Walk in Grace Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. God's grace is not meant simply for our own personal pleasure.

He doesn't just give us grace for our salvation, but also so that we can walk with others in a Godward direction. As we are transformed by the truth of the gospel, we can genuinely invest in others, contributing to the health and growth of the body of Christ. Let's listen to Rich's message from Ephesians 4, 7-16 titled Walk in Grace, Part 1. You can open your Bibles to Ephesians 4. We're studying our exposition of the book of Ephesians. We're in the second half of the book now, chapters 4-6. The title for today is Walk in Grace, the riches of His grace.

We walk in grace. Chapters 1-3 are the truths, the indicatives, the truth about God, the truth about what He has done, the truth about who we are in Christ, having placed our faith in Him. All of those are truths. And then chapters 4-6 are the commands, what logically follows. If chapters 1-3 are true about you, then chapters 4-6 are what is a natural outflow of that.

And he begins chapter 4, Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And last time we considered what it meant to walk in unity, because there is one body, there is one body, there is one faith, there's one baptism, there's an inherent unity in the body of Christ, because we are all in Christ. We are brothers and sisters. And so we are to maintain the unity. We don't create it. We don't manufacture unity. We maintain the unity.

We ought to be eager about it, maintaining that unity. But today the theme is walking in grace. Grace is a term that is much misunderstood today.

A lot of people don't really know what it's talking about, particularly in an ungodly secular context. For a lot of people, grace is that 25 days that you don't have to pay your credit card bill, your grace period. So to them, the idea of grace is punishment withheld, right? Christian, that's not what grace is. Don't think about grace as God looking the other way. Don't think about grace as God just saying, oh, that's okay. When you mess up, grace is what God has lavished upon us, what God has given us, all the stuff that we don't deserve, and yet all of it that he has given us. Now, as we are talking about walking in grace today, we're not just talking about the grace for salvation. That's assumed here because the Apostle Paul is writing to believers. So the grace of which he speaks, walking in grace, is not about being saved or becoming saved, becoming converted and regenerate in Christ.

It's talking about walking in the grace, in the power, the equipping that God has lavished upon you. We'll talk about that a little bit more. Just a little bit of a warning here. I'm only going to make it halfway through the message, so we'll continue it next week.

So when I cut off halfway through the message and you say, I've only filled out half the notes and some of your brains start clicking, you'll know what's going on there. But this is a very rich passage of scripture. Let me give you the main thought for today, okay? And this is it.

Ready? Employ the outflow of your faith to invest in others for their Godward movement. Employ the outflow of your faith to invest in others for their Godward movement. That's the idea of walking in grace.

The outflow of your faith. Remember, chapters one to three, what's true about God, what's true about you in Christ. All that you have in Christ, that you have been redeemed and forgiven, that you have been set apart, that you are called, you are God's chosen people, that you have all the spiritual blessings in Christ, that you have the guarantee of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, you have access to God.

All these spiritual blessings that Christ has lavished upon you, the profusion of His goodness dumped out on you. Employ the outflow of that faith to invest in others for their Godward movement. That's what it means to walk in grace. That's the emphasis of what Paul speaks here in Ephesians 4 verses 7 through 16. Today we'll make it through verse 12.

Let me give, let me give you another way of putting that. Part of following Jesus is helping others follow Jesus. If you are a follower of Christ, you are indeed walking with Him, then a significant part of walking with Him is helping others walk with Him. Whether it's introducing them to Him for the first time or one who is walking with Him, you come alongside them as the you together are walking with Christ. That's discipleship.

That's what we're all about. Is that a part of your life, Christian? It ought to be. It ought to be. Either you are walking with somebody or somebody is walking with you.

That ought to be a normal part of your life. That's part of walking in grace. And the reason he says that, look with me at verse 7, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Grace was given to who? Each one of us. Every one of us has been given a particular measure of grace. Again, we're not talking about, this is not talking about becoming saved. That's assumed in this.

This is beyond that, after that. This is, as you are in Christ, a measure of grace has been given to each one of us. Every one of us.

No exceptions. If you are in Christ, this is true of you. So he says grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, and he quotes Psalm 68 here, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Here's the gospel in the Old Testament, right? He's quoting Psalm 68 18.

You ascended on high and led a host of captives in your train and received gifts among men, even among the rebellious. Now, you might have noticed something a little bit different there, because in the Old Testament, it says he's receiving gifts. In the New Testament, Paul says he gave gifts.

So what is Paul doing? Is he using apostolic authority to just quote scripture however he wants to? Is he editing scripture? Is he misquoting scripture? Are we going to give Paul a little latitude to say, well, you know, he probably didn't remember it exactly. Listen, every word of God is what?

Inspired. OK, the Holy Spirit directed him to say this. So here we go. What is he talking about?

Is there a disparity in scripture here? Here's what this is. Look at look at this in context. He led on high. He ascended on high and a host of captives, and he gave gifts among men. Verse nine saying he ascended. What does it mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things.

You know what this is? This is the gospel. This is the history. This is what Christ did. He was in full glory of deity in heaven.

And he was willing to set his glory aside, not his deity, but he was willing to set his glory aside. And he came into the lower parts of the earth. And it was war down here because John and the writer of Hebrews both tell us that he came to destroy the works of the devil.

And what is the works of the devil? It's separation. He is intent on separating you from God.

And Christ came to destroy that separation. So he entered into battle. He went to battle for your soul and mine. And then he emerged from the grave of victorious king. See, there's the gospel.

And we see the gospel then in the Old Testament. He received gifts and he gave gifts. So what is all that about? It's this.

Here it is. It's receiving and giving because we see this historically. And what happens when a king goes in to conquer a city, he comes out with all the spoils.

Does what does he do? Does he hoard all the spoils for himself? No, he gives them to his people.

And so he's receiving and giving gifts. And the conquering king receives and distributes the spoils of victory. What are the spoils of victory? Christ having emerged the victorious king from the grave after he did war for our souls. It is the authority and power to expand his kingdom, to grow his church and his people.

Those are the spoils. So the gift, what is the gift that he gives us? Remember, it says verse seven. Remember, this is a key verse. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. So if grace has been given to me, I need to walk in grace. In other words, God has lavished gifts upon me and I need to employ the outflow of my faith to invest in others for their God work movement.

It's true of me and it's true of you. It's true of every one of us in Christ. Now, what is that gift? The gift is the grace of God. Now remember, it is not just something that he withholds from us. Grace is something that is given. And what is it that God has given us?

One thing that puts it all in a nutshell is this. He's given us himself. He's given us himself. He's given us himself. He's revealed himself to us. He gave us his son. Now he's given us his spirit. He's given us himself all this grace that God has lavished upon us.

I remember a song that was sung back in the seventies. He gave himself the day he wore my crown. God invested himself in you and me for our victory, for our salvation, but also to grow his church, to expand his kingdom, as it was said this morning. So let's talk about this specifically, this grace gift that is given.

What is it? It's the communication of his self-disclosure. It's a part of it, a significant part of it, because what does he say here? Look, and he gave the apostles, prophets, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers.

What are those gifts? Every one of those have to do with the communication of God's self- disclosure, the communication of God's self-disclosure. To each one of us, grace was given. This is, again, it's not about salvation, but it's for walking worthy.

That's the original command here, isn't it? Walk worthy of the calling with which you've been called, according to the grace that God has given you. The grace that God has given you is the equipping that he's given you to walk worthy, according to the calling with which you've been called. In other words, to function according to design. God says, I want you to function according to design.

Now, here is my ability that I'm giving you to function according to design. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.