“The Case for Christ - The Supply and Depth of Grace”

Our text for this evening is found in both Isa 2:3 and Micah 4:2.

Both Isaiah and Micah prophesied of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in the last days, saying: ‘And many people(nations) shall go and say, ‘Come, ye, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’
(Isa 2:3; Micah 4:2)

What is one of the first lessons that every young Christian must learn? 

Look at what Paul charged Timothy, in 2 Tim 2:1, as he linked it with the young man’s ministry: ‘Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.’

What is it that every Christian - young and old alike - must continue in until the day of his death?

Again, Paul and his colleagues admonished his brethren to ‘...continue in the grace of God, to give testimony unto the word of His grace’ as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them. (Acts 13:43; 14:3; 1 Cor 1:3-8)

And Peter wrote, in 2 Pet 3:17-18: ‘...be on your guard, lest you be carried away by the error of the lawless and wicked persons, [and] fall from your own [present] firm condition [your own steadfastness of mind]. 

But grow in grace and knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.’

What matters in our spiritual lives is the partaking of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for optimum growth and continuance. This means being taught in His ways and walking in His paths, as our text for this evening says.

God does not leave any newborn believer in the dark and expect him to find his own way through spiritual life.

And, neither does He leave us to our own understanding and knowledge of Christ’s work in us for continuing on in Him.

Oh, no! His design is that we become spiritually minded - right from the very beginning of our salvation to the day of our death. That is the purpose of your salvation and of mine: to bring us to that hope of God’s glory through the work of His own Son.

It means ‘knowing Christ’ and operating in His wisdom and with His ability: that is the heavenly order, and it cannot be done except by ‘growing strong in the grace of Jesus Christ’, except by being immersed and saturated in and by His grace.

This is the primary feature for all Christian people, even though many do not always seem to be aware of it nor recognize its importance.

This is the divine, unchanged principle that gives stability, direction, and stimulation to the lifetime of spiritual growth. 
 
Most call ‘grace’ - ‘God’s unmerited favor’. However, it is not an easy word to define - there is none who can fully explain it.

Fundamentally, ‘grace’ means ‘that which causes joy’ - that which brings joy to the heart.

As an example of how miracuously and wonderfully it works, did you see the report of those two young Christian women who were rescued from the Taliban recently?

Their testimony of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was reported by the President. Listen to what he had to say: [Quote] ‘I talked to them right after their release, their freedom, and I sensed no bitterness in their voice, no fatigue, just joy.’ [Unquote] - ‘Just joy!’

‘Just joy!’ This was the confirmation of the testimony of the grace of Christ in these young lives!

We know, particularly as we look through Paul’s life, that grace outdistances even our greatest imaginations. It is a Gift - this, we know - a Gift of God that not one of us deserves - a Gift He freely and without measure grants to all.

It conveys God’s exceeding riches for ‘God raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come, [part of which is now,] He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.’ (Eph 2:6-7)

And, ‘Now, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father,...in His lovingkindness, gave us unfailing comfort and good hope and encouragement through grace that cannot fail...’. (2 Thess 2:16)

With that as the basis, when Paul told Timothy to ‘...grow strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’, he was giving this young man the best spiritual advice any one of us could get!

Why was he so firm about this to Timothy?

That start of ‘growing strong in the grace of Christ’, as a young believer, of continuing it throughout life, of operating by it down to the very last breath is where God is going. 

He keeps that goal in mind even though we sometimes forget it. And He leads us through experience after experience, giving us plenty of opportunities to grow in His grace. Why is He so faithful to do this?

It takes time, you know, for the proper adjustment to Him: to have our vision properly focused, to have our hearts stilled, to have our minds quieted!

We like to race the train along ourselves - “to engineer the engineer, as well as the engine!” - if we could!

But - God’s intention for us is to learn the art of ‘overcoming in the grace of Christ’ and to keep growing in it! That is that ‘hope of glory’ He has invested of Himself within the human heart.

What did Paul, Peter, and the others know about this grace of Christ?

They knew that this source of the supply of the grace of Christ would never give out - it would be ‘...according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon, which has overflowed, upon and into our lives, in a full stream of wisdom and insight.’

It was coming from a boundless, limitless wellspring of life.
Grace - grace that would always be sufficient, starting with a very young person’s life all the way through to death: its supply - constant, steady, always right there!

Oftentimes, we find ourselves in a situation similar to the case of the ship in the midst of deep waters.

The story goes - and I do not know the validity of this story but I use it only to illustrate this truth - but, the story goes that the ship had run out of its supply of water as it was sailing along. They were undersupplied for this voyage.

It put all those on board in danger of dying of thirst in spite of the water all around them.

When they were just about to give up hope, they sighted another ship in the distance and sent it a distress signal about their dilemma.

The answer came back: ‘Dip it up!’

That was a heartless, cruel response - to tell these dying, thirsty men to dip up buckets of salt water to drink!

Again, the captain sent out the distress signal, and again, the answer came back: ‘Dip it up!’ 

In despair, they lowered the bucket and much to their amazement - and their joy - the water proved to be fresh, living water.

It was not a miracle and it was not a mystery!

It was for real, for - although they had been traveling on the high seas, they had unknowingly sailed into the mouth of the Amazon River where the water flowing down into the sea was the fresh water they were asking for.

They were in the very center of their needed supply and all they had to do was to ‘dip it up!’.

Although, I hesitate to compare the supply of the grace of Christ in this way, yet it serves as an illustration of its full and ample supply - we only need to just ‘dip it up’ - to learn to appropriate it at once!

Is this not working for you? Take a good, long, hard look again and again - with your heart wide open before the Lord - at 1 Peter 5:5, along with James 4:6.

There you will see for yourself the necessary condition for the working of this grace. The source of grace is always right there but it is the ship that is out of line. I will leave this thought for you to investigate for yourself - let me repeat those Scriptures: 1 Peter 5:5, along with James 4:6.

Let us go on: just as the source of the supply is plentiful, so, the Christian can come with all freedom of speech unto the throne of His favor ‘...to receive mercy for our failures, and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Heb 4:16)

We sometimes use the expression of ‘in the nick of time’  for ‘help in time of need’. Yes, ‘in the nick of time’, we can find spiritual strength to help when needed. God’s favor, God’s kindness in Christ is there just when and where we need it.

Are you facing a temptation this moment? Look to Jesus right now and in His grace find Him responsive to help just ‘in the nick of time’.

Know this - once and for all - grace and sin in the same heart cannot co-exist. Call out for the grace of Christ in you to carry on and you immediately have deleted the power of sin that wants to keep a hold on you.

But, Christ - being grace and the life within - will never lose
His power in breaking the grip of sin. You see, it is linked hand in hand with the divine Presence and it cannot fail. So - give it a chance to grow! 

And - you will find it is like polishing metal. First, there is an opaque surface; soon, there is a little gleam; then, it starts to shine. That goes on until it sends back a perfect image of the sun that hits it!

It is this growing in the grace of God that will produce in you and in me that heavenly life that Christ is within.

If we are able to see this, can you see how - in this growth of the grace of Christ - how Christ, then, has His central place and how He is always in view?

This is working deeply within us, I know, but - remember - it is the Holy Spirit Who searches out the deep things of God in us. 

Are we all aware that we can remain so pathetically shallow and superficial that this growth in the grace of Jesus Christ is stymied?

This is what gives way to the condition given in the passage I read earlier from 2 Peter - to being swept away by those who are unstable and misconstrue the Scripture.

We dare not be like the little hospitalized boy who had come from a very poor home where his hunger was never satisfied. Everything had to be shared with his five brothers and sisters.

So, when the nurse brought him a nice, tall glass of milk filled to the brim to drink, he looked at it longingly. And, still thinking about having to share it with his siblings, he asked: ‘How deep do I drink?’

He was so accustomed to his old habit of knowing only a limited share that it never occured to him how much he could have of it.

Drink it all!’, the nurse told him. ‘Drink it all!’

Yes - there are times when we are too accustomed to our old ways and habits! We are absorbed in our problem and do not see the depth of the grace of Jesus Christ to which we can go.

But Christ is all grace in His being - and He has made an immeasurable provision to ‘live’ - to really ‘live’ in this world - in this world that surrounds us with blindness, with confusion, with condemnation, with guilt, with everything that Christ is not.

I pray we do not - for one moment - think we have reached the depth of His grace! Believe me, when I say: there are no bounds to it - drink it all, again and again and again! Drink it to the fullest!

‘...grow strong in the grace of Jesus Christ’. Drink it all - whenever a temptation crosses our paths, whenever the road gets rough, whenever all seems to be falling all around, whenever our patience is wearing thin - grow strong in the grace of Jesus Christ! - drink of it to its deepest depth!

Whenever we need special help, whenever the boss seems
so unreasonable, whenever we think our troubles will never end - whenever - whenever - ‘grow strong in His grace!’ 

We will find that the grace of Christ works so mightily - it will cause us to just stop - to just wait - to wait long enough for an adjustment to spiritual living. 

And - when we do - we can know we are being disentangled and extricated from the old - grace upon grace is causing us to grow. We are being matured in the things of the Holy Spirit! We are learning His ways, walking in His paths!

We are getting the thoughts of Christ deep into our hearts and deep into our minds. We are having our whole beings saturated in Him and by Him. The testimony of Christ is being confirmed in us!

So, “Come and let us go unto the mountain of the Lord...” 

Amen!

Let us pray: