This post contains the text from Bobby Deason’s lesson on “His Grace Reaches Me” you can download the original power point here: Grace-Planned-Mind-God
What Did She Say?
A female Home Economics Professor was teaching a group of elderly farm ladies. Holding an egg between her thumb and forefinger said: “Ladies perforate the egg in the basil end and duplicate the process in the apex, then apply the lips to one of the apertures and forcible exhale the air from the lungs discharging the shell of it’s content.”
Solomon said, “What has been done will be done again;…there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccles. 1:9)
One of the ladies leaned over to her friend and whispered, “Don’t it beat all how these new fangled ways is – why! when I was a girl we just poked a hole in both ends and BLOWED!!”
God can do Something New. He is Above “The Sun.”
“…my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD‘S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.“ (Lam. 3:10)
I don’t have anything NEW to teach today.
• But I’m just as confident in and excited about what I’m going to share with you these eight weeks as I have ever been – IF NOT MORE SO NOW!
• The arrangement may be different, but the message comes from the Father in His revealed Word.
“His Grace Reaches Me” Song by, Whitney Gleason, 1964 –
Deeper than the ocean and wider than the sea, is the Grace of the Savior for sinners like me; Sent from the Father And it thrills my soul, Just to feel and to know, that His Blood makes me whole.
(Refrain)
His grace reaches me, yes, His Grace reaches me, And ‘twill last thru eternity. Now I’m under His control and I’m happy in my Soul, just to know that His grace reaches me.
Higher than the mountains and brighter than the sun, it was Offered at Calvary for everyone; Greatest of treasures, And it’s mine today, Tho’ my sins were as scarlet, He has Washed them away.
(Refrain)
His grace reaches me, yes His Grace reaches me And ‘twill last thru eternity; Now I’m under His control and I’m happy in my Soul, just to know that His grace reaches me.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. My lesson this morning is, “Grace Planned in the Mind of God.” In order to explain this topic appropriately, I must deal with three major ideas – Grace, Planned and the Mind of God.
B. Before “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” He had an eternal grace plan to redeem to himself mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, who would fall from His grace through an act of lawless disobedience as is seen in (Gen 2:17, Gen 3:19).
II. What is the meaning of Grace? How is the word grace used in our Hebrew, Greek and English Bibles?
• Note: In the NIV Bible, Grace is used, 131 times, graceful 3, gracious 42, and graciously 4.
• Chen (khane) is the Hebrew word for our English word grace. Example, Gen. 6:8 –“But Noah found grace/favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
• Charis is the Greek word from which we trans-late our English word grace. It has various shades of meaning.
Grace has various shades of meaning. Listed below are five of the many shades.
• Grace as a quality.
– Examples: joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness.
– Luke 4:22 – Jesus’ “gracious words” (lit. words of grace)
– Col. 4:6 “Let your speech (lit. your word) be always with grace…”
• Grace is an attitude.
– Such as goodwill, loving kindness, favor.
• Grace is a gift or benefit.
– This is the meaning most often used in the NT
– The giver looks with favor upon the one he chooses to gift or benefit, Rom. 1:5, 7; 12:13; I Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8:19 (grace is the gift of money).
• Grace is an unearned gift or unmerited favor.
– We not only do not merit God’s gift of Grace, but cannot.
– Paul uses this shade of meaning more than any other writers of the Bible. Salvation is by grace through faith, Eph. 2:8-10.
• Grace is a state or condition.
– Standing grace – Rom. 5:2
– Falling away from grace – Gal. 5:4
Grace is multifaceted
I Pet: 4:10
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
The Last Best Word in the English Language
(Philip Yancy, “What’s So Amazing about Grace?” (Pages 12-16).
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Importance of Word Usage
• Preachers, teachers, writers and others who love language like to play with words arranging them in different ways to bring out their clearest, best and even subtle meanings.
• Mark Twain once wrote, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightening bug” (firefly).
• Lady who wanted to buy a half a head of lettuce
“Flash of Genius”
• In the movie, “Flash of Genius” college Prof. Robert Kearns in his lawsuit against Ford Motor Company (for stealing his patent for “intermittent windshield wipers for automobiles”) used in defense of his patent part of the first sentence in the book by Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities.
• That first sentence begins, “It was the best of times it was the worst of times.” Ford was attempting to prove that Kearns didn’t invent the parts he used in the electronic device, but merely arranged them in a particular sequence. Kearns counterpoint was Dickens didn’t invent the words, but arranged them in such away that they became classic.
• He won his lawsuit against Ford and later Chrysler.
GRACE AND THANKS by Edward Fudge
Thanksgiving Day in the USA is a most fitting response to God’s grace. Indeed, there is a direct relationship between grace and gratitude.
This is one reason for preaching the gospel, so that “as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (2 Cor.4:15).
As we will see, this connection between receiving grace and giving thanks is embedded in many languages both ancient and modern.
It happens at meal time at millions of tables around the world. People bow their heads and someone “says grace,” meaning that they “give thanks” for the food.
In other languages, the connection between God’s grace and our thanks-giving is even more obvious. Paul wrote his epistles in Greek. There “grace” is charis and “thanksgiving” is euCHARIStia (spelled in English, we get “Eucharist,” one name for the Lord’s Supper, in which we give thanks for Christ’s grace to us).
The Romans also connected grace and gratitude when they spoke. In Latin, “grace” is gratia and “thanksgiving” is GRATIArum.
Our English words “grace” and “thanks-giving” neither look nor sound alike, but we connect them in two Latin-based English words: “GRATuitous” (an undeserved, or gracious deed) and “GRATitude” (a thankful feeling).
Other Romance languages follow suit. Spanish-speakers say gracia for “grace” and GRACIAs for “thanksgiving.”
In French, it is grace for “grace” and GRACEs for “thanksgiving.” The Italians have grazia (“grace”) and rinGRAZIAmento (“thanksgiving”). In Portuguese, the words are graca (“grace”) and GRACAs (“thanksgiving”).
Whatever language we speak, let us remember God’s grace and give him thanks (Col. 3:17).
“Okay, with that brief but necessary background, let’s get on to what I want to talk about today…”
III. Grace Planned in the Mind of God
A. The eternal God, the omnipotent God, the omniscient God, the omnipresent God – Holy, Loving, Kind, full of Grace and Mercy – had a plan before time began.
– It was and is an Eternal GRACE Plan.
– A record of this grace plan has been preserved for us in the Bible.
Grace Given Before the Beginning of Time
1. “… who has saved us and called us to a holy life– not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time…..” (2 Timothy 1:9 )
2. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world…” (Ephesians 1:4)
3. “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast– all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8.)
God’s Plan Will Not Fail!!!!
4. God’s plan will not fail. Why? Give some reasons why we can trust His plan and promises.
5. Our plans are always contingent, James 4:13-16. “IF IT IS THE LORD’S WILL?”
My dying brother Larry Deason planned his death. At 2am, Nov. 2, 2008 – He awoke from a morphine induced 7 hour sleep and said, “My Plan is not Working.”
III. God’s Grace Plan, cont’d
B. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is – during the fourth, fifth and sixth day of creation God created life on earth. The crowning center-piece of His creation was man and woman – Adam and Eve, you and me.
He made us in “His image.” He crowned us with glory and honor. He graced us with His likeness, (Gen. 1:26-27).
He gave our original parents a beautiful Paradise Garden in which to live and enjoy His presence. His grace provided them everything that they needed. Even a Tree of Eternal Life (Gen. 3:22).
Gen. 2:16-17
16And the Lord commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17but you must not eat from the tree of the Know-ledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
God graced Adam and Eve with freedom of choice; to obey or disobey.
C. He gave them one law, that we now know as “The Law of Sin and Death.”
The law was clear and very simple.
Don’t eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, (Gen. 2:17). The penalty for eating would be death – spiritual and physical.
The devil, a created but disobedient angel from heaven tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit with the promise that they would become like God – knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5).
They ate – they died spiritually and physical death began its process in their bodies.
Removal from their paradise into a cursed world was another penalty for their disobedience to God and also knowing “good” and “evil.” No longer “Innocent.”
D. But the Almighty, our graceful and loving God did not give up on them – His grace plan is an eternal plan.
This plan will gradually unfold – as a mystery – over a period of about four thousand years in the stream of human history. Insight into this mystery was given at the time of The Great Sin, (Gen. 3:15).
The unfolding of this mystery is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, and it is recorded in your Bible from Genesis 3:16 through the end of the four gospels.
IV. The Mystery
A. Most people enjoy a good spine-tingling “who done it” story, masterfully spoken or written by one gifted with words chosen at just the right moment to excite the imagination.
Names like Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cause the mystery lovers’ taste buds to salivate like “Pavlov’s dog.”
1. God’s mystery is different, very different, but does bare a few similarities to the modern day mysteries. This mystery of God does include the “who done it and who is it?” secret. Who will “crush the head” of the serpent and who will “bruise the heel” of the singular, masculine seed of the woman mentioned in Gen. 3:15?
2. The mystery of God is stated in Romans 16:25-26 and I Peter 1:10-12.
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
I Peter 1:10-12
Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
This Eternal Purpose is Called a “Mystery.”
When we speak of God’s Eternal Purpose and Plan we are talking about God’s redemptive plan of grace which existed before it was made known, even before the creation of the universe. This eternal purpose is called a “mystery.”
The Mystery Of Life – Uniqueness by Ravi Zacharias
As I’ve said earlier, H.L. Mencken wrote, “The problem with life is not that it’s a tragedy, but that it’s a bore.” Was he right? At its very core, my friend, life is not a bore but a mystery in the best sense of the term, an engaging, thrilling and deliberate mystery. Every individual has a unique, splendid, and marvelous capacity. Having been brought into being by no will of his or her own, each person then proceeds to tackle that mystery right from the beginning.
Let us begin from the mysterious and awe-inspiring starting point of life itself. From the moment of conception to the moment of delivery there are incredible changes. That single fertilized ovum grows over nine months to a hundred trillion cells. The doctor delivering that child is no more conferring life upon the individual than the parents do in naming the child. The process of birth and the act of giving the child a name are a recognition that the life already exists. That name may be shared by millions of others but the life itself is distinctively, uniquely that individual’s. A single strand of human DNA would fill a thousand-volume encyclopedia comprising six hundred thousand pages with five hundred words on each page. Yet the individual marvelously transforms the information into a person and personality that is his or her own.
This is where we start. In His infinite wisdom and power, God the very author of life has granted to us a mystery that must hold us in awe.
Listen to Lewis Thomas in Medusa and the Snail:
The mere existence of that cell should be one of the greatest astonishments of the earth. People ought to be walking around all day, all through their waking hours, calling to each other in endless wonderment, talking of nothing except that cell…If anyone does succeed in explaining it within my lifetime I will charter a skywriting airplane, maybe a fleet of them, and send them aloft to write one great exclamation point after another, around the whole sky, until all my money runs out.
Is life a bore, my friend? Have you lost a sense of awe and wonder in response to the marvel of what God has created? Perhaps we all need to pause and be reminded of the wonder of life, and have our hearts stirred with gratitude and worship toward the One who has brought it all about.
V. The Announcement of the Conflict and PROMISE of God, Gen. 3:15.
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Compare Gal. 3:16 with Gen. 3:15
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. (Gal. 3:16)
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)
VI. The Historical Unfolding of the Mystery: God’s Great Redemptive Grace Plan for Man.
The Story of “Saved by One”
A. The conflict begins: Genesis 3:15
1. Cain and Able – Seth (Gen. 4)
2. Daughters of men and sons of God – Noah (Gen. 
I Want God’s Eyes Mercifully on Me
Note: Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Gen. 6:8. “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him,” (2 Chron.16:9).
3. A barren womb and an abundant promise – Abram (Gen 12, 15, 17, 21)
4. A famine and a family – Jacob and Joseph – Gen. 37-50
5. Pharaoh and the enslaved Israelites – Moses – Exodus 1-20
6. Evil adversaries and David – I Samuel 16:1-13
7. Devilish Athaliah and the royal seed – Joash – 2 Kings 11:1ff
8. Death and king Hezekiah – Manasseh – 2 Kings 18:1-20:21
9. Wicked Haman and his attack on the Jewish remnant – Esther 3-5
Note: Song “Although the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” God reigns.
He is Sovereign Lord of the universe. His will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This truth is the power that underlines God working out His Grace Plan of Redemption through sinful and rebellious men and women, just like us. God almighty, time and time again shows His providential power in preserving the Seed line of the one who will reveal His saving GRACE in the fullness of the time (Gal. 3:16-29). Satan and his seed suffer defeat again and again, but not without exacting a heavy toll on the righteous.
10. Herod and his slaughter of infants – Jesus – Matt. 2:13-18
11. Satan and his direct attack on Jesus – Matthew 4:1-17
12. Jewish unbelievers and their execution of Jesus, Matt. 27; Mark 14; Luke 23; Jn. 19
VII. Conclusion of the Plan
A. We thank God for his eternal plan of Grace which included us. Think about it for a moment. God chose you, before the foundation of the world, to be His son or daughter (Eph. 1:4). What an awesome Plan.
B. What an Awesome God. The Plan was hidden until it was the “fullness of the time” for it to be revealed (Gal. 4:4-5).
C. That will be our study next Sunday: “Grace Revealed in the Person of Jesus.”
D. In preparation for our next class, take time to read and think about, Ephesians 1:1-14; 3:1-21.