We have been fellowshipping recently on the book of Proverbs. We mentioned how, in the book of Proverbs, there is a verse which says that wisdom has built her house, and she has hewn out seven pillars.
We take wisdom as our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is building His house, which is the church. As the Lord builds His house, He builds it with seven pillars. These seven pillars represent a sevenfold character of His that He desires to build into us. With that, He builds His church.
Now, we have fellowshipped in the past on four of these spirits: righteousness, diligence, love, and loveliness. This morning we will go into the fifth pillar of wisdom, and it is graciousness—graciousness.
Let us read a few verses.
Proverbs 11:16-17, 25
A gracious woman obtaineth honor;
And violent men obtain riches.
The merciful man doeth good to his own soul;
But he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.
The liberal soul shall be made fat;
And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
Proverbs 14:21, 31
He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth;
But he that hath pity on the poor, happy is he.
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker;
But he that honoreth Him hath mercy on the needy.
Proverbs 15:4; 19:11, 17, 22; 20:28; 22:9
A gentle tongue is a tree of life;
But perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit.
The discretion of a man maketh him slow to anger;
And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord,
And His good deed will He pay him again.
That which maketh a man to be desired is his kindness;
And a poor man is better than a liar.
Mercy and truth preserve the king;
And his throne is upholden by mercy.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed;
For he giveth of his bread to the poor.
O Father, we thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We have read Thy Word, and now we ask Thy Holy Spirit to break Thy Word to us and to bless us.
We pray that, as Thy Word is spoken, Thy Holy Spirit will make it real in each of our lives, that there may be an increase of Christ in us, because Thou art the living Word. We do commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thee for Thy working unto Thy glory. Amen.
There are various words used with more or less the same thought: gracious, kind, liberal, gentle. So we just group them together under the one pillar of graciousness.
Now, brothers and sisters, our God is a God full of grace. He is a gracious God. You remember in the wilderness, the children of Israel sinned against God, and Moses went up to plead with God for the people.
God forgave them. Then God told Moses to hew out two stones and bring them to the mountain. God would write His law upon these two stones once again. So Moses went up to the mountain, and there God declared His name to Moses. That is in Exodus 34:6-7.
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth;
Keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin;
And that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
God declares Himself as merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. He is a most gracious God.
When the Lord Jesus came to this world, we find in John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
Our God is very gracious. Because He is so gracious to us, He does require of us, who are His, to be gracious also.
But we have to acknowledge that graciousness is simply not in us.
One day Peter came to the Lord and said, “Lord, is it enough for me to forgive my brother seven times?” To Peter, that was an achievement. With such a quick temper, to forgive his brother seven times was something to him. He was very proud of himself.
So he came to the Lord and said, “Now, is it enough? I have come to the end of my patience. I have done everything I could with my brother. I should think that should be enough.”
But the Lord said, “I did not tell you seven times. I say seventy times seven.” The Lord used a parable to teach him. The Lord said there was a king, and he had his slaves, bondslaves. One of his bondslaves owed him ten thousand talents.
A talent is about a thousand dollars. Ten thousand talents is about ten million dollars.
So the king called that bondslave to him and said, “Now, you pay. If you do not pay, then I will sell you and your wife and your children and everything that you have.”
The bondslave begged him and said, “Now, king, be patient with me. I will pay. Give me time.” Of course, he could not pay.
But the king was full of compassion. So when he saw that man crying for mercy, he forgave all his debt and let him go.
This forgiven slave walked out of the palace and met a fellow slave who owed him a hundred denarii. A denarius is about twenty cents. In other words, his fellow slave owed him twenty dollars.
He took hold of him by the throat and said, “Pay!” His fellow slave begged him and said, “Give me time. I will do it, but give me time.” He said, “No, you have to pay right away.” Because he could not pay, he put him in jail.
When the king heard of that, he called the bondslave and said, “I have forgiven you much. Should you not forgive your fellow slave?” And he was put in prison.
God is so gracious. So He expects us, who are His, to be gracious. Otherwise, we will not be like Him. What characterizes Him ought to characterize us.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we have to say that grace is something we do not know. Graciousness is not our trait.
You can go back even to the Garden of Eden. You remember, after man sinned, God asked man, “What is this that thou hast done?” Adam began to say, “No, it is the woman—the woman that Thou gavest to be with me.”
There was no graciousness in that. Man became selfish after sin. Self-preservation became an essential instinct to protect himself. He put the blame on the woman. He had lost the knowledge of graciousness.
Dear brothers and sisters, in fallen man there is no knowledge of grace. We do not know what grace is. There is no trait of graciousness in the fallen nature. There is not.
But the Lord is gracious. So after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, He has given His life to us. The very life in us has the nature of graciousness.
We who have His life have this new nature of graciousness within us. It needs to be lived out. It needs to be developed so that it will also become a character in us.
What is grace? Grace has at least three elements.
First, grace is something within a person which causes pleasure, delight, and satisfaction to people who are in touch with that person. In other words, grace in the first place is something within a person.
There is something within that person that draws out beauty, delight, and satisfaction in whoever comes in contact with him. It is just like when you look at a beautiful picture. When you see a beautiful picture, it gives you a certain pleasure and delight within you.
But you must know that the source of the delight within you is in that picture. There is something there that gives you such pleasure and delight. Now, that is the first element of grace.
The second element of grace is that, because that person is full of grace, he is full of beauty—full of that which will give you a sense of delight, pleasure, and satisfaction. Therefore, the second thing is that he gives to you freely and universally.
That is grace. It is not something that is given and requires a payment. It is something that is given freely and universally.
Third, when that grace is given so freely and universally, it produces in the recipient a heart of thankfulness. It also imparts to that recipient a disposition of being gracious.
It reproduces itself in the person who has received grace.
So, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus, He is grace. You remember in John 1, it says the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Out of His fullness we receive grace upon grace.
The law was given through Moses. Actually, Moses is the channel; the law is given through Moses to us by God. But grace subsists in Christ.
This means it has its beginning; it commences in Christ, and it has its continued existence in Christ. Before Christ came into this world, there was no such thing as grace upon the earth. Grace was unknown upon the earth.
But when Christ came into this world, He brought grace to this world. This is the first time the world ever knew what grace is. He begins it, and not only begins it, but grace continues in Him.
This is His fullness. This is the fullness of Christ, and out of that fullness we receive grace upon grace.
So, dear brothers and sisters, grace is not just something given. Grace, strictly speaking, is Christ Himself. Christ Himself is grace, and He gives grace. When we receive grace, we ought to be as graceful and gracious as He.
But all we knew before we had Christ—the best we knew—was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That seems to be the highest we can ever arrive at.
We think we are righteous: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The best that we can do naturally is try to keep the law. The law only comes to that level of an eye for an eye.
But grace requires that we walk the second mile. That is something beyond us completely.
Brothers and sisters, what is grace? What is graciousness? It is not something that you wait for; it is something that you initiate. You do not wait to be gracious. You are gracious to start with.
It is positive; it is not just passive. It is something that God wants us to give—to be gracious.
What are the various expressions of being gracious? Number one, you will find that to forgive is an expression of being gracious.
It is very difficult for us to forgive. Therefore, you find even in the English idiom: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” In other words, for human beings to forgive, that is impossible. For us to make mistakes, that is human; everybody does. But to forgive, it has to be divine. And that is true. That is true.
How can we forgive others unless we know how we are forgiven? A person who has never known how he is forgiven will never know how to forgive other people. It will always be a demand for righteousness.
You know, we should demand righteousness of ourselves, but with others we should be gracious. Now, oftentimes we turn this around. We are very righteous with other people, but we are most gracious to ourselves.
Oh, we excuse ourselves all the time—very gracious, very kind, very liberal. But with other people, we are very righteous, and we think, “Well, we are just being righteous.” Isn’t that right? It is right, but where is grace?
We ought to be righteous to ourselves. Do not be too gracious to yourself, excusing yourself all the time. You will become very careless and loose. There will be no character building.
We have to use righteousness with ourselves, even in small things. Sometimes we think, “Well, it is such a small thing. It does not matter.” No, it does matter. We need to be righteous, strict with ourselves. But with other people, we need to learn to be gracious—not demanding, but trying to forgive.
If we do not forgive, our heart will become hardened. You know, it is when we forgive others that our heart is enlarged and softened.
Actually, when you forgive a person, you gain more than the person who is forgiven. Do not think that because you forgive, you lose something. Suppose he owes you a dollar and you forgive him; you lose a dollar. But, brothers and sisters, your heart is expanded. It is enlarged a little bit, and the gain of an enlarged heart cannot be measured by dollars.
But if you do not forgive, your heart is hardened. Therefore, the Lord said that if you do not forgive from your heart, the heavenly Father will not forgive you. Why? Because your heart is hardened. Your heart is hard.
Brothers and sisters, as you read the New Testament, you find that the spirit of forgiving is the spirit of Christ. How often you find in the Bible that He tells us how we need to forgive, and forgive one another.
Especially when we are together as members one of another in the body of Christ, there needs to be lots of forgiving. Therefore, in the epistles of Paul, he always says, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving each other,” because otherwise there is no way to keep the unity of the Spirit. There is no way of building up one another.
Oh, how our Lord is gracious to us. We owe Him ten thousand talents, and He forgives us. How can we be so demanding with our brother and sister who may owe us only twenty dollars? Learn to forgive. Forgiving is an expression of being gracious.
Another expression is kindness—kindness.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, says, “Love suffereth long, and is kind.” Love not only suffers long. In other words, someone may be treating you badly, and you suffer for it. You endure it. You take it. You do not fight back, eye for eye, but you are willing to forbear. You are willing to endure. You are willing to suffer for it. Very good—that is love.
It is not only just receiving passively with suffering. Love is also kind. In other words, you repay with kindness. When people treat you evilly, you repay with good. That is kindness.
We cannot do that. Nobody can do that. If a person gives me an evil eye and I do not look back, that is good enough. Usually I look back twice.
But if I look back once, that is righteousness according to law. If I do not look back, that is endurance, patience, longsuffering. But when people look at you with an evil eye and you smile back, that is kindness.
You are willing to do something over and above. Our God is so kind.
Judas was to betray our Lord. Even at the Last Supper, the last Passover supper, the Lord dipped the bread and gave it to Judas. That was according to the Jewish custom at that time, the way they treated the honorable guest.
Because of that, even though the Lord said, “To whom I give the bread, that will be the one to betray Me,” and the Lord gave it to Judas, the disciples did not know that it was Judas who would betray Him. Why? Because it was so opposite. There was a symbol of an honorable guest. Kindness—the best kindness.
Brothers and sisters, we ought to learn to be kind to one another, not just to endure, but learn to be kind.
Another expression of graciousness is liberality, generosity. We are to be strict with ourselves, but liberal with other people. We should be stingy with ourselves, but generous with others. That is also an expression of graciousness.
Another expression of graciousness is gentleness, and especially a gentle tongue is a tree of life.
You know, our tongue can be very biting, very sharp. If we have a sharp tongue, we tend not to be gracious. We can hurt people with our tongue. Gentleness is shown especially in the tongue.
These are the various expressions of being gracious—to be gracious.
But, brothers and sisters, how can we be gracious? We do not know what graciousness is. It is not in us. But thank God, the potential is already here with us.
Before we knew the Lord, grace was something unknown to us. The best we could achieve was the law. But now, having known the Lord, with His life in us, the potential is already here.
It is not in you, but it is in Christ, and Christ is in you. This life of Christ in you is none other than graciousness. God cannot be ungracious. Why? Because He is gracious. This is His very character. This is His very nature.
The Christ who is in us—the life of Christ in us—is a gracious life. All we need is to let that life flow; then we will be gracious.
But, brothers and sisters, the trouble is that whenever we hear that we ought to be gracious, we start out to try to be gracious by ourselves. That is our trouble. Thus, we put ourselves under the law, under bondage.
We try to be gracious, but we cannot. We cannot. Because we cannot do it, we are condemned. We are under the condemnation of the law. We are under bondage.
But that is not the way God wants us to be. God says, “You cannot be gracious. I know it. I am not asking you to be gracious. I am asking Myself, who is in you, to be gracious.” And that is the secret.
Brothers and sisters, you may try, and I am afraid we have to try before we learn. We know we ought to be gracious. Suppose a brother or sister treats us badly.
We know that we should be gracious, but we cannot. We struggle over it, and we try to be gracious. But even if you may outwardly appear to be gracious, inwardly is another story, and you know it.
Graciousness is simply not in you. No matter how you try, it is not there—and it is not there. By trying, it will not produce it.
But thank God, we have Christ in us, and Christ in us is gracious, full of grace. It is proven. When He was on earth, He exhibited that graciousness fully to us. It has been tested and proved to be true.
The potential is here, but how can that potential be brought out? Now, this is our problem.
The process, if we may say so, by which the life of Christ—the gracious life of Christ in us—is to be lived out, is through death and resurrection. That is the process. It is the cross. There is no other way.
Brothers and sisters, when we are faced with a situation in which we cannot be gracious and yet we should be gracious, what should we do?
We will be going through a process of dying. There, within us, we know we should be gracious, but we cannot.
Sometimes it is manifested outwardly. Sometimes we manage to keep it within us. Yet the truth is the same: we cannot be gracious. We cannot find graciousness within us. There is none.
We cry to the Lord, “Lord, it is nothing. I cannot do it.” You are going through a dying—a dying.
What is death? What is dying? It is a sense of utter weakness. You go through a sense of utter weakness. That is very humiliating—very humiliating—to acknowledge that you cannot do it, to acknowledge that you try but cannot.
You go through a sense of dying until you come to a point and say, “Lord, I am finished. I just cannot do it. Not only can I not do it; I am not going to try anymore. It is just useless to try.”
That sounds bad, but thank God, when you come to that point, you begin to give up yourself. You say, “Lord, I give up. What I give to You.” Then you begin to look to the Lord and say, “Lord, if You want me to be gracious, You have to be that grace. You have to do it. I am just depending on You to do it.”
As you cast yourself upon the Lord, you find He takes you through. To your surprise, you are able to be gracious—what you could not do before.
But remember, it is not you. It is Christ in you who is gracious to people. Because of that, there is nothing you can boast of. After you have been gracious to people, you may think, “Now I am very gracious.” No, you cannot be proud of it. Why? Because it is not you; it is Christ.
You have to give the glory to Christ. If you are so foolish as to think, “Now I have graciousness,” very soon you will have a test, and you will find it is nothing. It is nothing.
Brothers and sisters, it is only through that painful process of death and resurrection that this new nature of graciousness in you begins to develop. After continuous development, it will become a character.
It is not something that will be done in a day. No. It takes time to develop that nature. It takes time to deny the old, deny yourself, and take up the cross.
In the beginning, to be gracious is painful. To be gracious means that you have to lose something. To be gracious is losing your life—your self-life. You are losing your life.
But if you continue to deny yourself and take up your cross, this is your cross. You are looking for a cross? It is here. Why do you leave it and go out to find some cross to bear? It is here. Take up your cross and follow the Lord.
As you learn to follow the Lord, gradually you find that to be gracious is not loss; it is gain. Oh, you do not know how much it does for you. It enlarges your heart. It gives you joy, peace, life, and health. It is good medicine to be gracious.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this is another pillar that the Lord wants to build in us.
Again, let me say: no one is naturally gracious. Do not think that you are more gracious than other people—not at all. No. It has to come from God. It has to come from the work of the cross.
It has to come by your continuous denying of yourself and taking up your cross, so that the life of Christ in you may be released.
Oh, if by the grace of God we can be a gracious people, how good that will be. It is almost like Psalm 133:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
Now, how can you dwell together in unity? You have to be gracious to one another. If we are gracious to one another, you will find the anointing of the Lord. You will find a refreshing dew from heaven. His life will spread and will be abundant.
So, brothers and sisters, this is something that the Lord wants to work in us.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast put within us a gracious life, a life full of grace. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast deposited this life in us. Thou hast given us this potential. We do thank Thee for that.
Now, Lord, we do pray that by Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt lead us into this truth. We pray that Thou wilt enable us to see that this is not ourselves, that this is Christ.
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Oh, show us that without Thee we can do nothing, but with Thee all things are possible.
So, Lord, just teach us how to let go of ourselves and let Him live out through us. Enable us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Thee.
O Lord, we do desire that we may be characterized by graciousness, because Thou art gracious and merciful. Make us Thy people—indeed, truly Thy people.
We commit one another into Thy loving hand, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.