Good morning. Now, I know plenty of you is glad
to be here, but I know one fellow that's real glad to be here.
This man went to Afghanistan and back in record time. And I didn't want to see you
go, and I'm sure glad to see you back. Just chalk it up to
miracles never cease. Hey, let's turn in our Bibles
to 1 Corinthians. These Bible class teachers scare
me to death. I think you're going straight
to the passage that I had marked, you know. 1 Corinthians chapter
Now, I propose to read a part of this
chapter this morning. Let's take the first 21 verses,
if you will, please. 1 Corinthians 15. My title this morning, some of you know this already.
I've never figured out why this is. the site on the internet, Sermon
Audio, they will only tolerate a certain number of words, which
ain't very many, like four or five. So my actual title is,
By the Grace of God, I Am What I Am. By the Grace of God, I
Am What I Am. But on the internet, it's going
to say, By the Grace of God. Which is alright. Ain't nothing
wrong with that. That's where everything lies,
the grace of God. Where it all is. So we're going
to come now to chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, and we're going
to start reading here in just a moment at verse 1. May we bow
together in prayer. Lord, our hearts do rejoice this
day. Not only for miracles that we can see, but Lord, everything
in this universe is a constant miracle every day. Every day. If we just knew, but it's not
meant for us to know. Our thankfulness and our praise
would be 24-7 if we truly knew what you do every day in regard
to this world in which we live, this universe of which we're
a part. All the outward things that we
can see with these eyes and hear with these ears are nothing, absolutely nothing compared to
your grace. It is your grace that saves us,
that keeps us, that blesses us. Help us, we pray this day, to look into this statement,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. Lord, when we look inside of
ourselves, we don't see what you see, but
we see enough of our sin and our shortcomings to think that
nothing good could be in us. But this Bible that we all possess tells us this glorious news. If Christ lives in you, God lives
in you, and everything is perfect and
right And we love to have it so. Now, as we come to the reading
of this passage, Lord, we pray that you would open your Word to our understanding,
or should we say, open our understanding to your Word, that we might see
and understand what you tell us in this book that is nothing
less than the book of God. We beg for your mercy. We thank
you that we can meet in this place this day, and we thank
you for these that are gathered here. Lord, you do as you will and
as you please. And we'll be satisfied. We pray
in Christ's name, Amen. Alright, 1 Corinthians 15, beginning
at verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein you stand." These words belong to the Apostle
Paul who wrote this letter to the Corinthian congregation.
"...by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
The biblical record tells us that when Christ died, he died
for all the sins of all of his people, not for all of the sins
of all men. And that he was buried and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. and that he
was seen of Peter and then of the twelve. After that, he was
seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain until this present, but some are fallen asleep. Some of that number have died.
After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and
last of all, last of all, He was seen of me also, Paul
writing of himself, as of one born out of due time. He never walked with Christ,
nor heard him preach, as far as we've been told in our Bibles,
the whole time that Christ exercised his public life and ministry.
And it was only after our Lord has ascended to glory that Paul
comes to a knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. And he meets him on
the road to Damascus. After that, verse 7, he was seen
of James and of the apostles, and last of all, he was seen
of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least
of the apostles that am not fit 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 labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I. It wasn't really me, he said,
it was the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether
it were I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ
be preached, that he rose from the dead, How say some among
you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not raised? And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your
faith is also vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ,
whom He raised not up, if there be If so be that the dead rise
not. And if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ risen. Christ is not raised if the dead
die not. And if Christ be not raised,
our faith is vain, and we're yet in our sins. We're still
in our sins. If there's no such thing as a
resurrected Christ, there's no such thing as a born-again believer.
No such thing. Verse 18, then they also who
are fallen asleep in Christ, if he's not raised, they've perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now,
verse 20 and 21, but now is Christ risen from the dead? and become
the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came
death, by man, that is, the man Christ Jesus, the God-man Christ
Jesus, came also the resurrection of the dead." Now, let's see
if we can work on this one phrase out of verse 10. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. Now, some people like to brag that God is my co-pilot. God ain't your co-nothing, nor
mine either. He's the pilot, and He doesn't
ask my permission or yours. He rules everything there is,
seen and unseen, past, present and future. It's all Him. The problem with today's religion
is that their God is too small. And consequently, when you tell
people what the Bible actually says about God, it upsets them. It's fighting words. Well, if it brings on a fight,
it's just going to have to bring it on. You and I cannot be complicit
in such an awful representation of the God of the Bible. God
is God. He does as he pleases in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men. And nobody
can say to him, what are you doing? Why have you made me thus? By the grace of God. I am what
I am. Now, I think I've got three points
here that I'm trying to get across this morning. The first one is
that to all believers, to all believers, this statement,
by the grace of God, I am what I am, is our doctrine. We must believe it. We have no
alternate choice. We don't want another choice.
We want this God for our God forever and forever. Here's why
this is our doctrine. Because it is by the grace of
God that he elected us to salvation. God chose us in old eternity
before this world was ever born, before it was ever made, before
man ever existed, before there was even a sinner. God chose us in Christ. You can find these words in Psalm
65 and verse 4, but I'm not sure I'll have time to wait for you
to turn, so I'll just tell you what it says. Blessed is the man whom God chooses,
elects, and calls unto Himself. Blessed is that person. Blessed
indeed is that person. Doug referred in his Bible class
to 1 John 4.19. We've cited this statement because
it is such a principle that seems to be forgotten in our generation.
It simply says that we love Him because He first loved us. And
I'll guarantee if you'd go to most any church in this county
and put that before them for a vote, you wouldn't win. In
fact, you might not even get a chance to conduct the vote. They'd probably usher you out
the door, and it won't be the front door either. We did not choose Him. He chose
us. How about turning to Titus? That's
in this part of the Scriptures. It's not very far away. Let's
see. You've got 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Peter, and then you've
got the book of Titus. I didn't get that right. 1 and
2 Timothy. and then Titus. Chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. And our verse is verses 5 and
6. Having to do with God's grace, which we call
redeeming grace. We sung this in our choruses
as well as our hymns. The grace of God is redeeming
grace. Christ is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. He is our Lord. Titus chapter 3, verses 5 and
6. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done. Sinners are not capable of works
of righteousness. It's a foreign thing to us. It
doesn't belong to us. If we ever do any righteousness
at all, it will be in God's righteousness in Christ that is communicated
to us through Him. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
which He shed on us abundantly. How? Through Jesus Christ our
Savior. Now about all Christian religion,
they talk about Christ as the Savior, but the minute they mention
that, they start taking away from it. They say, but He can't
save you unless you let Him. If you don't take the first step,
He can't take the second and all this. This is just pure junk. Not a word of truth in it. Not only is this our doctrine,
and not only is this doctrine of grace about redeeming love,
but by God's grace, he actually calls us to himself. All right? You got the tease, right? All
right. Back to your left. One book. 2 Timothy. Chapter 1 and verse 9. Now, it would be tempting just
to camp out on this one statement, but I think it would help us
perhaps to continue to deal with the overall subject. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. Alright? 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. Who has saved us? God is the Last word of the preceding
verse, God who has saved us and called us with unholy calling. Yeah, but preacher, doesn't he
call the best of men? Absolutely not. He calls the
worst of men. God doesn't save good people.
There's no need to. There ain't any. I don't care if it's your grandmama
or mine or my mother or yours. There are no good people. God is good. Christ is good. He's called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus when? before the world began. Yeah, but there were no human
beings then. Oh no, but there was a Savior
before there was ever a sinner. And the very first person that
God ever made, by the name of Adam, became the first sinner. And all of the human race are
born, like himself, sinners. born sinners. Before. That's a long time. Before the world began. Well,
how long before? There was no time before the
world began. I challenge you to study that
ninth verse of 2 Timothy chapter 1. And if you have occasion, without
trying to be mean, just trying to be nice, mention that to your
friends and see what you get in return. By his grace, God called us. Therefore, we are to maintain
this truth against all comers. No matter what religious stripe
or color that person is, how long they've been professing
to be believers, and how dumb they are compared to the Word
of God, none of that matters. If God is in it, He saves whom
He pleases. And He just might use you and
me to tell the gospel. We must maintain this truth against
all objection. It is not my will that brought
me to God, it is God's will that brought me to Himself. And if
you are a believer, that's the only way you became a believer
too. I'm telling you, there ain't but one way, and that way is
all Christ. By His grace, He not only calls
us, but He keeps us in His fold. Well, I shouldn't even ask this
question, it's foolish. I started to say, if you're a
believer, I hope you're happy because you are. Because if you
ain't, you're going to still be one. I mean, this thing is
done once and done forever. This is no repetition. This ain't
joining a church. This is not trying to impress
men. No. This is God. It is God. By His grace, He keeps
us in His fold. It is only by His grace that
we continue in the faith. Now, I've got too many verses
here. I think, yeah I do because I'm still on page one, it ain't
going to work. Give me just a second. Listen to these statements without
turning. I'll try to remember to tell
you what it is at the end of each one. Alright, the first
one. Being confident of this very thing, that He, God, who
has begun a good work in you, shall perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1 verse 6. And then
there's another one. We are said to be people, believers
are said to be, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. That's 1 Peter
1 verse 5. And then it says, "...now unto
him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."
God is delighted to save sinners. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory, and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and ever. Amen. That's Jude 24 and 25. Alright, we're narrowing it down,
down to page 2. Lord have mercy. The second thing we wanted to
say about this matter is that this is not only our doctrine,
but this is our experience. We understand that this is what
brings us to God. It's what keeps us there and
will do so throughout eternity to come. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. We're reminded every day that
His grace and His grace alone makes the difference. 1 Corinthians 4, 7, you shouldn't
even need the Bible to remember this one. Who makes you to differ
from another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? And if you received it, why do
you brag and boast as if you had not received it? This is
God's doing and ours. But the one I want you to turn,
I don't care if it takes till tomorrow, I want you to turn
to this one. I've got to get my thought back. It's Romans
chapter 7. And you know, it took me a long
time to figure out this was, I mean,
way back in my old religion. You know, I'm sure I must have
read Romans 7 sometime or other. We had daily Bible readings that
you were supposed to read. Of course, if the people that
were writing that guide had any sense, they'd have you skip some
of these things, and maybe they did. I don't remember well enough
to know that. But I know that Romans 7 never
gave me so much as a bother. I don't remember ever being in
conflict with it until I found out who God is and who I am,
and what salvation is. And then it all changed. A. W. Pink has got a book on
Romans 7, and he simply titles it, The Christian in Romans 7. And that's enough to trigger
some angry responses from people who think that they have to do
all these things for themselves. Alright? Enough talking. Let
me read you the verses that I brought you here to read. Somebody's moved them. Here we
go. Verse 18. Romans 7, 18. Now, I've been
known to give you the wrong book and the wrong verse, and a whole
lot of other wrongs, but I'm dead sure of this now. I'm looking
straight at it in my Bible. Verse 18, Romans 7, "'For I know
that in me,' this is Paul the Apostle, that is, in my flesh,
in my natural self, I know that in me dwells no good thing.'"
Oh, preacher, you can't mean nothing at all. Oh yes, I do. That's exactly what it says. No good thing in me. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, Paul said, I can't find
it. I can't find it. Now jump down. I wish you didn't have to do
that. Jump down to verse 24. This will ice the cake, this one statement. Romans 7, 24. O wretched man
that I am. Most of religion changes that
verb, I was. But you can open your Bible tomorrow
and it's going to say I am, and the next day it's going to say
I am. It's I am. Paul is not talking about himself
before his conversion. He's talking about himself Now,
some twenty-some years after Christ met him on the road to
Damascus. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? And I tell you, if verse 24 ain't
so, you can't have verse 25. That's thieving. That's stealing. If you don't want verse 24, I
don't care what you say, you can't have verse 25. The answer
to that question is, who shall deliver me? I thank God, verse
25, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." Now,
anybody that changes, that's got to change everything in here
on the tense of these verbs. And we can do it without ever
even writing in our Bibles. But I'm telling you, that's how
it is. That's exactly how it is. In my flesh, well is no good
thing." This experience, by the grace
of God I am what I am, we are daily, and I do mean daily, many
times a day, made aware of our own depravity and sin. We're daily aware of dullness
of heart in spiritual things. We can sit for hours and watch
a ball game. One of these times when there's
a Bible conference coming up, why don't you just go and try
that on for size? You know, where they've got eight
different preachers in three days. And my, thank God for seat
cushions and all I can say. Man, tough on the flesh. Yeah, that it is. You remember Newton's hymn from
last week? John Newton, "'Tis a point I
long to know, oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord,
or no? Am I His, or am I not? Now that's what we're trying
to find out. Do I belong to him or don't I? If I do, there are
plenty of things in this book that stare us in the face, and
we're looking at several of them this morning. When we witness the departure
from the faith by others, let us ask ourselves, why not me? Why not me? And the only answer
to that is, if God doesn't keep us, we'll
all leave. I'm serious. We'll all leave. Hey, let's do one other scripture
here, and I may need another one, but I particularly need
you to look at this one. Luke, back to your left, chapter
22. Luke 22, beginning at verse 31. Luke 22. Now this fellow Simon is Simon
Peter. I want you to understand that. Okay? And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift
you as wheat. But I pray for you." This is
the words of the Lord Jesus now. But I have prayed for you, that
your faith fail not. And when you are converted, when
you are turned back again, you can't be converted but one time,
so I don't like the particular word they've used, but I just... Peter's already born again, he's
already a disciple of Christ. When you are turned back again
from this wild, crazy notion of yours, strengthen your brethren. And Peter said to the Lord Jesus, I know we've all thought this
about ourselves, but I tell you, this ain't something we ought
to be going around talking about. I don't believe it. For me, anyway. Peter said to Him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with You both into prison and to death. Boy, that's what you call a gung-ho
believer. Oh, but it might be a little
too much gung-ho, a little too much Peter and not enough Christ. And our Lord said to him, I tell
you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day, before you
shall three times deny that you even know me." And add a little
profanity in to make it believable. Oh my goodness! You think if Satan desired to
have Peter, he might treat you and me the same way? Let us be keenly aware of the
blessings and mercies of God upon us. A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from heaven. John 3.27. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. Now, two more little points,
and I'll be ready to close up shop. And this statement, by the grace
of God, ought to give us, in the hour of our deepest need,
some degree of comfort. Just merely the fact that we're
saying that whatever we are, whatever we have that is commendable,
desirable, we have it by the grace of God. It's not something
we earned or paid for or had already in our wonderful selves
when we were born into this world. No. By the grace of God, I am
what I am. Our comfort is for God to order
and determine our lives, our blessings, our trials, and our
days. And finally, number four, this
is our testimony. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Alright, one more. Philippians. Let's see. Galatians, Ephesians,
and I think Philippians is next. I used to know all this stuff
back in my real young days. It gives false encouragement
and makes you think you are something when you ain't nothing. I'd rather see somebody have
trouble finding things in their Bible than to think they know
what's already in it and they just leave it closed. They've
already read it through once, twice, ten times, whatever. It
doesn't matter. That doesn't mean you understand
and know anything. Alright, Philippians chapter
3. It didn't give you the chapter. Chapter 3 and verse 3. Here we
are. Philippians 3, 3. For we are
the circumcision, that is, the truly circumcised of heart believers,
made so by the grace of God in Christ. We are the circumcision,
and there are three phrases now that define what this is. These
three phrases can tell us if we know God in Jesus Christ or
not. Which worship God in the Spirit. This morning, this very exact
hour, most worship, the world over, this part of the world
most especially, it is false worship. It is not the true worship
of God. It is men who are worshiping
themselves. And we've all been a part of
that. And we may still be a part of that. We're the circumcision
who worship God in the Spirit. Secondly, our rejoicing is in
Christ Jesus. And thirdly, and you've got to
have all three of these now, The third one is have no confidence
in the flesh. None. Ah, preacher, you don't
know who I am. I know one thing for sure. If
you're breathing, you're a sinner. And you can only be saved by
the grace of God. Because by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And without grace, you can't
be one of His children.