Josh Smith - Class 1: The Framework for Grace

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Oh, good morning everybody. I presume everybody's getting over sugar hangovers this morning. I'm not sure whose idea it was to put like a sugar birthday party followed by ice cream. Some sort of joke on the hosts, I think, on the first night. So yesterday, just in our intro, we talked about how grace is this kindness which is undeserved.

2. 0:33

   And you might remember the story about the fictional character, Dunk, who on the surface seemed like a really nice guy, but was that person that had that personal vendetta against you. And because of the situation, how it personally affected you, you didn't get that natural response. And it was showing kindness to that in that story had to be a conscious decision that you would make.

3. 1:00

   So this grace that we're talking about is kindness that is undeserved. In particular this morning, I'd like to talk about the purpose of grace. What is it? Why do we have grace? What is this kindness? What is it meant to achieve? And really the setting behind it is something which tells us so much about God.

4. 1:26

   And I'd like just for us to turn to three passages now. And just to read these passages just slowly and thoughtfully. And just let them sink in of what it is telling us about God. Okay? So here's the first one. The first one is 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. First of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

5. 2:33

   Verse 3. So 1 Timothy 2 verse 3. So God our Savior desires that all men would be saved. And that all would come to a knowledge of the truth.

6. 3:12

   Turn to the next one now in James chapter 5. James chapter 5 and verse 7. Be patient. So here the picture is of this farmer. As he waits patiently for all the fruit to be born out of his vineyard. It's talking about the coming of the Lord. Perhaps an allusion here to the coming of Christ.

7. 4:40

   And perhaps it's saying that here is the picture is God. And he's waiting for every last person to be saved. before the coming of the coming of the coming of the coming of the Lord. The final one is in 2 Peter in chapter 3. 2 Peter 3 and verse 8 But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Now, having just had those verses sinking what does it tell you about God?

8. 5:52

   What's your summary of those verses? Key, Ems has been your summary, not mine He's very long-suffering He wants us in His kingdom He wants us in His kingdom There was someone else He wants everyone to be saved He wants everybody to be saved Anyone got anything to add to that? He doesn't mind how long it takes Yeah, excellent Doesn't mind how long it takes Very good observation Anything else?

9. 6:32

   I can't think of anything else so that's fine It's very simple, isn't it? Just reading just three of those passages tells us a lot about God It tells us that He is really wanting to save as many people as He can That is who He is He wants to save everybody if He can Anybody who will come to repentance And so grace The purpose of grace is this exact thing It's God's desire to save and it's the means by which He is doing that So sometimes when you're looking at these things and you start a study like grace or anything you look at the first couple of instances of the word or the example and you find them to be significant and all we're going to do this morning is we're going to just see these three verses if you like seen in two stories that these two stories are the first they contain the first three times the word grace appears in Scripture But they will teach us so much about what God is trying to do with you and with me And first is in Genesis chapter 6

10. 8:20

    These are unlikely stories If I just said to you can someone tell me an amazing story about grace in Scripture I just cannot picture anyone putting up their hands and saying what about where God wiped out almost the entire population So these are unlikely stories But you've got to ask the question why are they recorded the way they are recorded and the details that are given Let's look at it through God's eyes and see what it's trying to tell us And when we get to the end of these stories and I've given Micah a closing hymn which I think we're closing with you'll see that the person who wrote the hymn summarises these stories beautifully as to what it means to us But here we have What's the context of Genesis 6?

11. 9:16

    What's happened here? So we've got God, we're only five chapters into Scripture We've had the perfect world created We've had the fall of man And now we've only gone a few pages into the Bible And it's all turned to custom Basically Like, look at what it says Chapter 6 and verse 5 That God saw the wickedness of man That it was great in the earth And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented Yahweh that he made man on the earth And it grieved him at his heart It pained him That's what it means It pained him He experienced pain Because of what his creation Had become It grieved him at his heart And he said And Yahweh said I will destroy man Whom I have created From the face of the earth Both man and beast And the creeping thing And the fowls of the air For it repenteth me That I have made them But Noah Found grace In the eyes of Yahweh Now this is a very Very significant verse Think about what the What the verses leading up to it Have said Where are we?

12. 10:42

    Well God's looked at everything That's happened Man's completely gone away from him And he's decided If you like This is what the In verse 7 it said That he's going to destroy Man and beast And every creeping thing Except That there's this thing Called grace And he's And Noah has found it In the eyes of God So how does that change The story of Noah The story of Genesis 6 And the following chapters Well this would be A story of God Out of a population Does anyone have An estimated population At the time here?

13. 11:27

    Anyone Got any ideas? A million A million Anyone Anyone got a raise On a million? Two million Even on that? Fifteen million It's a possibility That it's actually Quite a similar population To what we have Today There's quite some Interesting Sorry I'm getting really hot Is there a heater up there? Is this the UK?

14. 12:02

    Yes It could be about Six billion If you're interested In knowing More about that You can come and speak To me afterwards There's some interesting Calculations you can do Based around the lifespan Of each individual And the fact that For the whole period Of this time There wasn't actually Many people dying Which makes a big difference But they're obviously Producing children Perhaps at the same rate And therefore The population In Greece is Quite phenomenal So we're talking An extremely large population Whether it's One or two million Or twenty million Or six billion It's a large number And here we've got God deciding That out of that Amount of people There's one man There's one man That he can work with One man that he can save One man that he can lead To repentance And so what does he do?

15. 13:02

    Well he designs a boat For him to build That will take How many years? 120 years? I don't know if that's right Sorry But I'll take you for it I think it's 120 I was going to say 100 But it's a long time Isn't it? 120 years Building a boat Calling animals Two by two Into that ark Taking Noah and his family Into the ark Then there's The upheaval on the world As the waters Comes down The water breaks up The water's covering All the land This whole story All so that God Could save That one man And his family And do you see How significant that is?

16. 13:55

    That this is actually A story of grace But it's It's telling us The lengths That God Is prepared To go to To save His children That's what it's telling us It's not a story Of devastation It's the story Of the lengths That God Is going to To save you and me And how he's Working with us So when we see it Through God's eyes It's quite incredible What it tells us Let's come to the next Occurrence Which is In Genesis chapter 18 And this is Genesis 18 Is the encounter With Abraham And the angels You remember As they came Come to him In chapter 18 To talk to him About the fact That they're going down To destroy Sodom and Gomorrah If you're interested The second occurrence Is in verse 3 When Abraham Talks to them But the significant part Is the story That follows And the discussion That happens First of all With Abraham And then the situation In Sodom and Gomorrah As they go down To retrieve Lot Now has anyone Ever thought In Genesis 18 When Abraham Talks to the angel Of God As to how They could have This discussion Remember They come to him In verse 26 Well We'll start from Verse 23 Abraham Drew near And said Will you also Destroy the righteous With the wicked Here we are In Genesis 18 Why would Abraham Ask that question What story Does he know about That's happened Where he could Question God About destroying The righteous With the wicked Well my personal belief Is that He's drawing on The story of Noah And because of God's experience And what he did

17. 16:14

    With Noah Abraham has Complete faith In God's character And let's just see How this story Plays out He asks him Peradventure If there's 50 Righteous Within the city Wilt thou also Destroy and not Spare the place For the 50 Righteous Therein And in verse 26 Yahweh says If I find in Sodom 50 righteous Within the city Then I will Spare all All the place For their sakes So if there was 50 In that city God wouldn't Have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah That's And that's Abraham Knowing what God was like Knowing his Character And then he says Well what if There's just Five less Will you destroy Him He says I won't Destroy What about If there was 40 What about If there was 30 What about If there was 20 This is He's having This discussion With the Angel of Yahweh Abraham What about If there was Just 10 People in It He says I wouldn't Destroy Isn't that Incredible So here's The faith of Abraham In that He believes In God's Character He knows Who he is He's able To draw On what He knows About God From the Story Of Noah And the Flood And question God about What he's Doing here But of Course we Know the Story There isn't 10 Righteous In Sodom and Gomorrah And so The angels Go down And let's Just look At this Story Incredible Story Of grace So they Go down Into Sodom And Gomorrah And it Says in Chapter 19 In verse 4 Sorry We'll just Chapter 19 In verse 1 There came Two angels To Sodom And evil So here's Here's the Here's the

18. 18:20

    The setting As the angels Come down to Sodom And Lot Sat in the Gauge of Sodom And Lot Seeing them Rose up To meet Them And he Bowed Himself With his Face Towards the Ground But of Course they Are there To take Him out Take him Out of Sodom And it Says In verse 12 That the Men said Unto Lot Hast thou Here Any Besides Son-in-law Sons Daughters Whatever you Have in This city Bring them Out of This place So a Similar Situation Noah And his Family Lot And his Family Whoever He could He was Going to Take out Of this Place The angels Would spare Them Verse 13 For we Will destroy This place Because the Cry of Them Is great Before the Face of Yahweh And Yahweh Hath sent Us to Destroy it So you Can imagine Imagine Lot in This situation As he Finds out That this Place is to Be destroyed And And There's this Wonderful offer Here from The angels That if He were to Get any Of his Family Any of His Friends Into This room Then they Would all Be saved So imagine What that Would be Like for You Racing Around Trying to Get people To say Look You've Just Got to Come The angels Have said That we'll Be taken Away They'll Save us Just Come And that's What Lot Does Verse 14 And he Went out And he Spake unto His Sons And Laws Which Married His Daughters And said Up Get you Out of This Place For Yahweh Will Destroy The City But he Seemed As one That Mocked And when The morning Arose

19. 20:01

    So all Night All Night They're Waiting And Lot's Going here Going there Trying to Trying to Get people Together They've Waited All night And in The morning The angels Hastened Lot saying Arise Take your Wife Just Take your Wife And your Two Daughters Which are Here Lest Thou Be Consumed In the Iniquity Of the City So they've Waited All night Still no One there Still a lot Dithering About And it Says in Verse 16 And while He lingered They're still Waiting So they've Gone through All night Now as they Wait for To get People together They're saying Well just Take now Your wife And two Daughters And he's Still Fluffing About While he Lingered Then look At what Happens The men Laid Hold Upon his Hand Grabs Lot by The hand And upon The hand Of his Wife And upon The hand Of his Two daughters Look at What it Says Yahweh Being Merciful Unto him And they Brought Them And set Him Without The city So you Know what God did To save Lot And his Family He actually Grabbed them By the Hand And if you Like dragged Them out Of the city He'd Waited all Night And still He lingered And in The end The angel Grabbed him And his Wife And his Daughters By the Hand And dragged Them Out of The city And set Them Out The city And still That wasn't Enough In verse 17 it Says And it Came to Pass When they Brought Them Forth Abroad And he Said Escape For your Life Look not Behind thee Neither Stay thou In all The plain Escape To the

20. 22:11

    Mountain Lest thou Be Consumed To say Okay We've got You out Of the City Now Lot So just Run to The hills Run Get out Of here Now Verse 18 Lot Said unto Them Oh Not so My lord You can Just Like Just start Pulling your Hair out At this Point Wouldn't You That's Probably What Happened To me Oh Not so My lord So They've Been Dragged Out of The city And still He's Sitting There Now He says Well Not so My lord And look At what Lot Says Behold Now Thy Servant Hath Found Grace In Thy Sight And Thou Hast Magnified Thy Mercy Which Thou Has Showed Unto Me In Saving My Life But I Cannot Escape To The Mountain Lest Some Evil Take Me And I Die Can You Believe That There's About to Be fire And brimstone Rain down On Sodom And Gomorrah The angels Have waited All night Eventually They have To Drag Them Out Of The city And Lot Says I Don't Want To Go Up Into The Mountains There's Something Bad Happened To Me Well Here Is God Trying To Save Lot And His Family And Lot's Worried About Some Evil That Might Happen To Them In The Mountain Here's His Suggestion Because Sodom and Gomorrah Was Like a Group Of Small Villages And Cities Here's His Suggestion Behold Now There's This City That's Near To Flee Unto And It's Just A Little City It's One Let Me Escape To It One Of Just These Little Cities And My Soul Shall Live You Know What You Know What The Angel Says To Him Okay I Won't Destroy That City

21. 24:22

    Of Sodom And Gomorrah Because You're Too Scared To Go Up Into The Mountain Because You Don't Believe That I'm Going To Protect You And So That's That Little City Was Saved Zor So That Lot Could Go And Stay There For That Night You Know What The Ironic Thing Is About The Story Is What What Was What Happened To Lot In Zor What Says In Verse 30 That Lot Went Up Out Of Zor And Dwelt In The Mountain Oh There's A Surprise He Went To The Mountain For He Feared To Dwell In Zor And He Dwelt In A Cave He And His Two Daughters His Life Come Under Threat In Zor So He Fled From Zor To The Mountain And Of Course The Angel Would Have Known That God Knows That God Knew It Wouldn't Be Safe For Him In Zor So How Incredibly Kind Is A God That Is Not Only Willing To Save But Willing To Hear That Hear That Cry Willing To Deal With Our Faithlessness Willing To Accommodate Those Ridiculous Fears That We Have What An Incredible God We Have And How Much Is This Story Telling Us About His Desire To Save So What Is The Purpose Of Grace We Won't Turn There Because We're Going To Get To It In Our Further Studies The Kind Romans 2 Says That The Kindness And Forbearance Of God Is Meant To Lead Us To Repentance And I Challenge Any One Of Us When We See This Kind Of Kind !

22. 26:38

    This Kind Of Love This Kind Of Mercy For Us Not To Feel Compelled Towards Repentance And That's The Purpose Of Grace To Show This Undeserved Kindness Which God Is First Showing To Us So That We Can Be Overwhelmed By It Here Is A Father Here Is A God Who Is Prep To Take Us By The Hand If Necessary And To Drag Us Excuse The Expression But Almost Kicking And Screaming Into His Kingdom He's Going To Do Whatever It Takes However Long It Takes To Get Us Into The Kingdom That's What These Stories Are Telling Us And This Love And We Are To See This Kind Will Be Power And A Motivating Force In Our Life To Lead Us To Repentance It Will Cause Us To Respond To God We Can't You Can't Help But Feel A Response To A God Who's Willing To Go To These Lengths To Save Us So Hopefully We'll Remember Those Two Stories You May Remember The First Three Quotes About How God Has This Incredible Desire To Save But I Hope You Don't Forget Those Stories The Story Of Naa And Of Lot And How God Will Do Whatever It Takes To Save Us Them