Amen. That's what the Christmas season is about, amen? Amen. If you would turn to Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two, and this isn't like a banquet night, I don't have any jokes for you this evening. I know you're disappointed, all right? But as we go into this Christmas season, I know Pastor Sullivan, dad, he kinda, spreads out the preaching responsibilities with us as staff. And so this was, we kind of know that it's coming as staff, but we're never quite sure exactly where we're gonna fit into the schedule. And the last couple of weeks, this message, it might be a series of messages that it's been burning in my heart and my mind. And I know it wasn't too long ago, maybe a month or two ago, that a message was brought by a pastor regarding God's amazing grace. And that has stuck with me, the thought of God's grace. And when we think about God's grace, we think about what Christ has done for us. And when I think about this time of year, ultimately that's what we're celebrating, the grace of God given to us. And so as we go through this time of year, let's not forget the grace of God. Let's not forget the sacrifice that Jesus Christ bore in himself to pay for our sin debt. And we think about what God gave. Think about what God gave. Think about that God gave his son, his only begotten son, and he saw everything that was to be placed, all the sin that was to be placed on Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, first of all, was willing, but God loved us enough to send his son to give us salvation. And so one of the great things, as you read through the Bible, in particular the New Testament, you see how the grace of God is important. The grace of God is important. Without the grace of God, we are not saved. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. In Ephesians 2, verse 4, it says, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. It says, "...by grace ye are saved. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward..." Who? not the angels. We were singing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and I asked Brother Rempel, I said, I've never heard of Herald the Angel, have you? And so, now you're gonna think of that every time we sing that song. Who is Herald the Angel? No. But, sorry, all right. But, to us, this grace is given to us, this kindness toward us, through whom? Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus. In v. 8, he says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. And so, we just catch a glimpse, and as we read through the New Testament, and we read about the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle Paul wrote many of the books found in the New Testament, and at the beginning of many of those books, and at the end of most of those books, you will see the one phrase that he uses, and that is, Grace be unto you. Few men knew the depths from which one could be pulled Like Paul knew. Paul understood the grace that had been given him. Not only for salvation, but for the grace to live the victorious Christian life. And so, that was one of the phrases I was going through different things through the last couple of weeks and meditating upon the grace of God. We need the grace of God in our life, on our life, every day. All the time. And so as we look at the grace of God, and I'll be upfront and honest with you, I don't believe any man can do it justice as far as to explain the depths of the grace of God and what God has done for us, that we would be called the sons of God. And so when we, but as we go through this time, we often see the gifts that are given, and we receive those gifts, and it's not that we deserve those gifts, but yet someone loves us, someone cared enough to give us those gifts. My son, Ethan, gave me a great gift yesterday. It was a pillow with my picture on it, all right? And he was so excited to give that to me, and I really appreciate his thoughtfulness in that. But now I have a pillow of myself. Wow, that's great. But he couldn't wait. He grabbed it out of the wrapping paper and threw it at me, and I'm like, wow, this is great. But he was just happy to give his dad something that he thought his dad would enjoy. But you know, when we think about the gifts that are given at this time of year, it's because someone cares, someone loves us. And think about the gift that God has given us. It's all through his grace. It's all through his grace. In Titus 2, verse 11, the Bible tells us, "...for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10. I've got a lot of Scripture, so you might just want to take references down. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, it says, "...but by the grace of God, This is Paul talking, I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not given in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And so this evening, we're gonna start looking at the grace of God, the grace of God. And we're gonna see that grace defined, we're gonna see grace personified, we'll see grace extended. We may get to extending grace to others, and then we have the grace to serve. And so as we go into this message, really think about the grace of God in your life. The Bible doesn't do us any good unless we personalize it. Unless it becomes a part of our life. It permeates every area of our life. And we need grace. I know when dealing with others and when I fail, I appreciate it when people are gracious with me. and how much more we need to be gracious with others in every area of life. And so we need grace, not only for salvation, but for living as well. And so as we go through this message, we need the foundation, and the foundation of grace is Christ. And so we're gonna see grace defined. Webster's 1828 gives us this definition of grace. It is the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from Him. Christ is the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from Him. What is it? It is the favorable influence of God. Divine influence or the influence of the Spirit in renewing the heart and restraining from sin. Strong's also gives us this definition of grace. It is the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life. It's the benefit, the favor, the gift. It is grace. David Cloud wrote there are two types of grace. There's serving grace and there's saving grace. Saving grace is the free, unmerited, eternal salvation of God. Saving grace is that biblical grace. It means the unmerited, eternal salvation of God, which comes to the believing sinner through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And so grace is of God. Grace is through Jesus Christ. There was a great preacher, G. Campbell Morgan, who was once approached by a miner in a mining community. He was holding some revival services, and the miner said, I would give anything to believe that God will forgive sins, but I cannot believe He will forgive me if I just turn to Him. He said, it is too cheap. Morgan replied, you were working in the mine today. How did you get out of the pit? The miner answered, I got into the cage and was pulled to the top. Morgan asked, and how much did you pay to come out of the pit? I didn't pay anything, said the miner. Well, said Morgan, weren't you afraid to trust yourself to that cage? Wasn't it too cheap? Oh, no, said the miner. It was cheap for me, but it cost the company a lot of money. And Morgan said he could see the light come on. It was a perfect lead. to explain that the salvation the miner called cheap cost Jesus his life. Someone said salvation is free because the full price was paid by Jesus Christ. And so we have a great benefit, God's grace given to us. I was listening to a preacher from years ago, I believe, a preacher, a message in the 80s, and he brought out the fact that someone had broken down the human body, the chemicals that make up the human body, and so I got to Googling, as all good pastors do, looking at this, and the human body, you know, sometimes we get so enraptured with ourselves, right? I mean, we check the mirror over and over again. I mean, we're just about ready to get into January. And we're going to be listening about all the New Year's resolutions and why we shouldn't call them New Year's resolutions anymore. And this is how we're going to break free from the habits that we've established over the years. And, you know, all this is going to happen. And we put so much emphasis on the physical. I was looking at what makes up the human body. The human body, 99% of the mass of the human body consists of six elements. There's oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. All those put together in the average body is worth about $576 in chemicals. All the other elements taken together are worth only about $9 more. So $585. And how much we live our life just consumed with ourselves and we forget the grace of God. We forget what God has done for us. You think about $576, these days it doesn't go very far. But how much emphasis do we put on this body? That's just the body. It's not taking into account our sinful nature either. And yet God gave his only begotten son. God extended his grace towards us. We don't deserve anything. We don't deserve the grace that God has given. As I was thinking about examples of God's grace, think about the woman that was caught in adultery in John 8, verses 1 to 11, and we see how Jesus Christ dealt with the Pharisees, Jesus Christ dealt with those who wanted to stone her, but yet Jesus Christ extended His grace to her. We see the parable of the prodigal son, how the father extended grace, We see Peter's restoration after betrayal and how God wanted to restore him. That grace was extended to Peter. We think of the conversion of Paul, or Saul, who became Paul in Acts 9, v. 1-19, and how wicked and vile Paul was, and how we would, many of us, I believe, if he was alive today, we would draw back from because he was just a wicked person, a vile person. But yet, God's grace was extended to them. Grace defined. Grace is not licensed. In Romans 6, verses 1-2, it says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Grace is not licensed. The Corinthian church abused the grace that was given of God. And they misused the grace. And they were glorying in the fact that they were accepting the sin. You know, but God extended grace to them. I was telling the teens today in Sunday school how that you think about all that they were, the church at Corinth was going through and Paul was still gracious with them because God was gracious with him and Paul was extending that grace to the Corinthian church and he was helping them grow. He did not want to see them destroyed. He wanted them to be restored into an effective church. But grace is not license. We should not just say, I am what I am and this is what I'm going to do and God will forgive me. No, we're abusing the grace of God. We're misusing the grace of God. We understand in dealing with children and toddlers in particular, and we tell them over and over, and we try and correct them, and we try and teach them along the way, but sometimes it does get frustrating because time after time after time, you say, don't touch, don't touch, don't touch, and they keep touching, and they keep touching, and they keep touching, and then you have to deal more drastically with it. And so often we take the grace of God, the benefits of God, the favor of God for granted, and we just go on. We're like that toddler. We just keep doing and doing and doing and going against what our Heavenly Father said. Grace is not license. Neither is grace radical in the sense. You say, what do you mean by that? It's not a free for all. This life is not a free for all. Sad to say, many Christians today believe because we're under grace, we can live whatever way we want, and God will wink at us, God will just say, well, I still love them, and they focus on the love of God, and we shouldn't discount the love of God, but we should not be abusing the grace that God has given us. And so it's not radical. We must accept God's plan, God's way. Jesus Christ did not condone the woman caught in adultery. He told her to sin no more. But He did extend that grace. He did extend that grace. Grace can be abused, but in Jude 1.4 it says, For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, a fleshly, essential life, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So we saw what grace was, or is. We saw grace defined. We saw what grace is not. And then I want us to see grace personified. Grace personified. And we see the grace of God in the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. And we have our Heavenly Father. John 3, verse 16, it says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So grace was extended to us by God the Father. God said, I need someone to pay man's sin debt. And Jesus Christ said, I will be the sacrifice. And God the Father said, go. And he gave. It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing. And so we see the God the Father. And as I was thinking about this, the extension of God's grace given to us through Jesus Christ by God the Father. But yet think about this in Hebrews chapter four, verse 16. It says, let us therefore come boldly unto the what? The throne. Not the throne of judgment, but the throne of grace. the throne of grace. So we see grace is from God the Father, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I mentioned John 3.16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And then we see grace in God the Son, God the Son revealed God's grace when he humbled himself and took upon himself the sins of the whole world and secured salvation for us. Christ did not need to secure salvation for himself. Christ did not need to do any of that. Christ came to die for you and I. He was grace personified. John 1, verse 14, it says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of Him and cried, saying, This was He of whom I speak. He that cometh after Me is preferred before Me. For he was before me, and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. We can only have salvation through the grace of God, and that grace is in the person of Jesus Christ. John 1, verse 17 says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Romans 3.24, it says, being justified freely, declared righteous, not by your works, not by you paying a bond, not by you paying your own ransom. It says being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in your good works, that is in your baptism, that is in you taking communion, that is in living a good life. It's not what it says. It says, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Grace personified. Grace is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is that grace. See, our salvation is in the person of Christ, not in keeping the outward law, because we cannot keep the outward law. Galatians tells us that the law was our schoolmaster, and the law was designed to show us that you and I can never keep all those commandments. You and I, in and of our flesh, it's not gonna happen. It showed us that we needed a savior. And by the grace of God, the Savior was given. In Romans 5 20-21 it says, Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so grace personified, grace is in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4, it says, So we see that grace came from God the Father. Grace is in Jesus Christ, the person. And then we have God the Holy Spirit. And what does God the Holy Spirit do? He enables us to serve because the opportunity to serve is not the right of a Christian, it's a privilege that we have of God. It's the grace of God given to us so that we can serve, so that we can sow in, so that we can edify each other. And so it's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is continuing the work of sanctification and the enabling of us for service. It's only by the grace of God that we are able to serve the Lord. It's only by the grace of God that we are able to serve the Lord. The Apostle Paul, the commentator writes, the Apostle Paul taught that true faith produces good works, but the fruit of salvation, which is works, should never be confused with the root of salvation, which is grace. We can't work our way to heaven. It's all of grace. It's all what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and his resurrection. but we have that grace to serve. Titus 3-8 says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." What's he saying there? Salvation is of Jesus Christ and Him alone. There's nothing you and I could do it. But then he goes on, "...because we are saved. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works." These things are good and profitable unto men. And so we saw grace defined. We saw what grace is not. We saw grace in the Godhead, God the Father, grace in God the Son, grace in God the Holy Spirit. And then we see that grace extended. That grace extended. In Ephesians 2, verse 1, the Bible tells us, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath. even as others. And this is where we picked up at the beginning of the message. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive. He's quickened us together with Christ. By grace, ye are saved. So we have this saving grace, and it's not in and of ourselves. It's not in our own power. It's not in our own righteousness. Our own righteousness is as filthy rags. We have this saving grace given to us, extended to us. In Romans chapter five, verse six, it says, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. If you and I were to die for our sins, we would be burning in hell forever and ever, and it would start right now. And we could never pay that sin debt for all eternity. But God extended that grace to each and everyone. Everyone. You may be sitting here tonight and you think, well, I'm not sure if that's really meant for me. No, it is meant for you. Because God died for you. Your sin, my sin, everyone's sin, He extends that grace to each and everyone. In Acts 15, verse 11, it says, But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. It wasn't a doubtful thing. It wasn't a, I hope to be, as so many religions teach, that you just need to hope and you need to endure to the end, and if you're good outweighs your bad, you're gonna be okay. It's not that. It's whether you have received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Him alone, not in your baptism, not in your communion, not in living a good life, not in all those different things. No, what have you done with the grace of Jesus Christ that has been extended to you? What have you done with that? What have you done? In Romans 2, verse 4, it says, Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? What is the definition of grace? It's the benefit. It's God's goodness extended to us. And I would dare say that there are some in this room who have not accepted the grace of God, His salvation. You need to do that tonight. Don't wait. Don't wait. Don't sit there and say, well, I need to weigh my options. I'm really not sure if I believe the Bible. Whether you believe the Bible or not, that doesn't change the fact that the Bible, the Word of God is true, and what it says will come to pass, and if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you will die and go to hell. It's a serious thing. It's an eternal thing. And so accept God's gift. Accept God's gift. God extends his grace to each and every one of us this evening. He extends grace to each and every one of us this evening. And so what shall we do with this grace? What shall we do with this grace? If you have never accepted this saving grace, accept it tonight. Don't just sit there and say, well, let me weigh my options or, you know, I'm really not sure if I wanna deal with this right now. You need to deal with it, accept it. Accept it. It's grace. It's nothing that you and I could do. But what you need to do is you need to come before a righteous and holy God in the humbleness of your heart. Ask God to forgive you of your sin and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart. And the Holy Spirit of God, Ephesians chapter one tells us that the Holy Spirit of God will come in and quicken you. Make you alive. Your soul will become quickened. You will no longer be dead in your trespasses and sins. You'll be alive forevermore with God. Seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And so this evening, accept it, receive it. Man, we love giving gifts, we love receiving the gifts this time of year, and we look forward to those times, but this is the greatest gift that you and I could ever receive. And if you've never received Jesus Christ, do it this evening. Do it this evening. Accept it, receive it. What shall we do with the grace of God for those of us who have accepted Christ, who have accepted the grace given? We need to thank God for it. We need to thank God for it. I'm sure as I was growing up and I received gifts, I vaguely remember I was right at that age, I think it was nine, 10 years of age, where I should know better, but I still wanted to be, You know, I was still a little kid, but yet I wanted to be grown up. And I remember opening gifts and all that, and then I get the last gift, and I open it up, and I'm like, yeah, that's nice. New socks, new jeans, new shirt. Great. Is this it? Right? Some of you might experience that this week. Is this it? Yeah. But you know, it's sad to say many of us Christians are that immature. We have salvation, we have the blessings, the grace of God, the benefits, his favor on our life. We kind of sit back and we go, is this it? Is this all we got? We need to stop and we need to think about what we do have. the grace of God that has been extended to us. Thank God for his love and grace. And as we give gifts, and as we sit around the table, and as we just have maybe some extra time off, meditate upon the grace of God. Meditate upon the benefit that God has given you. Think about all the good things. Yes, we have it rough. We have some things don't go our way all the time, but we have it pretty good. We have it pretty good. We have people that love us. We have a God that hears us and answers our prayer. Maybe this week, meditate upon the grace of God that he has given to us. As I was thinking about this, a song came to mind, and it's not Amazing Grace, but it's the song Come Thou Fount, Come Thou Fount. And as we think about this, I encourage you, if you have never accepted Christ as Savior, accept Him today. And for those of us who are saved, we need to guard our heart. We need to always keep before us the grace of God and how good God is to us. In Hymn Stories by Lindsay Terry, it gives us the account of a hymn writer. It says, how sad for a young boy to have to grow up without a dad. Robert Robinson's dad passed away when Robert was only eight years of age. As soon as he was old enough, he got a job as an apprentice to a barber. Because of the hardship of having to be the breadwinner for his widowed mother and himself, his formal education was limited. However, his knowledge was varied and extensive because he spent many hours in study. Robert Robinson was born in Norfolk, England in September 1735. As he grew older, he came under the influence of the great evangelist, George Whitefield. He became convicted of his terrible, sinful ways. On December 10th, 1755, Robinson could not escape from a particular phrase used by Mr. Whitefield in one of his sermons. Oh, my hearers, the wrath to come, the wrath to come. He was wonderfully converted and became a minister of the gospel. Then, unfortunately, he became altogether unstable and unhappy. Some would call it backslidden. He found himself one day the fellow passenger of a young lady on a stagecoach. It is reported that she began to sing to break the monotony of the trip. And what did she sing? She sang, come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. The last stanza reads, oh, to grace, how great a debtor. Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. She asked him what he thought about the song, and his startling reply was, Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to feel now as I felt then. Have you forgotten the grace of God? Have we forgotten the grace of God? Let's remember what God has given us, amen? Let's stand with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. As we go into this invitation time, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Have you accepted the grace that God extends this evening? Don't sit there and debate it. The Bible tells us today is the day of salvation. It doesn't matter if you made a profession of faith 10 years ago, two years ago. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, get saved this evening. Accept the grace extended to you through Jesus Christ. Because salvation is in him, in him alone. Maybe you are saved. You know Jesus Christ. But are we like Mr. Robinson, where at one point in time, we had joy, we had that assurance, we were moving forward, trying to do the will of God, but we've gotten off kilter, we've gotten sidetracked. Things haven't gone exactly the way we thought they should, and now we're getting bitter. We're getting upset with other people because they're not fulfilling our expectations. Maybe you need to come forward and just remember the grace that has been extended to you.