Romans 1, chapter 1, verse 1.
I'm not gonna review, I'm just gonna read.
Don't worry.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an
apostle separated under the gospel of God, which
he has promised to for by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures.
Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
By whom we have received grace and apostleship
for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name, among whom are ye also
the called of Jesus Christ.
To all that be at Rome, beloved of
God, called saints, grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
That's our objective tonight, folks.
Let's pray.
Father, we do thank you for your word,
your ministry.
Lord, we thank you for communion.
Lord, I pray that tonight there wouldn't be
one of us that proceeds in your word
with the slightest sense of guilt.
Lord, realize that the blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin.
And Lord, as redeemed blood-bought sinners, we
come before you tonight and just say thank
you, Jesus, for your work.
I am not worthy of anything, but in
your great love and mercy and grace, you
have made me your own.
And so, Lord, I've taken you up on
it, and I don't want to just do
it partially, but fully.
Therefore, I fully take your cleansing.
Lord, I open your word and ask that
you administer your truth to each one of
us now.
You strengthen and bless every one of us.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, here as Paul continues on, after he
kind of lays a little groundwork of who
he was and what his heart was essentially
all about, he tells us there a little
bit about the gospel when he says there,
which he has promised of for by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of
the seed of David according to the flesh,
declared the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of Holiness by the resurrection
of the dead.
Here Paul, as he since kind of introduces
us in an interesting and wonderfully interesting way
to the gospel, he wants to tell us
here that what I am telling you about,
number one, is that there's nothing new about
it.
Essentially, one of the things I love, I
heard once many years ago, I think in
Bible college or something, but it says the
new is in the old contained and the
old is in the new explained.
In other words, essentially what that phrase sort
of means, in a sense, is that the
New Testament is all contained in the Old
Testament.
It's all there and prophetically laid out in
seed form.
So the new is in the old contained,
but the old is in the new explained.
All these things that we see in the
Old Testament, like for example, so wonderfully tonight
as we looked at Isaiah 52 and 53.
Somebody reading that for so long, you know,
through history for hundreds of years would wonder
what is this?
But now in the New Testament, when we
see Christ coming, when the Lord has laid
upon him the iniquities of us all, and
we begin to put the lines together, all
of a sudden we see this wonderful truth
and all these things there that in the
Old Testament they're so wonderfully explained.
Essentially, in many ways, you might say there
is an awfully lot new in the New
Testament, but basically a wonderful recording that so
much of what was promised to occur in
the Old Testament has.
There's still much yet, of course, to happen,
but essentially there is that we have this
wonderful thing in the Bible that in no
other book in all the world is like
it.
No other events have ever happened like the
events that are promised and laid out for
us in the Bible, which are prophesied.
And when you just stop to think of
these prophetic issues that laid out Christianity, there
is no other religion, no philosophy, no concept
of the human mind or in human history
that has anything like the Bible has when
you look at the prophetic events about it
that point to Jesus Christ and prove him
to be indeed the Messiah.
All the other religions think or hope or
dream or suppose.
They all kind of wonder and talk and
then they have to back up and apologize
or re-explain something, but there's nothing like
that in the Bible.
The Bible, when it tells us what's going
to happen, it happens.
And one of the wonderful things that God
proves himself to the world to be God
is he had no trouble at all laying
out all of these future events of which
he is the king and the master and
the Lord over them all.
And so as he ushers them in or
produces them as he promised he would and
then he does it.
It's nothing to him because that's kind of
one of the nice things about being God.
You kind of do whatever you want whenever
you want to and then you can tell
somebody beforehand you're going to do it and
when it is people have to say must
be God.
And when you start stacking up events like
that and here when he talks about the
things that the prophets give to us in
the Holy Scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord.
And he said all these things prophetically there
prove him to be indeed Jesus.
And I'm just going to run through a
few things here.
I actually just have a list that you
can get in many places, but just a
few of the prophecies concerning Christ given hundreds
and hundreds of years before about him.
And I won't give you the references for
them.
You can get them from me afterwards for
a small price.
But just the list of them right now
is all we have time for.
But essentially here when you just start thinking
of these things and then in your mind
as we're going through imagine looking five, six,
seven, eight, nine hundred years before.
Laying these things out of events and of
a world that has yet to even come
into existence.
But events are happening like that the Messiah
will be crucified.
Well nobody even understood or knew what crucifixion
was at the time.
Saying he'll be born in Bethlehem.
When here this little teeny town saying there
that a family that is going to come
from.
Bible tells us that the Messiah will be
a descendant of David and heir to his
throne.
He would be anointed and eternal.
He'll be born in Bethlehem.
That he would be born at a very
specific time.
Daniel tells us about that in Daniel 9.
He'll be born of a virgin.
No easy task to do by that one
all by itself.
He'll be right after his birth though there
will be a massive slaughter of children and
he'll be taken down to Egypt.
There's all these things hundreds of years before.
Hosea wrote of that one.
A way will be prepared before him and
he'll have a forerunner that will come before
him.
And he'll be declared to be the Son
of God.
Have a ministry of healing.
He'll specifically in the region of Galilee.
He'll speak in parables.
He will have God's own name applied to
him.
He'll bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted.
He'll be rejected by his own people and
crucified by them.
But then after that there will be a
resurrection, a triumphant entry.
Though before that he'll be betrayed by a
close friend for some 30 pieces of silver.
He'll be accused by false witnesses, spat on
and struck.
And yet there his vicarious sacrifice will be
for the sins of the world when he
would die.
He'll be crucified with malefactors on each side.
He'll be pierced through his hands and his
feet.
Long before crucifixion even known or being used.
Mocked.
He'll be reproached.
They'll gamble for his clothing.
Side was pierced yet a bone not broken.
Buried with the rich for three days and
then he rose from the dead and he
ascended to heaven.
Now imagine just trying to take 1, 2,
3, 5, 10 events.
But in this is only a scattering.
Only a few.
But when you stop to think who else
in all of history and all the world
even dreamed of writing something.
Pick an event.
You go ahead yourself.
Good.
Tell me you know how's it what anything.
700 years from now what's the stock market
going to be?
Will there be a stock market?
You know will there be a country with
a stock market?
And when you would stop to just pick
different things.
You know who will be playing in the
Super Bowl?
What is a Super Bowl?
You know we're all of the things you
have hundreds and hundreds of years ahead.
But then to have it's like this wonderful
thing if you have this I think of
it sometimes like a bicycle wheel.
There when you've got all of these writers
from different times in different places in history.
But as God spoke to them and the
Messiah was to come.
It's almost like spokes on a wheel.
That one writes of this and one writes
of this and when he'll come and where
he'll come.
The family that he'll come from.
The situation around his birth.
You know the the children being slain at
his birth.
Going down to Egypt.
They're the ministry he'll have.
The way he'll preach and live and the
methods and the parables.
One after another.
But all of them.
Everyone I'm like these spokes have come down
to one event.
One person.
One place that only could have happened at
one critical time in history by one person
that could have fulfilled it.
And there he was.
Right in the midst of it.
No wonder the Apostle Peter tells us there
that he says even if we had been
following some cunning devised fables of men.
If somehow another we were fooled by Jesus
was just the greatest you know dog and
pony act that ever came along.
He was so clever.
He was so shrewd that he could even
con us and he did a day in
and day out for three years.
And he says but we have the more
sure word of prophecy.
Regardless of what we saw with our eyes.
Heard with our ears.
Handled with our hands.
In every way that we look at.
Humanly that can confirm him.
We have something greater than all of being
with him for three years.
We have a book that prophesied this is
who he was.
And he was.
And here Paul as he refers to this
is the gospel.
This is what it is so wonderfully all
about.
This is what says Christianity.
And what gives Christianity the right to be
absolutely dogmatic.
To be unbending.
To be inflexible.
To be something when somebody wants to look
and say why does why do you have
this Jesus the only way.
Why is Christianity when you can be so
narrow about it.
Well I want to say well who else
has been down the road that Christianity is.
How who else can you even gather together
amongst you know the presence of the Word
of God and Jesus Christ.
There is none.
There's no second.
There's nobody near.
There's other people that imitated him.
There's others that wanted to suggest they were
prophets and nothing ever happened.
All these other things that only proved a
man's inability to produce the future.
And set them away from Christ.
And ruined their right to even be thought
of in his category.
And thus we are ones that we have
the right to to be what the world
may think of as narrow or arrogant or
hard or close-minded.
And sometimes I've had people come and ask
me about Christianity and wanting to tell you
know say now can you you know I
want to talk to you but you know
you will you be open-minded.
I said no.
No I'm sorry I can't.
I mean as if it's something that I'm
gonna renegotiate the most awesome truths in the
world because somebody wants to sit down and
say I'd like you to renegotiate.
I said no I'm not open-minded about
that.
I know that better than my own name.
I know that better than who I am.
I know who he is.
When I was growing up my own brothers
used to tell me they traded me in
the hospital anyway.
I don't know if it's true or not.
But the thing is I could I think
I might be who I am but I
would much rather I'm much more convinced that
he is who he is than who you
are, who I am, who anybody is.
And here when we stop and realize that
this is what separates Christianity apart from absolutely
every other form of thought.
There's nothing near in the category of Christianity.
And here when so when when Paul writes
and he says they're declared the Son of
God but with power according to the Spirit
of Holiness and by the resurrection of the
dead.
You look at what the prophets had to
say and then you lay his life on
top of these prophetic things and they match.
Every line, everything fits flawlessly, gloriously, wonderful.
And he says therefore by whom when he
talks about Jesus he says the most amazing
thing about things that we'll look at and
we're gonna spend the rest of our time
on tonight.
Here is that Paul says hereafter you realize
that there is such a God as this
who has done what he has done, laid
all of these events out meticulously, carefully, wonderfully
laid them out, planned them out over hundreds
of years, preparing the entire entirety of world
history around this event, bringing it to it,
wanting to have a tremendous focus upon it
that separates it apart from absolutely everything else.
Then he says to think that after all
that is done to think that now after
he has done it he has come to
us.
He is now after he has risen from
the dead he now comes to us and
he says by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among
all the nations for his name.
He looks there and he says now to
think by God's grace we're included in this
unbelievable world that's his.
That he obviously came from and has gone
back to and now we can be a
part of it.
That God has literally called us unto himself
among whom are ye also that called of
Jesus Christ.
You stop to think that you and I
have you we've come to Christ we are
now a part of another world, another economy,
another kingdom.
We're called unto him we belong to this
very one that laid all of these things
out.
And then as he goes on in verse
7 he says and to all that be
in Rome beloved of God called saints grace
to you and peace from God our Father
and from the Jesus Christ.
And here I suppose to Paul something that
was so awesome to him when you stop
to think of it one of the things
that just absolutely transformed his life as he
makes this comment and he uses it all
the way through his life and all of
his letters he could never get far from
the topic and that is grace and peace.
It never goes far.
You see Paul was a man who lived
an awfully lot of his life outside of
grace.
He had spent though at the same time
a tremendous amount I don't know that you
could find a man at least that I
can study much of that probably worked so
hard to go to heaven.
I don't think you can find somebody that
so desperately wanted to go to heaven I
suppose in the Apostle Paul or Saul of
Tarsus as he was before.
When you look at his credentials and you
realize here's somebody that circumcised the eighth day
of the stock of the tribe of Benjamin
he tells us in Philippians there and he
says in his life separated of the tribe
of Benjamin and he says concerning the law
he says I was a Pharisee it was
perfect I was blameless and all of these
things persecuting the church I was zealous for
anything that wasn't of what I thought was
absolutely totally God and his truth and his
work and he says zealously I stood for
him in every possible way and here you
realize this man the effort that he went
to try to live a life that would
be acceptable to God it's it's obviously his
greatest desire somehow or another you can just
see a man there that of all the
passions and the dreams of life as I
want to be acceptable in heaven I wanted
more than anything in the world I think
you could safely say that about the Apostle
or Saul of Tarsus at any rate and
of course about Paul as he later became
but tragically though when you look at his
life and you follow what we know of
him that seemed like the harder he tried
the more miserable he was and the more
miserable he was the more miserable he wanted
everybody else to be around him I suppose
if ever misery love company and Saul of
Tarsus was one of that every once in
a while though when he found somebody with
some love or some joy or some peace
his first task was I'm gonna wipe that
off your face you know sort of a
guy anybody that came along his efforts to
destroy this terrible heresy called Christianity and as
the assault of Tarsus as he looked at
these people calling themselves Christians who had never
even thought of God never tried to be
acceptable of God never some of them put
forth an ounce of effort to be right
with heaven to be good to obey anything
some of them rebellious wicked people by his
concept of life far far from God and
even thinking of God by God and yet
here these people you know they all of
a sudden they almost at the drop of
a hat you know they had this theology
amongst themselves there that they could find God
and just like that their sins were forgiven
Christ had been risen from the dead in
a moment he came into their life and
transformed their life and that seemed absolutely incensed
him the path the fact that somebody without
tremendous effort without putting forth great you know
conviction and proving that they truly wanted to
be a citizen of heaven that just like
that somehow or another that they could just
go and have eternal life and that made
Saul of Tarsus angry he was here somebody
he made it his personal vendetta to destroy
this heresy you know called Christianity and to
wipe it off the face of the planet
if he if he could in watching these
people coming to to Jesus and for that
I'm sure that he hated Christ even though
he was only historical figure to Paul for
a time but he ended up he got
some papers from the chief priest I gave
him the authority and they gave him the
right there to go out under the laws
laid out by Moses and there was anybody
that was such a heretic he could have
them dealt with in almost any way from
death to imprisonment and all sorts of powers
were given to him there and Paul of
course later on himself said that he consented
to the first martyrs death Stephen and then
there were many others that he had put
to death and he had imprisoned and people
that he had made you know fatherless and
families he was a man there that he
consented to a lot of people's death and
because you see Paul was a man he
loved the law he loved there the fact
that there was something about life I mean
I'm gonna spend my life trying to succeed
and fulfilling the law living a right sort
of a life good life the way life
ought to be lived and he felt that
everybody ought to live under that law everybody
ought to want to go to heaven everybody
ought to want to please God and the
way you do it is through the law
tragic thing it didn't work but at the
same time Paul didn't seem to know that
I think is Saul of Tarsus his favorite
song his favorite song I think and I
wrote these words tell me how you like
this song amazing law how hard the sound
that pains a wrench like me I once
was lost still fear I am was blind
and I still don't see it was law
that taught my heart to fear and yes
my fear still be how miserable my heart
still is so miserable I'll be with thee
but I think he was somebody there that
he just he loved the law had never
made him happy Terry you can take that
and make a tune out of it I've
already got the tune down to I can
give it to you but anyway but the
but he was a man there that he
the law it was virtually everything but it
seemed like typical of what the law does
it only gives a couple joys you get
a little bit of joy in the law
for a few fleeting moments when for a
few moments you think you might have attained
it when you actually think you really did
kind of pretty good I suppose there's a
little bit of you know happiness for there
and then there's also a little bit of
pleasure and I think the better pleasure is
is that when you find somebody else that
hasn't fulfilled it Oh everybody that's living in
the law loves to find sinners that aren't
and that seems to be quite wonderful because
for a lot of people once you're under
the law it's kind of a grading system
and in this for a lot of people
it's kind of like grading on the curve
if you remember when you were in school
and they graded on the curve you know
the the thing about you know grading on
the curve is that you didn't do all
that good but one of your best joys
was whoever you found that did worse you
say oh I'm so sorry not really but
the and then anybody that did better it
was now your job almost to say well
they cheated you know or something there and
that's essentially the life of a Pharisee that's
the life of anybody that lives under the
law I mean that has to walk around
trying bless their poor hearts but praying publicly
fasting publicly carrying on as though they are
so much better than anyone else and when
all the time they're absolutely no different at
all absolutely no different at all human flesh
is human flesh in the fundamental nature of
us is exactly the same and either we
try to deal with our sinfulness and our
failures by trying to fix it up on
the outside by trying with our own human
efforts setting some standards setting some law and
trying to keep it or it is done
on the inside and that by grace and
the law though as Paul also tells later
on in Romans and in Galatians the law
only deals with the exterior if you achieve
it it will promise you life but if
you don't you're in trouble and Paul says
in Galatians 310 for as many as are
under the works of the law are under
the curse for his written curse it is
is everyone that continue with not in all
things that are written in the book of
the law to do them in other words
it promises you life if you do it
but if you don't do all of it
you're cursed all of it every bit of
the law you must do it you know
it's the old illustration kind of having a
chain link that goes from one side of
a mountain to another with a chasm in
between and if if you can have every
link that's perfect but just one week link
and that is gonna hold you in here
Paul he makes it clear you've come to
find that if you fail in any you
failed in all and so here Paul this
man who lived under this law who tried
for so many years of his life trying
to do it never did and now he's
actually out there trying to destroy the people
that have discovered what he had always been
looking for and yet he is angry at
them on the road to Damascus he's got
papers going down there to imprison you know
Christians in Damascus singing another tune that I
wrote I've got a river of strife flowing
out of me makes the peaceful fear and
the happy flea I've thrown prison people through
prison doors and thrown away the key I've
got a river of strife flowing out of
me wonderful another song but that's that's what
look at this what do you think well
but anyway here this man with this venom
with this strife with this hostility I've tried
so hard and yet what I've always dreamed
of having on my face these people instantly
are finding and all of a sudden he's
knocked off his donkey blinded and he hears
a voice Saul why persecute is now me
and he says it hard for you to
kick against the goads the Lord asked him
he says I mean I just means to
offer painful or wasteful resistance you know are
you getting tired of kicking fighting trying living
to your standards trying to achieve what has
never worked and you're so angry at these
people that have just found it at the
drop of a hat and they're on the
road to Damascus is he in a moment
just like these thousands of people whose faces
he had seen who had professed and who
were willing to die for it who he
had put to death who when he looked
at Stephen and he saw there a man
who looked to heaven up with the face
of an angel and these things had to
torment him he wanted to drive this off
their face and all it did was make
their face shine all the more because in
a moment they had received it and there
in a moment on the road to Damascus
when he says Lord who art I'm Jesus
and at that moment just like that the
snap of a finger his heart was quickened
all of a sudden he realized it was
Jesus Christ that he had always been seeking
his whole life every moment of every day
and every desire to please God to achieve
what was blessed God what would get him
to heaven what would satisfy the requirements all
of a sudden it all fit and he
realized that's it that is it and when
it hit him in one moment there all
of a sudden Paul introduces and became probably
the chief teacher for all the history on
this wonderful little word grace this wonderful work
of God and as you know the word
grace is Greek word charis but it means
unmerited favor it means there that pleasure whether
that which affords joy there is that speaks
of the loving kindness that God in his
merciful act where he just looks at somebody
and he saves them and he redeems them
and he forgives them and he puts his
hand upon them and he makes them his
child and he pours out his grace upon
them and they receive it and there in
an instant the Apostle Paul understood there what
he could never get under any amount of
effort under the law under grace immediately became
his and one of the by definition it's
an unmerited favor you can't merit it you
can't earn it you can't work for it
you can only receive it like Paul had
to receive it just like you know the
woman that had the five husbands or the
man that was demon possessed or the the
guy over here that had robbed and stolen
or the one that had done this or
whatever it was he had to stand there
in the same line in a moment say
give it to me give me life I
want to receive it and as far as
the Apostle Paul concerned from that moment on
every day of our lives are to be
lived by his grace according to his grace
and I just want to spend what little
time we've got here just giving you Paul
some of Paul's comments on grace that he
said in so many of his epistles because
grace became it Paul's entire theme and song
it wasn't just a part of the gospel
or something he kind of fit in and
and he talked about it now and then
grace was everything it was something that put
to Paul it became everything when he found
out about grace from that moment on there
was no other way to live grace gave
him his whole new identity and first Corinthians
you write him down and look at these
to go check him out later I hope
you will but in first Corinthians 1510 Paul
says by the grace of God I am
what I am he looked there and from
that day on whatever he was now no
longer Saul of Tarsus but Paul an apostle
a bond slave a servant of Jesus Christ
he could look there and he says listen
whatever I am now it had nothing to
do with my efforts nothing to do with
all of that it is all it is
God's grace that makes me what I am
because you see it was God God's grace
that brought him to Christ in Galatians 115
he says but when it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb he called
me by his grace there on the road
to Damascus as it is God at the
day and the time in the hour in
the event to say Saul Saul and he
called him out of death into life as
much as when you know the Lord Jesus
himself called Lazarus out of the tomb Lazarus
come forth there I mean when he spoke
there with the power of heaven Lazarus could
do nothing but come forth I don't think
he's gonna say in it all try me
I'm not coming no he keep coming in
the in the here when he called and
he says you come and there he came
it was the whole basis of his spiritual
life grace was a daily requirement daily to
go on acts 1343 it says now when
the congregation was broken up many of the
Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas
who speaking into them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God should listen you
discovered you've come to him now stay in
it abide in it don't ever leave his
grace it Paul it became his whole ultimate
reason for living he told the elders of
Ephesus he says none of these things move
me neither count on my life dear to
myself but that I may finish my course
with joy and the ministry that I have
received of the Lord Jesus to testify of
the gospel of the grace of God he
says I'm alive for one reason I exist
for one reason and that is to tell
anybody everybody all I can of grace of
this unmerited favor that God has it's what
produces maturity it is this something there you
need now and then it's the stability it's
the maturity the eternal inheritance of life acts
2032 it says now brethren I commend you
to God and to the word of his
grace which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among them
that which are sanctified here he looks he
says if you want to know how it
is that you'll be built up you want
to know the secret of you know your
maturity and your inheritance it's grace it's going
to be the very same thing that you
when you were there hopeless and lost eternally
cut off and there you just got I
can't merit can you do anything he says
that's what you need every day that's going
to be the source of what's going to
bring you into any maturity and any inheritance
you're gonna have for all the rest of
time and eternity it's all of grace and
it's absolutely free Romans 324 says being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus in Romans 4 for
he says now unto him that worketh is
the reward not reckoned of grace but of
debt here he says you know he looks
there and he says to me you're justified
freely by his grace and not by works
if somebody works there is no longer grace
Charles Spurgeon once wrote he says if heaven
were by merit there would never be heaven
to me if I were in it I
should say I am sure I am here
by mistake I am sure it is not
my place I have no claim to it
but if it is of grace and not
of works then me we may walk into
heaven with boldness to realize that God looks
and he says not only I'm gonna give
you heaven by grace I'm gonna give you
every breath you have by grace any service
you have anything that you are it's all
of grace Romans 11 6 and he says
for if by grace then it is no
more of works otherwise grace is no more
grace but if it be of works then
it is no more grace otherwise work is
no more work in other words Paul says
it's either one or the other if it
is by grace then it is not by
works but if it is by works then
it's not by grace it's one or the
other you are a child of God you
live you walk you talk you function either
by your own energy your own commitments your
own convictions your own efforts to be a
Christian or there is something that I am
what I am by the grace of God
totally Spurgeon again he says you might as
soon take he said you might as soon
yoke a gnat with an archangelist think of
your going to help Christ save you to
join a filthy rag from the dunghill with
the golden garments of a king or queen
cannot be permitted Christ will be everything or
else he will be nothing you must be
saved wholly by mercy or else not at
all there must not even be a trace
of the fingers of self-righteousness on the
axe and the documents of divine grace that
when you and I get in find ourself
in heaven will find ourselves saying you know
there that is only by the blood of
Christ not by works of righteousness nothing that
I have done at all and you see
grace it has a wonderful purpose in somebody's
life Paul told Timothy in second Timothy 1
9 who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling not according to our
works but according to his own purpose and
grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began here he looks at
us he says now he says God he
he loves us he's redeemed us he's forgiven
us it is all of grace and by
his grace he has a calling for our
life and he says I have a purpose
for you I have a plan for you
not because you're good not because you've earned
it not because you're worthy but because living
in grace is the message of the Christian
life it also is something that keeps the
person humble Romans 12 3 Paul says for
I say through the grace that is given
to me to let every man that is
among you to not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think but
to think soberly according as God has dealt
unto every man his measure of faith he
looks there and he says by grace what
God has done the result is is that
none of us have the right for one
moment to think of anybody any different because
whatever it is that we have it's God's
grace all of it Paul looked at his
own ministry everything he said and didn't was
it was all God's grace 1st Corinthians 3
10 he says according to the grace of
God which is given into me as a
wise master builder I have laid the foundation
another and he says but he said I
look at my ministry and he says and
what is it by it's all according to
the grace that God has given me Paul
you know could look at his life and
other people may say you're really something Paul
would say you know it has just been
according to what I've understood of grace that's
it has nothing else to do with it
anything that Paul he says all that I've
done and anything anybody thinks I've done it's
all his grace I didn't do it I
didn't help him he did it all the
other night and I have three sons to
him in the ministry and one of them
is up in Santa San Jose and another
down here in Capitol Beach and the one
from San Jose was down and so the
one from Capitol Beach said hey I want
the night off you come and speak for
me so we all went down and listen
to him and he told a story I'd
kind of forgotten about but when they were
kids I do remember it that is one
time but the first when I got a
car the first car I had that had
power windows and I'm taking the boys out
in the car for a ride my three
sons and we're in the car and one
of them looks he says where where are
the cranks you know to work the windows
and I turned to him and I said
to him I said well this is a
different kind of a car and I said
this doesn't have cranks I said this is
a modern car and I said you just
speak to the window and I said you
just say window up the window down and
he's really I said yeah try it and
of course I'm sitting over there on the
driver's side it's got all the control so
he sits there and he says window down
and I do the thing and the window
goes down their eyes whoa you know window
up and the next thing you know with
the windows going up and the other one
sitting over here I listen to him he's
got a window down so I'm working this
one then the other window up window didn't
next thing I know they're all going and
I lose this wait a minute you're confusing
the windows you know and you gotta hold
it down but here Paul looked at his
whole life all it was was just God
did it I he gives us words he
gives us a call he gives us a
ministry but it's all of him every bit
of it and nothing to do with us
it's all God's power it's all God's grace
that does it this weekend hopefully many here
and you'll take many and they're over the
harvest crusade and you'll go out there and
and maybe you'll listen to Greg as he
preaches in youth man is he something boy
I wish I could preach like that look
at this thousands of people getting saved and
coming to Christ well let me tell you
don't be impressed with Greg you had nothing
to do with him he's one of my
dearest friends and I love him dearly but
I want you to know it had nothing
to do with him at all he's just
sitting there saying window up window down he
just simply you know God just get that's
his ministry God called me says do it
and so he sits there he isn't saving
anybody any more than he's making a window
going up and down God does it God
does what it is you know and that's
the thing I mean people you know that's
why I think the one of the greatest
aspects of the whole concept of ministry that's
happened in a wonderful fresh way of Calvary
Chapel is it in Chuck's book I think
it'll be a classic someday but why grace
changes everything in the sense when somebody begins
to understand grace what it means unmerited favor
and God takes us and use that nothing
to do with us maybe some of you
think a lot of Chuck and well don't
be he just says window up and down
like the rest you know sort of a
thing he just discovered his grace and he
loves it and that's the issue when somebody
discovers the gospel of the grace of God
and they begin to share it and live
it in guy he'd God looks at you
when he looks at me and he just
says go say window up window down go
share it go do what it is and
live in its power and enjoy its grace
yourself in your own life begin to have
the boldness there to realize what God wants
to do with us and then when God
begins doing thing you realize it isn't of
you by the way Chuck is very wonderful
we'll find out tomorrow if he believes in
grace and I still have a job but
anyway but it's something there is that it's
all of life it's not just a place
you go to now and then it's not
a place you draw from here and there
it's not something that you kind it it's
it it's an entire experience like breathing the
grace of God the goodness of God you
never stop living it 2nd Corinthians 8 6
in so much that we desire tight as
he says that he that would have begun
so he would also finish in you the
same grace also he says God has started
you in grace finish in grace stay in
it all your life maybe some of you
you're you know your life as you you're
angry you're empty or hostile you're back trying
you're struggling on your own effort and you're
not doing it and then of course now
when you do that again you're soon as
you're under the law one of the ways
you know it is you're looking at other
people around you and you're grading on the
curve and hoping they fail and you pointed
out say look at you you're miserable Christian
and I have one of my few joys
in life is pointing out how miserable you
are you know or something and that's how
we are but it but if we know
grace and we're living in grace then when
we see a miserable Christian who is failing
we can look at them say you know
I got a wonderful remedy for the misery
you're in grace unmerited love forgiveness mercy goodness
can earn never could never have never will
no matter how many years I've been you've
how many years you've been in grace you
won't be any more worthy of it 50
years afterwards than when you began in God's
grace it's absolutely sufficient as Paul's found in
2nd Corinthians 12 9 he says and he
said unto me my grace is sufficient for
thee my strength is made perfect but here
it was something there that God's grace brought
Paul through even the most difficult of times
the most difficult of trials there's God's grace
again and again and it's absolutely without limit
without limit say Ephesians 4 7 Paul says
but unto every one of us has given
grace according to the measure of the gift
of Christ here as you look there and
you realize the limitless nature of the gift
of Jesus Christ in other words if tonight
you're seeing anything may have exhausted God's grace
if I exhausted God's goodness look at the
gift of Jesus Christ look at the cross
again look at communion and realize there you
can exhaust I suppose most anything else but
you can't exhaust in a sense the gift
of Jesus Christ and grace is given to
us that Jesus may be glorified within our
life God why does he give all of
this because God knows that the more we
know his grace the more will glory in
Jesus Christ 2nd Thessalonians 1 12 he says
that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
may be glorified in you and you and
him according to the grace of our God
in the Lord Jesus Christ he says there
he says when you understand his grace and
you live in his grace and you love
his grace there is something there that the
result is his Christ is just being glorified
in you his love his spirit his life
his power it begins to take over Thomas
Brooks once wrote he says grace and glory
differ very little one is the seed the
other is the flower grace is glory militant
glory is grace triumphant here he looks there
and he says grace is glory militant grace
is God doing the deep work within our
life fighting for the great things within us
but glory it was what happens when when
grace has been triumphant when finally I just
let the grace of God take over my
life it results in his glory he's glorified
in my life sadly though you can't remove
yourself from it Paul looked at this with
all of the wonder of it either in
Galatians 1 6 he says I marvel that
ye are so sorry so so soon removed
from him that called you unto grace of
Christ unto another gospel Galatians 2 21 I
do not frustrate the grace of God Galatians
5 for he says Christ has become of
no effect unto you who so whosoever of
you are justified by the law you are
fallen from grace here Paul looks there and
he says now the thing is is just
stay in grace don't just think that grace
is something that now that I've discovered it
now I don't ever need to seek it
and live in it anymore the wonderful thing
is is just sadly you can you can
reject it you can misunderstand it it can
be right there and God can do be
doing all he wants to give it to
you read of a story of a pastor
in Scotland somewhere one time that he had
a woman in this church a widow that
was having a terrible time financially in the
church decided that they wanted to help her
there with her bills and he went over
one day with some money to pay for
a house payment and to pay other bills
and he knocked on the door and he
knocked and then he came back again he
knocked again but no one was there it
took him quite some time to finally you
know find her and then you know weeks
later when he found her he said I've
come over to your house and I knocked
on the door she and you weren't there
he says well she said when was that
she said on such-and-such a day
and she said that was you and he
said yes and she said you came twice
yes and he said and she said I
thought it was a landlord coming to collect
the rent and you know sometimes God can
be there wanting to give us his grace
to forgive and to do a wonderful work
but some people think that when God is
coming is the landlord coming to collect rent
it's it's God coming to hold us accountable
for our failings rather than coming to say
I love you you're my child you're made
in my image it's what it's all about
and then I'm out of time I was
gonna do grace and peace but you won't
have any peace now till next week over
and over Romans 1 7 he says there
he says grace to you and peace from
God our Father 1st Corinthians 1 3 grace
and peace be unto you 2nd Corinthians 1
grace be to you and peace from God
our Father Galatians 1 grace and peace Ephesians
grace and peace Philippians grace and peace Colossians
grace and peace 1st Thessalonians grace and peace
2nd Thessalonians take a guess grace and peace
look at this are you sharp or what
but the 1st Timothy grace and peace second
Timothy grace and peace third Timothy there is
no third Timothy got you but anyway just
checking to see if you're listening but over
and over and over he says grace and
then peace he looks there and he realizes
there anybody don't if you're having trouble with
peace I'll guarantee you you're not having trouble
with peace you're having trouble with grace because
grace will bring peace they're inseparable Siamese twins
as they've been called when you and I
look there and say God I need your
grace tonight I need your grace free me
from judging people free me from trying to
judge myself or live to a standard Jesus
just by your grace unmerited favor take over
my life and live powerfully and then where
does it come from me grace and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ he says it's just a gift from
God to you father I thank you for
your love and I thank you for your
mercy and I thank you for your grace
and Lord I pray tonight that we may
look and take that grace Lord I pray
there wouldn't be a one whose theme and
song would be law standard Oh the exhaustion
the it'll never work Lord I pray that
you just knock us all off our high
horse down to the ground blind us to
where we can see none other than you
and here you say is it hard for
you to live this way Lord may we
say yes who are you and the giver
of grace unmerited favor I want you to
take it now in a steady diet of
it every day of your life I want
you to walk by it think by it
I want you to serve me by it
I want it to be your strength I
want it to be your hope I want
it to be that which is all-consuming
to you so much so as it brings
about the glory of God within your life
and you free Lord may we understand afresh
the grace of God in our own hearts
in our own life and realize it's just
there you knock at the door may we
not hide and say no no I'm guilty
I'm in trouble I can't answer the door
but rather may that be the very reason
we run to the door and say Jesus
realizing that never will one open the door
to you and you give them law or
judgment only to those that avoided grace all
of their life will one day stand alone
with Lord tonight may we open our heart
and be touched afresh in Jesus name amen