Text: Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”
The Potter’s Work of Grace
Jeremiah 18:1-6
(1) The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
(2) Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
(3) Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
(4) And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
(5) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
(6) O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
GRACE is more than just a prayer we say before we eating a meal.
The Grace of God has been understood simply as “unmerited favour,” but such a definition robs the grace of God of its true meaning, purpose, and intent.
Some say that since we live in this “age of grace,” or the “church age,” and that God is not going to judge a believer as strictly as He did in other periods of time, but this flies in the face of many passages in the New Testament that defy such a wrongheaded view.
In our time, Grace, and the “age of grace,” has been relegated to some kind of “get out of jail free” card where the individual can act, do, live and be whatever they’re able get by with as long as they say, “I’m sorry,” somewhere along the way between their birth and their death.
This is not the case.
The notion that God’s grace never comes with judgment is incorrect.
Grace is a teacher, and as all students know, sometimes the best lessons learned came from encounters with discipline, and grace is the discipline God uses to instruct His people.
How many remember the “rod of correction,” the “board of education,” or the dreaded words “go to the principal’s office?”
These, sometimes drastic measures came about, usually, because a student/child would not listen, follow instructions, or behave properly.
So, in order to find a quicker way to get a student to be more, shall we say, “cooperative with the learning process,” various forms of discipline were applied.
Some might say that I am forgetting that God loves us and would not punish us, but that in itself is erroneous.
Let’s take a look at the Word of God:
- 156 times in the New Testament the word GRACE (charis) is used, it means “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude.”[1]
- When a child of God is properly educated by grace, the heart of the student has been changed and molded by the Holy Ghost (our counselor, guide, and help) inside of us, and the proof of that divine influence is reflected in how we live our lives. We live a life of grace.
- When we say that we live a life of grace we are saying, “We live disciplined lives,” because grace is discipline.
- And just to be sure: DISCIPLINE can also be called “chastisement, reproof, a warning, restraint, correction, doctrine, instruction, or rebuke.”
- The person that has allowed grace to teach them, influence their heart, and manifest itself their life is going to naturally be filled with gratitude.
- Titus 2:11-14, “(11) For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, (12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; (13) Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (14) Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
- I want you to catch that tonight. God’s primary method of instruction for the believer in the New Testament is Grace.
- Grace is the great teacher of self-denial, and as we submit ourselves to God’s influence we learn how to deny “ungodliness [wickedness] and worldly lusts [desire],” and how to “live soberly” (moderately [balanced] with a sound mind), “righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
- Why? Because Jesus is coming for us.
- Lift your arm and with your opposite hand pinch that pink stuff we call skin. If your neighbor won’t give them a gentle pinch tonight and tell them, “You’re fleshy.” Now, tell someone else, “You’re carnal.”
- There’s nothing wrong with admitting that. In fact, Paul wrote to the church in Rome and said, “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Ro. 7:14).
- So, being human, we are predisposed to rebellion and sin because of this flesh, even the believer, even the saint of God, sometimes has to be instructed by God through grace in some way other than a pleasant reminder to BE GOOD.
- In some way other than just a feel good, goosebump, run the aisle, dance all over the church.
- Your praise
- There are some who revel in a cheap sort of grace that reveals their selfish desire to receive the benefits of serving God without changing their lifestyle of sin.
- Then there are others who are simply ignorant of the disciplines that come from grace. So, God, in His love, disciplines the erring member to bring about a positive change in their life.
- Hebrews 12:5-11, “(5) And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: (6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. (9) Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (10) For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. (11) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
- If you have felt the chastisement of God, you should rejoice. He loves you. He wants you to live holy, and be ready for His coming.
- Grace is the discipline of love God uses to teach you.
The Sign of Being Born Again
The Evidence of Being Born Again
Taking on the Divine Nature – the Grace of God: 2 Peter 1:1-11
(1) Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
(2) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
(3) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
(4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(5) And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
(6) And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
(7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
(8) For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(9) But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
(10) Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
(11) For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
No wonder the definition includes the idea of GRATITUDE.
GRACE (charis) is “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude.”[2]
[1] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. G5485
[2] Ibid.
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 