“Kingdom of God: Divine Imprint of God’s Grace in Worship”

We continue tonight with our study on worship. I have titled this as the ‘Divine Imprint of God’s Grace in Worship’. 

Last week, we looked at Christ’s righteousness at work within in worship of Him.

This week, let us see it in the light of His grace. 

We all have probably often heard the very simplified definition of ‘grace’ as ‘God’s unmerited favor’.

And from this meaning, I fear we sometimes have the idea that grace is a commodity that falls from heaven - especially when we blunder - and, why grace falls upon us, we cannot answer.

But do we realize what His grace means in terms of living life righteously before the Lord that develops a heart of grace for worship of Him?

We will search some of the aspects of God’s grace in His Word, and as we do, I pray it will enlarge our concept of His grace. 

I hope we will be able - as least, as much as is possible - to see how important it is to let grace fully develop within so that the knowledge of Christ increases.

Our text for this is found in 2 Peter 3:18, and I refer to only the portion of that verse that says: ‘...But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Peter summarized the purpose of God’s grace operating in the heart of the believer.

Very briefly, he said that the operation of the grace Christ gives is coupled with growing in ‘knowing’ Christ.

That is, Peter was telling his readers to grow to know Christ by the effect and the force of His grace in them.

‘...for it is good for the heart to be established, ennobled, strengthened by means of grace’, the Hebrew writer wrote in Heb 13:9.

With those few introductory remarks in mind, let us go on.
   
The first mention of grace is found in Gen 6:8.

It says: ‘But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.’

The Lord judged Noah as an upright, sincere man, a man of great integrity and godly sincerity.

In Gen 7:1, the Lord also said to him: ‘come...for I have adjudged you, among all men of today, to be upright before Me.’ (Moffatt translation) 

That is, the Lord dignified Noah with His grace.

He was a pleasure to the Lord, for he was utilizing, applying God’s grace to his own heart.

And as he did, he was intuitively shunning the corruption of God’s ways and thoughts that was taking place in his generation.

And the grace that worked in him ended up benefiting all mankind.

The writer to the Hebrews, in Heb 11:7, points this out, by saying: ‘[Prompted] by faith, Noah, being forewarned by God concerning events of which, as yet, there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world’s unbelief and became heir and possessor of righteousness - that relation of being right into which God puts the person who has faith).

Noah did what was needed to prepare for the coming flood.

Building a vessel where there was no water, building one according to divine specifications, building it so that it would actually float, building it by himself, building it among people who were probably thinking he was a madman, building it large enough to accommodate his family and remnants of the animal kingdom - all of it was no easy task.

It probably took him years to organize and build it. 

But - how did he do it?

He did it by really believing God when God spoke the word to him about this. 

He seriously and sincerely counted on this divine revelation of God’s ways.

God’s grace was the reality, the fabric, that was imprinted upon his heart and gave him hope.

There were no visible signs yet to confirm what he was doing, but he was doing it all by faith.

And he did that as the natural outcome of the grace working in him, grace that ennobled and dignified him, grace that stabilized and strengthened him.

It was this exercise of his faith and the strength of grace in him that linked him to a Reality that none other could see at the moment.

The hideousness of corrupting God’s ways was underscored when God determined to rescue a remnant from rebellious humanity.

But the grace seen in God’s righteousness would replace the rebellion against it by the promise of His salvation in Christ.

This was God’s main purpose in exerting the power of His grace upon Noah.

See what He had to say to the prophet in Isa 54:9-10: ‘For this is like the days of Noah to Me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.

For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you.’     

It was because of the grace in Noah that God established an everlasting covenant which enriched all mankind forever.

The windows of God’s grace were kept wide open! His divine imprint of grace would go on.

He would bestow new life on the grounds of Christ’s substitutionary death and glorious, victorious resurrection.

Christ was the promise of an Omnipotent Reality.

Christ would be the supernatural source to continue life by extending grace to all who would receive it and let it reign in them, as Noah did.
 
The theologian, Carl Henry, wrote: ‘Christ came not only to inaugurate the kingdom of God in the flesh, not only to publish in His resurrection the fact that He will universally vindicate righteousness and finally punish evil, but also to penetrate and permeate every arena of human decision and life with His invincible claims.

...Even now, the church and the cosmos are ruled by Jesus Christ as the risen Head, Who brings liberation from human sin and divine judgment and Who, as the coming Judge, pronounces forgiveness as an historical actuality to all who repent and find new life in Him.’ 

And I continue: ‘That the God of justice is the God of justification, that the God of our salvation is the God of triumphant righteousness, that the judge who comes as king is the risen Jesus - all that is good news, only if we are in fact on the saving and speaking terms with the God of grace and glory.’ [End of quote]

Christ’s righteousness would prevail and His grace would exert its mighty power.

And with this process of the divine imprinting of grace upon the believer’s heart, there comes a divine revelation that adjusts the heart.

It fortifies it in the knowledge of Christ to a mastery over every sin.

See how Paul explained it in 1 Cor 15:10: ‘But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.’

And also in 2 Cor 1:12, where he wrote: ‘It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world(generally) and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).’

After Paul had rehearsed his ministry to the Corinthians, he spoke of how Christ had appeared to the others and last of all, to himself.

And - it was not that he deserved anything better nor extra.

It was only because of God Who knew how desperately the grace of Christ in him was needed to carry on.

He had persecuted the Christians unmercifully but the change they saw in him now was because grace kept turning his heart to the living Christ within.

Through it, he was mastering over the hold sin had had in himself, the effect it had in him, and, by grace, that holy influence upon his soul, he was coming to a greater understanding of Christ.

His conscience was witnessing and backing him up.

He knew that in godly honesty and singleness of mind, coming out from pure motives and in being sincere before God, his own ways were drastically changed.

He knew the change did not depend on any carnal knowledge he had, nor on the wisdom of the world, nor on human ingenuity.

But it was all by stabilizing grace that he could be upright
consistently.

He could do nothing more and nothing less than to live according to the measure of the grace he had.

And - as he did - he kept attaining to a greater measure of it.

When he embraced grace freely, by yielding to the righteousness of Christ, it everlastingly advanced him toward an increase of the knowledge of Christ.

It showed him that the ‘actuality’ of grace always has to precede the increase of it for ‘grace to be heaped upon grace’.

It stripped away all that was not the knowledge of Christ because grace actually touches eternal truth and it cannot do otherwise.

It is then that the living God is disclosing His own reality and purpose as the grace of Christ is doing its divine work. 

This is the integrity of divine grace in action!

You see - embracing God’s grace allows the Spirit of Christ to make His imprint in every part of our lives.

It affects our work, our school time, our recreational pursuits, our families and other relationships. 

Nothing is excluded. And, of course, it includes the worship times, as well.  

This kind of worship developed by the grace of God is from a lifestyle that pays attention to God’s revelation in Christ given to us in His Word.

In truth, it expresses love and devotion to the Lord in a living, actual, spiritual sacrifice unto Him.

It supplants thoughts centered on self. 

It opens the door to communion and divine revelation and shuts the door to the world altogether.

And it gives the Holy Spirit free access to nourish our spirit.

With that, we are worshipping in spirit and in truth!

So, when we really worship, we are dropping all other hindrances, problems, and blocks.

We are centering upon Christ.

Righteousness, then, breaks down the door of unrighteousness and grace imprints the heart with divine stability and dignity.  

Worship of God in this way is our checkpoint in keeping the course of faith straight and steady.

I sometimes think it must be disheartening to the Lord to see His people deliberately reject the privilege of receiving His grace as we worship Him. 

A contemporary theologian has said: ‘To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.’

It is only His grace in Christ that is able to do that within the believer’s heart.

Let me ask you: Are we yearning to develop more in the truth of Christ in us?

Or are we satisfied with what we already know and where we think we are in Him?

Worship of our Lord can be just an inspiring, emotional
display that quickly passes from our hearts and minds the moment the last song is sung.

I speak from a heart of experience when I say that kind of worship satisfies little for it is only provisional worship.

So - we are compelled to ask ourselves, does worship affect our will to obedience to the grace of Christ?

Does His righteousness guide and wield its end?

Is grace being heaped upon grace to ever-increasingly transform our hearts?

Jonathan Edwards, a preacher of earlier days, said: ‘Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected.’ 

The writer to the Hebrews wrote: ‘Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.’  

‘I urge you, brethren, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice...this is your spiritual act of worship.’ 

Are we truly willing to do that?

Remember, God sees pretense worship for what it is and says, ‘Give it up. I have something better for you!’   

He has for His people the distinguishing mark of His divine imprint of grace for each.

Oh - I pray - all will draw freely and ceaselessly from His righteousness and from His grace in worship - and in all of
life’s activities!

And as we do, the truth of this will link us with God’s Reality and purpose and we will be touching heaven each time we meet for worship together.

Amen. So be it!

Let us pray.