INTRODUCTION
“I sat in my car in front of the Delaware Memorial Bridge,” writes Joseph Pfister. “Rain was coming down, the wind was blowing, and I was sick of my life. I had just driven from a three-day gambling binge in Atlantic City where I lost more than $5,000 and maxed out all my credit cards trying to recoup my loses that now had surpassed $300,000 in more than five years. I was an addict. My past flashed before me while I got up enough nerve to climb the bridge’s walkway and jump the 500 feet into the Delaware River. I once was, I thought a decent sort, until my marriage broke up and I began womanizing, drinking and betting on anything, anywhere. I am a retired Chief master Sergeant of the Air Force. I had previously won numerous awards including Citizen of the Year in Delaware, Sergeant of the Year in the Air Force and shared the National freedom Foundation’s highest award.
Back then I had a purpose in life. Now I was an addicted sleaze whose every walking thought was consumed with evil deeds and thoughts.
I took a swig of the highball I had carried out of the Resorts Hotel and Casino, opened the car door and walked toward the bridge. A state trooper came by at that moment and yelled, ‘Car trouble?’ I said, ‘No, just getting some air.’ I climbed back into my car and drove over the bridge into Delaware and to my condominium where I spent a lot of lonely hours contemplating all my failures. It was 4 a.m. on a Sunday more than 11 years ago and I drank more booze to help me sleep. About 3 p.m. the phone rang. It was Jim, and old friend who always wanted me to go to church with him. He would say the same thing,
‘I prayed for you this morning, Joe.’ He invited me to go to church with him that night. This time I consented. To make a long story short, that day I began my walk in Christ’s path.”
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Experiencing God’s amazing grace, Pfister’s life took a dramatic and miraculous turn for the better.
Joseph Pfister came to the point in his life wherein he repented of his sins and turned to the Lord for forgiveness. He was forgiven; the slate of his life was wiped clean. He was empowered to overcome the drinking and gambling addictions that had ruined his life. His life took on a new meaning and a deep inner peace overcame him. And he was given the promise of eternal life in heaven. He received from God things he certainly didn’t deserve. But he received them anyway.
He received them because of God’s grace. God’s grace is His unmerited favor, His blessings in our lives. Through the Christ of Christmas God offers you grace.
Christmas is all about God’s grace. We need look no further than our Savior’s genealogy which precedes Matthew’s account of His birth.“Everybody knows that the genealogies are the biggest yawn in the Bible.
‘REHOBOAM BEGAT ABIJAH, AND ABIJAH BEGAT ASA, ASA BEGAT JEHOSHAPHAT….’and on and on it goes.
(Vic Pentz) It warms your heart and stirs your soul as much as reading a phone book.” It is, therefore customary to skip over the genealogies. Nobody wants to get bogged down in those strange and hard to pronounce names. Yet, 2 Timothy 3:16 declares that
“ALL SCRIPTURE IS INSPIRED BY GOD AND IS PROFITABLE FOR TEACHING AND REPROOF…” That certainly is true of the genealogy of Christ. It teaches us about the
amazing grace of God.
THE GRACE OF GOD
The grace of God is no where more evident than in the genealogy of our Savior. In the group of names mentioned in the lineage of our Lord there are some notable and godly people like Abraham. Isaac and Joseph.That is not surprising; it is just what we would expect. But there are also some very infamous and sinful people mentioned like Judah, Tamar,Rahab and Bathsheba.That is surprising; it is something we don’t expect! Tamar had an incestuous relationship with her father-in-law, Rahab was a woman of ill repute and everyone knows Bathsheba’s sin. Somehow in this genealogy, the Spirit of God has purposely placed the names of some individuals we’d rather forget.They seem to be an embarrassment.
Why are these questionable characters included in the family line of Christ? For one reason: to show us God’s grace.
The genealogy of Christ shows us that God’s grace is extended, through the Savior, to all who believe. It is extended to questionable people. It is extended to bad people. It is extended to those who have skeletons in their closets and failures in their past. God’s grace is available to anybody and everybody. It reaches out to you and to me, irrespective of our
past. There is not a one of us who is beyond the
reach of God’s love and forgiveness. His unmerited favor is available to all through the Christ of Christmas. We, however, must receive it by receiving Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.(Vic Pentz)
Ephesians 2:7 tells us God desires that we experience the “…INCOMPARABLE RICHES OF HIS GRACE.” Nothing in this world can compare with God’s marvelous and amazing grace which is bestowed upon us through the Christ of Christmas. The next verse, verse 8, goes on to declare, “FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED, THROUGH FAITH, AND NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD…”
Just what is this grace that is available to us because of the coming of Christ into our world? Most people get God’s grace confused with His mercy. “Perhaps we’d best think of mercy and grace as two sides of God’s love. Mercy means not giving us what we deserve as sinners. Grace is the opposite: giving us what we don’t deserve” (MacArthur).
In His mercy, God doesn’t give us the punishment we rightfully deserve as guilty sinners.In His grace, God gives us blessings like forgiveness and heaven which, as sinners, we don’t deserve.
Grace is the unmerited favor and blessing of God. It is God giving to us things that we, as sinners, could never earn. Grace is God’s favor and blessing that results in forgiveness, acceptance, peace and eternal life. The word that Scripture uses for “grace” is a Greek word that has great meaning. It was used when someone was ushered into the presence of royalty. The Christ of Christmas has, by His death for our sins, opened the door for us to enter the presence of God finding forgiveness, fellowship and new life in spite of our sinfulness. When that door was opened we found grace, not ridicule or judgment or condemnation but sheer, unmerited and undeserved grace.In His grace God forgives our sins and daily pours out blessings that we, as sinners, definitely don’t deserve.
Rahab’s name was included in the genealogy of Christ because as Joshua 2 makes very clear, she turned to the Lord.She became a believer.Forgiven and changed, she lived her life differently. She was given new life.
She received God’s grace and as chapter 7 of the book of Numbers indicates, God chose her to be a mother in the Davidic line from which the Savior of the world was to come. In Hebrews 11, when all the great people of faith are listed, Rahab’s name is right there along with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!
Amazing grace. How encouraging!
Rahab’s name is included because God’s grace is bigger than our sin. God used stained and soiled, but
repentant sinners in order to bring the Messiah to earth to redeem us. The same grace that made Judah,
Tamar, Bathsheba and Rahab a part of the family of God, enables you and me to become members of the family of God. When we truly repent of our sin and
turn to the Savior, trusting Him, then God’s incomparable grace is extended to us. We are forgiven,
accepted into God’s family and given new life as well as eternal life.
A SAVIOR
In his account of the birth of Christ, Matthew tells us (1:21) that an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph telling him that Mary would, “GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS,BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.” We have been given a Savior to save us from our sin and ourselves. Because of Jesus God can bestow upon us His amazing grace. Christ lived a perfect life and then He who knew no sin
became sin for us. He died on the cross for you. He took your place; He took my place. In so doing He paid the just penalty of our sin. The price of your sin has been paid in full. The moment you repent of your sin and receive Christ as your Savior, His death is appropriated to cover all your sin. God can then
forgive you and remain true to Himself. In Christ
He is able to express His grace and love to us while remaining holy and just.
“UNTO YOU IS BORN THIS DAY IN THE CITY OF DAVID, A SAVIOR, HE IS CHRIST THE LORD”(Luke 2:11). The coming of Christ to earth and then dying on the cross makes it possible for God to lavish His grace upon us. He can now give us the very things we desperately need but don’t deserve and can’t earn. These blessings of God’s grace in Christ are many and varied. Our concern this morning is with just two of them. They represent our greatest needs. We need to be set free from the just penalty of our sin. And we need to be set free from the power of sin.
THE PENALTY OF SIN
“When the famous naturalist Henry David Thoreau was close to death, he was visited by a very pious aunt who asked,‘Henry, have you made your peace with God?’
‘I didn’t know that we had ever quarreled,’ he responded. He didn’t know that there was a problem between him and God.Likewise, many people today are totally unaware of a problem. But there is a very serious problem. It is called sin and it separates us from God. Romans 3:23 declares that “ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD…”Hebrews 9:27 says, “IT IS APPOINTED UNTO MEN ONCE TO DIE, BUT AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.” Until something is done about our sin we remain unforgiven, separated from God and under His judgment. We need a Savior and that is why God sent us Jesus. The moment we open our hearts and lives to the Savior, we gain God’s forgiveness.
THE POWER OF SIN
God in His grace not only saves us from the just penalty of our sin but also from the power of sin.
John 8:34 states a fact that we all know only too well.
It says, “….EVERYONE WHO SINS IS A SLAVE TO SIN.” We all know how easily some sin can get a hold of us, control and enslave us.
George Sweeting illustrates this fact by telling about a family visit to Niagara He writes: “It was spring and ice was rushing down the river. As I viewed the large blocks of ice flowing toward the falls, I could see that there were carcasses of dead fish embedded in the ice.Gulls by the score were riding down the river feeding on the fish. As they came to the brink of
the falls, their wings would go out, and they would escape from the falls. I watched one gull which seemed to delay and wondered when it would leave.It was engrossed in the carcass of the fish and when it finally came to the brink, out went its powerful wings.
The bird flapped and flapped and even lifted the ice out of the water, and I thought it would escape.
But it had delayed too long so that its claws had frozen into the ice. The weight of the ice was too great and the gull plunged into the abyss.”
Sin has a way of doing the same thing to us. Such was certainly the experience of Joseph Pfister the night he had planned to jump off the Delaware Memorial Bridge. In the face of uncontrolled drinking, compulsive gambling and illicit sex he
was helpless. Although our sins might be different we all know that helpless feeling.Temper, sexual impurity, pornography, illicit drugs, dishonest gain, alcohol abuse and even the acceptable sin of materialism can easily enslave us. Bad habits, poisonous tongue, wrong priorities, harmful attitudes can easily control us wrecking havoc in our lives and homes. In the face of impatience, pride, hatred,
self-centeredness and a host of other sins we
are often powerless. In spite of our resolve we can’t seem to escape some sin’s deadly clutches even when
we are plunging into the abyss. Our will power is woefully inadequate. This is where God’s amazing grace can work a miracle in our lives. We don’t have to remain enslaved to any debilitating sin. Jesus said in John 8:38, “IF THE SON SETS YOU FREE YOU WILL BE FREE INDEED.” When we open our hearts and lives to the Christ of Christmas, surrendering to His Lordship, we can gain victory over those sins that the writer of Hebrews says, “SO EASILY BESET US”(12:1). Empowered and strengthened from within through the indwelling Holy Spirit we can gain the victory over these sins.
Romans 8:9 says, “YOU, HOWEVER, ARE NO LONGER CONTROLLED BY YOUR SINFUL NATURE BUT BY THE SPIRIT, IF THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES IN YOU….” As we cultivate a relationship with the Lord and learn to walk in the Spirit, we are able to gain the victory over any
sin, no matter how much of a hold it may have in our lives. As we allow the Spirit of God to control us we
discover that sin no longer reigns in our lives as it
once did. The first few verses of our text speak of this victory over the power of sin. It speaks of those who “FOLLOWED THE WAYS OF THE WORLD...GRATIFYING THE CRAVINGS OF THEIR SINFUL NATURE….” But then they turned to the Lord and in His grace were made “ALIVE IN CHRIST.” They were given power to resist and overcome their sin.
Worship, prayer, fellowship and the study of Scripture are the means of grace. These are the instruments by which God’s grace is dispersed to us. These are the avenues through which God gives us victory over the power of sin.
The Psalmist David, who had his bouts with sexual sin, eventually learned this liberating truth as he declared in Psalm 119:11: ‘THY WORD HAVE I HID IN MY HEART THAT I MIGHT NOT SIN AGAINST YOU .” Prayer is also vital to victory over the power of sin. As we faithfully pray about some sin over which we seem powerless, God, through His Spirit, empowers us to resist. Faithful, fervent prayer results in victory.
CONCLUSION During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities.
Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until Dr. C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the rumpus about?’ he asked. In reply he heard that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”(45/926)
Christmas is about God’s grace, His blessings through the Savior.In order to experience these blessings, however, we must personally open our hearts and
lives to the Lord Jesus. Have you ever received Him as your personal Savior and Lord? If not, why not do it right now?
