Why Grace Is So Amazing Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. I'm not so bad, I'm sincere. I do the best I can, so I think God will let me into heaven.

Do you believe this? If so, you are in great need of the grace of God, the grace that makes possible our salvation. Today, why we need that grace so badly.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, you're teaching from Ephesians chapter 2 today on the subject of grace and why it's so amazing. It's sad that so many people feel little need for God's grace. Or else, Dave, they think that they deserve it, which means that they don't understand the meaning of the word grace. I've often thought of the fact that there are so many people who sing the song Amazing Grace and they sing that saved a wretch like me. But in point of fact, they don't see themselves as wretches.

And yet the Bible says that we are dead in trespasses and sins. I'm so glad to be able to announce to all who are listening today that we are in the middle of what we're calling the matching gift challenge. Very briefly, what this means is any gift that you give to the ministry of Running to Win during this period of time will be doubled. What an opportunity to help us, to help us get the message of God's grace around the world. As a matter of fact, in the next 12 months, we hope to expand to three different languages, all because of people like you. Here's what you can do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us. Because the message that I'm about to preach needs to be spread around the world. Solzhenitsyn says, the line between good and evil does not run through the human race. It runs through every single human heart, every single heart. You and I have seeds for all the wickedness that we condemn in others.

It's all there potentially. The distinction is never the greatness of the sin. The distinction has to do with the understanding and the willingness of the sinner as God grants them the ability to believe. It is that that distinguishes them.

But God can save big sinners, big sinners. Let's suppose that we were to say, which building is the tallest? Is it Moody Church or is it the Sears Tower? And how much taller is the Sears Tower than Moody Church? And we could put some of our architects to work and they could find out exactly which building is the tallest and how much. We of course know which one is the taller, but they could figure out exactly how much. But let us suppose that the distinction was not between Moody Church and the Sears Tower, but rather now we ask this question, which is closest to the closest star? Which is four light years away, light traveling at 186,000 miles a second. Now the distinction between buildings becomes negligible.

I mean, you know, in the light of trillions of miles, a few feet doesn't make a whole lot of difference. You see, that's what human beings do. They say to themselves, you know, in comparison to so-and-so, I'm a good person. Like a person told me on the plane, I have just as good a shot at heaven as anybody else.

Just as good a shot at it. I pay my bills. I take in stray cats. I do all kinds of things that are nice, people say. And then they can immediately think of at least 10 different people, if not 20, who are far worse than they are. You see how humans evaluate themselves? But my dear friend, I want you to listen very carefully now. If we stop comparing ourselves with ourselves and begin to compare ourselves with God, the differences become negligible.

They can hardly show up on the computer screen. Now, of course, it's better to be a good citizen to pay your bills than it is to be a criminal. Of course, it's not only better for society, it's better for you, it's even better in your relationship with God even as an unbeliever. I do not mean to say that these distinctions are unimportant, but what I mean to say is that in the presence of a holy God who demands absolute, total, unmitigated perfection, all of the distinctions that we bring to the table all fade away. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We've all missed it, and we've missed it by more than a mile. So first of all, grace is given apart from work. Secondly, it is unaffected by the degree of our sin. Thirdly, it is, of course, a free gift. It has to be, right?

Notice what the text says. By grace you are saved through faith, verse 8, and that not of yourselves it is a gift. It is a gift of God.

It has to be. We've already learned. What contribution can we make in this?

This is not a cooperative effort. We were not involved when God created the sun, the moon, the stars. He did it ex nihilo, on the basis of his word. We were not involved when he spoke the word and gave us resurrected life. Yes, I know we believed. We believed, but even that belief, according to this text, is God-given. So yes, we were involved. Yes, we believed on Jesus, and at the end of this message I'm going to urge you to believe on Jesus, but even that work was God-given. Even it was God-given. So it has to be.

It has to be a free gift. Many years ago when I was a little boy, and those years are becoming more in number, we used to have to listen to the radio. I was in this Christian home, and I thanked God for that upbringing, and all of us, we had to listen to the radio. As kids, we sat around and we listened to these radio programs, and we diddled and dwaddled and dwaddled, hoping that the time would fly more quickly. But I remember there was one man on the radio who had a very gruff voice.

Some of you who remember 30 or 40 years ago, you might even know who this was, but I don't think you will. But I remember he used to say, no, my dear Christian friend, he would say, if you send me $5, I will send you absolutely free this booklet that I would like you to have. You know, at the age of 10, I was starting to compute this, and I was saying to myself, you know, this doesn't make sense. If this was absolutely free, why doesn't he not only send it to us without asking for money, but why doesn't he pay the postage, and why doesn't he even pay the postage that we use to ask for it? Now, that would be absolutely free. That's what God did. That's what God did. God says, I not only pay for the postage when I give it to you, but I even pay for the postage that you use to tell me that you want it.

It has to be a free gift. Remember that story of the Hindu and the Christian, the Christian missionary often witnessed to the Hindu and said, you have to believe in Jesus, it's a free gift. And the Hindu said, no, you have to pay for your salvation, you have to go to Delhi on your knees and so forth. And when the time came for them to part, the Indian gave the missionary a very, very special gift. He said, because of our friendship, I want you to have this pearl.

It's a gorgeous, gorgeous pearl. But he said, the thing that makes it so wonderful is that my son died while taking it from the bottom of the sea, and I want you to have it. That was certainly a very generous, very generous gift. The missionary said, well, I want to pay you for it. And the Hindu said, he was insulted. He said, pay me for it. This represents the life of my son. How are you going to pay me for this pearl?

No way. It has to be taken as a free gift. You can't even speak about payment. The missionary said, and that's why the gospel is free. That's why the gospel is free. Listen, he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, God gave us that free gift. He gave his only begotten son. And now you are going to pay him for that? You misunderstand the gospel.

You misunderstand it. God says to you and me, of course, throughout all of eternity, we're going to appreciate it. And in this life, we appreciate it, and we contribute to his glory when we appreciate it. But payment, repayment, never, never, God gave that which was most special to him, not corruptible things such as silver and gold, but the precious blood of Christ. Now, why is God doing that? Well, let me just simply say, and this is really going to be a separate message in a future passage, but notice it says that in the ages to come, in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Jesus Christ. We're going to be on display throughout all of eternity, and we and angels are going to marvel at the fact that sinners who deserve nothing received such a matchless intervention of God called the gospel, and God took these people from the pit of sin, and he raised them up to the heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, seated with Christ in heavenly places, totally, completely undeserved and unexpected.

Why? That he might be glorified and show his mercy forever and ever. That is grace. That's grace. Now, I need to tell you of course that grace is difficult to accept. It's difficult to accept. You'd think that after a message like this, people would be flocking to believe, but they aren't. Some will, some will, but not all.

You know why? It's because it is so contrary to our nature, it just grinds within us to accept God's grace. There are two different kinds of people that find it difficult to accept grace.

Let me tell you about them. First of all, you have those who are really great, great sinners, and their consciences are polluted and they think that they're so far from God and they've fallen so far morally that they think to themselves, if God knew who I was and he does, if you knew who I was, who I am, you would know. You'd know that there's no way God would accept me. And so they close themselves off from God's matchless grace.

It's so difficult to accept. I've had people say that to me. If you knew what I've done, and you know, could I say parenthetically that I may be speaking to people today and you've committed some crime. If the truth were known about you, you are a very, very, very adept sinner.

You've really crossed a lot of lines in your life. And so for some of these people, it is so difficult for them to embrace God's grace, because how do you come to God with that much baggage and that much sin? I like to tell the story when I was the pastor of another church. We had some evangelistic meetings one full and this couple came forward and I was counseling them and the wife had recently come to saving faith in Christ. They belong to a wife-swapping club and she was now changed by God and she wanted her husband to have the same experience and he didn't want to come to church. But he was kind of there because she pressured him to.

I think he felt kind of like a counterfeit coin on an offering plate. You know, in other words, this isn't where I'm supposed to be. But nevertheless, he was there and I asked him, would you like to believe in Jesus and be saved? And he said, there's no way I can't give up all the things that I'm doing. If you knew how saturated I was with immorality, you'd know that I can't come to God as I am.

Wow. Well, I explained to him that you come, you come just as you are. You don't even have to clean yourself up. You don't even have to make a pledge to follow Christ because, you know, we can't expect the dead to walk until they've been raised. We can't expect the blind to see until they've been healed. But what you must do is to humble yourself and to believe on Jesus and to come as you are with your baggage and with your sin. As the hymn writer put it, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bids me come to the old lamb of God. I come, I come. You come as you are. Come even though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings within and fears without. Oh lamb of God, I come.

But you come to the only one who can give you life and clean you up. That night he came. He said, okay, I accept Christ. I often wondered whether or not the gospel would take, you know, you lead somebody to the Lord like that and you say, wow, I think that that's too simple, too simple. Well, a couple of weeks later he made an appointment to see me and asked what I thought of what Bible school he should attend because he said that God was leading him into the ministry and I was so surprised.

I have to confess, I was surprised. Before he left, I asked him about the previous lifestyle that he had been living and he said, you know, God took care of that. You know, there's a lesson there to be learned from that man.

Two lessons in fact. Number one, you can come to God as you are as long as you recognize you're a helpless sinner who can't save yourself. When you come with an agenda, it blocks the grace of God. Grace of God enters those doors where people are coming with a sense of humility and total complete helplessness and I speak to those of you today who think that you have fallen too far, you have sinned too greatly, you too can come if you come as you are and acknowledge your helplessness. But there was a second lesson to be learned too that once God's grace has entered into our lives, we are not the same afterwards. In fact, the text here says that we are not saved by works but having been saved, we are saved unto good works which God has before ordained. But one category of people that find it very difficult to come are those who think they've sinned too greatly.

Then there's another category and they are the more difficult ones. They are the real holdouts. They are the hardened hearts who are self-righteous.

They are the ones who volunteer at the hospital on weekends and don't expect to be paid but they do it because they love people. Boy, you lead somebody like that to Christ. Try to see whether or not they understand grace. What do I need God's grace for? I'm a good person. I pay my bills. I volunteer.

I have used money at a bake sale and gave it to charity like one person said and you're telling me that I need God's grace the way in which you're describing it. They're offended. They're the goody two shoes, you know. Like one man said, the worst thing I've ever done in life is take a golf club and wrap it around a tree. Oh, isn't that sweet? I've often thought maybe it's the first time that golf club had some symmetry.

That would be very interesting. You wrapped it around a tree in anger and that's the biggest sin you ever committed. I don't think you even need to be saved, do you? Look at how good you are. You understand now why Jesus said that the prostitutes go into the kingdom of heaven sooner than the self-righteous ones? You understand that, don't you? You see, because grace is all one-sided. It's all one-sided.

There's no cooperation at all. We just come helplessly. We come sinfully.

We come as we are. We contribute nothing. You say, well, surely I contribute something to my salvation. Yes, my friend, you do. What you contribute is your sin.

That's your contribution and your great need. But you come to the table with no bargaining chips at all. Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling.

I bring nothing. Naked come to thee for dress. Coupless look to thee for grace. That's the gospel. You think that's easy for people to accept? No, no, no. It's hard to accept and God has to overcome our blindness and he has to grant us the desire and he has to give us the gift of faith.

Why? Because apart from that we would all be lost. You know, Jesus told a marvelous story that's been told many times about two different people who went into the temple and both of them believed in grace. Both of them believed in grace. One prayed like this. He said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men, adulterers, extortionists.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of everything that I possess. I'm even glad that I'm not like this tax gatherer here who obviously is living a very crooked life. I'm glad that that's not my vocation because I'm better than that. He believed in God's grace.

We hurry over it too quickly, don't we? He said, I thank thee, God, that I'm not like other men. God, all the good works that you've given me to do and all the good things that I do, I give you credit for that.

You're the one who has helped me. And then Jesus said that there was someone else, the tax gatherer standing over in the corner who wouldn't even look up to the face of God. He smote his breast and said, God be propitiated to me the sinner. God be merciful to me the sinner. And Jesus asked this question.

He said, which one do you think left justified? Well, you know, if you had stopped these two men after they went out of the temple that day and you said to the Pharisee, the one who prayed that lovely prayer about how nice he was, thanks to God, by the way, and you'd have told him, you know, you're in the same predicament as this man and you are helpless in God's sight and you are dead in your trespasses and sins and if you do not accept God's grace fully, you're going to be damned forever. He'd have been offended. Look at who I am. But you see, the other man said, God be merciful to me the sinner. The one man said, God, if you help me, if you help me, I'll get serious about it.

I'll save myself. And the other man said, God, unless you help me, I will damn myself. And that at the end of the day is the difference between those who think that grace is nice and helpful and sweet and loving and those who believe that it is truly unbelievably amazing. That's what Amazing Grace is all about. God's undeserved intervention in our lives as sinners. God's resurrection, God's power, God's forgiveness, all undeserved.

We bring nothing to the table except our need. Would you join me as we pray? Father, we pray that those who know you as Savior may worship you at this moment saying thank you, Father, for your undeserved grace toward me. Lord, I can say in my own life that you raised me from the dead. Undeserving, helpless, but you did it.

Thank you. Pray for those who have never believed in Jesus. Help them to understand now that the issue is not the greatness of their sin. The issue is the willingness that they have to believe. Cause them, Father, to believe because some are so helpless, some are so wrapped in themselves and in such self-righteousness that unless you open their eyes, their eyes will never be opened.

Would you do that, Father, for them? Because at this moment, we're all helpless in your presence. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, look to thee for dress. Helpless, look to thee for grace. Foul, I to the fountain fly. Save me, Father, ere I die.

Let me have a personal word with you. Have you ever accepted this grace that comes to us through Jesus Christ? Do you understand the depth of your need? Are you the kind of person who thinks that grace is nice but unnecessary?

You've never received Christ as Savior. Now is the moment to do it. I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry.

I'm holding in my hand some statistics. We had over three million downloads of radio programs and sermons during the last year. People, of course, listen on the app.

They listen on the website, YouTube, and other channels. It's because of people just like you investing in this ministry that we are getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions. And I'm very excited to be able to remind you that we are in the midst of what we call the matching gift challenge. What that means is any gift that you give during this period of time will be doubled up to $90,000 thanks to some of our partners who invest in this ministry because they rejoice in its expansion. Here's what you can do to become a part of it. You can go to rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's rtwoffer.com or 1-888-218-9337. Thank you in advance for helping us. Pray about becoming a part of this ministry and if you do that now, remember this, your gift will be doubled as we continue to get the gospel of God's grace around the world.

Thanks so much for helping us. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer has concluded Why Grace is So Amazing, the sixth message in a series on Between Heaven and Earth, taken from the book of Ephesians. Next time, tune in for a message on pulling together in a world tearing apart. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.