"As every man hath
received the gift, even so minister the same one to
another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."-I
Pet. 4:10.
Introduction. Down through
the history of the church, men have sought to define
the grace of God, the unmerited favour of God, the kindness
and love of God. But the Grace of God transcends all
our feeble efforts to describe it. It cannot be poured
into any of our mental receptacles without running over.
To understand about God's grace and what the Lord is
talking about when He speaks of us "as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God," we have to know
that grace is divided into two great sections or systems
of truth:
The grace of God as it applies to the unsaved and the
grace of God as it is evidenced in the Christian.
First we consider the grace of God as it applies to
the unsaved. The Bible has much teaching about being
saved by God's grace.
One example is Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord."
As far as our salvation is concerned, grace is the unmerited,
undeserved favour of God to us. This is made plain in
Ephesians 2:8,9:
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works,
lest any man should boast."
Another verse on this
is Titus 2:11: "For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men."
In this study, I am considering the grace of God as
demonstrated in Christians.
After we are saved by grace, God exhorts us to "grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ"
2 Pet 3:18 But grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.
Amen.
While the grace of God in salvation is His unmerited
favour, the grace of God in a Christian, is God's method
of dealing with us, working in and through us to make
us Christ like.
I want to share with you some truths about God's grace,
as demonstrated in His people.
1. The Grace for a Sanctified Life.
God's grace in demonstration, shows that He can not
only save, but He can display His grace in a Christian's
living for the glory of God.
A great verse on this is John 1:17: "For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ."
Two great sections of the Bible are the dispensation
of law and the dispensation of grace. Under law, only
the good were blessed; under grace, the bad can be saved.
Under the law, one was in good standing by keeping the
law; under grace, we are in good standing by the favour
of God.
Many are living under the law. The closing verses of
Romans 5 and the opening verses of Romans 6 show how
the grace of God can be manifested in holy, dedicated
living.
In Ch. 5:20 we read, "Moreover the law entered,
that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound."
In Ch. 6:1 Paul says, "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"
Then Paul uses a statement he uses many times when strongly
emphasizing something: which God is talking about. "God
forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?"
Some may say, "If we are saved by grace and not
of works, then under grace we are at liberty to do as
we please."
That is true in a sense. You are not under law now,
and you don't have to live under law. But someone truly
saved by the grace of God should long to do right.
And this is what Paul is saying: "Shall we continue
in sin, that grace may abound?" Paul answers his
own question: "God forbid."
We are to serve God, love God, live for God because
we want to, not because we have to. There is a great
illustration of grace in the Old Testament, of grace
in the life of a believer.
Back in those days people had servants-slaves, -but
God said in every sabbatical year (every seventh year),
every slave owner was to free all his slaves and start
over. God knew that some slaves would not want to go
free.
In seven years they had learned to love their masters.
During seven years, their masters had provided for their
every need. In seven years the slaves had found a blessed
home with them.
So God said; if they didn't want to go free when released,
each master could put the slave's ear against a hard
surface, and put a hole in the ear, marking the slave
as his.
Spiritually speaking, every Christian should have his
ear bored, meaning he serves God under grace because
he loves Him and wants to serve Him.
A slave set free would say, "I love my master,
and I am free because I am loved."
How true of a Christian! Under grace he is free in the
Lord and is what God wants him to be because he wants
to please God, not because he has to. Are we really
prepared to pay the price to demonstrate our Love for
God through Holy living? Displaying a deep appreciation
of His Amazing Grace.
Are we prepared for what sanctification will do? It
will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests
on earth and an immense broadening of our interest in
God.
How does our will become sanctified? It is by conforming
itself unreservedly to that of the God Grace. . We will
all that he wills, and will nothing that he does not
will; we attach our feeble will to that all-powerful
will which performs everything.
1. The Grace for a Sanctified Life
2. The Grace for a Surrendered Life
Here is something that needs to be heard by God's people:
Rom. 12:3 "For I say, through the grace given unto
me, to every man that is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think
soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the
measure of faith."-
What is God saying? That
no one should ever be conceited or high-minded about
himself. Why? Because we are just old sinners saved
by grace.
You may say, "I have lots of talent." I have
gift and great ability. But you are still just an old
sinner brought out of sin by God's grace.
So don't think more highly of yourself than you ought
to think. Much heartache and trouble through the years
have been brought on because people have thought too
highly of themselves, forgetting God's Grace.
James 4:6 deals with it again: "But he giveth more
grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud,
but giveth grace unto the humble."
There is no limit to God's grace-"he giveth more
grace." But God's grace is given to the humble,
not to the proud.
Here is a contrast that a proud Christian has to face.
God says of the Proud, 'I resist him. I oppose him.
I make it difficult for him'; but to the humble Christian-'I
will gladly give him all the grace he needs.'
We read in ---I Peter 5:5,6: "Likewise, ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be
subject one to another, and be clothed with humility:
for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."
This is Peter, who is
speaking, surely knew what he was talking about. For
he had been arrogant and proud, high-minded, giddy and
self-willed, stubborn and unsurrendered-Peter had gone
through it all.
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another There needs
to be more preaching on the younger submitting to the
elder and there needs to be more thought given to this
New Testament is the expression "one to another."
God wants Christians to serve one another, to respect
one another, to love one another, to honour one another;
113 times God tells us how to live with one another
under grace.
Be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility:
for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."
Grace causes us to say, "Well, who am I? I am nothing
but an old sinner saved by grace. I ought to do right,
think right, surrender to God's will, and live peaceably
with other people and show humility."
Illustration. -- I read of a young preacher just starting
in the ministry. He hadn't yet learned that sometimes
when you get up to preach, your tongue is thick in your
mouth and your brain can go blank. He hadn't yet learned
that sometimes you aren't able to think and that it
is hard to preach. He didn't know this, so he proudly
paraded across the platform to the pulpit like a proud
peacock.
Then suddenly the well went dry. He couldn't think;
he could not speak. The people got drowsy. Some even
went to sleep
By the time this young preacher got to the end of his
sermon, he was mighty humble! He didn't march off the
platform proud and arrogant; this time his head was
down, and his chin, on his chest.
As he walked down off the platform, a dear saint was
waiting to say, "Son, if you had gone up like you
came down, you could have come down like you went up."
Oh, how much truth there is in that! God promotes those
willing to take a backseat. He promotes those to the
top of the ladder who are willing to start at the bottom
taking the humble place. He who humbles himself will
be exalted.
One principle in Christian living is the grace of surrender.
3. The Grace for a Sharing Life
The Bible speaks of the grace of giving. Paul, writing
to the Corinthians, said:
II Cor. 8:1,2. "Moreover, brethren, we do you to
wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the
abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded
unto the riches of their liberality
What is he talking about
when he says, "…the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia"?
You say, "Oh, they must have had a revival."
No doubt they did, but that is not what he is talking
about here.
Then it must be because they have seen many saved."
No doubt they did, but that is not what he is talking
about.
Then what is Paul talking about? "How…their
deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality."
What is this grace of God poured out on these churches?
Out of the abundance of their poverty they gave with
joy abundance to God. That grace should be evidenced
in all our lives, the grace of Giving and Sharing.
Friends, you can see God's grace, the first time tithing
is mentioned in the Bible-Genesis 14:20: speaking of
Abraham. "And he gave him tithes of all,"
Abraham had gone to war, and God had given him success.
With four hundred soldiers, he had put to rout numerous
kings and recaptured goods and people who had been stolen.
When Abraham came back, the king of Sodom who had been
in hiding came to meet Abraham and said, "Give
me the persons, and take the goods to thyself."
Gen 14:22-23 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I
have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet,
and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest
thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: (KJV)
Abraham was able to shun the offer of the king of Sodom
who in Type reflects the offers of this world and the
kingdom of Satan, because he had experienced the Grace
of God in his life.
He had met with Mel-chiz-ed-ek the king of Salem, who
is a wonderful type of Christ the king of peace. "And
he [Abraham] gave him tithes of all."
My friends, that was grace. The representative of Christ
said, 'Take it all.' But Abraham said, 'I will not.
I owe God something.'
Tithing is under grace, not under law. No one can make
you tithe; no preacher can preach you into giving. Even
God won't make you do it. He may make you wish you had,
but tithing is under grace. Giving is to be done with
a free heart. No matter how little one has, he is to
tithe and enjoy it.
Where did we ever get the expression, "Give until
it hurts"? Not from the Bible. The Bible tells
us, 'Give until it feels good.' If it is hurting, maybe
you need to open up your wallet or your purse and give
more. God loveth a cheerful giver.
Luke 6:38 "Give, and it shall be given unto you;
good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and
running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with
the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured
to you again."-
Whatever vessel you use
in which you give to God, that is the same vessel He
will use in which to give to you. A lot of people run
around with a funnel; and instead of having the wide
end turned toward God, they have the little end up.
Friends, put your funnel under the windows of Heaven
and let God prove Himself to you. God dares you to in
Malachi 3:10: "…prove me now herewith, saith
the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven."
Sometimes Christian's say, "I'm so tired of hearing
of hearing talk about money in our Church " They
wouldn't be if they were doing right.
Illustration. One man said to his Pastor, "Don't
you get embarrassed talking so much on tithing?"
The Pastor responded, but I do see people get red in
the face while I am preaching about tithing.
A Tithe is very least that you should be giving to God.
Some say they can't afford to tithe. God says you can't
afford NOT to for this is a grace.
I read of it again in II Corinthians 8:9 and 9:8:
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."
"And God is able
to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work."
What more can anyone
want when God said that always, in all things, you will
abound unto every good work, having all sufficiency?
If God says to me, "If you will be a Christian
in this grace, you will have all sufficiency,"
then there will never come a time when my needs will
not be supplied-never. "God is able to make all
grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good
work."
How sweet that is! How wonderful this is!
As someone has said--We make a living by what we get
out of life, but we make a life by what we give.
Giving a tithe means nothing if God has enabled you
to give 50 percent. Give as the Lord has prospered you!
1. The Grace for a Sanctified
Life
2. The Grace for a Surrendered Life
3. The Grace for a Sharing
Life
4. The Grace of Successful
Life.
I don't understand it all, but the New Testament speaks
of God's grace in anything we achieve for Him. Paul
mentions this in I Corinthians 15:9,10:
"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not
meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured
more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace
of God which was with me."
Paul says God's grace
bestowed upon him was not in vain. Every Christian should
be able to testify,
"By the grace of God, I am what I am."
If you can sing, God
gave you that voice. If you can preach, God gave you
that gift. If you can teach, all that you are, the grace
of God helped you to achieve that.
Paul declared himself "the least of the apostles."
Paul's humility showed. Three times he made a statement
about himself.
Once it was, "I am the least of the apostles."
Then Paul graduated deeper with God: "Unto me,
who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace
given" (Eph. 3:8).
1. The least of all the apostles. For many, that would
be bragging. An apostle was one who had seen the Lord
with his own eyes, touched Him, and heard Him. They
were a select group and few in number. So he wasn't
humbling himself much to say, "I am the least of
the apostles."
Then Paul said, 'I am the least of all the saints.'
He felt he was the most unworthy Christian who ever
lived.
Finally we read in I Timothy 1:15, "…Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I
am chief."
Paul: "I am the least of the apostles." Then,
'I am the least of all the saints.' Then, 'I am the
chief of sinners.'
Oh, what the grace of God can do to a Christian who
wants His grace manifested!
Paul-arrogant, brilliant, mean, cruel, persecuting the
church, killing Christians, breathing out threatening
against them; but one day on the Damascus road the grace
of God met him and saved him.
See Paul now-a mighty missionary, humbly walking across
the dusty sands of earth telling the story of redeeming
love. Finally, outside the walls of the city of Rome,
he gives his life as a martyr for Christ.
God's grace "from the gutter-most to the uttermost"!
Consider Peter, the one talking about being stewards
of the manifold grace of God. One day the Lord came
along the shores of Galilee.
Some men were fishing and one of them was the rough,
impetuous, impulsive, arrogant, Simon Peter.
One day Jesus came along, and Andrew got saved. Then
Andrew got Peter and said, 'I want to introduce you
to Jesus.' Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus, and Peter
got saved.
Then one day at Galilee while Peter was fishing, Jesus
came along and said, 'Peter, leave the fishing for fish
and start fishing for men. You will go to my school
for three years.' Peter did go, and finally Peter graduated.
Jesus suffered and died on the cross and then went back
to Heaven.
On the day when the Holy Spirit was to come and baptize
believers into one glorious body, God looked over the
battlements of Heaven to choose someone to preach on
one of the greatest occasions of this entire world.
Multitudes were going to hear. Thousands were going
to get saved.
Jesus chose Simon Peter. And that fisherman became the
mightiest mouthpiece for God and was the preaching on
the day of Pentecost.
"From the gutter-most to the uttermost"! Oh,
the Amazing Grace of God! The grace of God is infinite
and eternal. As it had no beginning, so it can have
no end, and being an attribute of God, it is as boundless
as infinitude.
It was John Bunyan who said, "Grace can pardon
our ungodliness and justify us with Christ's righteousness;
it can put the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us; it
can help us when we are down; it can heal us when we
are wounded; it can multiply pardons, as we through
frailty multiply transgressions".
4. The Grace for a Successful Life.
5. The Grace for a Suffering Life
All people must face suffering. In II Corinthians 12:9
Paul is speaking about a thorn in the flesh. He had
asked God to deliver him. Three times Paul prayed earnestly,
but no deliverance came. Finally God said, "My
grace is sufficient for thee."
I am glad that is in the Bible. God will never put you
in a place where you can quote it-never. God will never
put you where you can't count upon His grace-never.
Here is why: "And he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory
in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me."
The Lord said to Paul, 'I will not take that thorn away,
but I will do something better-give you grace to stand
it. That old thorn in the flesh is going to hurt.
There will be sleepless nights, painful hours; but I
will give you grace. I will give you power. And because
of this infirmity, I will bless you as I have blessed
no other man.'
Paul then said, "Most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me."
Each of us will be called upon to suffer. There will
be a time when you will ask God to take something out
of your life-your thorn-and God may say, "I cannot
take it away. If I did, you would not be what I wish
you to be. But I will give you grace to bear it."
5. The Grace for a Suffering Life
6. Grace for a Godly
Stimulating Life
The only way to exercise a godly, righteous influence
on others is by God's grace. Colossians 3:16 reads,
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in
all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord."
This applies to every realm of life. There is all the
difference in the world in singing with grace in your
heart to the Lord and singing because you want people
to know you have talent.
When you sing, sing to bless hearts. I have heard people
sing because they had talent, not because they had love.
There is grace for a righteous influence.
Col. 4:6 "Let your speech be alway with grace,
seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to
answer every man"
Let your speech influence others for godliness. Christian,
guard the door of your lips. Let your conversation be
always with grace.
Actions don't always speak louder than words-your tongue
can undo everything you do. As long as a word remains
unspoken, you are its master; once you utter it, you
are its slave.
If you your lips would
keep from slips,
Five things observe with care
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how and when and where.
Conclusion…
7. Grace for the Summation
of Life.
There is Grace for Dying
A past generation of Saints used to pray Lord give me
Grace to live and Grace to die.
God will never answer
that prayer until it comes time to die. But when that
hour does come, He will give all the grace needed.What
words of comfort we find in the book of Hebrews.
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that
he by the grace of God should taste death for every
man.
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
When that hour of need comes, God will give us the grace
we need for it.
Stephen had no dying grace when he was a deacon, but
he had it when it came time to die. At that time he
said, "I see Jesus."
When the hour of death
comes, the Christian will have all the dying grace he
needs. There is nothing morbid about death for the Christian,
for it is but the entrance to their greatest adventure,
in the Heaven's beautiful land.
