Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. We're in 1 Corinthians 15 this morning speaking on the topic of God's grace.
This is an overview, so we're talking about God's grace, what it is, and what it does. I have had just a wonderful semester, and I've enjoyed your singing over and over again. And when I know that God is really working in my heart through the singing, it's when I cannot sing, and that happened to me this morning as we were singing together, that God just floods his joy into my heart so that I am speechless before the great God that we serve.
I tried to sing, but these guys carried it back here. And it's a privilege to be part of this team to serve together with Dr. Benson and the team that we're working with, and it's just been a tremendous semester. And I hope you'll have a great Thanksgiving break and that we'll have a great service tomorrow as we anticipate giving all glory and praise to the Lord in that special service tomorrow. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10, really most all of these verses that I'm going to be referring to this morning will be on the screen. And so I'll have to move rapidly. I have eight main points this morning.
So stay with me and we'll try to finish on time. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10 says, By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me. I've done a good bit of reading in preparation for this message about God's grace, kind of reading about it theologically.
It's a really, really big, vast, multifaceted topic. But in my reading, it seems that after you read all you read and go through the big picture of God's grace, when you cut to the chase, it comes back down to that simple definition we learned as children, that God's grace is His unmerited favor. God's grace is His divine enablement. And there's a beautiful definition in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament that I would like to draw from.
It's just beautiful. It does give the pretty full scope of the meaning. But then we'll go to Scripture and just kind of knock out some points this morning that hopefully will help us in our personal lives. This definition says that grace is that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness. There is grace of speech, goodwill, loving kindness, favor.
And then especially this portion of the definition. Grace is the merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of Christian virtues. God's grace. To begin with, God's grace saves us. God's grace and salvation is His unmerited favor. Again, the simple verses we learned as children. For by grace are you saved through faith, in that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, lest any man should boast. In Ephesians chapter 2, in those early verses leading up to these better known verses, Paul describes the condition of unsaved people as being dead in trespasses and sins. As being caught up in the lust of the flesh and of the mind and caught up in the way of the world. But then he speaks of God's grace being that which saves us. That which convicts us of our need of a savior.
That which shows us our sinfulness instead of our proclivity to self-righteousness. God's grace brings clarity to us as we begin to understand who Christ is and what He has done and how that applies and how we can claim His sacrificial death on Calvary as the full penalty and payment for our sin. That He died, that He rose again, that He lives today, that He's coming again. And we begin to understand all that God has done for us in Christ. And then He convicts us of our need. And He converts our soul. He imparts to us new life. He declares us righteous in His sight. By His grace, we are justified by His grace. And every last one of us who knows Christ as savior began the Christian life the same way. By the unmerited favor of God in which He did all those things for us.
Even if we were not really totally aware of all that was going on at the time. Aren't you glad that God has saved you by His grace? And that should do something for us. That should cause us to live a life of humility and gratitude and every day, as it were, come back to that starting place and thank God for the salvation that He has so graciously bestowed upon us.
We did not deserve that at all. And certainly He did not deserve the death that He died voluntarily on that cross when He shed His blood and paid the penalty of our sin. And you know what else an understanding of God's saving grace should do? It should give us hope that He can save others.
Perhaps you're going back to a situation back home where there's someone that is hardened and disinterested and caught up in sin and all of its devastating consequences. And in our hearts we wonder if God could really save someone like that. But let me assure you, if God saved you and me, He can save the chief of sinners. In fact, that's what Paul is saying when he refers to himself in 1 Corinthians 15, 10. He says, by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. And so Paul had been persecuting the church and there on the road to Damascus, God struck him down and revealed Himself. And the very first words out of the lips of the Apostle Paul in that Damascus road, having seen the living Christ, was, Lord, Lord, what will you have me to do? And so God's grace saves. God's grace also sanctifies us. It starts us on a pathway in this new life where with the new desires, how fledgling they may be, those new desires that God works in our hearts, He begins to draw us to a life of living right, of seeking His face, of having a desire from the heart for genuine holiness, sanctification, dedication. Titus chapter 2 and verse 11 says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
It's available to everyone without distinction. And it teaches us something. It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. All of the things, the negative things described in that verse are that which pulls upon our souls. That which would pull us away from God and the things of God. But far from the grace of God liberating someone to live a loose life and please Himself, rather the grace of God instructs us to deny ourselves.
Self-love is very natural, but self-denial for the glory of God is supernatural. And what should be taking place in our hearts as we grow in this sanctifying grace is there is an increasing desire to turn away from anything that would harm our spiritual walk and to pursue after the things that would please the Lord and would increase our godliness from the heart by God's grace. That we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age. Understanding that the grace of God is so free and unmerited could lead a person to a wrong conclusion that somehow now grace has liberated us from the obligation of obeying the Lord from a heart of love. Paul raised that question in Romans chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 because he knew that would be the natural inclination of wrong thinking following God's grace in their lives. And he says, he says, How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
He says, God forbid. And so grace, God's saving grace works in us also to sanctify us or to set us apart unto God to a life of godliness. And then grace serves.
Grace serves. In our opening verse we noted that Paul said that he, and he's the only one that can say this really, and he said it under inspiration. It was his self view of his many labors for the Lord and he says, I labored more abundantly than they all. But then he acknowledges, yet not I.
He's not taking credit for that, he says. But the grace of God that was in me. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10. He says, as every man, every believer, hath received the gift.
Every believer has one or more spiritual gifts. This is underscored in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 refers to gifts of ministry, and right here simply in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10. As every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God gives, that God in all things may be glorified to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. I'd like to summarize those two verses in 1 Peter 10, 4, 10 and 11 this way. God gives gifts, God gives grace, and God gets all the glory for the exercise of those gifts. If you're saved, then God's called you to a life of humble service, using spiritual gifts, investing your time, talent, and energies to spread the gospel, to spread the gospel around the world, and to be a light certainly both at home and abroad. He's called us to a life of service.
College life is very, very busy. It's easy in college life to get, even in a Christian college setting, it's easy to get turned inward. My responsibilities, my grades, my this, my that, my relationships, my time, but what really ought to be taking place in a transformational way throughout your years, especially these formative years in college, and on breaks when you have opportunity as well, to find ways to serve the Lord, and to serve others, and to spread the gospel, and be a help to believers, and to live out this life of service. God's grace puts within us a compelling desire to serve. And as Peter mentioned, some of those gifts are speaking gifts. God's grace not only serves, but God's grace speaks.
It motivates us to speak up. In Acts chapter 4, the apostles were under persecution. They'd been threatened, don't speak up. They had, one had said back, Acts 4 verse 20, he says, For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And in that still season of persecution they gathered, and they had a prayer meeting, and Acts chapter 4 tells us when they had prayed, the place where they prayed was shaken. And then it says, And they spoke the word of God with boldness. Acts 4 33 says, And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So you see in the verse, there's a relationship between our boldness in speaking, and that good grace of God that is working in our hearts.
Sure, not everyone is as outspoken as others. Not everyone will take a lectern or a pulpit. But it should be true in the life of every spirit-filled believer that we cannot but help the things which we have seen and heard. We cannot help but on the airline or on the bus or in the public setting or in the neighborhood to tell other people what Christ by His grace has done for us and what He will do for others. May God help us to be good witnesses, bold witnesses, evangelists speaking up for Christ for God's grace speaks, it motivates us to speak up for Christ.
And then God's grace strengthens us. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 1 says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Timothy was Paul's best protege.
He said to Philippians, he says, I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. By this point in 2 Timothy, the last epistle of Paul, his last words to his protege, they had served together on and off for some 15 years. And yet, even though Timothy was still a relatively young man, he had been seasoned by the apostle Paul and they had done much gospel work together. You know, it appears to me in 2 Timothy, especially 1 Timothy, where Paul says to his younger friend, he says, You know, God's not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.
Perhaps Timothy's personality was marked by a little bit of reserve or timidity. Perhaps it was marked by a hesitancy to go forward for Christ. And so Paul says to him, be strong. That is, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Maybe you've known the Lord for a good while. Maybe you've been on a pathway of dedication and sanctification and service and so forth, and you've been doing well, but there will be seasons in your life where you'll run out of gas, you'll run out of fuel, or come close to it.
Or you think that's the case. And you need someone to come alongside of you like Paul did to his friend Timothy and speak tenderly to him and say, Now my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We do not have in and of ourselves what it takes. Grace is the fuel for the Christian life. And of all things we need, we need God's grace to give us strength to go on. Paul said in Ephesians 6 and verse 10, he said, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. In Joshua chapter 1, here was young Joshua. Moses having died recently, they're on the verge of going into the promised land. And the Lord speaks to Joshua and three times He says to him, Be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous, be strong and take courage.
Because the land is yours, and the law is yours, and the Lord is yours. Young people, if God has told us to be strong and He's made His grace available to us by which we can be strong, then by all means we should be strong. God's grace strengthens us. And God's grace also motivates us to sacrifice. Speaking here of giving, there's different ways in which you can give.
I alluded to time, talent, and treasure. In 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 7, Paul refers to giving as a grace. It kind of works against that which is the normal human nature to hold onto or to save or to hoard or to not be selfless in our giving. Paul would say in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 6, He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. The New Testament speaks of giving as being, 1 Corinthians 16, as being regular and systematic and proportionate. And here in 2 Corinthians 9, he speaks of giving being generous. We might say sacrificial. There's a lesson to be learned in life, and that is that we should give very generously to the things of the Lord. But we should also learn that incredible lesson that you cannot out-give God. God not only expects us to give generously and sacrificially, but His grace does something special in that it supplies as well. In fact, it resupplies.
In 2 Corinthians 9, 8 we read, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work. He goes on to talk about how in agriculture that the seed we get from the crops we raise can be reinvested like an ear of corn typically will have 800 kernels on it. A watermelon could have 300 seeds.
A large sunflower could have 2,000 sunflower seeds on it. In agriculture, the principle is you take that which you have harvested and you plant it again for an even greater harvest. This is how it works in the work of God. And when you give away yourself and give away your time and give away your treasure, you don't have to ever wonder if God's grace is going to fail to resupply your ability to do even more for the Lord.
This is why Paul would say to the Philippian believers in 4.19, he would say to a giving group, and my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. He'll supply your college financial needs. He'll supply your early life needs. He'll supply the needs for your young marriage and the children that you and your spouse will have.
He'll supply needs for all of your life. Just give yourself to God and watch Him take care of every need. And then finally this morning, God's grace suffices. God's grace suffices. Paul would say in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 in verse 9, amidst the misunderstanding and the false allegations and the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet Him, that had compelled him to three times say, Oh God, please take this away from me.
And God's answer to him, as you see on the screen, he says, My grace, here's our word, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And Paul's response was, most gladly therefore will I rather rejoice in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Some of you face hard things, especially for a young person. Right now you're facing hard things. The infirmities, the weaknesses, the things that you face that oppose, it seems, your pursuit of the will and purpose of God for your life.
Look at those things through the lens of the grace of God. Paul had great privilege as an apostle that would have tended to lift him up and he recognized that God had given him opposition, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he would be lifted up above measure. He knew the pressures were good for his humility. He had privilege, yet he had weakness. Yet amidst that weakness he had power that caused him to rejoice in his difficulty and knew that it was in the setting of his infirmity and weakness that God's great gracious power would work through him more miraculously. God's grace is found in Jesus Christ who is full of grace and truth. God's grace is available to the humble but not to the proud, James 4, 1 Peter 5. It is available through prayer at the throne of grace.
It is available in God's word, which Acts 20-32 tells us is the word of his grace. Grace transforms our character, changes our goals, grants divine purpose and power, turns us from self-dependent, self-glorifying, self-centered living, delivers us from misplaced priorities in an unsatisfying, greedy, restless lifestyle. It fits our homes and hearts in order. Grace can slow us down. It can speed us up. It causes us to adjust our pace in life.
We all need a good balanced diet, sufficient rest, regular exercise, discipline, diligence, enjoyable fellowship, strong relationships, and certainly times of refreshment. But above everything, we need God's grace. God's grace, the divine energy of the soul, poured out upon the believer from the heart of God, providing motivation and endurance to run the good race of life. Indeed, God's grace is amazing. It is marvelous.
It is wonderful. God's grace to the glory of his name. Would you pray with me, please? Lord, we would say with Paul, by the grace of God, we are what we are. We thank you for your gracious working in our lives to bring us to Christ, help us to live out a life of grace and service, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Bruce McAllister, Vice President for Ministry at Bob Jones University. Join us next time as we study God's word together from the chapel platform at Bob Jones University.
