Let’s Enjoy the Abundant Grace of Christ (Romans 6:1-14)
Our walk of faith is to enjoy the abundant grace of Christ, this word grace is something that God has given to us. By God’s grace we received faith, what happens if we do not have grace? Our life because of the law is pressed by sin and death. God gave us grace by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us, and the first thing we must understand to enjoy the grace is to understand the gospel. If you keep talking about the life style before you abundantly understand the gospel, then your going to fall out of grace and fall into the law. This is not about haphazardly understanding the gospel, but truly and thoroughly understanding the gospel. If you don’t thoroughly understand the gospel, you will live a life under the law. If you understand the life thoroughly, you will live a life of grace.
The standard of the law is “me,” whether I’m able to keep the law or not, but the standard of grace is Jesus Christ. So, new believers must understand the law of grace by Jesus Christ abundantly to have a life of grace When people say they received grace through the Word, it’s all based on their own standard. But people who are very legalistic will say they have received grace when it touches their lifestyle a lot, so they have their own standard of whether they’ve received grace or not from the point of view of where they had not even understood the gospel. We must know how to enjoy the abundant grace of God and to enjoy it as well.
1.The foundation of enjoying abundant grace (Romans 6:1-14)
(1)What happens to you when you become a Christian? You are called as an apostle to spread the Gospel
The scripture passage we read just now, Romans 6:1-14, has to be the foundation for us to enjoy abundant grace.
(2)The basis of enjoying abundant grace grace (v. 3, 5, 6)
Shall we look at verse 5 and 6? There’s an incident that takes place when you become a Christian and what is that? It is the incident of the death and resurrection, and that must be aligned with me. In other words, in Romans 6:5, it says we have been united with Him in a death like His, so Jesus Christ’s death must be united with my death, and we will certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
Romans 6:6 says, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him,” which means that our old self of sin was crucified. Who was that old self? It was a life that lived as a slave to sin, in other words, my previous self, where I was a slave to Satan. What is that? It is talking about my former person when I was centered on myself, separated from God. Of course, because I’m separated from God, I have to protect myself and have no choice but to be centered on myself, asserting my own things, and making my own success as my goal. All the things of my old self belong to the “me” that was a slave to sin and Satan.
But now, being united with the resurrection of Jesus Christ makes me into a new person, so instead of being a slave to sin, I’m a slave to righteousness. I’m living a new life where Christ is my center. We know this all with our minds, and if anyone hears this once, they just understand it, but you just know it with your brain. But we need to keep changing our actual lives to live a life like this, and that’s what we call grace. This is not by our diligence or effort, but by God’s grace, my life becomes a new life, being united with His death and resurrection.
(3)To whom should one become a servant? (Romans 6:16)
Now, whose servant have we become? Romans 6:16 says, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourself to someone else as an obedient slaves, you are slaves that when you obey, when you obey sin that leads to death,” in other words, if you’re in a state when you’re centered on yourself, that is a state of death. But if you are a slave to obedience, that means you’re a slave to Jesus Christ, and that means you’re a slave to righteousness. So, there’s only two options: are you going to follow after the words of Jesus Christ or not? If we are living as slaves to righteousness, it means we are living within His word, and his grace.
(4)The natural efforts (v. 12-13)
Let us look at Romans 6:12-13, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you won’t obey his evil desires,” so that sin will lead you to death. Sin, which is not of God’s Word, cannot control you. He is telling you not to live a life of physical thoughts and desires, then what will happen? If you live like that, Ephesians 2 says you will have no choice but to live lives that are by nature objects of wrath. Romans 6:13 says, “Do not offer yourself to wickedness.” Wickedness is the opposite of righteousness. Jesus Christ is righteous, so do not offer any part of your self to sin as a instrument of wickedness which is the opposite of Jesus Christ, but instead offer yourself to God as you have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourselves to Him as an instrument of righteousness.”
Every part of yourself includes your thoughts, mind, and everything about you. An Instrument of righteousness is an instrument of Jesus Christ, and give yourself to Jesus Christ and as an instrument to save lives. In other words, you live your life as an instrument of righteousness where you’re giving yourself to God. It is a battle between giving yourself to God or living by yourself, for yourself. If you’re living for yourself, you will face unwelcome things like fear and anxiety. Giving yourself up to God in itself is grace.
This is the foundation to enjoy grace, and the Word of God must become your foundation in this way. If this is not your foundation, you will continue to misunderstand, thinking that your diligence is grace. It’s always about me, everything is controlling yourself including your thoughts and your heart. My things, you’ll always be fighting between your things and God’s things. You’re gonna fight so that your things won’t get stolen away, but just give it all to God. How do I give it all to God? If it’s all stolen away, I’ll fail, but that is why I must stand on the foundation of grace.
If you think you will fail by giving everything to God, that’s not faith; you believe in demons. Why do you keep fighting, why do you keep fighting with people? That’s for your things and your thoughts because that’s what’s important to you. The Word of God is not your standard; your things are your standard. How do you not fight? Can you not fight if you just try to not fight? Fighting will only end when you go back to the Word of God. So, especially new believers, they must have this sure foundation of faith from the beginning, but if they don’t teach this to new believers. The more they live they live their walk of faith the more they are centered on themselves because they think this is the gospel.
My things and my position are all for my success, so I cannot escape from what is called “Myself,” they even believe in God and Jesus Christ for themselves, they’re still centered on “me,” so their basics and foundation of fundamentals of faith are not taking place. You have to be able to confirm within them with faith and give them the foundation of faith. There is no such thing as “yours” anymore because you’ve died on the cross. Because you’ve died on the cross but you keep trying to resuscitate yourself, that’s darkness.
You’re already in the state of death, but you have to think of them very pitifully and sad, but because you don’t see that, you fight with them you keep getting into conflicts so both of you fall. That’s what Satan desires. How do you not fight, then? You have to go quickly into the gospel of God, and to do that, you have to let go of your things. In order to do that, you’ll have to get a loss, because you get into fights because you don’t have a loss, just because you have a loss doesn’t mean it’s an actual loss, but you hold onto God and His Word, so depending on how well you’re able to do that, your walk of faith will change.
People will always be anxious if they think they won’t get their success and position so they don’t have the foundation of the gospel. Even now, are you anxious? Why are kids anxious about the future? It’s because they’re afraid they won’t be able to succeed. It’s very important to have the foundation of the gospel. Within this foundation, you have to experience abundant grace.
2.Experiencing abundant grace (Psalms 37:1-9)
How do we experience this grace? Let us share the Word from Psalm 37.
(1)What should you do about spiritual enemies and complaints? (v. 1), and why (v. 2)?
How can you fight against spiritual enemies and complaints? Psalm 37:1 says, “Do not fret because of those who do evil or be envious of those who do wrong,” why? In Psalm 37:2, “For like grass, they will soon wither; like green plants, they will soon die away.” What does this mean? It means that God will take care of them, do not be jealous or be complaining about them, and the reason He is saying this is because it would be fine if everyone was righteous, but not everyone is, so that’s why we fall. We have to experience God’s grace, and it’s during these times that we must believe in God because God will take care of everything. “Trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and enjoy a safe pasture,” trust and rely on the LORD and do good, this means to go into the direction of saving people’s lives.
(2)Attitude towards the Lord (v. 3), and why (v. 4)
Psalm 37:4. Why do we need to do this? Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires in your heart, meaning He will give us the desire in our hearts. Imagine how religious the person must be, thinking selfishly that we will fulfill His desires. Some religious and shamanistic people will say if you bow down to a bowl of water, rubbing your hands together, they’ll give you the desires of your heart, but what this actually means is that He will give his desires into the heart.
God doesn’t fulfill according to our desires, but God fulfills everything according to his desires. There’s no need to fulfill our desires because God’s will is much greater than ours and God’s desires are more greater, wider, and much more excellent; therefore, delight yourself in the Word and He will give you the desires of your heart. So, the more you live your walk of faith, you must have the Word of God.
(3)Attitude towards the future (v. 5), and why (v.6)
As the Holy Spirit continues to dwell within us, He gives us the desire for more and more of God’s word in your heart therefore, delight in the Lord. Then, how will you die in the future Psalms 37:5 says, “Commit your ways to the Lord, trust in him. And He will do this.” So this is telling us how we need to experience God’s great grace first is not to be anxious or envious toward the evil one. Our attitude towards the Lord must be to delighted the Lord then he will put his desires into our hearts. What about our future? You give it all to the Lord. Commit your life to the Lord. These children are so seized with their futures, and honestly speaking, it’s not that these children don’t know what to do in the future, they don’t believe in God regarding their future. If they believe in God regarding their future, then they won’t need to worry so much about their major or job will be
It’s the same for church officers, “Oh we’re living in this age of a pandemic what’s going to happen in the future?” that person is pretty much saying that God doesn’t exist in the future,and honestly speaking they are saying that God doesn’t exist right now either, but I’m sure they received salvation, but they have never experienced God’s grace, by experience I don’t mean that your seeing something come and go with your eyes, but as you look at a strange person, you experience God’s grace. Experiencing God’s grace means that if you look up to the Lord and delight in the Lord , He gives us his desires, it means that when we commit our future up to the Lord, He will guide us in our proceedings.
(4)Attitude towards evildoers (v. 7-9), and why (v.10)
And Psalm 37:7-9 talks about our attitudes regarding evil doers but still be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him do not frequent people when they succeed in their ways and schemes refrain from anger and turn from wrath do not fret it only leads to evil, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. This is our attitude of eating. People who are legalistic, they have to act on something. When they look at something wrong they can’t handle it. They must stand at the forefront fighting them down with their justice, then the only thing that takes place is fighting. That is saying that I am my own god of my life. Wait and stop being mad and do not complain. If anything, that will only create more evil. If anything, from your reaction to that evil, you’re creating more evil. Give it to the Lord, it means you pray for them. I think this is very important, because people do not have a religion so they can harm others, but they chose a religion so they can try to cleanse and purify their hearts. But if you choose a religion with that kind of motive and see someone else that is acting strange or unrighteously, then it is possible that you might collapse or you might fight them. What are you supposed to do in such situations? If you’re able to see and understand the spiritual state they are living in, you have no choice but to pray for this person, if it is something that you can change with words, you can tell them about it. If they do it a few times, you can tell them a few times gracefully but it’s not that. You have to know their spiritual state for them to wait, and you’ll be able to pray for that person. That’s how you experience God’s grace, but there are a lot of conflicts because of things like that. That’s most people. And materialistic things as well, “my things,” You volunteer in the church so you can get more of your things, but you do not get it, so you’re tested.
So, honestly being able to start not with the motives of me but with the Gospel is a great blessing, so we begin everything with God’s grace but you need to be confirming this constantly. If I don’t confirm this constantly I will automatically go back to my “me-centeredness.” No matter what, you’ll be looking for a reason that is for yourself and you’ll even work towards world evangelization if you see how it could benefit yourself. You are not standing on the foundation of legalism, and if you’re standing on the side of law, your foundations will be on actions and behavior so you’ll end up hurting people. That’s why the grace of the gospel is so great, we call it the one of the Gospel, because it’s not just something you know with your brain as knowledge, it’s the color of the gospel.
Some people say the words of the gospel, but everything they portray with their lives is not the color of the gospel, or the atmosphere of the gospel. The first person who knows this are the kids in your house, because it’s true the words you say are the word of the gospel but almost everything that comes out of your mouth is legalism to kill them, and you just oppress them with the words of the gospel, so these kids are just dying; they’re so confused. Because for sure, they speak the words of the gospel but it’s so oppressive I can’t even breathe so these kids get confused, and they don’t want to hear the gospel because “My parents said the word of the gospel and they used it to oppress and kill me.”
Its’ because we keep talking about the lifestyle without practically understanding the gospel. Even non believers talk about life, “Live a clean life, live diligently, do not hurt others.” They always talk about life. But if you don’t understand the gospel, then even when you talk about the gospel you end up talking about the lifestyle.
It must be a lifestyle that comes from having a plentiful abundantly understanding the gospel. So if a new believer understands the gospel a little bit then you start talking about the lifestyle, they will not change.
If a person who relays the message is not plentifully and abundantly enjoying the gospel, even if they say the correct words, they are suffocating because it’s not coming from life. Because it’s coming from myself instead of grace and life, it feels very oppressive and suffocating and it feels very judgemental so later on, they will end up exploding, and even if they’re not exploding now, one day they will, they’ll say “Forget about this” and they run away from home. Because even in the schools, if the teachers are too oppressive or severe with the kids, they’ll stop growing the kids have nowhere to go because whether they’re at home or at school, they hear the same things, they say to live a diligent life, and it’s not wrong, but if it’s not from the gospel, these kids are going to go crazy.
Where are these kids going to go? They’re going crazy; you’re just torturing these kids. But these individuals don’t recognize if they’re speaking from the gospel or the law. Then they talk about the lifestyle, about the law, and success stories and feel life from this but it’s all this. They really emphasize the successful life. That’s so stupid; you can listen to that from a Harvard professor; you don’t have to come to church for that. It’s better to listen to a successful Harvard professor, why do you come to the pastor for that, but that’s our nature.
We have the lifestyle and nature where we do not begin from the gospel, we are starting from out self centeredness so we keep on checking ourselves in our field.
Psalm 37:10. “In a little while, the wicked will be no more though you will look for them, they will not be found.” so there is no need for you to be uncomfortable or try to struggle against them. If you do that, you’re fanning the flames and make it even worse.
3.What you always need to have in order to maintain abundant grace (1 Thessalonians 5:12-22)
(1)Peace, love, respect (v. 12-13)
He tells us to live in peace with those who are leaders in God’s work, who work hard among us, and give us spiritual guidance; show them great respect and wholehearted love. It is talking about the servants of the Lord who are doing the ministry of the Word, and you need to respect and be at peace with those in the church who are doing the work of God. I don’t see this a lot in our church, but while I was in Korea, there was a church that treated their female assistant pastors as slaves. What’s the basis for that? People said, “You only get a salary because I pay my offering,” so they say whatever they want to them. Even though the assistant pastors are older than they are, they say whatever they want and speak very rudely, and I think it’s not right, because they think, “I’m feeding you and helping you survive with my offering, but where did the offering come from? That’s what they do in the world.
But the Bible tells us that these are the servants of the Lord who are devoting themselves to pray for you in tears and devoting themselves to the ministry of the Word, and I don’t understand people who treat them however they want, to treat them as servants to do whatever they say. They call the assistant pastors up and call them to run errands for them, and I don’t understand. “Come pick me up in your car,” as how masters are treating their slaves, and if the assistant pastors don’t do that, they get upset, offended, and they curse them and say bad things about them, and I realize that was bad education. From my perspective, it’s like a child who curses at their parents, “You guys are happy because of my existence; you have me, so you have to do what I say“ but from the beginning, that is the incorrect thoughts of the child. I have seen this a lot among my unbeliever friends, and from a young age, I realized that it was very strange for young kids to be speaking like that to their parents.
It’s the same in the church, you don’t become a servant of the Lord because you want to, but all these people had a professional life just like you, but you guys were not called as servants of the Lord and evangelists are called as servants of the Lord. Because they’ve been called specifically not to live a professional life, making money, but to devote their lives to the ministry and the Word movement, you must consider them very preciously. Other elders threatened and abused assistant pastors, “Next year I will fire you if I don’t like what you’re doing this year,” but I have not seen one of those elders succeed because that is going against God’s word.
But if you look at church officers who do succeed, they consider the servants of the Lord very precious. This isn’t talking about respecting people because they’re people, but respecting the fact that they are doing the work of the Lord, you have to see what is truly precious, and it’s all in the Bible.
Especially for people who went to a general Christian church for a long time, you have to know this well. Especially elders from outside churches, what do you learn? They always learn about fighting for your position, and that’s talking about how much they can spread their sphere of influence. They will all fail; there’s not a single example of one of these that was blessed by God, but if you don’t understand what’s right, you’ll understand that this is what the elder must do. It’s the same for the pastor, there are pastors who believe that the churches belong to them, they do whatever they want with the money in church, and even that pastor will fail because they must do things according to God’s will because the church belongs to God, not them; it means they have to be able to regard what is precious as precious. The members of the church must also see what is precious as precious, but if the pastor is using that as their own benefit, they’ve already failed. Where does this all start? It’s because they’re not starting from the foundation of grace. It means the beginning of their education was wrong. They took everything they learned from the world and bring it into the church, thinking it was right according to the world.
1 Thessalonians 5:13. Even among congregation members, you must consider each other very precious. If somebody does intercessory prayer, you have to think about them very preciously, especially if they’re coming to do Early Morning prayer service, they always do intercessory prayer, so think of them as precious. You have to think that, by their prayers, you’re surviving in the world that day, and that’s the position of the church officers. You’re in a position where you’re saving the church and other people. But what happens if you’re in that kind of position where you should be doing that, but instead, you’re trying to receive prayers from new believers?
It’s the same as an older brother stealing from their younger brother. You need to be mature and think of these people as very precious. There are sometimes where God makes people pray for others after making them completely fail, because God’s standard is not whether your business does well or not, because if your business does well but you go in the direction of evil, that is more wicked. If anything, the hand of God makes your business fail so that you have no choice but to pray for one another in the church.
(2)Joy (v. 16)
(3)Prayer (v. 17)
(4)Thanksgiving and it’s reason (v. 18)
(5)Guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word (prophecies) (v. 19-20)
2 Thessalonians 5:14-20. So these are the things we must always be doing. You need to have some kind of action or behavior where you see those who are serving the church with the Word of God and prayer as precious. Even among the members of the church, there are those who are praying for one another, and for those people, you must think of them very respectfully and as precious, and be at peace with them. Always be joyful and pray continuously, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is GOd’ will for you who belong to Jesus Christ, and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
The first step to enjoy the abundant grace of Christ is to have the foundation of the gospel. You have to enjoy your life as a new creation that has been united in the resurrection of Christ. It doesn’t matter how great, renowned, or correct your words may be; you have to hold onto the correct words of God; your thoughts are only good and correct from your perspective. The 10 spies who went into the land of Canaan said words that were true and good from their perspective. They were going to die if they went in; they were saying those words to protect their family because if they went into the land of Canaan, their family would die, but are those words correct? You have to hold onto God’s Word, but that’s our misconception. We say, “That is correct,” but nobody told you to be correct; they told you to hold onto God’s Word.
Unbelievers live a correct life, but will they be okay if they don’t have the Word of God? But we’re easily deceived by that. If something looks wrong, it’s easy to decipher that, but if your thoughts are correct, good, and upright, it’s hard for you to discern, even if you have the Word of God. Everybody is different, so you have to think about this for yourself and realize something, if you don’t do that, you’ll do what’s correct for you and stab others with it, because it’s not about what’s correct; that’s the weapon of Satan, but you will endure and stubbornly hold onto your thoughts, thinking it’s correct, and that’s what it means to be seized.
Sometimes, Satan comes in a vulgar form, but usually he appears to us an angel of light so we cannot discern who he is. I’m talking about myself right now, it’s very easy for me to deceive myself, that’s why no matter what, I have to be united with Christ, the Word and the life of Christ, and the Word of the covenant as my standard. There’s nothing complicated; the goal of life is to have life and to save others.
No reason to hold onto anything so complicatedly; just hold onto the Word from Sunday and go all week with it, because there are so many words that sound so good and correct that aren’t the Word of God, but that is why we all fall over.
2. Experiencing abundant grace
Especially towards evildoers.
3. The things we must always do
These are things regarding God, other people, and myself. These are the things we must do. When we think of doing something, we think of actions, but it’s actually about being joyful, continuously praying, and being thankful in all circumstances. For the people who are always praying, God will create more relationships for them so they’ll have more to pray about, just as students who are close to their teachers will start enjoying their studies more and do it better, but the more students avoid being with their teachers, the more they are disinterested in their studies.
Whether it’s with a teacher or minister in the church, you must be close with them because if the kids are not close to the teachers and ministers, they will be close to kids who are on their own level. This is one method for us to receive God’s grace.
We have received God’s Word today, but so what if we’ve received it? What’s really important is whether the Word of God really comes into us and how much of it is really melting into the hidden aspects of myself? I hope you will apply just one of these things. Don’t be greedy, just hold onto one thing you received today and apply it before Sunday. Anything you don’t put into practice is just with your knowledge, stacking up in your brain. Let us pray together.