Grace - is there a limit to it?

Our church has recently started going through the book of Ephesians in our Sunday morning messages, so I have decided to study it in my own personal devotions alongside this.

I was looking at verses 7 & 8 of Chapter 1, which say "In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (8) which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight."

The two words that stood out to me are 'riches' and 'lavished'. Both words express not a limit but an abundance! One of the dictionary definitions of 'riches' is 'abundant' or 'plentiful', the dictionary definition of 'lavished' is 'to expend or give in great amounts and without limit'.

Both of these words in context refer to God's grace (grace being the freely given, unmerited favour of God towards undeserving sinners). I have lost count of the times when I approach God, in awareness of a particular sin or sins that I have committed, reminded of my need for grace, and hoping in some part that God will give me a small amount of grace, unworthy as I am. This is wrong and sinful thinking. The words riches and lavished as used here do not express that God is going to limit the amount of grace that he gives us, but that he gives grace to us in abundance!

Psalm 84:11 says "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." He withholds no good thing! How incredible is that!

Also, Ephesians 1:3 says "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places..." Note he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Praise God that he is a God who gives us abundant blessing, he doesn't withhold blessing from us, he delights to give it to us! And what greater blessing than the gift of His Son, Jesus, to give us the wonderful gift of salvation - dying in our place, for our sins, to take the punishment that we daily deserve to pay. What greater reason could there be to approach God with confidence than through Jesus' sacrifice? What a wonderful God we have, and what a wonderful God we serve!

By This We Know Love

Another great song - I love this album!

By This We Know Love from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

C.J.Mahaney sermon - "The Troubled Soul"

Thought I would post a link to this sermon, that I would recommend listening to. It's based on Psalm 42, around talking truth to yourself rather than listening to your own feelings. Here's the link:

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Resources/CJMahaneySermons/TheTroubledSoul.aspx

That's the audio link, or here's the video:

The Troubled Soul from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Serving Christ joyfully

"Impatient spirits may fret and fume because they are not called to the highest places in ministry; but, reader, learn to rejoice that Jesus calls those He desires. If He leaves me as a doorkeeper in His house, I will cheerfully bless Him for His grace in allowing me to do anything in His service. The call of Christ's servants comes from above."

(From Alistair Begg's "Truth for Life" Daily Devotional for Thurs 10/9/09- adapted from C.H Spurgeon http://www.truthforlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=tls_overview)

Really challenging quote for me. We are not just called to be content or put up with what Jesus calls us to do but to rejoice that he would even call any of us! Psalm 84:10 "10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." Rather than complain about what we have not been called to do, we should return to God with gratefulness for his grace in allowing us to serve him at all!

God's grace and mercy - R.C.Sproul quote

"We soon forget that with our first sin we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything. If He allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice"

(R.C.Sproul - The Holiness of God, Chapter 6 - Holy Justice p126)

Spurgeon - Justification by Grace

In this quote, Spurgeon talks about the level of debt that Christ paid, I have found it helpful when meditating and considering the wonder of Christ's sacrifice at the Cross and the daily wonder of sanctifying & saving grace that we, as Christians, have the joy of experiencing:

"Now, concerning this ransom, we have to observe, that it was all paid, and all paid at once. When Christ redeemed his people, he did it thoroughly; he did not leave a single debt unpaid, nor yet one farthing (penny in modern speech!) for them to settle afterwards. God demanded of Christ the payment for the sins of all his people; Christ stood forward, and to the utmost farthing paid whate'er his people owed. The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to the very end of time. On that day when Christ hung on the cross, he did not leave a single farthing for us to pay as a satisfaction to God; he did not leave, from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, that he had not satisfied. The whole of the demands of the law were paid down there and then by Jehovah Jesus, the great high priest of all his people. And blessed be his name, he paid it all at once too. So priceless was the ransom, so princely and munificent (lavish) was the price demanded for our souls, one might have thought it would have been marvellous if Christ had paid it by instalments; some of it now, and some of it then. King's ransoms have sometimes been paid part at once, and part in dues afterwards, to run through years. But not so our Saviour: once for all he gave himself a sacrifice; at once he counted down the price, and said, "It is finished," leaving nothing for him to do, nor for us to accomplish. He did not drivel out a part-payment, and then declare that he would come again to die, or that he would again suffer, or that he would again obey; but down upon the nail, to the utmost farthing, the ransom of all people was paid, and a full receipt given to them, and Christ nailed that receipt to his cross, and said, "It is done, it is done; I have taken away the handwriting of ordinances, I have nailed it to the cross; who is he that shall condemn my people, or lay anything to their charge? for I have blotted out like a cloud their transgressions, and like a thick cloud their sins!"

C.H Spurgeon, taken from a sermon entitiled "Justification by Grace" (http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0126.htm)

Take a step back for a moment and consider these words from the quote: "The sacrifice of Calvary was not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to the very end of time"

If Christ's sacrifice had been in any way lacking in achieving the payment of the debt for our sins, then we would still be dead in our sins, and without hope. But, thanks to God's glorious grace that he has shown us, we are not bound by sin anymore, the complete payment has been paid, Christ took our punishment, stood in our place, and not only that, we have been clothed with Christ's righteousness!! We can enter God's presence without blame or fault, not based on anything we have done, but based on Christ's sacrifice at the Cross, his full and complete payment for our sins!!

Another reminder why our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ, is so worthy of all the worship, praise and adoration that he receives!

The Heart of the Gospel

Spurgeon reinforces the necessity of holding fast to the truths of the Gospel and not deviating and being distracted by the latest new thing. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified":

"...God grant us this day that our ship may have nothing on board it that may merely gratify the curiosity, or please the taste, but that there may be necessary Truths for the salvation of souls. I would have each one of you say—“Well, it was just the old, old story of Jesus and His love and nothing else.” I have no desire to be famous for anything but preaching the old Gospel. There are plenty who can fiddle to you the new music—it is for me to have no music at any time but that which is heard in Heaven—“Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be Glory forever and ever!”... "

- C.H.Spurgeon
(http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols31-33/chs1910.pdf)
from Monergism.com