Grace - 1.
There has been so much written about grace these last few years. It is as if we are having a grace revolution. Grace is more than getting absolved from your sin. Mercy is what happens if you did something wrong and didn’t get penalized for it. His mercy is new every morning. The prophet prayed and asked God to remember mercy in the time of wrath. So what is His grace? We find it very early in the bible. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The word grace in Hebrew means 'to be favored'. Grace states the fact that sin could not take the favor of God away from us. Have you ever heard anyone say: “the favor is on his side.” This simply means that no matter what happens, the odds are always in your favor to come out better on the other side. We will look at a few people in the bible and how grace played a role in their lives.
Gen. 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen. 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen. 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Gen. 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen. 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
In this story of Noah we see that the whole earth was filled with violence. Think about what the earth looked like when the only thing men could think about was what evil they could commit. Living in this evil generation was one man named Noah. Prior to him finding grace in the eyes of the Lord we don’t know much about him. All we know is that he was a just man, perfect in his generation, and that he walked with God.
Noah obviously made the right choice. Living during a time when everybody else could only think evil and think about evil things to do, he chose to walk with God. Because of his choice to walk with God, he found grace in the eyes of God. Now, before you think that this is proof that we can earn God’s grace by making the right choice, think again. Grace means to have favor. When we have favor from God we live with the grace that God gives. Without that grace we are nothing. The bible says that by grace we are saved and not of ourselves, it is a gift from God. Because God’s grace was on Noah he had the power to make the right choices. Grace is released before you get saved. Grace released the favor of God towards you. Grace empowered Noah to choose God and because of His choice he found the favor or the grace of God. God initiated it and when Noah made the right choice God confirmed his choice by releasing grace.
That same grace that Noah found brought the salvation he and his family would need in time of judgment. God commanded Noah to build the ark and told him exactly how to build it. Noah had the plan to survive the flood that God would send to judge the wickedness of man on the earth. It didn’t mean that Noah would not experience the flood. He would be in the flood but he would have a plan to survive the flood. God released favor or grace towards him and his family before the flood came. Grace will release your deliverance to you before God releases His judgment around you. The same thing happened in Egypt when God told Moses to tell them to apply the blood to the doorposts before He would come and judge the firstborn of Egypt. Grace released their deliverance before God released His judgment. Grace caused them to be safe while the judgment of God killed all the firstborn in Egypt. Grace will preserve you during the time of trouble.
Gen. 9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
Gen. 9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
Gen. 9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
Gen. 9:15 And I will remember my covenant………
After the flood we read that Noah and his family went out of the ark and started to populate the earth again. Grace allowed them to have an inheritance. Not only did they inherit the earth, but God made a covenant with them that would be visible. Every time we see a rainbow we need to remember that God made that covenant with Noah. What made that possible? Grace made it possible. Grace released a new commitment from God towards Noah. Not only that, but when God sees the rainbow it will remind Him about His favor and commitment toward those that have found His favor. Grace was what empowered Noah to follow God and to build the ark. He had to build something that was never built before. He had no reference point, no boat shop to go to, very little support, and very few hands to help him build it. He needed grace to follow God and stick to his choice of walking with God.
Grace will release the power to do what has never been done. Grace will let you do it with no reference point and no one to go to. Grace will let you stick to your choice when you look foolish in the eyes of the world. Grace will cause you to survive when everyone else perishes and will cause you to inherit the things of God with a new command to be fruitful.