I invite you to turn with me
this morning to Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. I went through both these epistles
and in fact all of the New Testament verse by verse and many messages
separate from that on different points of doctrine in these wonderful
letters. It's good to be back in Danville. Danville, Kentucky. Danville
is a place where I called home for nearly as many years as I've
been in Arkansas. It's been about half and half
in that part of my life. and especially this assembly,
this place of worship. I'm privileged to be here and
to know these folks and have known many of them for years
and years and years. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 4, that'll be my text this morning, Paul said, I thank my God always
on your behalf. for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. In nearly every epistle he wrote,
Paul began his letter with the words, grace and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was a graced
man. He was a graced man. I've heard
preachers referred to that way. He's a graced man. You know,
you hear, this was a man's man, you know, or this, that guy,
he's a real lady's man. Paul was a grace man. And so
am I. So am I. I have nothing to say
apart from the grace of, what would you talk about apart from
the grace of God? The grace of God is inclusive
of every work he's ever done, including creation. The grace
of God. What would you preach if it weren't
for the grace of God? And yet I heard preaching, or
what men called preaching, all my life and never heard one time
the word grace. How can you preach and not preach
grace? And that's my message to you
gathered here today. I told different ones today. I told some of our folks at home,
I said, I could just read my title and sit down. And here's my title. Wonderful,
amazing grace. You can think on that and your
heart ought to be filled. Wonderful, amazing grace. We're here today with the mind
of Christ, the message of Christ, and we're here by the wonderful,
amazing grace of God given to us, Paul said, that's what he
was thankful for, that this grace was given to them by Jesus Christ. Grace is one of those particular
things of God It's given to believers and it's given to them through
Christ. There's nothing, there's no grace
apart from Christ. You ever think about that? I
hear people talk about grace like this is a whole separate
thing and then they talk about Christ. There's no grace apart
from Christ. You and I are here today by an
arrangement of God. I had a fellow tell me the other
day, an old preacher, he said, I don't believe in the providence
of God. That's got nothing to do with
God's providence, whether you believe it or not. God's providence
is a thing set. It's a thing declared in the
scripture, and it's so, and he's not hindered by men's unbelief.
He works his providence. He works all things together
for our good and his glory, and he's not hindered by people's
unbelief. There's many things that attend the way of the transgressor. Scripture said his way is hard.
His way is subject to all kinds of difficulty and trouble. But
the way of chosen sinners is a way attended by the grace of
God. Of his fullness, John said, have
we all received and grace for grace. I think about this a lot in my
study. I never know who's going to walk
in. I've had here lately several people. I've never seen them
before in my life. Suddenly on a Sunday morning,
they're sitting there. It may be the only time they
ever hear the gospel in their lifetime. I never know who's
going to come through that door. And I think about it a lot. I
never know. I just never know. And for that
matter, I never know where the Lord may arrange for me to speak.
I just don't know. All of that is in God's prominence. From the preacher's standpoint,
the Bible says, how shall they preach except they be sent? From the standpoint of the sinner,
it says, how shall you hear without a preacher? You see what I'm
saying? This is on my mind when I sit
down in my study. Most people never think about
this. You hear a message, you know, and sometimes you enjoy
it and sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's just full of life
and sometimes it's deader than a doornail. But preachers in
their study think about this a lot. I'm gonna stand up here
this morning, and if the Bible has anything to do with me standing
here this morning, then I have to believe that I'm here under
the arrangement of God. I'm gonna speak on His behalf
to a people. That makes a big difference if
the man's speaking for God or he's just up here blabbering.
It makes a big difference. And it makes a big difference
to the speaker. Makes a big difference. And so I conclude that we're
all in this place today by the arrangement of our sovereign
God and some by the prevenient grace of God. And you say, well,
what's the difference? What's the difference? I'll tell
you what the difference is, heaven or hell. That's the difference. Life or death, regeneration or
reprobation. That's the difference. Mercy
or judgment, faith in God, or darkness forever and ever. That's
the difference. Provenient grace marks the path
of the believer. It's a road in God's providence
that he provides for the believer. And he walks that road, whether
he knows it or not. And the grace of God attends
his way. Wonderful, wonderful, amazing
grace. And knowing this simple truth
is what sets the stage for worship. We worship a God who's so far
above us. People like a God they can understand,
don't they? They like a God they can just
have common place with. Our God is so far above us, we're
at a loss for words to even describe him. We have to use his own words
to describe him. He's so far above anything that
we can even, he said, who will you compare me to? That's what
he said through Isaiah. Who you gonna compare me to?
They're none like me. I'm God. I'm God. And this is the truth. It sets
the stage for worship. An opportunity, a privilege to
come to hear from God and an awesome responsibility for a
man to speak. on God's behalf. We are, Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 5 20 ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us. Be you reconciled to God. Our Lord singled out 70 men And he said, I'm going to send
you out into all those little towns and villages and cities
where I myself am going to go. God never sends a preacher to
a place that he's not going to go. And he singled him out. And here's what he told him,
Rex. He said, he that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. All my soul. Nothing I do is more sobering
to me than when I stand before an assembly to bring what I believe
is God's message for them. And I can only pray that it has
the same effect on you. Having said that, I have such
a message for you today. The message is God's wonderful,
amazing grace. Old John Newton knew something
about grace, didn't he? Oh, my, he said, This wonderful grace, this amazing
grace saved a wretch like me. Can you identify with that? Huh? Oh, I tell you, that goes home
to me. That saved a wretch like me. I ought not doubt his salvation
to any man having experienced that salvation in my own soul. Oh, I was lost, he said. You ever been lost? I mean plum
lost. Don't know where you're at. Don't
know where you're going. Had a total loss. I was lost,
but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. He said, this amazing grace taught
his heart to fear. To fear. Not just to shake in
his boots, but all of a sudden to realize
who God is. He's God. And I'm nothing. He said, I'm he that sits on
the circle of the earth and all the inhabitants of the earth
are like grasshoppers. Fear floods a man's heart. It's
a reverential fear. It's a loving fear. There's nothing
else like it. My dad one time stood in for
me. I was in trouble and he stood in for me and he pushed me behind
his back and he said, whatever he owes, you put it on my bill. And whatever punishment you got
in mind, you take it out on me. And my heart was filled with
loving, That's what it means. That's
what he's talking about. Grace taught my heart to fear. And they said, grace, my fears
relieved. That awesome justice, that awesome
holiness, that righteousness of God that just overwhelms a
man, all of a sudden becomes the evidence of his salvation.
That righteousness that makes the very character of God, He
turns that righteousness and imputes it to me. And now you say, who's going
to lay anything to the charge of my elect? Boy, I can think
of a lot of charges to lay on me, but not with His righteousness. It's God that justifies. Oh, my soul. Amazing grace. Grace taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved. Oh, how precious did that grace
appear. The hour I first believed. How precious. And then he says he's an old
man now. been preaching many years, been
through all the trials and troubles. And now he said, through many
dangers, tolls and snares, I have already come. It is grace that
brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. You see what I'm talking about?
Amazing, wonderful grace of God. There's nothing else like it.
Nothing else like it. And then looking into that long
home, that place where Brother Larry's entered now, he said,
when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the
sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when it first
begun. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about grace. Grace is more than a word. It's more
than a doctrine. It's an experience of the heart. It's not something just imputed.
It's something imparted. I can talk about grace all day
long, but boy, when God's gracious, when He's gracious, there's nothing
else like it. Nothing else like it. So here's
my text, 1 Corinthians 1.4. Thank my God always on your behalf
for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Well, what's that got to do with
my salvation? Well, here it is, verse five.
That in everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance. You got to flood your heart with
grace now, you got something to talk about, don't you? Now
you have something to say. Now you have something that makes
sense. Now you have something that's valuable. You have something
that men need. He's enriched, we're enriched
by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. All of a sudden,
these great mysteries, they're understood. I remember talking to one of
the old fellows in that Armenian church I was going to. Somebody
witnessed to me and I was looking these things up and reading them
for the first time in the scripture. And I read to him about predestination
in Ephesians chapter one. I thought he was going to lose
his breath. He said, the deep things belong
to the Lord. And I said, yeah, but he says,
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that
love him, but he revealed them unto us by his Spirit. Yea, the
Spirit searches all things. Yea, the deep things of God.
Huh? It's not a hidden doctrine. If
it was hidden, he wouldn't have put it in the book. The things
that are hidden, he told John, he said, put your pen up. You
can see these things, but you're not going to write about them.
Here's what you're going to write about. And he wrote about predestination. And he wasn't the only one. Oh, my soul and everything, you're
enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. You heard the gospel
for the first time and you said, that's it. How come you said
that? Because God confirmed it in your
heart. I can sit up here, I can pile doctrine up around you like
cordwood, but I can't convince you of anything. And I can't
confirm the work of God. All I can do is preach it. And
thank God for it. Because when he does the work,
it's effectual. And when he confirms a man, he
keeps on confirming him clear to the end. Even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you. And this being my text, I pray
that the Holy Ghost will be our teacher this morning. I have
six things, I'll just touch on these things briefly, but I have
six things concerning the grace of God that I sincerely hope
you will consider this morning. I really believe that an understanding
of these six things will cause your life not only to put forth
buds, but to break out into flowers and produce the fruit of the
Holy Spirit in you. The first thing I see in this
text is the fountain of all grace. That's why Paul used this as
his introduction. He's going to introduce you to
the gospel. And in doing so, he first mentions
that fountain of grace. The fountain of grace is God
the Father. He said, grace and peace be unto
you from God our Father. Isn't that what he said? From
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter called him the
God of all grace. That sounds like a fountain to
me. Huh? He's the God of all grace. And
he said, the God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy and he
said, God has saved us. I listened to him and I got saved.
I'm so sick of hearing that. He wrote to Timothy and he said,
Timothy, God has saved us. And then he called us. Oh, you
got that backwards preaching. No, I don't think so. God saved
us, and then he called us. And when he did, he called us
with a holy calling, a calling consistent with his own character.
Not according to our works. We wasn't born yet, see. It's
not according to our work. It's according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Oh, how the apostles loved to
talk about the fountain of grace. James said, every good gift,
every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no wearableness, neither shadow or turning. Of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Grace, wonderful,
amazing. Grace is the gift by which all
else is given. There are no gifts apart from
grace. And our Heavenly Father is the fountain. He's the wellspring.
He's the Father of all lights. And Paul blessed the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying, He hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. What's that mean? That means
every spiritual blessing that's involved in your salvation, in
your life, in your perseverance, in your death, in your eternal
glory. That's what that means. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessings, and he did it in heavenly places
in Christ before the world began. Huh? You see what I'm talking
about? This ain't just... It's not just something men do.
Oh, he's such a gracious man. Well, thank God that he is, but
that's not what this grace... This grace is eternal. This grace
is God himself. And Christ is the incarnation
of it. Grace. Grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ. Isn't that what it says? And
no sinner can expect anything from God apart from Jesus Christ. And these blessings of grace
are according, that's what it says here in the scripture, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And God has nothing for sinners
outside of Christ and everything for sinners in Christ. John said this, the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And of that fullness have we
all received. There is no grace apart from
Christ. And picture in your mind a great sea of grace. Something you can't, have you
ever just stood and looked at the ocean? Stood on the side,
looked out at that. And try to imagine how much water
you're looking at The Lord knows. He weighed the
seas in the palm of his hand, what he told Joe. He knows. But I don't. And I'm astounded. I looked, and I'm astounded. I was in the Navy. You go out
there, it's just as far from there as it was from there. You
still can't see anything. It's mammoth. It's huge. And imagine, in glory, a sea
of grace. God himself is the God of grace. And here's all this grace. And
then imagine, if you can, the poor sinner. He's lost. He's
undone. He's without hope, without God
in the world. I can't paint a picture as bad
as it is for the sinner. He's a needy sinner. He lives
in sin. He lives for sin and he lives
by sin. He loves darkness rather than
light. Our Lord said, if that light,
because they were professing what they knew to Him, that's
light. And He said, if the light there'd be in thee, be darkness.
How great is that darkness? I can't paint a picture of the sinner. There's nothing
worse. He lives in sin and for sin.
But this heavenly sea of grace can't help the condemned on earth. Without a channel. Christ is the channel. He's the
channel of all grace. An infinite supply of grace up
there, Rex. But it can't help the sinner
apart from that channel. Oh, saved according to his own
purpose and grace which was given us. in Christ Jesus. And then listen to this, but,
Paul said, is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's abolished death, brought
to light life and immortality. He's set forth in the text as
a channel of all grace, and then thirdly, Though he doesn't mention
this in our text, yet he does acknowledge his work is the Spirit
of God, who's called in the Scripture the Spirit of Grace. He's the
Spirit of Grace. And in this place and in many
others, he'll not speak of himself. That's what our Lord said. When
he's come, he won't speak of himself. There's a lot of passages
that talk about the work of the Spirit who don't say anything
at all about the Spirit. That's not a mistake. Our Lord
said when He'd come, He won't speak of Himself. He's going
to take of the things of mine and show them unto you. Where
does the Spirit work? Where men stand up and talk in
gibberish? No, where Christ is preached. That's where the spirit is. It's
the spirit of grace that opens the eyes and hearts of chosen
sinners, making them to know that they're heirs of the grace
of life. He's the bestower of grace. And
let me tell you something about his work. There are no mistakes
in his work. That's right. No mistakes. There's
no failures in his work. The grace he bestows is effectual
grace. There's no miscommunication of
this grace. Oh, I shouldn't give it to him.
I'll take it back. No, there are no miscommunications
of grace. He gives it to those to whom
it was purposed to give. He's the bestower of grace. So
the God of all grace, the fountain of it, is the Father, the conduit
or channel of all grace is Christ, and God the Holy Spirit brings
this grace to whom it's given and bestows this grace in their
minds and in their hearts and in the lives they live. And everything,
Paul said, being enriched by him in all utterance and in all
knowledge. And then importantly, Paul writes
in our text of the means of grace. He said, even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you. What's the testimony of Christ?
That's the gospel of Christ. That's the gospel. The gospel
goes out, as it is here this morning, to everyone in this
assembly. It goes out the same way into
all the world. But to the believer and in the
believer, this gospel is confirmed. It's confirmed. We feed from
it. I don't know about you, but when
I go down to our church, I'm looking to be fed, especially
at conference time. Boy, I don't get to hear that
often, but I get to hear it at conference time. And I go there hoping to hear
something about the grace of God, the Son of God. Now there's
a confirmation that takes place in the hearts of them to whom
this grace is given, and this confirmation comes by the means
ordained to bring it. I love what Brother Mahan said.
Brother Barnard asked him to quote Romans 8, 28. He misquoted
it. And he said, don't you know it
all? And Henry said, well, yes sir, I believe I do. And he said,
well, this time include it all. re-quoted Romans 8, 28, and when
he got done, he used that word purpose, the call according to
his purpose, and he said, Brother Barnard screamed at the top of
his lung, purpose. God does things on purpose. The gospel's preached on purpose. This is the means that God has
chosen, and pastors, teachers, and evangelists, He says in the
scripture, the ascension gifts of the reign in Christ, and they're
expressly said to be for the perfecting of the saints. What's
that mean? That means to convince them of
their perfection in Christ. That's what that's all about.
You're perfect, Rex, in Christ. Perfect. Well, how good do you
have to be to be saved? Perfect. You have to be perfect. Why I can't do that? I know that.
That's why I'm telling you, your perfection's in Christ. They're given for the perfecting
of the saints, showing them their perfection in Christ. And he said to bring all who
receive that ministry into the unity of the faith and knowledge
of the Son of God unto a perfect man. Now listen, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's the perfect
man. And he tells us at the outset of Ephesians 4 that we're struggling
to do this and maintain the unity of the spirit that we strive
for in the bond of peace. What unity? What unity? One body. All God's people are in union
with him. They're just one body. If you look over in Jeremiah,
there's a couple chapters. I can't give them to you exactly,
but I can tell you what they say. It says, his name shall
be the Lord our righteousness. And then he goes on a few chapters
and he said, in her name shall be the Lord our righteousness.
That's union, isn't it? One body. We strive for that. Strive for that. Strive to make
that known. They're just one body. They're
one spirit. I'm sick of hearing this stuff.
Well, he preaches that, and he preaches this, and he preaches
that, but we're all preaching. No, we ain't. They're just one
spirit, and that spirit don't teach different things. He teaches
one thing. And we strive for that. We're
called in one hope of our calling. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one in God, one our Father, one Father, God our
Father. He's over all and in all. He's
God. And what's given by God is confirmed
by God in those to whom it's given. There are means that are
ordained of God to this end. And then very quickly, let me
touch on this. Grace has a character about it.
You ever think about that? Grace has a character. I've seen
people who professed to believe in grace, who are the most ungracious
people I've ever been around. Grace has a character. And you can recognize it. Everything
men and women call grace is not the grace of God. But I'll give
you four things about this grace. This grace is eternal. It's eternal grace. Nothing happens
in time that does not have its beginning in God. And the grace
of God is free. What's that mean? That means
it's without qualification. That's what that means. Grace is of such a character
that it can come to the chief of sinners, it means it's without
condition. Grace is not, now listen, grace
is not the result of the death of Christ, it's the reason for
it. Now you listen close to what
men are preaching today. They're preaching just the opposite.
That's why the Bible calls them anti-Christ, they're contrary. Grace is without change, it's
always the same, it's pure, uncompromised, and grace is the attribute of
God and therefore it cannot change. Grace has a character, it's free,
it's unmerited. Thirdly, the grace of God's sovereign. It's of particular interest to
me, I hope you'll think about this, that God's throne, What's
that mean? That means he's king. He reigns
over everything that is. There's no power except that
of God. Everything else is delegated.
And his throne is called the throne of grace. Isn't that something? It's amazing
grace. His throne is the throne of grace. Let us come boldly under the
throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help
in time of need. What if it wasn't sovereign grace? What if there was no throne of
grace? Then you couldn't have it. But
because it is, he can order and arrange things so that that grace
comes to you without resistance. Sovereign grace is defined in
the scripture as God being gracious to whom he will. And it's the
gift of God, and it cannot be claimed as a right, and as a
gift, it cannot be earned. It's free, sovereign grace. What have you gotten, Paul said,
that you haven't received? And if you received it, why are
you glorying like you did? And grace is abasing to the pride
of man. You might as well just walk up,
slap a man in the face, and talk to a proud, self-righteous man
about grace. You've been better off just to
spit in his face, because that's how he's going to react. Grace
is abasing to the pride of man. It offers no recognition to any
of his righteousnesses, except to call it filthy rags. You think
about that. And then, fourthly, the grace
of God is distinguishing grace. These are words this generation
despises. Grace discriminates. Does it not? Grace segregates. And grace separates. Grace separated Abraham from
his father's house. Come out of there, God said.
Come out of there. Grace distinguished Jacob from
Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. In fact, the only difference
between God's children and the rest of this whole world is the
grace of God. So we know that God the Father
is the fountain of grace. God the Son is the conduit of
all grace. God the Spirit, he's the bestower
of all grace. Gospel is the means employed
by the Spirit to be gracious. And grace has a character about
it. And then lastly, he talks something about the works of
grace. It's God that worketh in you.
That's what Paul said to Philippians. God that worketh in you. What
does he do? He does his own will and it becomes
your will. He worketh in you both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. That's sovereign grace. Why did
Paul tell him that? Because he just told him something
that sound Arminian to the core. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. It's God that worketh in you. Do we really work out our own
salvation? You sure do. You sure do. When He works in
you, both the will and the do will be of good pleasure. This work of grace is inclusive
of the whole work of salvation from eternity to eternity. His covenant is a covenant of
grace. His election is an election of
grace. Our adoption and acceptance as
sons is through the praise of the glory of His grace. Our redemption
is the work of grace. We're justified freely by His
grace, forgiven by grace. Regeneration and calling is by
the grace of God, sanctified by grace. And our preservation,
John 5, 25 through 28, is the work of God's grace. It's wonderful. It's amazing grace. And in conclusion, let me say
this. Every man that receives this
grace becomes a trophy of God's grace. A trophy. God's gonna fill heaven
with saved sinners, and every one of them gonna be a trophy
of his grace. You ever thought about that? I listened to a lesson Don taught
one time and he was talking about that. I thought about it, still
think about it. Trophies of old Nebuchadnezzar. Man was there, this was an evil
gang wasn't it? Come down, besieged Jerusalem,
squandered everything in the temple, burned people's homes
down, took untold millions captive, made them slaves. And then he
stood up on that hanging gardens of Babylon that he built for
his wife. And I often picture him there like I see my dad years
ago, put his thumbs in them suspenders and pull them out. Ain't this
great Babylon which I built? By the work of my own hands and
for the glory of my own name. All my soul. God took him out,
let him eat grass like an ox. And then he allowed his reasoning
to return, just like he does with us. And when it did, that
old king, that old proud, arrogant king, he said, now I honor, honor? Oh yeah. I honor the Lord of
glory. I honor him. His kingdom is from
generation to generation. My kingdom ain't nothing compared
to you. My little rain, nothing compared
to you. There's a trophy of God's grace,
ain't it? This church that I'm reading
this text from this morning that Paul was writing to, oh, you
can't imagine how evil that place was. It was the center, the center of it. They had churches
there, and they used prostitutes in that church and made them
believe they was doing a service to God, just like every rank
Arminian church in this country. Same thing. Same thing. But God saved him, made him trophies
of his grace, didn't he? But I tell you, the biggest trophy
of his grace to me is me. amazing grace that saved a wretch
like me. Huh? Trophies. Trophies of God's grace. My story is the story of grace. The scripture says by grace ye
are saved and by grace are ye saved. It's the story of every
sinner saved by grace. What about you? What's your story? You ever been asked that? Somebody
asked me that one time. What's your story? My story is
the story of grace. What's yours? Oh, may the Lord
make it your story this morning for sure.