I have one simple hope for you today: to convince you that you need the grace of God. My aim is to persuade you that you that God’s grace is a big deal. Many of you have consciously experienced the grace of God at your conversion… and I hope to deepen your God-given appreciation for it.
The back door of deepening your appreciation of grace will see a deeper grasp of humility. Others of you, who are under the sound of my voice, have never consciously experienced God’s grace. In just a few moments, I’m going to extend to you an invitation. An opportunity for you to experience free forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. Our pastors will be down front at the front of the room. We want you to experience the grace found only in Jesus Christ. If you are outside of Christ this morning, then… you know nothing of its sweet taste on your lips. You know nothing of its restful embrace in the middle of the night when remorse and regret used to wake you as your conscience experiences terrible pangs. You may know only the grace as simply something said over a meal. But you don’t know the real meaning of grace. And your ignorance is colossal. For grace is the Gospel. If you don’t know grace, you don’t know anything about the Gospel. And if we (the church) don’t know grace, then we are not a church. The people inside the church are prone to forget God’s grace. We are prone to live as if the grace of God is not true.
Today’s Scripture
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:4-9)
Today’s Big Idea: You’re not basically good. And God doesn’t treat you how you deserve.
I cannot overemphasize the magnitude of today’s message for your life. To the extent you are unclear about who does the saving in salvation (you or God) is the degree in which the Gospel and the Bible is obscured. God’s grace is a big deal. The word “grace” is used only time in today’s Scripture. Yet, God’s grace is spoken of about 400 times in the OT. And God’s grace is spoken of about 200 times in the NT. This is a mega-theme in our Bible. Grace is so big, it’s even the very last words in our Bible: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:21) That’s the very last verse in your Bible. So grace is a big deal.
Again, the word “grace” is used only once in today’s passage. Yet, everything flows down from this word grace. Everything Paul is giving thanks for in the verses after verse 4 is from the grace of God. So, my aim this morning is that you realize how gracious God is toward you.
1. Grace is a Gift from God.
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus…” (1 Corinthians 1:4)
Paul is writing to a church that thinks it is important. The people who comprise the church in Corinth think they have arrived. There is very little humility in this church. Corinth is a fairly new city, around a century old as Julius Caesar re-founded the city in 44 BC (the Romans had destroyed a century earlier). The upstart city was a commercial success as it was the major crossroads between north and south and east and west. A great deal of the first century’s goods traveled through this city. It was a place where sailors hung out from coming off the nearby seas. This small church of approximately 50 people in a town of 250,000, had taken on the characteristic of the city itself – it grew to believe its press reports. The people lacked genuine humility. So, Paul begins his letter by reminding them (and us) that grace is a gift.
God’s grace means God’s goodness toward those who deserve only punishment. God has two kinds of grace for people: common grace and saving grace. Saving grace is what this sermon is about and I’ll deal with saving grace for the majority of this message. Common grace is the grace of God where He gives all people numerous blessings beyond hell. Common grace is His kindness to all people. Common grace is His love for all people: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45b) And Luke 6 says: “…for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Luke 6:35b
When I sin, I should die and go to hell. Anything other than that is common grace. When you die, common grace is of no help to you.
Common grace has an expiration date on it – it expires at the end of your life. God’s common grace includes:
1. The restraint of evil by the act of the Holy Spirit;
2. Everyone has a conscience;
3. God’s gift of government and law.
Without God’s gift of common grace, this world would be hell and total anarchy. It would be nothing but evil all the time.
But then there is saving grace. This is as John 1:16 calls it: “Grace upon grace…” Saving grace is additional layer on top of common grace.
Here is why Grace if a Gift to me. This is who I am before Christ or this is the “before picture.” I am one who does evil continually (Genesis 6); I am one who is impure (Proverbs 20); I am not righteous or good (Ecclesiastes 7); I am full of evil and madness (Ecclesiastes 9); I am full of wickedness (Psalm 58); I am rebellious (Isaiah 59); I am a person who loves darkness (John 3); I am a slave to sin (John 8 and Romans 6); I am a child of the devil (John 8); I do not understand nor do I seek God… I am stiff-necked and a resister of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7); I have turned aside and worthless… I have not done good … I have an unrepentant heart (Romans 2); I am without fear of God (Romans 3); I am an enemy of God (Romans 5); I am hostile to God (Romans 8); I am spiritually foolish (1 Corinthians 2); I am spiritually dead and among the children of wrath (Ephesians 2); I am darkened, alienated, marked by ignorance and hardness of heart (Ephesians 2); I am callous, perverted, greedy, and impure in every way imaginable (Philippians 3); I am defiled and unbelieving (Titus 1); I am under the power of the evil one (1 John 5); I am foolish, disobedient, and led astray… I am hated by others and a hater of others (Titus 3)… Apart from God doing anything, that is who I am.
Grace is never obligated to us. God never owes us anything except hell.
1. Grace is a Gift from God
2. Grace is Only through Jesus Christ
Again, I said there were 2 kinds of grace: common grace and saving grace. Common grace is for all. Saving grace in the Bible is reserved for some. Saving grace is only through Jesus Christ. Apart from grace, there is no Christianity whatsoever. Grace distinguishes Christianity from every other religion. Every other religion says, “You need to be a good person because God loves good people.” Christianity says, “You’re not basically good. And God doesn’t treat you how you deserve. He is gracious to you and His grace changes you, so that you can become good.
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus…” (1 Corinthians 1:4)
Remember Paul’s preaching of Christ isn’t the only religion in his day. There was the temple of Aphrodite was built upon the flat surface an 1,800-foot high precipice called the Acrocorinth. This small mountain was behind the city of Corinth as it displayed a foreboding presence to everyone who visited the city. The Corinthian people credited Aphrodite with bringing wealth to the city of Corinth. There were 26 sacred places in Corinth devoted to the many gods of the Roman religion. Paul’s preaching of Christ as the only true God would not have been welcome by many in such a diverse religious community. The major religion of Corinth in Paul’s day was self-promotion and self-achievement. Religion’s consciousness has not evolved from Paul’s day to our day. Don’t believe that people in Paul’s day were naïve to think that Jesus was the only way and we are enlightened in our day.
3. Grace Affects Your Speech
“that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge” (1 Corinthians 1:5)
Paul speaks of God’s grace approximately 100 times in his thirteen NT letters. In each of his letters… In categorically each one of his letters, Paul begins and ends with the exact same theme: the grace of God.
4. Grace Affects Your Mind
“that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge” (1 Corinthians 1:5)
Remember the two kinds of grace from the beginning of the message? God’s common grace includes giving people brilliant minds where their thinking maybe used to argue against the existence of God. They speak against the God even though He has given them the ability to think… and breathe… and write… and speak. That is how gracious God is. Yet, the grace that affects the mind in verse five is saving grace. When you are a believer, you so bath in the grace of God that even affects your mind. I don’t have a ton of time to go into this but let give you one quick example of this is my next point.
5. Grace Equips You
“so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (1 Corinthians 1:7)
Not only is the forgiveness of your sins by God’s grace, but the entire Christian life is by the grace of God: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
From birth to the grave is by grace, there is not one action of your life that does not spring from the grace of God. There is not one aspect of loving Jesus Christ that does not spring from the grace of God. Most of you think of God’s grace in only two ways. You know that God saves you by grace… And that when you die, you go to heaven by God’s grace. In between, you try really hard… you do your best… You try to make God happy… You hope He doesn’t change His mind… And you try not to tick Him off.
6. Grace Sustains You Until the End
Christ promises to do for you what He commands from you: “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
There are two lines to the famous hymn Amazing Grace: “Tis grace has brought me safe thus far;” “And grace will lead me home.” Christ promises to do for you what He commands from you.
7. Grace Removes Your Guilt
“who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 1:8)
Perhaps you have reminded how much your relationship with God has depended on you. Perhaps you have heard lists of things that could damn you to hell. Perhaps you have been told that if you die with an unconfessed sin, you could be eternally lost. What if you mess up on some Saturday night and Jesus returned to judge everyone before you could walk down the aisle again on Sunday? What if you can’t remember a particular sin in order to confess it?
“so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)
Hear me clearly... I am not saying that God has not much for you, now what will you do for Him. I am not saying that Christ gave His life for you, not what will you give HIM. “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” (Romans 11:6)
