R516 The Benefits of God’s Grace

Many people talk about benefits, but today Dr. Don Wilton's message is called The Benefits of God's Grace. We'll head to 1 Thessalonians in just a moment with Dr. Wilton, but know that we're available for you. Connecting right now at www.tewonline.org. Meet us online, sign up for the daily devotional.

It's absolutely free at www.tewonline.org. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now, just a couple of weeks ago, I had a man ask me a question.

I had no idea I was going to be in 1 Thessalonians. But I was talking to him about the Lord and he doesn't know the Lord and he said this to me. He said to me, Pastor Wilton, if I give my life to Jesus Christ, what's in it for me? Now folks, that's an awfully cheeky question to ask of God, isn't it? Because we know that we should never ask God what He's going to do for us. We should ask God what can we do for you. But you know something that I've discovered? That God wants us to ask that question.

So I'm going to ask it for you today just in case you're afraid to do so yourself. I'm going to say, Lord, I've given my heart to you. What benefit is there for me?

What do I get out of this? What do you do for me? Now I know they're the things that we all know about and they are very important. He gives me eternal life. He forgives me for my sin. He gives me hope.

There are so many. But here in 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul puts his finger on some most wonderful dynamics. Remember now that he's talking to the church at Thessalonica and these Thessalonian Christians that gathered, they were not only going through a lot of trials and tribulations, they were about to be tested.

I mean, they were going to have a very difficult time. And so what Paul is doing here, he's putting the house firmly positioned on a solid rock. You know, it's like people come up to us and they say to us, listen, I want to encourage you to do something. I want you to save your money today because in 40 years from now, you're going to rarely be glad you saved it. And you know, we go through life and we don't save it.

And then we get to 40 years down the road and we say, you know, if only I had saved what little I had back then and taken care of myself, I wouldn't be in the predicament I'm in now, perhaps. Well, God is saying this to us. He's saying, listen, I want you to know something. I want you to know that because you've given your heart to Jesus Christ, I'm going to make available to you untold benefits.

Untold benefits. It's like if I go to an automobile dealer and I say to him, I'd like this motor car over here. And he says, well, all right, you'd like that motor car. And I say, I love that motor car. And I say to him, listen, I want some added benefits put on there. I want you to add this and I want you to add that.

And every time I say it, I hear cha-ching. Just a few more dollars here and a few. You telling me that those kinds of wheels cost another $5,000?

We'll leave those off. I have leather seats and I want this here and I want that way up there. And we go and we put on all the added benefits and eventually we say, guess what? I'm buying a brand new motor car and it's fully loaded. It's the absolute best. It is fully loaded. I don't even have to think.

I just push a button. God tells us that our lives that have been enriched by His grace have been overwhelmed by so many added benefits that we could never begin to add them up. And you know what? God allows us to invoke or to bring these benefits into play when we need them.

Well, let's read about it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and I'm going to begin at verse 4. For we know brothers and sisters loved by God that He has chosen you. Because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of severe persecution and suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord's message rang out from you.

Isn't that a wonderful phrase? The Lord's message rang out. It reverberated.

It ricocheted off you. Not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it. For they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols in order to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, this same Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. May the Lord write His Word upon our hearts. Last week in the first three verses we talked about the fruit of God's grace. And now Paul kind of building additional stones onto that foundation shifts gear. And I believe he talks about the benefits of God's grace.

What are the benefits? How do I benefit from God's grace? Well, let's look at them. Number one, I benefit from God's grace because I am chosen. I want you to focus in on that word because we are chosen. That's an incredible thought to think, isn't it?

Look right there in verse four. For we know that we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you. You know, it's like our relationship with our children. It's a most wonderful thing when we become part of a family. You know, we go through all the ups and downs of life in sickness and in health and all those kinds of things. And sometimes we disappoint our parents and we let people down. And in the midst of all of that, our moms and our dads and our grandparents say, Listen, son or daughter, I want you to know that, yes, maybe you've let us down.

And maybe you've let your family down and maybe you've let yourself down. But I want you to know that there's one thing that has not changed. And it's simply this, that we have chosen you. You are our son or daughter.

We have chosen you and we love you. And there is one thing that you can know that you know that you know that you know that you can always come back home. That there's always a welcome mat outside the door. There's always a bed for you to sleep in. There's always a place for you to lay your head down.

This is your home because we've chosen you and you belong to us. I've heard husbands and wives say that. Not too long ago, I was counseling with a couple that were having problems in their marriage. And we had a great discussion together over many, many weeks together. And eventually I looked at them and I looked at him and I said to him, My friend, do you remember so many years ago that you chose this young lady to be your wife? And do you remember so many years ago that you chose this young man to be your husband? And you made a vow before God because you chose one another and you believed that God spoke to you. I want you to renew your vow of choice.

What an unbelievable thing. Ephesians 1, 4. The Bible says he chose us in him. It's an amazing thing to think that God has chosen us. He's hand-picked us. He's not only hand-crafted us and selected us, but I tell you something, folks, when you and I find ourselves in the most difficult of circumstances to be reminded that one of the greatest benefits that we could ever imagine is that God has chosen us.

But there's a second benefit. We benefit from God's grace according to this passage because we are under conviction. Oh, you say, Pastor, that is weird.

What does conviction have to do with a benefit? I want you to think about this for a moment. Look right there with me in verse 5. God's Word says, Because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. Friend, one of the greatest benefits that you and I have in knowing Jesus Christ is that God puts us under conviction.

Now I want you to think for a moment what it would be like if you had no conviction. You're going to say to me, wait a minute, Pastor, conviction about what? What kind of conviction does God give to me? Well, you go into John's Gospel and John's Gospel teaches us that the Holy Spirit has come in order to convict us of three things.

Do you remember what they are? Convict us, number one, of sin. All say that, sin. Number two, of righteousness. All say, righteousness. Number three, judgment. All say, judgment. Now folks, I want you to all say this behind me. God's Spirit convicts me of sin, of righteousness, of judgment.

Let's say that together. God's Spirit convicts me of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. Now I want you to just imagine for a moment that you had no conviction about those three things. If you had no conviction about sin, do you know what would happen to you?

You would become a victim of sin. Folks, you can look all over the world today and you're going to see people who have rejected Jesus Christ, do not have the benefit of the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and so they say, well, I don't care. Do you know that's one of the most unfortunate phrases that we have cultivated in America?

Do you know that? You know when you go up to someone and you say, would you like some more? And they say to you, I don't care. Do you know that there's a world out here today who just doesn't care? When there are burglaries, folks, have you ever been burglarized? Do you ever had someone come into your home and take everything that you own and turn the place upside down?

Do you know why they do that? They don't care. What about physical abuse? You go and talk to someone who's been molested or physically abused, and you go and talk to the perpetrator of their deed.

If that person does not know Jesus Christ, they will literally look you in the eye and they will say, well, I'm sorry that I hurt you, but basically I don't care. What's yours is mine. What's mine is yours.

It's all there for the taking. I don't care. I don't care about people in another world. I don't care about taking Christmas boxes to little children, brother Sal. I don't care about giving to others. I don't care about soup kitchens. Listen, as long as I've got enough of my own, I don't care.

I'm going to go through life. I've got no conviction. I don't care if I'm immoral. I don't care if I cheat on my wife or my husband. I don't care if I let my children down. I don't care if I cheat on my income tax. I don't care if I use foul language. I don't care if I blaspheme the name of God.

I don't care. I've got no conviction. And God says, listen, one of the most wonderful things about knowing Jesus Christ is that we benefit because we are brought under conviction. Under conviction. Boy, I thank God for conviction.

I thank God. I don't always like it, but I thank the Lord for it. But it's not just conviction from sin. It's conviction concerning righteousness.

Now just think about that. Do you know what God says? God says, listen, when you come to know me, I not only deliver you from sin, but I enable you to live in righteousness. God is not only convicting us about what not to do, but God is convicting us about what we ought to do. That's righteousness. Righteousness is the antithesis or the opposite of sin. God says, wait a minute, it's not just one thing to be convicted about sin.

I need not do that. It displeases God. But God says, I want you to be convicted about what you do need to do.

That's my standard of righteousness. Well, if you have no conviction, folks, guess what happens? You don't care how you live. You've got no standard upon which to base your life. You've got no map to follow.

You've got no directions. You've got no principles upon which to stand. You've got no rules to follow that are godly rules that are according to God's standards. You're going to just do whatever you want to do because you have no conviction. You have no conviction of sin. You have no conviction of righteousness, and you have no conviction about God's judgment. And we're going to read about that. It's right there in the last verse that I read to you, verse 10.

The Bible says, Jesus who rescues us from wrath. Listen to me, folks. There are people in the world today who have no conviction whatsoever about the judgment of God. Now, people who have no conviction about it, they'll come and say, oh, come on, man. Oh, don't, listen.

We need to be politically incorrect in this thing. We need to sit around a table after midnight with a group of well-known people, and we need to just scoff at things of righteousness and judgment. Oh, come on. You don't really mean that God is going to judge anybody, do you? And besides that, you're contradicting yourself. You tell me God's a God of love. Now you're going to tell me He's a God of judge.

I mean, what do you want now? Put it on the table for me, and they'll become sarcastic, and they will start to question. There's no conviction. Folks, you see, the conviction that is in my heart tells me that Jesus Christ is the righteous judge, and He has already judged my sin upon the cross. That's why Paul said, there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in union with Christ Jesus. My sin has already been judged by Jesus Christ. I am convicted about that.

What a glorious time that will be. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of Dr. Wilton's message in just a moment, but he wants me to remind you we're here for you on our website at www.tewonline.org. We'd love to pray with you and pray for you. If you haven't signed up for the daily devotion, you can do so right now on our website, www.tewonline.org. You can even call for a physical copy at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Isn't that a great benefit to think that I can go through life as a believer under conviction? Parents, moms, and dads, can you imagine what would happen to your sons and daughters if they had no conviction about sin, righteousness, and judgment? Do you know what would happen when they get to Furman University? I don't care.

Can you imagine what happens when they get to Clemson or South Carolina? I don't care. Can you imagine if our sons and daughters grew up and began to date, and you went to them and you said to them, listen, my daughter, listen, my son, this person is not a believer. This person doesn't believe in the Lord Jesus.

Well, I don't care. Can you imagine living a life without any conviction? If we had no conviction, friend, we would go the same way the world is going. We would be lost and helpless and hopeless.

God says, hold on a minute, you're chosen, you're under conviction. Number three, third benefit, we are copycats. I love this one. We are copycats. Remember when you were a little one and you'd be playing games in the backyard and you say, copycat, copycat, you've all done that. Don't all look at me like that.

You've all done that. You're a copycat. You know what the Bible calls it? The Bible calls it an imitator. An imitator, doing something the same way somebody else is doing it.

I'll show you something really wonderful in here. It's a great benefit of the Lord. Verse six, the Bible says this, you became imitators of us and of the Lord. God says, one of the greatest benefits that I have as a believer is that I am invited to, encouraged to, and I'm convicted of my need to be a copycat of the life of Jesus Christ. God allows me to duplicate his life so that others might receive a blessing. I become a copycat.

Go with me. Just turn a few pages back to Ephesians. Turn back there with me very quickly, Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five and verse one.

Listen to this. Ephesians five and verse one. Paul says this to the Ephesian Christians. He says, be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Now watch what happens from this point. If you and I do not have the benefit of God's grace, my friends, we are unable to copycat God. We are unable to be imitators of him. What happens when we do not imitate or copycat God?

Here's what happens. But among you, there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality. I wonder if there's been any sexual immorality amongst anybody worshipping today. Listen to what he says, or any kind of impurity or of greed because these are improper for God's people.

They are not copycats of who God is. This is not the imitation of God, nor should there be obscenity. I wonder if there's any young person here today who this week, you used obscene language.

Listen to what God is saying here. Foul language. He even takes a foolish talk.

You know what foolish talk is? Gossip. I wonder if anybody's been on the phone gossiping this week. Hands up.

No, don't do that. Any gossip here? Anybody?

Have you brought anybody up to speed on somebody else's problems? Folks, listen. We giggle at these things and they are amusing, but they're very serious when it comes to the Word of God.

They are extremely serious. I wonder if you are somebody who always talks about other people. You are a gossiper.

You've always got little bits of information to share about other people. That's not imitating Jesus Christ. And so he goes on. He gets down to verse 15. He says, be very careful then how you live.

Not as the unwise, but the wise. How do we do this? We do it by appropriating the benefit of God. We become copycats. Number four, he says we benefit from God's grace because we are catalysts. We are catalysts.

Now look here with me at verse seven. The Bible says, and so you became a model to all believers. Now, if we were talking about science and we were in a science classroom right now, we would know that a scientific or a chemical catalyst is that which promotes a chemical reaction without changing itself.

A catalyst is something that promotes change in others without being directly affected itself. Paul puts it in a different way. He says, listen, one of the greatest benefits you have of God's grace is that you become a model.

I looked and that bothered me. I could just see myself walking down a runway modeling. That's not what he had in mind here, folks. And besides, I wouldn't look good walking down a runway modeling some outfit.

I won't do that. But what he's talking about here, he is saying to us that the ultimate benefit of God's grace is the fact that I become an example for others to be able to follow. Look what he says. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. And the result was that the message of the Lord Jesus Christ just rang out from you.

The benefit of God's grace is that God lets me become a model. Folks, nobody's more aware of that than me. Nobody's more aware of that than you. I go and sit in a restaurant. I tell you what, many times I sit there and I put another mouthful in my mouth and I suddenly realize that I'm being watched.

You know what I'm talking about, folks. Being a model. God gives us a wonderful opportunity. God says, listen, I'm going to give to you the benefits of my grace.

What am I going to do? I'm going to remind you constantly throughout your life that you're very specially chosen. You're not just hand designed and hand crafted and made in the image of God, but I have chosen you to be my son and my daughter.

I want you to know you're under conviction. It means that you are going to constantly have this constant reminder about staying and being where you need to be. I'm going to allow you to be a copycat. You're not going to do it in your own strength. You see, if you follow your own way, you're going to fall flat on your face, but if you copycat me, if you imitate me, you're going to be something that you cannot be yourself. You're going to be able to draw from the Lord.

He takes it further. He says, I'm going to allow you to be a catalyst. I'm going to let you be the reason why other people change.

I'm going to let you be a person of influence and example. And then he says, listen, there's another benefit here. We benefit from God's grace because we are changed people. Look there at verse seven. He says, For they themselves report, verse nine, I beg your pardon, they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols in order to serve the true and living God. You were a changed people.

What's the benefit of God's grace? I'm changed. I'm different. You're different.

You operate according to a certain set of criterion. You're a different person. You're different on that campus at Furman University. You're different at Georgia Tech. You're different in Columbia on campus. You're different at Anderson College. You're different at North Greenville. You're different at Gardner Webb. You're different at Mars Hill. You're different at Ohio State University. You are different at Dorman High and Burns and Spartanburg.

You're different at Boiling Springs. You're a changed person. It is the ultimate benefit of the grace of God.

You're different. You're changed. God is all about change, helping us become more like Jesus. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton as he's been preaching and teaching on the benefits of God's grace.

But coming up next, Dr. Wilton stepping into the studio, not to teach or preach, but just to open his heart to your heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Christ, rededicating your life perhaps, as you prayed along with Dr. Wilton, we have wonderful free resources for you. Would you give us a call at 866-899-WORD? That's 866-899-9673, or connect with us keyboard to keyboard on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org, a great place to discover wonderful resources like this. The encouraging word is having a summer book sale. Book prices will start at $6.

That's right, only $6. Visit us online at www.tewonline.org, and click the Store tab located at the top of the page. We appreciate your support. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but oh, tomorrow Dr. Wilton's message is on the meaning of reconciliation. He'll be teaching us in Colossians 1. Invite a friend and be sure and join us then. Till then, we can stay connected online at www.tewonline.org.