Open your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll have one verse for today's
short gospel message. 1 Corinthians 15, and we'll read
one verse, which is verse 10, where Paul, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, writes these words. 1 Corinthians 15.10. He says, 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 labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. Now Paul, being taught of the
Holy Spirit of God, knew nothing of human merit when it comes
to salvation. As a matter of fact, that's what
he wrote several epistles against which was the Judaizers in the
Galatian churches saying you had to be circumcised to be saved.
The Gnostics with the Colossian church saying that Christ was
just one of many mediators. My oh my. And we still struggle
today against this same heresy. The heresy of human merit. Because none of us who are saved
have come to the knowledge of by the Holy Spirit teaching us
that nothing we do can save us. We have no merit before God by
anything we do. And that wounds the pride of
man. So Paul, he knew that he didn't deserve to be considered
by God as he had been before a blossomer. He was a persecutor. He was a waster of the church.
He murdered Christians before he was saved. He was pleased
when the church was wasted. He was a man full of zeal for
his religion, and yet he was so wrong. My. Look what he wrote here, though.
And this is amazing. He says, but by the grace of
God, I am what I am. Is that not true of all of us?
All we who are the redeemed children of God. He wrote this, Paul wrote
this too. He said, I've obtained mercy.
Now there was a time when he gave no mercy. All right, now
he's obtained mercy. He didn't deserve it, he didn't
earn it, it was given to him by the free and sovereign grace
of God. He said, I obtained mercy and
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceedingly abundant, super
abounding. Remember last night in our Wednesday
night study we saw where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound and in the Greek it's super abounded. And that's true
of every believer. God's grace has superabounded
in our lives. We were sinners to the core before
we were saved, and we're still sinners to the core after we're
saved. But amidst our sin, grace abounds. It superabounds. Isn't
that wonderful? And we marvel that God in Christ
has forgiven all our sins, that the Almighty sent His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our room and place. It's wondrous. And so here's Paul. He explains his state is this. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. So all his preaching, it was
by the grace of God. His missionary work, by the grace
of God. Because look what he writes at
the latter end of this verse. But I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. God working in him, working through
him. That's why we believers say we have nothing to boast
in. Everything we have, all the knowledge we have of things of
the scripture and even of things in the world, all comes from
our King. It's amazing. Now here's Here's three things to consider
about this statement by Paul, and remember this. This confession
of Paul is equally appropriate to every born-again, blood-washed
believer who have experienced the grace of God, being born
again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, and given faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This confession, I am by the
grace of God, I am what I am, is every believer's confession.
Now here's the first thing to consider about this statement. Number one, this is our doctrinal
confession. Isn't that amazing? This is our
doctrinal confession. I am what I am by the grace of
God. I am what I am. I am what I am. If you are saved, if we are saved,
we owe all of our salvation. We owe all of our salvation to
what Christ has done for us. All of it. It's amazing. If you are ever
saved, it will not be because of any goodness in you. No. It's all because of the finished,
perfect, complete, Sanatorian work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when people are born again
by the Holy Spirit, they agree with Paul when they say, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. And that being a saved man or
saved woman. We deny our own merits. If we do not deny our own merits,
we cannot have the merits of Christ, can we? As the source of God's goodness
towards his people lies altogether in his sovereign mercy. And in
Christ alone, who is the only savior of sinners, the only one, Everything in salvation was accomplished
for God's people and in us by Christ Jesus alone. He accomplished
that perfect work of salvation for us. He sends his spirit,
the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and we're born again
by his work. We're given faith to believe
on Christ by his work. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So everything in salvation was
accomplished for God's people in us and by Christ alone. Think of this, God the Father
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He wrote
our names, we've learned in Philippians chapter four in the book of life. When did he do that? Before there
was ever anything. That's incredible. And in Jesus
Christ, comes to this sin-cursed world to redeem sinners. We who are the people of God
are just saved sinners. Saved sinners. And how did he
redeem us? How did he purchase our eternal
souls? By the shedding of his precious
blood. It's amazing. And then Christ
rose from the grave for our justification, that we might be able to stand
in the presence of God, justified, just as if I never sinned. That's
incredible. But I'm a sinner from the top
of my head to the bottom of my feet. But I stand before you
a saved sinner, justified not by anything I've ever done. No,
that would just condemn me. but justified by the Lord Jesus
Christ who bore my sin on Calvary's cross and paid everything that
God demanded. Praise his mighty name. And he
redeemed me and he redeemed his people with his precious, precious
blood. All by his work. The only merit
the believer has before God is all in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Isn't that wonderful? My, that's
wonderful, isn't it? We're saved by Christ alone,
beloved. We're redeemed by Christ alone. We're justified before God in
and through Christ alone. We're clothed in the perfect
righteousness of Christ to be able to stand in the presence
of God in and through Christ alone. And then we're given faith
which finds its center in Christ alone. Not in anything we do,
but all in Christ. God-given faith finds its center
in Christ, who is everything to the person who has God-given
faith. Christ becomes everything to
us. And you know what is also amazing?
It's Christ alone who preserves us. It's Christ alone who keeps
us. Therefore, all glory and honor
and praise goes to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The second point of this statement,
by the grace of God, I am what I am, this is our constant experience,
isn't it, beloved? This is our constant experience. We've been made to know something
of our own depravity. Vicki and I were talking about
this today, and Vicki brought up that a lot of religious people
don't know just how sinful our sin is. It's so sinful that the
Son of God had to become a man, the Word of God had to become
a man just to save us, to make us fit to be in the presence
of God. We don't know. Now, after the
Lord saves us, we start to get a knowledge, don't we? We start
to get a knowledge of something, a little something of our depravity. The depravity of our own hearts.
And we do with weeping eyes testify that we are what we are by the
grace of God. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And when we feel the power of
lust within us or temptations from without, when we see others
we've esteemed highly for their profession fall and turn from
the faith, we cry, by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's it. And when we have ourselves being
restored to fellowship with Christ, After a fall, when we are made
to rejoice in the fullness of God's blessings in Christ, we
rejoice to say, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Listen
to this scripture in 1 Peter 1, verses 3 to 5. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. which according to his abundant
mercy, oh, look at that, we've received mercy, I've obtained
it, have begotten us again into a lively hope, born again, by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible, oh my, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, because that inheritance
is in Christ. It can't be touched. Isn't that
wonderful? It can't be tarnished. It can't
fade away. It's reserved for us in heaven.
Look at this. And this is speaking of God's
people. I love this. I love this. Who are kept. Who are kept by the power of
God. Isn't that wonderful? We're kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. And the third point of this statement,
by the grace of God, I am what I am, is a grateful acknowledgment. A grateful acknowledgment. The
redeemed of the Lord realize that the only distinction between
us and all other men and women in this world is the distinguishing
grace of God. That's it. That's it. I'm no better than anyone else
in this world. Matter of fact, I'm probably
worse. And the scripture says, what Paul says here, I own this
too, do you? Oh, by the grace of God, I am
what I am. The only reason I'm a saved man,
redeemed by the Lord, is because of the grace of God in Christ.
And as we read the black catalog of human sin, do not forget these
words, and such were some of you. Right? Oh, we look at the sin of the
world and say, oh, that's so awful. And such were some of you. When Paul made that statement,
I can read that list of sins and go, oh, yeah, there I am,
there I am, there I am, there I am. Oh, wow. They're all, they
all have stuff to do with me, because we're all a bunch of
sinners. And such were some of you. But you're washed now in
the blood of Christ. Isn't that wonderful, beloved?
And then we say, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Oh, by the grace of God, we're
washed, justified, washed in the blood of Christ, justified
by the risen Christ, sanctified in Christ. In realizing what
we were, we rejoice to say, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. Amen.