The Nature of Gods Grace

THE NATURE OF GRACE

October 13, 1996

"...the God of peace will be with you." Phil 4:9

Thesis: To have/keep the peace of God it is necessary to come to know the God of peace.

I think I would like to read the entire Epistle passage, Philippians 4: 1 - 9 as a bridge to these other two passages, from Exodus 32 and from Matthew 22 before I try to preach this morning.

Therefore my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Eudia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I as you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And THE PEACE OF GOD, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and THE GOD OF PEACE will be with you.

There is more in those few words than we can talk about this morning. This letter is full of hope and joy and love, even though it was written by a man in prison. But what I want to lift out that helps me understand the difficult passages from Exodus and Matthew is that we cannot separate THE PEACE OF GOD from THE GOD OF PEACE.

"The peace of God" represents the good things God wants to do for us. His blessings, his promises, his forgiveness for all our sins. "The God of peace" reminds us that the way of grace is not lists of things to do or not to do; it is the opportunity to get to know God Himself. This way of salvation is a personal faith. By 'personal' I do not mean 'private.' By "personal" I mean that God is a Person who loves YOU very much, and wants you and me to learn to know and love Him. [With that as background:]

Two pictures are presented by the scriptures this morning:

Exodus:

Picture of a people who have come a long, long way. They are camped at the base of Mt Sinai. A good deal has happened to them in the last few weeks and months, They were slaves, now they are free. They were hungry and thirsty, now they have enough that they want to celebrate. They were "no people," but now they are people of a covenant. THEY HAVE RECEIVED A BIG DOSE OF 'THE PEACE OF GOD.'

But all is not ideal here.

The people become impatient waiting for the "next step." It seems they have been camped here for too long— Moses is still up on the mountaintop, out of touch as some leaders seem to be. Beside that, all the other people they ever heard of have gods they can see and understand and control. So— they said, "Let's worship the Lord God who brought us from Egypt, but let's worship him in ways that we ourselves improvise and design. Aaron, we don't know whatever happened to your brother, but give us a god we can see!" Their IMPATIENCE, and their AUDACITY sought to whittle down their God into one they could both see and manage and in some sense control.

So Aaron did the most foolish thing he ever did, and his sin was a great success— the people thought their Golden Calf was just as great as Egypt's Sacred Bull— now they had caught up to the neighbors— and they had a great time of praise to God around the idol, and they sat down and had a great feast, and then they began to dance and sing—- What could be wrong with that?

Matthew 22:

Picture of a wedding banquet.

A king has invited important people to his wedding feast. (Be careful here, don't read more into it than is intended. ) The so-called important invited guests have snubbed the king and attacked his messengers, so he has in turn rejected and destroyed them. Then the king invited everyone and anyone- "both good and bad"— who would to come to the feast, and many answered the call.

But all is not ideal here, either.

Wedding garments were provided for everyone. The music and the food and the dancing were in the spirit of sharing the joy and love of the king. All these were good things supplied by the king—(THE PEACE OF GOD?) But in the midst of it was this conspicuous rebel, this one who was perfectly willing to eat and drink and dance, but who said by his non-conformity to accepted custom: I don't give a hoot about my king, and am not celebrating his graciousness— I'm here for myself.

And the story says that this gracious king asked the man: "Friend, why aren't you dressed for the wedding?" The man was speechless. Whereupon the king had him treated like the people who had originally refused to come at all. Then this enigmatic story closes with the enigmatic words: FOR MANY ARE CALLED, BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN!

[You can see why even better preachers than I try to dodge this passage!]

Both the Exodus passage and this difficult story of Jesus in Matthew 32 seem to say that there is more to faith than seeking what God can do for you. Whatever the reasons that we come to God— and we all come more or less selfishly, I am sure— God is not satisfied until we realize he loves us— and until we begin to try to return that love. God is not just trying to make us GOOD— he wants us to leave the things that enslave us, and find his peace— so that we can learn to walk with HIM!

Is it possible to be "good" without God? If we mean by "good" paying bills and not kicking the dog, sure, there are a lot of people, thank God, who qualify as "good." But if by "good" we mean finding what life is about, and living in such a way that we find our noble purpose in life, then it is my conviction that no, it is not possible to really be good apart from connecting with God.

Good is not an end in and of itself. God does not save us to make us good. He makes us "good" so that we can get things out of the way and get to know Him, and what He is about. God wants a people who will wait for Him, who will seek Him, and who will love Him.

If you need freedom, God will hear your cry for help. If you want forgiveness for sins, God has already made the way for them to be forgiven forever.

But God LOVES us— he wants us to know that. And we can't STAY free— we won't STAY happy IF WE TRY TO MAKE OUR OWN GODS, OR IF WE JUST TRY TO USE GOD'S GOOD GIFTS SELFISHLY. God's life isn't like that!

God is seeking a people who not only want what He can give them, of forgiveness of sins, and peace and good will, but who will seek HIM! It isn't enough to come to the wedding, we have to become a part of the family.

xxx

One last lesson from this message today: there is great power in intercession. Moses, only one man, prayed for the people who had greatly erred. They had gone in the way of destruction. But Moses changed the mind of God. What that means I don't know— for we know that God knows the end from the beginning. But it tells us that if we will pray for those in sin, God will listen. If we identify in love with others, there has to be power in that kind of prayer.

The nature of grace makes possible many benefits and blessing simply because God loves us, and delivers us, and invites us to his place to make covenant, and to be his people. But that same grace opens the way for response to that love Moses demonstrated the power of intercession.

xxx

Prayer - Hymn 109 Our Great Savior