If you will, turn with me in
your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 12 will be our text.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
12. The title of the message this
morning is, Grace, the Gift of God. Grace, the Gift of God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, the
Apostle Paul says, Now we have received, not the Spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. Now the Apostle Paul, let us
remember that in these first two chapters that he is giving
a rebuke to this church at Corinth. These members of this body were
divided by preachers. They were divided into certain
cliques and groups who liked one man above another man. Some said, I'm of Apollos. And
others said, well, I'm of Paul. And others said, I'm of Christ.
Don't let that fool you. That was people that didn't want
to go to church at all. They said, I didn't even have
to hear a man at all. I'm of Christ. I don't even need to
attend worship. very deceived men to divide themselves
into such camps. I tell you, some love the ability
of Paul to build a logical message. You know, he was a master builder
of a message. I know he was. He may not have
had excellency of speech, but he did have excellency of mind
to put the sermon together. And some people like that. Some
people liked Apollos because he could speak well. He had an
excellency of speech. His sermons may not have been
as rich as Paul, but man, he could speak and people loved
to hear his voice. Some say, I'm a cephas. Now,
Peter was a common man. He spoke to the common man. And
a rough man, a common man who couldn't understand any intellectual
things, he said, oh, I like Peter. He speaks right language. I like
him. And some says, I'm of Christ, which means I'm not of any of
those men. I don't have to attend worship
to serve God. I can do it myself. And so Paul
begins here to express to these believers that they are not to
glory in the man of God, but rather in the message of the
man. The message is what we are to
focus on this morning. Please, don't hear me. Hear the message. Don't come
because of me. Come to hear the message. That's what Paul is saying. In
chapter 2, he said, I didn't come with excellency of speech,
but in power. And friends, that's what this
message is. It's a message of power. Well, pastor, every time
I hear you, I don't feel anything. It's not a message of power to
you. But to us who believe, it is a message of power. It is
a powerful message of God to everyone that believeth. I tell you, some may hear the
message and they may see the message. I can give you my notes.
You can see it for yourself. But friends, unless the Spirit
of God takes this message and applies it to each individual
person, this message will accomplish nothing but your damnation. This
message will add nothing to you as far as life, but it will add
to you to your condemnation. And friends, this message that
we speak is a mystery. Paul says it's a hidden mystery.
Who hid it? God did. God hid this message. At first He hid it in types and
shadows and pictures, but now the message, the mystery of the
message is made plain and clear to us in that Christ is the sum
and substance of all the messages we preach. Christ is the object
of all the message, and the Spirit of God must reveal this to you. Have you seen the mystery as
to how God can be just and justify us, the ungodly? Have you seen
that? I'll tell you what, that's the
key to understanding the gospel, isn't it? To understand the mystery
of God is how it is that God can still be right and just and
holy and accept sinners without tarnishing His holiness. How
can God do that? Do you know the answer to that?
If you do, happy are you. Happy are you if you know the
answer to that. If you know it's Christ, if you
have believed in Christ, happy are you. Happy are you. That
is the Son of God. He's the key. And so then let
us depart from all faults of exalting God's preachers. above
the message. Or to think too little of God's
preachers, God's message, to neglect it. Either way, I don't
know which camp you're in, if you're in any one of these camps
or not. I know this, don't exalt me and don't exalt other men
who preach this gospel. Listen to the message they preach. And friends, don't go so far
the other direction that you neglect to hear them. Don't go
so far as to neglect to hear the gospel. Let us not be deceived. I'll tell you right now, in sovereign
grace churches, this is happening. Pastor, you mean in God's churches? Yes! In God's churches, this
happens where we prefer to hear men as opposed to hearing other
men. Now, I know when I say that,
every one of us has a picture of who we like to hear. Every
one of us have certain men that we feel more comfortable hearing.
I understand that. You know, I love to hear my pastor.
I love to hear David Pledger. I do because he's my pastor and
I love him dearly. Above all other men, I'd love
to hear him. But friends, if I go to hear
David, I'm not going to get anything out of it. I must hear His message. And if you've come for me, I'm
sorry for you. Come to hear the message. Come
to hear Christ. I know of men, and this is an
experience that I've had, there was a man I knew, actually a
group of people that I knew, that if a man of God were to
come and preach to them, they didn't have a pastor, so a man
of God would come out of his way and preach the gospel to
them, But if it was not a certain man that they loved to hear,
they would make excuses as to not come. They would not come
to hear him. But when that man that they loved,
when he came, when he came into the town, they all came. And what does that tell you? What does that tell you? It tells
you they loved the man over the message. Because I tell you,
the men that came before him, they had the same message. They
had the same message. They may not have come with excellency
of speech. They may not have come with the
same passion. They may not have come with the same knowledge
as that other man. But, friends, we are to be warned against choosing
who to hear and who not to hear. And this is happening even in
the church of God. Well, what is this message then
we are called to deliver, and you are called to hear." What
is the message that you've come to hear? Look at this in verse
12. Look at that in verse 12. It
says, "...For now we have received not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God." Friends, I hope you come
this morning ready to hear of the things that God has freely
given you. I hope you come ready to hear
of the great things that our Father has bestowed upon us who
believe." I want to hear that again and again and again, because
I'll tell you, during the week I forget and I forget and I forget. And I read it every day, but
I still forget. I need to be reminded of things. Peter said, it is profitable
for you that I remind you of these things. Bring these things
to your remembrance even though you know them. Even though you
know them. The things, and that's the first
thing I want my first point this morning, the things that God
has given us. What things have been given us
of God? Now there are many things that
God gives all men, is that not right? If you're lost or you're
saved this morning, it doesn't matter. God has given you breath
this morning, has He not? He's given you life. He's given
you abilities. If you've ever felt joy, something
make you happy, who gave you that joy? God did. How many times have we enjoyed
something and the next time we did it, wasn't no joy? Who took
it away? God did. God did. God gives joy
and withholds joy. God gives love and withholds
love. God gives us life and breath, for in Him we live and move and
have our being. But there is something greater
that God has given to His people, to you who are His people. God
has given us greater things than these. Let me ask you something. Which
is better? Quantity of life or quality?
Quality. Quality of life is better. Just
breathing in and breathing out is not living, is it? I remember our brother Malcolm
when he had the breathing tube. Friends, that wasn't living.
That wasn't being alive. But when God comes in power and
He gives us life, we see these great things that God has given
us because we're alive. We're not dead. We're alive. And we're able to enter in and
rejoice in these things. And what things has God given
us? And I'm going to sum it up in one word. Here it is. Grace. This is what God has given us. Grace. Grace. Go back to chapter 1 and verse
4. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4. Paul says, I thank my God always
on your behalf. For what? For the grace of God
which is given you. by Jesus Christ. There it is.
That's what he said. He said, the grace of God is
given you. Now friends, when I say that, the
grace of God, I understand that this is one word, but it is not
as small as one word, is it? It encompasses a multitude of
things. A multitude of things. I have
up here that when I started this message, I had seven. I'm not
going to be able to go over seven. So I had to whittle it down a
little bit. We're going to only look at a few this morning concerning
the grace of God. What is the grace of God? If
that's been given you, then we should understand what it is.
It is by definition the unmerited favor of God. That word favors
big, isn't it? It's just one word, but it encompasses
a lot. What does it encompass? God's
love, doesn't it? When God said He shed His grace
on us, when He's given us His grace, it means He's given us
His love. He's given us His love. He's
given us His goodness. Jeremiah 31, verse 2 says, Thus
saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found
grace in the wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and with lovingkindness
have drawn thee. Is that not a gift of grace to
have the love of God? It is. It's grace to have the
love of God. And this love, this grace, when
was it given? It was given from everlasting. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Believer, was there ever a time
that God did not love you fully? I'll tell you, I'm sure that
Cheryl at times loves me a little more or a little less. I'm sure
that there are times that she says, well, I really love you,
and there are times, well, I don't know, maybe. I might not love
you as much today as I did yesterday. That's okay. But God's love is
not like that. When God gave us His grace, when
God gave us His love, there was never a moment, a second, that
God did not love us with His infinite love. Isn't that amazing
to you? He gives us His love. He gives
us His goodness. He says, I will not turn away
from them, do them good. There's not one day, not one
second that God has ever turned away from us to do us good. Not
one. Not everything that God has done.
He has done according to His grace. And He's done it for our
good. And He rejoices over us to do
us good. You know, sometimes when we do
good, we begrudge it, don't we? We say, well, I've got to do
this and I don't want to. God never says it that way. God
always does good for us and He's glad to do it. He's glad to do
it. Why? Grace. Grace. Pastor, how can these things
be? I'm in great trouble. How can these things be when
my children are lost? How can these things be when
my house is chaos? How can you say He has grace
on me? He is good to me all the time
when I'm in such great peril. How can it be? Can you explain
it? No, I can't, but God does. God says He's good to you. Believe
God. Don't believe your eyes. Believe
God. God has shed His grace on us.
He's promised us to give us His grace and His goodness. Don't
look at the moment. Look at God's goodness. Look
at His grace. See what great things God has
given to us by grace. Now I have four things. Four
things that God has given us by which we may see His grace. His grace. First of all, God
has given us electing grace. Electing grace. Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1, verse 3, "...Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him." In love. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Before the world was and before
there was ever sin, God set His love on us. And by His grace, He chose us. to Himself. He chose us to the
adoption of sons. Not chose us to be slaves, but
sons. Is that not better? Is that not
better than being a slave? Yes! To be a son. And God did it before you ever
breathed a breath. before sin had ever entered into
the world, God took it into account. And without any merit or cause
from us, God said, I will choose you. While He passed by millions. This choice of election, friends,
is unto adoption. And this election was purposed
of God that we would be the sons of God. Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath lavished upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God." We're a son of God. Why? Grace. Grace. Grace. Number two, redeeming
grace. God not only chose us to salvation,
but He also purposed and planned how He would execute our salvation. How is that? Grace. Grace. You see, He would choose
us and set us in Christ. He would choose Christ to be
His first elect, so that He would represent all of us who are His
children. God the Father chose us, and
Christ agreed to be our surety. Galatians 4.3 says, even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world. Even though we were
adopted, even though we were elected, we still were born under
the elements of law, weren't we? Under the bondage of sin. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth His only begotten Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. For what purpose? To redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Friends, we were not born saved.
We were not born with this understanding. We were not born with a regenerated
heart. We were not born with faith.
We were not born believing in Christ. No. We were all together
enslaved to sin and bondage to the law. And no matter how hard we tried
to free ourselves, we could not. And let me speak to this to you
who are trying to free yourselves. Give it up. Give it up. Quit trying to free
yourself from sin. You won't be able to. It's impossible. You cannot by religion free yourself. You cannot by law free yourself. These chains are too thick. And
the more we struggle, the more enslaved we become to it. But God, in grace, sent His Son
to be a man, to be under that law, and to represent a chosen
race. He came to redeem and to buy
out of the hand of God's justice all those that God before had,
in grace, chosen in election. He came to break the bars and
chains of sin and to purchase us with His own blood. God in grace and love, His grace and love are so great that He gave His only Son to
pay the debt. for rebels. Like that man that owed 500 pence. And it didn't matter if he owed
one pence. He had nothing to pay. Friends, you've got nothing
God wants. God doesn't want your goodness. You don't have it. Neither do
I. We have nothing to pay. Nothing. Friends, the Gospel message is
not concerning your payment. I'm telling you to behold Christ
who has paid it all. To believe on Him, to rest in
Him. And those who rest in Him see
the great grace as that the Son of God came down and became a
man. And He came for a certain people.
He came for me. If you believe He came for you,
this is grace. You didn't merit the Son of God
to come and die for your sins. You weren't so good that God
would have to send His Son. No, God sent His Son because
He loved us by grace. By grace. And friends, when Jesus
Christ came, He took the wrath of God and bore it all by Himself. Where were we? Did we have any part in that?
Yes, we had the part of, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! That's our
part. That's our part. But He in grace laid down His
life and He said, because I lay down my life, the Father loves
me. And when He laid down His life, friends,
it's because He loved us. It's because He loved us. Behold
the manner of love that God would pay the ransom price for sinners. 2 Corinthians 5.19 says, to wit,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead be you reconciled. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." Friends, God was not willing to impute our
sins to us. I said something else. God was
not willing to impute our sins to us. He was willing to impute
them to His Son. And His Son paid our ransom price. Number three, God has given us
sanctifying grace. This word sanctify is used many
times in Scripture to mean set apart or to make holy. That's
what it is. When God set something apart,
He made it holy for Himself, for His worship. Take, for instance,
the seventh day. The Scripture says that God sanctified
the seventh day. He made it holy, didn't He? He made that day a holy day. He set it apart. And when God chose us in eternity,
that's exactly what He did for us, is He set us apart. He separated
us who believe from all of the others. And by His separating us, He
has by His own sovereign choice made us holy. Isn't that what it says? He said
that we should be before Him without blemish, without blame
before Him. That's why He chose us. That
we should be holy. That we should be holy. God, from the beginning of time, has had this in his heart, and
is moving all things to make every one of his elect holy." He is sanctifying them. False
religion tells you, sanctify yourself. That's what false religion
says. False religion says, make yourself
holy. How's that going? How are you
doing on that? I failed at that. Thumbs down,
I failed. I failed. But see, true religion
says God sanctifies us. And that's what happens in our
salvation. When God the Holy Spirit comes,
when God the Holy Spirit quickens our hearts and He gives us life
and faith in Christ, He not only imputes the righteousness of
Christ to our charge, He imparts righteousness to every one of
us. Believer, do you not understand
that you are even right now as holy as God is? Is that not grace? Is that not
mercy? God rets down and gave us a new
nature. A new nature. Ephesians 4, verse
24 says, "...and that ye put on the new man, which after God
is created..." You see, that new man wasn't made by you. It wasn't fashioned by us. It
was created by the Holy Spirit. How was it created? In righteousness
and true holiness. It was fashioned after God Himself. And that righteousness lives
in us. Pastor, I can't see it. Neither
can I. It doesn't matter. I believe
God's Word. I believe God's Word. God says He has made us holy. John says, even as He is, so
are we in this world. As He is, how is He? Holy. So
are we even in this world. That's sanctification. And that,
my friends, is not a process. That's done by God. That's done
by God and by God's grace. God has given you who believe
a holy nature. Now then, number four, the calling
grace. Calling grace. How do you know
if these other graces are yours? Now, these things are wonderful
to look at. These things are beautiful to
see. Isn't it beautiful to see God's love? I mean, that is an
amazing thing that God would set His love on somebody in this
world. It's an amazing thing that God
would come down and take the form of a man and die for sins
when He Himself was sinless. That's an amazing thing. It's
an amazing thing to view that God would make sinners holy and
able to stand before His presence. That's something, isn't it? But
friends, knowing all that, what good does that do your soul? Unless it's happened to you. I'm not talking about it happening
to other people. It happening to other people
does your soul no good. How do you know if it's happened
to you? How do you know if you've been
elected? If you've been redeemed? If you've been sanctified by
God and made holy? How do you know? You can only
know if God the Holy Spirit has called you. Called you. This is known by being born again
of the Spirit of God. That's what Christ said. He said,
no man is able to enter the kingdom of God unless they're born again.
Have you been born again? Born from above. Resurrected
in the soul. Blessed is he that hath part
in the first resurrection, for he shall not see the second death. The first resurrection is not
a resurrection of the body, it is a resurrection of the soul.
Have you been resurrected? How do you know that what I'm
saying is true? God calls these things a mystery,
doesn't He? What He says. And He even calls
it a hidden mystery, and we know that God's the one that hides
it. But friends, God's also the one that reveals it. He's also
the one that reveals it. This message is a mystery. To
some of you, this message, it is an utter mystery. Why in the
world would somebody want to hear this? Why in the world would
somebody spend all of their energy and time to listen to this? Because to you, it's a mystery. To you, it's not been revealed.
Some say, well, that's just your interpretation. Have you ever
heard that? That's just your opinion. That's just what you
think. I'm sure that my opinion is just
as good as yours. I'm sure it is. I'm sure my opinion
is just as good as yours. Worthless. Both of our opinions
don't amount to anything. What does God say? What does
God say? God says His gospel is a mystery
and unless the Spirit of God makes it known to you, you will
never know it. You'll never know it. You'll
never appreciate it, you'll never love it, you'll never worship
God in the way that He is meant to be worshipped. You'll die
in your sins and you'll go to hell and God will still be on
the throne. It is only by the regenerating
of the power of the Spirit of God that men might know their standing before God. We who have been called, have
we not been called and made aware of our sinful estate? Have we not been made aware of
the futility of religion and works to earn God's favor? Have we not been able to see
that Jesus Christ is the only hope for my soul? Friends, this is not a natural
thing to believe on Christ. It is a supernatural thing. It's a supernatural thing. The
Spirit of God must reveal this to you. You must be called of
Him. And what happened to us who were
called? Was there hope of rejection of
this Spirit? Was there any hope of rejection? Could you suppose Lazarus would
have objected? to be raised from the dead. How could a dead man object?
It would be too late, wouldn't it? After he'd already risen.
It'd been too late. Friends, I'll tell you this.
I know this. If I was dead and God raised
me, I think I'd be pretty happy about that. I wouldn't be upset
at all. God calls us, and God is not
frustrated when He calls a sinner to grace. And when we believed, we believed
on the Son of God as all of our hope and standing before God.
And I'll tell you, no doubt there are some who have a working understanding
of everything I just said. Their eye has seen, their ear
has heard, but it has not entered into their hearts. We call them
the frozen chosen. The frozen chosen know all about
election, but they have no heart for Christ. No heart for the
gospel. No love for Christ. They give
their lips, but not their estates. They worship God with their lips,
but they will not attend His worship. They serve God with
their lips, but they're too busy to serve God's children. That's not life. That's not being
called. Friends, when we're called to
life by the Spirit of God, you'll know it. You'll know it. You won't know
all the Scriptures. You won't understand everything
that I'm saying. But I know this, you'll know
Christ and you'll love Christ. And you'll have a heart for Christ. That's what it is to be called.
Paul says in our text, he tells us that we were called We know
these things. We have received not the Spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may
know. Friends, we may know our election.
How? Believe on the Son of God. And you shall be saved. This is the regenerating power
of the Spirit, and this is the calling grace of God, His grace
in that He calls whom He wills. Friends, some of you, God may
pass over. I pray that that's not the case. And if you think
that's the case, I pray you beg God, seek God, that He might
be merciful to you. And He calls whom He wills, and
He has called us. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
He has called us who have been called? Number three, how are
these graces given? Look at our text, and God here
tells us how these things are given to us. Look at the last
part. That we might know the things that are freely given. Freely. That's how these graces
are given. Believer, let us not look within
ourselves to find merit for these things. That's why I said last
week we were talking about, Paul said, let us labor to enter into
this rest. And this is how we labor, that
we cast off all works of the flesh. We stop trying to look for reasons
why God saved us. You want to know why God saved
you? Look to Christ. Don't look to yourself. You won't
find any. You'll find only discomfort and fear. God saved us freely. Therefore, being justified by
faith. We were freely justified by God. Freely justified without a cause
in us. Do not attend to the lies of
false religion that says grace may be obtained by your will
or works. Understand what they're talking
about when they say grace. They're talking about something
totally different than the Scriptures. They're talking about a grace
that may be grabbed by their own will or by their own religious
actions. That's not freely given. If I
grab something, then I have some merit by which I may obtain it. That's not grace. That's not
grace. Grace is something given to an
unworthy recipient. That's freely. So look for the
cause of God's grace found in Himself. And this grace that
is freely given, how is it delivered or communicated to the sinner? You've just heard it. By the
preaching of the gospel. Friends, To miss this is to miss the power
of God. Do you desire strength during
your week? I do. I need strength. This morning God gave me strength. I felt as though I could do nothing
last evening but hold on to Christ. I felt as though my soul would
have fallen off at any moment had I let go of Christ. I need
a strength. Where can I find strength? Where
can I find courage and wisdom and understanding of the things
of God? Where can I find solace for my soul in the midst of trouble? Right here. This is God's means by which
the power of the Spirit comes to the heart of man. How do I know this? Because I've
experienced this and do experience this. And you that have believed,
I know you experience this. Why then would we neglect what
God has ordained for our strength? We should not. You shouldn't
exalt me. You shouldn't come because of
me. You should come because of the message. It is the power
of God and the salvation that everyone that believeth. Paul says, "...being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare..." I say
at this time, His righteousness, which He might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, where then is boasting? Friends, do you know that neglecting
the gospel is nothing more than boasting that you have some other
means to obtain God's strength and favor? How many times did Paul say declare
in this passage? Who declares the message? I do. Don't neglect that to your own
soul's detriment. But know that this message is
the power of God. And this message contains the
grace of God for sinners. Is that not what you came to
hear this morning? I hope it is. I hope it is. Because there's great solace
for the souls of God's people in this message. Don't praise
us, praise God. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.