Divine Grace

"Divine Grace" – Jeremiah 31:2 "Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." The verse speaks of the caravan on its way to Babylon: in chains, beaten, their dead left behind them. And there, precisely there, they found grace. Out of that image comes the question that runs through the message: what is your Babylon? Because the exile was a laboratory of faith for Israel, and everything we live through is one. The study moves through Acts 11:23 —Barnabas saw the grace, and grace is seen in transformed lives—, Acts 13:43, and 2 Corinthians 1:12.

I. What Jeremiah is announcing

A. Jeremiah announces the restoration and the hope of Israel; and he says it to the very people Babylon is carrying away.

B. The verse speaks of the desert journey from Israel to Babylon: children went, women went, a multitude went. Some in chains, some battered, some flogged; and a multitude died.

C. But that people walking toward Babylon was the one that would have God's blessing: those who would survive and see the hand of God. Where they were going, they were going toward a hope.

D. None of those walking believed there was any rest. And God Himself brought them out of Israel, as was said in Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10.

II. The "why"

A. There is a famous little word in our mouths: why? And a righteous person must never put a "why" addressed to God in his mouth.

B. Nothing on earth comes from the devil: the devil does not govern the earth. The One who created is the only One who can act.

C. There was hope for Israel, but first they had to go to Babylon; it was required. And many of the things we have to live through are required.

D. The issue is not what we deserve or do not deserve: it is that life must be lived, because that is how we come face to face with what is inside us, which we do not even know.

E. When God begins to work with us it is hard: He treats no one like a child, but forms soldiers with mastery and with teaching.

F. All God's dealings are perfect, even when a person does not understand them. And the day you try to understand what is not yours to understand, it will go badly: because you will judge.

III. A word about Israel

A. The nations give their opinions; but Israel would be the one nation about which no one should opine, because God was dealing with them and it was God alone.

B. From that people the ten commandments flowed to the whole earth, and there the Master walked and gave His life; from there came the Gospel and the Old Testament we are taught from.

C. So: do not opine. Pray for their peace.

D. Nebuchadnezzar carries them off, but the purpose was not Nebuchadnezzar's: it was God's. This is not a matter of one president or another.

IV. The wilderness and each person's Babylon

A. In the Bible the wilderness is usually a symbol of testing and of solitude; and there it becomes the place where the people experience God.

B. There they learned that their relationship with God did not depend only on the physical temple, but on their personal faithfulness.

C. The believer cannot live a life of roses: what he has is divine grace, and with it, someone who goes out to fight for him.

D. "My brother did me wrong": God is allowing it, because the one being tested is you.

E. The exile was a laboratory of faith, and everything we live through is one: there God teaches what He wants to improve, what He wants to transform in our minds, and there we resist the Holy Spirit who convicts.

F. What is your Babylon? One has to enter the laboratory and be humbled: "make in me, God, the change I need". Because we examine ourselves and come out perfect; we know how to correct everyone but ourselves.

G. It was seventy years, and they had to endure to the last moment. We cannot rush what falls to us or skip the stages.

V. What divine grace is

A. It is the unmerited favor of God toward human beings: His love and His kindness, not because we deserve it, but because He is merciful.

B. We hold a high opinion of ourselves, and that high opinion turns us into rebels: "I didn't deserve this". We deserved nothing but hell.

C. No one deserves blessing, forgiveness, salvation, favor, or kindness. That is why it is free; that is why it is grace.

D. Every day we breathe is grace: you wake up and there is oxygen, and your organs are where they belong. It is grace that sustains, and that gave understanding to ordinary bodies.

E. Grace gives security: we do not depend on our perfection but on divine love. Everything that shines, shines only for a moment.

F. And it calls us to live grateful, obedient, and with purpose of heart, because we were all born for a reason. Whoever grasps that stops acting like a king and starts praying for someone.

G. If a person wrote down all the mercy God has shown him, he would see a long list; and he would never set foot in anyone else's life.

VI. Barnabas saw the grace (Acts 11:23)

A. Sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to confirm what was happening, Barnabas arrives and sees the grace of God in the new believers; and he rejoiced.

B. Grace is not something abstract: it shows in transformed lives. Their faces shone, their speech was different, they shared, they carried food to one another, they prayed for one another.

C. That is the sign: that selfishness, malice, and envy no longer hold power in you.

D. Grace produces joy, both in the one who receives it and in the one who beholds it. Barnabas does not judge or lay on burdens: he celebrates God's work in another.

E. And he urges the new believers to continue. Grace saves, but it also calls us to be faithful with purpose of heart: if you know someone has no food, you bring it.

F. The right response to seeing grace in another is joy and support, not criticism.

VII. Continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43)

A. Paul and Barnabas spoke to them, persuading them to continue in the grace of God. That is where one must persevere; everything else is nothing.

B. Jesus knocked Paul off his horse: "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks". He fell to the ground and was left blind. That is the impact of grace; we too were knocked off our horse.

C. They did not only preach: they accompanied. Discipleship is part of grace. Listening is not enough: we have to walk together.

D. To persevere is to be steady and to stand firm without retreating under opposition. Grace is not only the beginning of the Christian life, but the whole road.

E. And it is recognizing that a Christian always depends on God's favor, not on his own merits, which build nothing.

F. The word reaches whoever has a sensitive heart; whoever does not, it passes over. And a word not received is knowledge that will be lacking.

VIII. Paul's boast (2 Corinthians 1:12)

A. Paul writes defending his ministry against criticism and suspicion, recalling how he and his companions had conducted themselves.

B. "Our rejoicing is this": he does not boast in human achievements, but in a clean conscience before God. What he had was prison, shipwrecks, stones, and persecution.

C. "In simplicity and godly sincerity": simplicity is not natural to mortals. In a conversation, if there is no showing off, it was not a conversation.

D. The Christian life must reflect transparency, without duplicity or deceit; and that sincerity is the fruit of His grace.

E. "Not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God": it did not depend on cunning or on personal power, nor on piling words on words until nothing is understood.

F. The day a person comes to loathe himself —his bad temper, what he opines, what he says, his apathy, his flesh— that day he dies and grows in Christ.

IX. Application

A. Take the "why?" out of your mouth. What you have to live through has a reason that is not always yours to understand.

B. Identify your Babylon and enter it: it is the laboratory where God teaches you what you would not learn otherwise.

C. Do not skip the stages or rush what falls to you.

D. When you see grace in another, celebrate it instead of hunting for fault.

E. Pray for someone other than yourself, and stop living so exclusively.

F. Do not speak from impulse or mood: we are vulnerable, and life is short and quick, and it does not run backward.