The Riches of the Grace of God - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, March 21.

If you have drifted away from God, today you'll hear about the incredible love, mercy, and grace of God, and how He can restore you no matter where your choices have taken you. Would you like to be rich? What would you have to have in your life in order for you to feel rich?

How much of it would you have to have? How much of whatever you want would you have to have in order to feel rich? Well, you know, one of the interesting things is that many people who really and truly believe they are rich really aren't. And many people who feel that they're poor or would say, I'm certainly far from being rich, really are. And the truth is both groups are very misinformed for the simple reason they don't understand what true riches are all about.

Think about this. Can a person honestly say, I'm rich if what they have produces no peace, no joy, no contentment, no assurance in their life, no eternal security? How can you have enough of anything without peace, joy, contentment, and a sense of eternal security in your life? How can you call that rich? And on the other hand, people who have all of that look around them and say, well, but you know, I wish I had this and I wish I had that.

You know what's happening? You're focusing on what you don't have and forgetting the awesome treasure you do have. And the result is you miss out on the blessings of God. God is a good God. He's a loving God.

He's provided the very best for His children. And oftentimes we just walk right by it, live every day complaining about what we don't have and not recognizing what we do have. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. I want us to read the first eight verses here and look at many other verses. And I want to encourage you to have a pad and a pencil because you'll wish you remembered a lot of what I'm going to say in this message. You hit some difficult time.

You feel a little depressed or down and you're thinking about what you don't have and you get down in the dumps. If you'll take notes on this message and keep them close by, once you get one of those feelings, just pull them out and begin to look and realize what God says is the truth. Because what I want to do in this message is to tell you what God says.

I'm not giving you my opinion. I'm simply saying here's what God says is true about His children. So beginning in verse one of Ephesians chapter one. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him that is in Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us.

Think about that. He says the riches of His grace He lavished upon us. Now what is His grace? His grace is His goodness and kindness given to us in spite of what we deserve and without any merit on our own. That is, it is His favor, His unmerited favor toward us.

And the truth is every single thing that comes our way is an expression of the grace of God. And so when Paul speaks of the grace of God here, he also, if you'll notice what he said in this passage, he said that He freely bestows His grace upon us. And again, he mentions speaking of the grace of God and the riches of His grace. He talks about it in verse seven of the second chapter. He says, so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That is, when he says the surpassing riches of His grace, the grace of God, so full of the riches of God toward His children, he said surpassing riches. We can't even begin to describe what God has prepared for His children.

And if you'll notice what he says in this third verse of chapter one, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has that already in the past has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So what in the world is he talking about? Well, that's what I want to talk about in this message. And that is the riches of the grace of God. And what I want you to see here is the characteristics. First of all, what are the characteristics? What are the riches of the grace of God all about?

I want to talk about what they are in a few moments, but I want to talk about the characteristics of them. And that is when you begin to think about what is this all about? Well, the riches of God's grace are bestowed upon us by God and by God alone, because no one could possibly bestow upon us such riches but God. First of all, nobody else would be capable of it.

No one else would have the privilege of doing so, and no one else would know how to do it. So that all the riches of God's grace, which means all the good things that come our way, are the result of an expression of a loving heavenly Father who loves us unconditionally. So all of these riches come from Almighty God.

Second, they're given freely. Listen to what He says. He says, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us and the beloved. Now, what does He mean by that? Simply this, that He doesn't just dole them out a little bit at a time, but He gives them out of a heart of love.

A generous heart of love, God pours out His goodness and His kindness upon us. He says they're freely given. And so He pours it out lavishly.

Likewise, when I think about it, I think about it in this light. That is, He says He gives it instantaneously. For example, when God pours out His riches upon His children, here's what He does. He pours out His riches upon us the moment we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. That is, He's not the kind of God who says, all right, now that you've been saved, I'm going to watch how you live. And I'm going to give you a little bit here, a little bit over here, a little bit over here. And finally, you're going to get the riches of my grace.

That's not the way He operates. He says He has blessed us already, past tense. Blessed us, listen, with His blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. How much of His blessing?

All of it. That is, when you trust that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior, He deposited to your account by your name all the riches of the grace that He intends to bestow upon you. There it is in your account. Somebody says, well, I don't seem to be getting much out of my account. Well, maybe you don't know it's there.

Number one and number two, maybe you don't know how to get it. And much of you are doubting and complaining and moaning and groaning while God has you sitting upon this awesome sense of wealth. And what you've done is you've focused on what you don't have in the world's material possessions, rather than on what God has given you of spiritual blessings that cannot be compared to what the world has to offer, for the simple reason they supersede them in ways you and I cannot begin to understand.

So they come instantaneously, all of it at one time. The way we draw from it is by our faith. Likewise, it's given by the merit of Christ alone. That is, there is no reason for God to bless you and me the way He does, except that because He sent His only begotten Son, because He laid down His life at Calvary, because He paid our sin debt in full, and because, listen, He has made it possible for us to become His children. God has made it possible for us to have every single thing we need in life according to His wisdom of what we need, and the desires of our life that fit His will for our life. He has made it all possible through the grace of God, listen, which comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because think about this, grace is the goodness and the graciousness, the kindness of God, taught us in spite of the fact that we don't merit, that we don't deserve it, and in spite of the fact, listen, we'll never be able to. And so what He's given us, He's given us through Christ. That is, Jesus paid the price.

He made it possible for God the Father to keep His own commandments that all sin should be punished by giving His Son. His Son took our place, paid our price in full. Therefore, every single person who receives Jesus Christ as their personal Savior becomes a child of God, and the blessings of God rest upon us, not because we deserve it. There'll never be a time in your life in mind when we'll deserve the goodness and the riches of God's grace.

They come how? They come through the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. When I think about that, I think also the fact that when He gives them, He gives them, listen, not only through the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, but He gives them, listen, their eternal blessings.

And I'm going to mention them in just a moment. I want you to realize that every single one of them is eternal. God doesn't give something to snatch it back and give it and snatch it back.

What I want you to see is this. We're talking about a loving, righteous, holy God. While He is just, righteous, and holy, He's full of goodness, love, and mercy, and it's all wrapped up in the word of grace.

His unmerited, divine, overwhelming, listen, lavished grace, goodness, love, and mercy upon His children. That's the will of God. That's the plan of God. That's the desire of God for all of His children. Somebody says, well, why are we in need?

That's a good question. If God is so good, why don't I have this, that, and the other? Well, maybe, listen carefully, maybe if you got your focus on the Father who is the giver rather than the gift itself, just maybe if you made your priorities what they ought to be, that is your focus should be upon the Lord Jesus Christ in your life instead of just what He can give you in life, you'd be absolutely overwhelmed at the awesome things God would do in your life.

Because listen, God loves you no matter who you are. He has the best plan available no matter who you are. You say, but I've made such a mess of my life.

Not one so big He can't correct. You've never done a thing He can't forgive. And you know what? Until you die, there's still time to start anew. There's still time to be born again.

There's still time to take a different path in your life. This is the goodness and the love and the mercy and the grace of God. Why do you think He put the story of the prodigal son in the Bible? To remind us that when we stray away from Him, He's there to take us back, to forgive us, to cleanse us and to give us a new beginning. You see, don't put God where He is not.

He is not just the judge. He's this awesome holy righteous God who loves you unconditionally. Now I want to prove it because I want to talk about the riches of His grace.

We said, here are the characteristics of them. But what are those riches of His grace? What is it that you possess as a child of God? Now when I begin, you're probably going to say, well now, that may be true of some people.

No, this is true. What I want to talk about is true of every single person who has ever trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. This is what God has planned, prepared and listen, has deposited to your account.

All of these things are true in behalf of every single believer. That's the riches of His grace. And you say, well, what is that?

Well, number one, here's what it is. First of all, God has included you in His plan. You say, what do you mean by that? One of the riches of His grace is this. We're included in His plan. He created you to save you and to make you one of His children. He's included you in His plan.

One of the riches of the grace of God is you're not a stranger to God. You're in His plan. He has a plan for your life. No matter who you are, what's your circumstance, God's got a plan for your life.

Whether you're in the plan or out of the plan, that's according to how you live. But the truth is, the riches of His grace is that He has planned your life. The second thing is this, that He has redeemed us.

What does that mean? One of the riches of His grace is this, that you and I live as redeemed children of God. That simply means that God the Father sent His only begotten Son to the cross and the reason He went, watch this carefully, the reason He went was to redeem us, which means this, that Jesus paid a price that you and I may be made acceptable in the eyes of God. Jesus took your place and my place, died in our place, and now you and I are the redeemed children of God. And this is what He speaks of here when He speaks of the fact of redemption. In Him, that is in Christ, we have redemption through His blood. So we're the redeemed children of God, part of our riches. Likewise, the Scripture says in Romans chapter 5 verse 1, He says therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through His Son Jesus Christ.

What's justification? One of the riches of the grace of God is that, listen, watch this, God reached down into your life and my life when we have sinned against Him, disobeyed against Him and here's what He did. Upon our acceptance of His Son Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, He declared, you and me justified. Does that mean we were not guilty?

No, it means we were guilty. How could a righteous holy God declare, not guilty, those of us who are guilty? Because His Son paid the price and listen, when He died, He was buried, listen, crucified, buried, rose again into the presence of the Heavenly Father. The resurrection is our proof that God the Father accepted the death of His Son, listen, as the adequate payment for our sin. Therefore, because He accepted that, Jesus died on our behalf.

Now what? We can come to Him. He calls us to Him. We get convicted.

We trust Him as our personal Savior. He declares us no longer guilty. That means, watch this, that means He pardons you of all guilt, past, present, future for all time. You are pardoned from all of your sin. You say, but suppose I sin again. You sin again. We confess that. We repent of it. What gets me forgiven? Is it my confession?

No. What gets you forgiven is the fact that Jesus died for your sin. He paid the price. Therefore, the Father can forgive you of your sin as you and I grow in the Christian life.

All of us come in this world. He doesn't call us adults. He says, my little children, these things are right unto you that you sin not. If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He's the one who sits at the Father's right hand. Listen, He is the eternal reminder that He paid the price for our sins and therefore, we confess our sin and repent of them to keep our fellowship right. We are forever pardoned as the children of God.

That is one of the riches of the grace of God. Who could forgive us? Who could redeem us? Who could justify us? Who could pardon us?

Only God can do that. Every single believer has the riches of being justified. Another one of those riches He speaks of in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is the riches, for example, of being reconciled. Well, what in the world does reconciliation mean?

Here's what He says. Therefore, He says, if any man is in Christ or anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away.

Behold, new things have come to pass. In verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 says, now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. What does it mean to be reconciled? It means this, that God the Father, seeing us in our sinfulness, did what?

Because, listen, He loved us, He called us, and what did He do? He reached out and to be reconciled means to be brought back into a right relationship with Him. One of the treasures, one, listen, one of the riches of the grace of God is that you and I can, listen, we have a personal relationship with Almighty God. Now, there are other people in life that you'd like to have a relationship with or you have a relationship with your wife or your children or your friends or whoever it might be, but the richest relationship you and I can have is the relationship with God the Father, who is available to us every single moment of every single day, available to hear our cry, hear our plea, and hear our needs and our desires in our life. One of the riches is that you and I have this awesome privilege of having this relationship with Him.

He says we have been reconciled to Him, brought back into the intimate relationship. Then think about also the fact, one of the riches of His grace is this, that we can live every single day knowing that we are His forgiven children and that no matter what happens in our life, we don't have to merit forgiveness. What I want you to see is one of the riches of God's grace is this. Forgiveness is already provided. The reason God wants confession and repentance is in order to keep us in a right fellowship with Him. He doesn't want us out of His path. He doesn't want us out of His will.

Why? Because out of His will, listen, we're not able to reap the best of His blessings. Out of His will, we can enjoy and experience the riches of His grace. And what happens is we penalize ourselves. It's not a matter of God penalizing us.

It's a matter of we penalize ourselves. We violate the laws. We violate the principles of God. And the result is whatever man sows, he reap what he sows, more than he sows, lighter than he sows. Listen, that's the principle of God. And if I choose to be disobedient, I get what's coming to me. Does that mean God's love for me has diminished?

No. It means, listen, He disciplines us because He wants to bless us with His very best. One of the riches of His grace is, listen, His everlasting forgiveness toward us. Thank you for listening to The Riches of the Grace of God. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.