This morning I’d like to begin by showing you a brief clip from the movie, Saving Private Ryan. Now, if you’ve heard me preach over the years you know that this is not something I do very often. Only rarely do you see a film clip as a part of one of my messages, but this particular scene is very powerful and has always stuck with me. I decided to use it this morning because I think it serves as a good launching point for the message I believe God wants us all to hear.
I feel compelled to point out that this powerful film is not suitable for children. It is a very graphic and realistic depiction war, especially those first scenes of the D-Day invasion.
But if you’ve seen the movie or read about it you know it is based on a true story from World War II, a story about a family that had four sons, each of whom fought in the armed forces of the United States. Early on in the film, as the casualty lists from D-Day and other crucial battles are coming in, news reaches the war department that three of these brothers have been killed in combat. I still remember the scene where their mother is doing dishes and she looks out the window of their farm house to see the khaki green army sedan coming up their long drive-way. She goes out to greet her guests and collapses on the porch as she sees an army officer and her pastor get out of the car, because as a mother of soldiers in war time she knows what their visit means.
Well, George C. Marshall, the Chief of staff hears about all this and decides that to ask a family to give the lives of all four of its sons is just too great a sacrifice, so he orders a unit of soldiers to retrieve the one remaining Ryan and bring him home. This group of somewhat reluctant heroes is led by a Captain John Miller, a part that is played by Tom Hanks. Miller and his unit of soldiers fight their way to the front and eventually find Ryan and save him but in the process almost all of them are killed.
At the end of the film, Captain Miller himself is wounded and dying. Do you remember the scene? He looks up at Private Ryan, takes his hand, draws him close, and with his last breath says, “James, EARN this.” At this point in the film as Ryan looks down at Captain Miller his face ages instantly, the film flashes to the future, fifty or sixty years later, and James Ryan, now an old man, nearing the end of his life, stands looking down at Miller’s grave in France. Watch what he does. Listen to what he says.
[CLIP from Saving Private Ryan – 2:38:49 – 2:40:14]
As you just heard, this portion of the film tells us that for the rest of his life, James Ryan tried to live in such a way that he was worthy of the men who gave their lives to save his. And, by looking at the way his wife and children and even grandchildren treat him we can surmise that he had apparently succeeded. He’d been a wonderful father and husband. He’d lived an honorable life. Well, this had been his life-long desire. James Ryan wanted to live every day in such a way as to please these soldiers who had died saving him.
Understand, this was more than just an idle wish. It was his life’s hope; this is what drove him and motivated him. Those last three words of Captain Miller, “James, EARN this.” Those three words were the catalyst of Ryan’s life. As he said in the clip, every day he thought about those words.
Now, I’ve shared this clip because here at Redland Baptist Church we too are motivated-driven-compelled-by the actions of Someone Who gave His life to save us. In fact, whenever I have seen this film, I have thought of the verses that serve as our text for this morning’s message. In my opinion, if Redland had a passage of Scripture that served as our theme, this would be it. Look up at the screens and read these words with me.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live-should no longer live for themselves but for Him Who died for them and was raised again.
1 Peter 4:10
…each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
This is the Word of the Lord…thanks be to God.
Do you see what I mean? Do you see why I would think of this text whenever I see this scene from the film? I mean, like James T. Ryan, we too kneel at a cross, but every day we kneel at the Cross, the Cross of Jesus, the cross that served as a model for all those thousands of white grave markers. As sinners who have personally experienced God’s forgiveness and cleansing we are compelled, we are driven, not to live for ourselves, but for Jesus, the Christ, Who died for us and was raised again.
But I must say that our experience, our understanding of the sacrifice that has been paid on our behalf, differs from that of James T. Ryan. You see, we are very aware of the fact that we can never deserve or earn what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary. In fact, we know He died for us WHILE we were unworthy, that as Romans 5:8 says, “While we sere still sinners, Christ died for us.” And even though we are Christians-people who have put our faith in Jesus-we also know that we still sin. We still spend our time unworthily, sin taints even our best efforts at goodness. This realization makes us all the more grateful that as Ephesians 2:8-9 puts it, “…we are saved NOT by works-NOT by earning it-but by GRACE, through faith.”
Nevertheless we still strive to live for Jesus. Our experience of grace, our understanding of it colors everything we do. It compels us to strive to live holy lives. As E. Stanley Jones puts it, “Grace is free, but once you take it you are bound forever to the Giver.” Well, we are bound to the Giver, we are bound to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We love Him, we want to please Him in the way that we live our lives.
And, let me chase a small rabbit at this point by taking this a step further. I would go so far as to say that I have serious doubts about the salvation of a person who says they are a Christian but continually, willfully lives contrary to God’s will, because once we truly understand God’s grace we want to obey God’s laws, we want to do all we can to live in ways that please Him, to do all we can to act and think in ways that show we understand God’s grace.
Paul deals with this issue in Romans 6:1-2 when he asks, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” So, if we truly understand God’s grace, we won’t live in sin. We’ll show our love for him by doing our very best to obey him.
You see, a genuine experience of the grace of God compels us to refrain from sin and do our best to live Godly lives. I like how Cyndi Word put it in her contribution to our Advent devotionals a few years back. She said,
I love, because I have been wondrously loved. I try to forgive, because I have been forgiven so much. I try to accept people as they are, because I have been accepted as I am. I try to show mercy and compassion, because mercy and compassion has been showered upon me.”
I think Cyndi understands that, as Paul put it in our text for today from 2 Corinthians, once we experience God’s grace through Jesus Christ, “…we no longer live for ourselves but for Him Who died for us all.” In short, Christians who really understand the basics of grace become grace-driven people.
Today we come to the final sermon in a series of messages, the purpose of which is to help us remember who we are as a church. And this morning’s topic sums our uniqueness up best, because we believe that God has called Redland Baptist Church to be, “…a GRACE-driven church for a GRACE-needing world.”
If you’re a long time member here-and at Redland “long-time” means you’ve been here four years or more-if you’re an old timer, the content of this message may be familiar to you. I hope it is because that means I’m doing my job! But I’m addressing this issue again because from time to time we still need a reminder of this unique call that God has given us as a congregation.
Now, for those of you who are new to our church, let me give you a little history. In 1998 after a great deal of prayer as to what God was calling our church to be and do, we came up with this phrase that serves as our purpose statement. In fact, I’d like us to read it together. We haven’t done so in a long time but read with me now:
Redland Baptist Church is a Grace-driven church for a Grace-needing world, where people:
Grow in the love…
Reach in the name…
Affirm in the body…
Care in the nature…
and Exalt in the Glory…OF CHRIST.
As this statement says, around here we are driven by our understanding of the grace of God. Grace compels us; it motivates us to do everything we do: our discipleship, outreach, fellowship, ministry, and worship. So, if we’re going to truly remember who we are as Redland Baptist Church, it is imperative that we have a thorough understanding of the Grace of God. And that is the purpose of this morning’s message, to remind ourselves once again of the basics of grace.
Okay then, let’s get started. What exactly is grace? Let’s begin with a quick review.
The Bible teaches that grace is God’s absolutely unmerited favor. It is His giving good to us that we could never hope to earn or deserve. As I alluded to earlier, the greatest example of God’s grace was when He sent His only Son to die for us. But God’s grace did not stop with the cross. You see, our Heavenly Father continues to bestow His grace on us each and every day, as He gives us other things we could never deserve or earn:
- His guidance in life-decisions
- His forgiveness when we disobey Him
- His strength when we try to do His will
- His healing power when we are sick.
I could go on and on giving examples of ways that God regularly showers us with things we don’t deserve because God’s grace is at work around us every single day. I mean, every time you wake up, think a thought, or enjoy a meal, well, these are not random occurrences. No, they are gracious gifts from the hand of God. The breath you just took, the fact that you can hear what I am saying right now or read the text on the screens behind me, your mind that is able to understand all this. Well, never take any of these things for granted because they are not accidents, nor are they entitlements, they are all gracious gifts from God.
You see, grace means that bound up in our Heavenly Father is an inclination to bestow benefits on undeserving people, sinners like you and me. And God does that all the time! Every moment of every day He showers us with grace.
Now, a good human might want to bestow a benefit or two on a deserving person. For example: if you are known as a hardworking employee, your boss may give you the afternoon off after you have worked long hours to finish an unusually difficult contract. Or, if you are a good student, your teacher may give you a couple extra days to finish a term paper. Or if your grandmom loves you, she might buy you an ice-cream cone even if you didn’t clean your plate at supper, just because she knows that all in all you’re a pretty good kid. Or if you are much loved by your friends and family-and if they nominate you-and Ty Pennington chooses you., you might end up getting a brand new home custom-designed and built by the Extreme Make Over Home Edition crew.
I mean news of good, deserving people receiving grace is not that rare. We see this kind of grace all the time. In fact, it seems like TV shows like Extreme Makeover are really catching on, shows that tell how deserving people are showered with gifts.
But God’s grace is far above this weaker human version. God’s grace is as extraordinary as human grace is ordinary, because as I said, He gives good things even to undeserving people. It is His nature to do so.
Now, we could talk for hours about the many facets of God’s extraordinary grace but as I said, this morning I want us to remind ourselves of the basics and the first is this:
(1) God’s grace is old.
In other words, grace was not something God thought up when mankind failed to obey His laws. I say this because some people seem to think God tried the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law and when that didn’t work, He came up with Plan B, The Grace Plan.
But this is not true. No, grace was God’s original, one and only, plan, set into motion long before the law was revealed to Moses. Now, the law was part of that plan, part of its purpose was to show how much we were dependent on God’s grace, but grace existed in the heart of God even before man was created.
1 Peter 1:18-20 says, “You were redeemed from your empty way of life with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world.” In fact, even before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve experienced God’s grace. Think about it. They didn’t deserve to be put into a lavish garden where all their needs were met by a loving Creator. They had done nothing to earn God’s intimate fellowship in that heavenly place. Even before they sinned-even before the fall-Adam and Eve lived on grace.
So, the first thing we must remember is that grace is old-older than all creation-but it is more than that. We need to remember that
(2) God’s grace is big.
By this I mean that God’s grace is BIG enough to wipe out the sins of the entire world. Romans 3:23-24 says, “For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
And, as 1 John 2:2 says Jesus is, “..the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins for the whole world.”. So, God’s grace is big, big enough to cover the sins of every human that has ever been born or ever will be born.
And it is also so big that it is limitless in supply. I mean, God never runs out of grace. God doesn’t give us a portion of grace when we become Christians and say, “This is all you get…make it last…ration it out day by day…don’t run out because when you do, there is no more!” No, He gives grace after grace after grace in unending supply. As it says in John 1:16, “From the FULLNESS of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
God’s grace is indeed big.
And, understand: this principle also means God’s grace is big enough to wipe out the biggest sinful act. No sin, no matter how horrible, is too big for the grace of God to cover.
I’m sure that most of you have heard of Jeffrey Dahlmer, even his name causes our stomachs to churn. Dahlmer was convicted of the mass murder of 17 men, many of whom he abused and then cannibalized. My computer’s thesaurus has 32 synonyms for the word, “vile” but each of them falls short of describing the appalling sins of this troubled man. He redefined the boundary for brutality. An interviewer asked Dahlmer how he could possibly do the things he did and he said that at the time he didn’t believe in God, so he felt accountable to no one. He began with petty crimes, experimented with small acts of cruelty, and then just kept going and going further and further into depravity. Dahlmer went to prison for his crimes where he himself was eventually murdered by another prisoner.
But months before his death Dahlmer repented of his sin and became a Christian. People who knew him in prison said that when this happened his total demeanor changed. Dahlmer became one of the most faithful worshipers at the prison chapel, active in Bible study, a prolific reader of Christian books.
And I must say in all honesty, it is hard for me to believe that God would let him off that easy. Do you know what I mean? We tend to think that God’s grace is sufficient for average sinners but not big enough for deviants like this guy. But it is.
The fact is NO heart-even that of Jeffrey Dahlmer-is not too vile for the grace of God. As it says in the old gospel hymn, “Calvary covers it ALL.”
Well, if we are to be truly Grace-driven we must seek to understand this principle. And our own experience of and dependence on God’s grace should help. As C. S. Lewis once said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
God’s grace is big-big enough to cover the sins of all mankind-big enough to cover any sinful act. This leads to the third basic fact,
(3) You see, God’s grace is also not fair.
Thanks to grace, repentant sinners like you and me do not get what fairness would say we deserve.
Reminds me of a cartoon I read about once that showed a husband and a wife standing in a long, curving line before the gates of Heaven. They were waiting for their turn to face judgment. The woman leaned over toward her husband and whispered behind her hand, “Now Harold, whatever you do, please don’t demand what’s coming to you.” She was right because, thanks to our sin, what we all have coming to us is death and eternal separation from God. Without the cross there would be no line at the gates of heaven.
Here’s an illustration, a mental image, to help you understand this aspect of grace. Imagine you have a six-year old son whom you dearly love. Tragically, one day you discover that your son was horribly murdered. After a lengthy search the investigators of the crime find the killer. At this point you have a choice. If you used every means in your power to kill the murderer for his crime, that would be vengeance. If, however, you’re content to sit back and let the legal authorities take over and execute on him what is proper-a fair trial, a plea of guilty, capital punishment-that is justice. But if you should plead for the pardon of the murderer, forgive him completely, invite him into your home, and adopt him as your own son, that is grace.
Now do you see why grace is so hard to grasp and accept? Very few people (if any) would do something like this. But our Holy God does it every day!
No matter how big his sin, God takes the guilty, believing sinner, who says, “I am lost, unworthy, guilty as charged, and undeserving of forgiveness, please help me!” God takes this unworthy, guilty sinner and extends to him or her the gift of eternal life. In fact, He even invites him to come home with Him as he adopts us into His forever family. Instead of treating him with vengeance or exacting justice, God extends grace.
Now, this fact that grace is an absolutely undeserved, totally unfair gift is so hard for us to comprehend. In fact, it may be the most difficult spiritual truth for any Christian to embrace. I mean, justice is so much easier for us to understand than grace. Think of it. When we are incensed by the crimes of others, horrified by the evil that stalks our world, we all want a God of justice.
I remember a scene from another WWII movie, Band of Brothers. A unit of soldiers came across one of the Nazi concentration camps, full of starving survivors. This camp was within walking distance of a prosperous German village, but the residents had ignored the brutality that went on. The soldiers were sickened by this and demanded justice. They dragged the townspeople out of their comfortable homes and put them to work burying the dead.
After watching peaceful civil rights demonstrations in the ’60’s being broken up by water cannons and vicious police dogs, we were ashamed and demanded justice.
Four years ago when terrorists commandeered planes and killed thousands of innocent people in New York and at the Pentagon and in a plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, we were terrified and demanded justice.
A few years ago when those two snipers were finally caught after killing seven innocent victims, when we saw how they had cut a hole in their trunk and used their car as a sniper’s nest, well, we were all enraged, and demanded justice.
But if any of us were to die tonight, which would we want to prevail? God’s justice or His grace? You see, if God is truly a God of only perfect justice and NOT loving grace, then there is nothing that will protect us from His divine judgment. Without the grace of God we would all be in a lot of trouble because as it says in the third chapter of Romans we’re all guilty,
“There is no difference, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…and the wages of sin…the just and fair thing that we all deserve…is death.”
You see, we demand a God of justice, but we all need and are totally dependent on a God of unmerited-impossible to earn-mercy and grace. And that leads me to the final bit of basic grace info I want to share
(4) You see, as I alluded to earlier, God’s grace is free.
In other words grace means we don’t contribute anything to our redemption. Even that first nudging of faith that lead’s a person to God is His gracious gift to us. This is what Jesus taught in John 6:44 when He said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him.” The only thing WE contribute to our salvation is our SIN. As it says in Romans 3:24, we are, “…justified FREELY by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
You know, we tend to be suspicious of free things. When we get an envelope in the mail and it says, “free vacation” we almost always do what? File It! We throw it away because we know there’s always a catch. We think anything worth anything must be deserved or earned or paid for, that nothing is free.
Well, because of grace, when it comes to eternal salvation, this principle does not apply. God offers His priceless gift of forgiveness absolutely free. It is not a trick, it is not a lure, it is a free gift. As it says in Romans 3:23, “…the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Now, understand: salvation is free to us, but as I told you in my Sower article last week, it was not free to God. Our salvation cost Him the life of His only Son. As that old acronym for the word “grace” says, grace is, “G.od’s R.iches A.t C.hrist’s E.xpense.” This should help us never forget that salvation is offered to us free of charge because Jesus was willing to pay the cost.
If any person wants to be forgiven, to have an intimate relationship with God, they can. We can stand before God absolutely clean, knowing our sins have been completely erased forever. We can spend eternity as residents of heaven, never separated from God’s presence. And this free gift is available to anyone. The only requirement is to ask for it.
But if you do ask for this free gift, there are two things you should be aware of.
A. Receiving this free gift is admission of our guilt.
A pastor was once speaking to a children’s Sunday School class and he asked the question, “What must one do to be forgiven of sin?” One little boy answered, “Well, first of all, you have to sin.”
Well, asking for God’s gift of grace is an admission that you have already taken that first step; you are saying, “I have sinned. I need your forgiveness, God.” In fact, the admission of guilt goes a step further. You are not just admitting that you have made some bad choices in the past. You are saying you are guilty-that you have no claim on God at all-that God owes you nothing but punishment for your sins. You are confessing, “I am a sinner…I live in a state of sin separated from God’s holiness.”
Lee Eclov tells of a headline he once saw in the Chicago Tribune that read, “Guilty Plea Sets Inmate Free!” The picture showed the freed man embracing his sister, and the article told how a man imprisoned for eight years was able to cut a deal with the state’s attorney’s office, a deal in which, in exchange for his admitting his guilt, admitting to a crime, the DA agreed that the time he had served would satisfy his sentence.
Well that is a picture of what happens to Christians. Our freedom is not a plea of innocence but an admission of guilt. We receive God’s grace only when we admit our guilt, our sin.
B. And then second, asking for God’s grace is an admission of our helplessness.
You are saying, “There is nothing I can do to earn or deserve the mercy I am asking for. It is only God’s goodness that makes this possible.” I mean, there is no room for personal pride anywhere in the salvation process. When we come to God we admit that, as I said earlier, there is no chance that we can ever be able to do anything to deserve the gift that we are asking for. We can never make ourselves good enough for God’s love.
I like what John Oman said on this subject: “Grace is grace precisely because, though wholly concerned with moral goodness, it does not at all depend on how moral we are.” You see, you and I will never be able to do anything to deserve God’s forgiving grace. As Philippians 3:9 says, “God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith-counting on CHRIST ALONE.”
Do you remember the nuclear submarine Kursk, the pride of the Russian navy a few years back? In 2000, there was huge explosion on board the Kursk. The seven ton vessel immediately took on water and plunged 350 feet to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Most of the 118 crew members died instantly. Others were left to spend their last hours in freezing, horrid conditions.
Well, like those sailors, we are helpless and hopeless, submerged not in water but in sin. We need to be lifted up, and we can’t do it on our own. Suppose one of the submerged sailors on the Kursk thought of a solution and said to his fellow crewmen, “I know what to do. Let’s all press with our hands on the ceiling and push. We will shove the sub to the surface.” Can you imagine the looks his fellow crew members would give him? Push a seven-ton vessel up through 350 feet of water? They’d say, “You don’t understand the gravity of the situation. We don’t’ have what it takes to save our lives. We aren’t strong enough. We aren’t big enough. We don’t need muscles; we need a miracle.”
Well in a similar way we were helpless to save ourselves. We needed a miracle and that’s what God gave us when He sent His Son.
The words to the old hymn come to mind.
“I was sinking deep in sin,
far from the peaceful shore.
Very deeply stained within,
sinking to rise no more.But the Master of the sea
heard my despairing cry,
rom the waters lifted me.
Now safe am I.Love lifted me. Love lifted me!
When nothing else could help,
Love lifted me…”
Now, maybe you are here today and are a Christian, looking for a church home and all this sounds pretty good to you. You want to be a part of a grace-driven church. Well, if God is driving you, compelling you, to join us in His work then come! We invite you to come forward and make this commitment today.
Or maybe this basic knowledge of grace motivates you to do other things. Perhaps it drives you to ask God’s forgiveness for some sin that you thought was too big for Him to forgive. Maybe it compels you to change the way you are responding to the sins of someone in your life, a friend or family member.
Perhaps our study has made you ashamed of the way you have been willfully disobeying God, maybe in His great Grace today He has sent His Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin.
Or maybe you are here today and God has used this study to draw you to Him. This has become a moment of truth as He graciously offers you the gift of salvation.
Won’t you admit your guilt and need and accept it today? As God’s grace motivates you, won’t you respond as we sing by coming forward and sharing your decision with me?