Standing For Grace

1 Corinthians 3:10 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.” NASB

Paul was the first to acquaint them with the fundamental principles of Christianity and now it was their responsibility to build upon the great grace foundation!

1 Corinthians 3:11 “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

James Madison the 4th President of the U.S. said of grace, “Grace, it is a free gift of God...to neglect grace is to neglect Him.”

In O.T. grace “chen” = favor. Noah and Moses the Bible says, “found grace in the sight of the Lord.”

In the N.T. grace is “charis” = gift, gratis

Ephesians 2:8,9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift (present) of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave (present) His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not parish, but have everlasting life.”

2 Corinthians 9:13 “...the exceeding (overflowing) grace of God”

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”

LifePoint: The Holy Spirit in us makes grace a strong foundation and an overflowing fountain of God’s favor!

In Islam, you will never find a Muslim use this word and you will never find the word “grace” used in the Koran! So we have an urgent calling on our lives to grow in grace!

As We Grow In Grace We Will Recognize 4Things:

1. Grace Can Be The Greatest Annoyance With Some.

An atheist once said, “If there really is a God of grace, may He prove Himself by striking me dead right now.” Nothing happened. The atheist proudly announced, “You see, there is no God.” His friend said, “You’ve only proved that He’s a gracious God.”

You can set your calenders to the new attacks that come at grace. Tis the season for grace hunters - those that try to mutilate grace found in the gospel. You may have heard this week that a James Cameron (Titanic producer) has found the “THE TOMB OF JESUS”!

James Cameron is now defending his controversial new documentary, which claims Jesus may have been buried with a wife and son.

Several major problems with this claim:

• Credible eyewitness saw Jesus alive after the resurrection.

• Wrong location of the tombs.

• Jesus was from Nazareth, not Jerusalem. So if there was a place of burial it would have been in Nazareth.

• “Jesus”, Joseph”, “Mary” were common names of the 1st century in Jerusalem. That is almost one 1 of 10 of every male.

• Even the Archeologist that found this site 25 years ago disagrees with this wild claim! Israel Antiquity Association- Fifteen experts looked at this and they said it was a monumental fraud.

• The disciple would have died for something they know was a lie. If they knew that the bones of Jesus were in this tomb. This in turn was the greatest fraud of all time!

Why is the resurrection so vital to grace? Because again it’s what God has done and not what man can do! Without the resurrection the crucifixion means nothing and without the crucifixion there is regeneration!

What good are Paul’s own words, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings...”

What good is our baptism? Colossians 2:2 “Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

George Gallup states, “This is the most crucial decade in history.Designer, a la carte religion flourishes as traditional Christianity is undermined by counterfeits.”

The Book of Mormon disgraces grace as in Moroni 10:32-33 “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you.”

2. Grace Can Be The Greatest Abuse With The Saints.

Jude 4 “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. NIV

Galatians 1:6 “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”

2 great threats to grace within Christianity:

GRACE

Legalism ----------------------------- Liberalism

Key: Grace keeps us balanced in out daily walk with Christ!