japanese students came to her aid. A number of prominent folks, including Peter Beattie, have suggested this is a sad indictment of our society, and that members of the community are responsible for helping each other out. There's something in that, but the bus station, like all others on the Southern Busway, is monitored by CCTV. Auntie Delmae herself, according to Professor Boni Robertson, suspects that the reason no one helped her is that she was a black woman lying on a bus seat in her own vomit. And that's what CCTV cameras, and the people paid to watch them and ensure public safety, would have shown.' I agree that this incident is a sad indictment on our society which in many ways is become a society of non-involvement. There may be many reasons why our society has opted for the non-involvement option, but in choosing this option virtues like compassion, sympathy and mercy are disappearing from everyday life. As these virtues disappear so things like gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation become forgotten responses. A society that has chosen to follow the non-involvement path soon becomes a graceless society. Christians should show more than compassion and mercy, they are commanded to follow the example of the Good-Samaritan and carry the cost of loving their neighbours as they love themselves.

1. Our society and the exercise of grace.

1. Talking about society is always difficult as you have to generalise knowing that there will always be some who are very different. As Christians we are called to live according to the standards and values of the Scriptures, therefore we ought to be different to the society in which we live and not share their values morals, methods or goals. The Lord's people living in obedience to his commands will be markedly different; they will be full of grace towards others.
   
   
2. The Jewish society in which Jesus lived was graceless; the parable of the Good-Samaritan reveals the graceless attitude towards a man who was in need of help. It was graceless in spite of being very religious and in many ways was strictly committed to keeping the Law of Moses. People were very concerned about being seen to be respectable, religious, pious, generous, and moral. They drew attention to themselves when they gave alms to the poor or prayed on the street corner or placed their tithes and offerings in the Temple coffers, or had nothing to do with prostitutes, tax-collectors and sinners. It was a society of hypocrites whose outward form of godliness covered up the sinfulness of their thoughts, motives and desires. Jesus described them as whitewashed sepulchres; beautiful on the outside but rotting and decaying bones on the inside. A graceless society is always self-centred, self-pleasing, self-satisfying, self-promoting, self-obsessed and self-gratifying. The motto is look after number one and forget about the rest. Anyone who dared challenge this status quo or point out the hypocritical attitude was loathed and hated. It was a graceless society that cried out in anger and hate for the crucifixion of Jesus.
   
   
3. Our society is equally self-obsessed and concerned about having a veneer of respectability covering their lives. Our society is obsessed with entitlements and rights. I may be wrong but I think that the Australian concept of a fair-go has changed its meaning to a free-ride, and therefore there is no place for thanks, gratitude and appreciation. There seems to be a strange attitude that says, ‘Everyone is indebted to me and owes me. I am entitled to help, it's my right to get help, but I am not obligated to help anyone else.' The ‘please do not disturb' sign is hung-up so that they are left in peace. Nothing is done without first asking ‘What's in it for me and how will it affect me?' The feel good moments left after contributing to those affected by the tsunami or cyclone Larry lingers long enough to convince most in society that they are generous and compassionate. The charity work of Golden Casket is sufficient to persuade people that purchasing lotto tickets is not gambling, but an act of needed charity.
   
   
4. Most people in our society claim that they believe that there is a god. The god our society is looking for is the god who gives them the rights and entitlements to be happy, healthy, rich, sexy and self-centred. Society wants a god whose only purpose is to serve men and women and help them accomplish their own self-centred ambitions. This is the god to whom they pray on racetracks, in the Casinos and as they pull the arm on the poker machine. Our society does not see itself as servants, but as masters, it seems as if everyone wants to be served rather than serve. In our society men and women want to be gods and have Almighty God serve them and pander to their wishes and desires. Our society wants a god who will save the two Tasmanian miners trapped about a kilometre under ground, and then allow a season of drunkenness to celebrate their rescue. Our society wants a god who is on-call to help anyone who gets into trouble; a god who is like the spare wheel in the boot of the car which you use in a time of need, but then totally forget about it. Tragically some churches offer people a god of love who is willing to serve society and never criticizes their behaviour, because he places individual happiness above everything else.
   
   
5. Paul reminds the church at Ephesus that they were once part of a graceless society. Listen to what he tells them, ‘And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.' (Ephesians 2:1-3.) Paul also reminds the church at Corinth that they at one time belonged to a society steeped in sin. In 1 Corinthian 6:9-11 he says, ‘Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.' When we talk about society we need to remember that we were once very much at home in that society. We need to remember that it was God's action that called and drew us out of that society to be his people. It took the working of God's mighty power in Christ to set us free from the bondage of our society that is held captive by satanic and demonic power. Society, like the men and women who make up its numbers is never spiritually free or neutral; it either serves God or Satan. Service to God is always conscious and deliberate while serving Satan is often unconscious and natural.
   
   
6. A graceless society is very difficult to reach with the Gospel because it does not understand or exercise grace. Grace is seen as a sign of weakness and capitulation. The action of grace is seen in the same light as the actions of a coward. The Bible proclaims that grace was at the heart of the Old Covenant and is at the heart of the New Covenant out of which the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes. Our God, who is perfectly holy, righteous, and just is also the God of all grace and his covenant relationship with his people is one of great grace. A graceless society cannot understand or comprehend a God of grace.

2. Our God and his great grace.

1. Grace like mercy can only be extended by those who are strong and secure. A person under threat or in a weak position cannot afford to be gracious. Grace like meekness is great strength under perfect control; it is never a desperate response that is self-seeking. Grace like love is willing to carry the cost in pursuing an action even if the cost is great. Grace like compassion meets a person in their need. Grace like an antibiotic is seen by what it does. Grace is the voluntary action of one who is free not to be gracious. The standard definition of grace in Reformed circles is God's unmerited favour. What do we understand by the word favour? If I do you a favour, it means an act of kindness. If I act in your favour I support you. If I favour you it means I promote you above others. If I am favourably inclined towards you it means that I am likely to approve what you do. We know that Joseph was the favourite son of Jacob and therefore he gave him great privileges and gifts as tokens of his favour. By modern-day standards the word favour is a rather weak word, which can be active or passive, just or unjust, beneficial or detrimental. When we qualify favour with unmerited it reveals that the favour was not deserved or earned, but freely given. Personally I think this definition is not as forceful as it ought to be.
   
   
2. When we talk about God's grace the first thing we remind ourselves is that our God is the King of Kings, he is the absolutely sovereign over all that he created. ‘The title deed to this world', Vance Havner says, ‘do not belong to dictators, to Communism, nor to the devil, but to God.'  All that was created was created to serve God. There is nothing that exists that is not totally obligated to serve God. You were created to serve the only true and living God not to serve yourself. God is a totalitarian Ruler who demands complete allegiance from his creation. The very fact that God does not rain fire from heaven upon all those who think that he should serve mankind and provide them with happiness demonstrates that he is the God of great mercy and patience. God is absolutely sovereign and absolutely free to exercise grace to whom he wills. God would not be unjust if he gave nobody grace as a gift or if he gave it to some and withheld it from others. If you have received grace from God is was totally by his free sovereign choice.
   
   
3. God's grace is the working of his power. We should never think of grace without recognising the greatness of God's power. God's power cannot be separated from his authority. The combination of God's awesome power and his majestic authority can be seen in creation where whatever God commanded came into being. ‘Let there be light; and there was light.'  If grace did not include the power great enough to actually save sinners then no certainty of salvation could exist. Because God's grace always includes his power we can say, God's grace always accomplishes his purposes. The grace God gives you is focussed on accomplishing a goal. This can be seen by the labels we use concerning grace, saving grace, enabling grace, sustaining grace, strengthening grace, redeeming grace etc. When God's saving grace is exercised on a sinner, that sinner will without a doubt be saved. God's power and authority make his grace irresistible. God's grace accomplishes its purposes; no man can resist, frustrate, divert or negate it.
   
   
4. God's grace is always active, it can never be passive. God's grace does not lie dormant only having potential power, waiting and needing to be activated. When God gives saving grace, it does not provide the sinner with the potential to save himself, but actually saves him. When the Lord tells Paul in 2 Corinthians 12: 9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" he is not saying ‘my grace' gives you the potential to live and cope with the affliction, but that his grace supplies the strength needed to continue the ministry he was called to, his affliction is no excuse not to serve. Grace is never passive, never idle it is always active.
   
   
5. God gives his grace as a gift to undeserving, unbelieving, ungodly, unrighteous and unclean sinners. The sinners to whom God gives grace are his enemies, they hate him, refuse to serve him and use his name in blasphemous ways. God's grace cannot be solicited by anything that you do, say, think or feel. The fact that God gives grace to sinners is absolutely amazing. Like John Newton every believer can say, ‘Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.'
   
   
6. What do we mean by God's grace? God's grace is the sovereign free working of his mighty power to accomplish his glorious purposes, in particular the saving of vile condemned sinners to glorify his holy name through all eternity. This is the grace that transforms sinners into saints.

3. Our salvation and God's great grace.

1. Paul in Ephesians 2:4-5 says, ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved.)' There are two matters that the Apostle Paul wants to press upon the hearts and minds of believers about the grace of God that saved them:
   
   
1. Grace is always accompanied by power. It is God's power that made us alive together with Christ.  Listen to Dr. Martyn Lloyd- Jones ‘We are spiritually dead by nature, and no one can do anything until he has been quickened, raised, given life and created anew. According to the New Testament, no category is adequate to describe what we are in Christ save this conception of the re-birth, regeneration; and no man can give birth to himself. The power of God is the beginning and the end of salvation; all is of him and his power.' God's power broke the shackles of sin, transformed our hearts, minds, souls and strength and united us inseparably to Christ. It is our inseparable union with Christ that fulfils the substitutionary process which gives us the status of being in Christ. God's power set me free, transformed me, and united me eternally to Christ.
   
   
2. Grace is always accompanied by love. Grace is power, but not random power operating without a purpose or direction. God's power in his grace is harnessed and directed by his amazing love. B. B. Warfield wrote, ‘Power, in itself considered, may blast as well as bless. The power that grace is always blesses because grace is love.' Grace is the power and love of God acting according to his glorious nature. Those who receive God's grace receive positive blessing. God's grace as Douglas MacMillian says, ‘is nothing less than the power of omnipotence acting under the direction and dictation of infinite love - a power which can touch us in our weakest places and in our darkest moments with all the tenderness of a great love.' When we think of God's love, we must not think in terms of feeling but in terms of action and the cost of that action. The greatest demonstration of God's love is the sending of Jesus Christ to suffer and die as his peoples substitute. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). The great love spoken about in this verse when applied to Christ is incalculably magnified by the fact that he was God incarnate dying for his enemies. Paul in Romans 5:10 says, ‘For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.'  God's perfect love, unlike sinful human love, is not dependant upon its object. God's love is always active, benefiting those he loves.
   
   
2. We need to think about being saved by God's grace in order to appreciate the wonder and the greatness of the God who saved us and the marvellous salvation that is ours. How marvellous is our salvation? What does it mean to be saved? It means to be wonderfully transformed by the power and love of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Who am I as a saved sinner? I am transformed and changed forever. I am an adopted son of God and have the right to call him Father. I am a new creation, a saint, forgiven, justified, accepted, a member of Christ's Church, close to the heart of God, secure in his love, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and will most certainly be glorified. I am no longer a hostile rebellious sinner, under condemnation and wrath, but one who loves God. I no longer live for self, but live for Christ. I am no longer filled with darkness, but shine with the light of Christ. I no longer serve the world, for I serve the only true and living God.  I am all this and more because of God's amazing grace. God's love and power has made me different to the society in which I live. If you are a believer all these things are true of you.

Conclusion.

God's grace is the working of his mighty power directed by his glorious love transforming sinners into saints for the glory of heaven. Have you experienced God's grace?