Well, I will implore you to learn that hymn. One of the shortest hymns I know, one of the most beautiful, and certainly one of the most powerful when you look at the depth of it. So, if you do not know it well, practice it and learn the hymn, please.
If you will turn with me to one verse, it is in 1 Corinthians 15:10. I think you probably know this verse by now. This is Paul the apostle speaking as he begins to close this letter to the Corinthian church.
But by the grace of God I am what I am:
and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain;
but I labored more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
So, let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful we have Your Word. Your words are spirit and life. We come to the One who has those words, who is the Word Himself. The Word became flesh, and we come to You and bow before You. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would breathe upon Your Word this morning.
As we look at this verse and continue to look at this verse, open Your living Word to us. We tell You, like Peter said—we say it again and again—Lord, how absolutely dependent we are on You. You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?
Now, Lord, speak. Break to us the Word of life, and open Your Word as we consider this verse again this morning. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, first of all, let me apologize for a little thing going on in my throat—a bit of, I do not know if it is one of these summer cold things or not. You are pointing at your wife, so apparently it is going around. I apologize if I am less clear than usual, but I will try to share from this verse.
Some of you may remember, and many of you may not, that we began a series on this single verse early in the year. Let us put it that way. But after a number of travels and visits, and one of my favorite phrases, “life gets in the way,” we never finished the series.
So now, by God’s grace, we will finish the series. We have two messages left, and in the next several weeks, or as the Lord permits, we will finish this series.
I believe this verse that the apostle Paul shared with the Corinthian believers has an ocean of meaning. The depth of the grace of God that comes to us in this single verse is tremendous. You see not just saving grace, but you see all the grace that we need, and you see completing grace.
So we have talked about this single verse and its universe of meaning as The Complete Work of Grace. That was the best I could come up with. Today, what we would like to focus upon is this third part: cooperating with grace.
This is very important. If we do not cooperate with the grace of God, we will never enter into the complete work of grace. It is absolutely essential.
This broad verse reminds me of that phrase in Ephesians 3:18, where it talks about the love of God and speaks of the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of God. I think, in the same way, this single verse speaks of something of the breadth, length, depth, and height of the grace of God.
I believe the apostle Paul shared everything in his heart about the grace of God in this one verse. There was a brother some of you may never have heard of, Roy B. Zuck. Some of you may have heard of him. He was a very famous preacher, professor, and Bible teacher at Dallas Theological Seminary.
A person asked him one time, “What is your favorite doctrine?” This renowned teacher and professor was asked, “What is your favorite doctrine when it comes to the Word of God?” His answer was very simple: “Nothing compares to the doctrine of God’s grace. Nothing.”
Think of that. What a remarkable statement for this learned brother to share.
We have looked at this verse in phrases because I think it easily breaks down in phrases. The first phrase is, “But by God’s grace I am what I am.” That was the first message, you remember.
The second phrase is, “And His grace, which was toward me, has not been in vain.” Now the third phrase: “But I have labored more abundantly than they all.” When you read that, like I do, it seems out of place.
Then we read, “But not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” So we began by sharing about grace in that first message—our beginning and our end.
The point we made, for those who need a brief review since it has been so long, is that this is not just to be the apostle Paul’s testimony. This is to be your testimony, and this is to be my testimony in the end. Brothers and sisters, that is the reason we are making such an emphasis about this verse.
The second thing we talked about in that first message was that grace is our beginning and our end. When you read Paul’s letters, you may think he has a nice little greeting in the beginning and a nice little salutation at the end. By the way, both deal with grace.
You read every one of his letters: it begins with grace. You read every one of his letters—almost half of the New Testament, thirteen letters—and it ends with grace. So I think this apostle knew something of the grace of God. He was not just politely saying some sort of greeting to the saints he wrote to, nor simply concluding with a thought.
He was saying, “My understanding from the beginning to the end is that it is the grace of God.” I think that is the clear message that comes out of his writings.
The third thing we shared was that grace is everything in between. Aren’t you grateful? If it were not for the grace of God, the all-sufficient grace of God, where would we be?
We begin in grace, and we end in grace. But we do not just have grace to get saved, and we do not just have grace to carry us into eternity. In fact, we have grace for every circumstance in life, everything from A to Z, and everything in between.
The second message was grace that is toward us. What a beautiful phrase. Think of that. With everything that is against us—life circumstances, the world, the enemy, sin, self—think of everything that is against us, and all you have to do is think for a moment of what the apostle Paul said: “His grace, which was toward him.”
To me, that is so encouraging: that grace is toward us when everything else is against us.
Another thing shared and made clear in these verses is that grace is abundant and inexhaustible. There are not many things, or hardly anything, that are inexhaustible in this world.
I remember studying economics and still do not know what I studied, although I did get an A in both, John. This old engineer got an A in both economics. You are proud of me. Thank you.
I remember the one thing that stuck with me out of all those enormous books and lectures: economics deals with the limited resources of mankind. How do we manage limited resources?
When it comes to God, think about it, brothers and sisters—and in particular for our subject this morning. When it comes to the grace of God, we come to inexhaustible resources. Is that not tremendous?
Whenever you read verses in the New Testament about grace, you discover words such as abundant and inexhaustible. In Ephesians, it talks about the riches of His grace. And when you think about Romans, where sin abounds, what happens? Grace overabounds, or superabounds. That is the inexhaustible grace of God.
Then we shared the last point: grace is not in vain. That is what the apostle Paul said. Now, that is a warning. We need to listen to that warning.
I read some sobering verses. I think that is when most people stopped taking notes, by the way. But I read a few sobering verses. Galatians 2 speaks of those who set aside the grace of God. That is a danger. We can do that. If we could not do it, Paul would not have spoken it to the Galatian believers.
Another verse was Hebrews 12:15: those who lack the grace of God. What a shame that would be. But Paul said, and this was the end of the second message, “The grace of God, which is toward me, is not in vain.”
Brothers and sisters, that should be our testimony at the end.
Well, let us press on, and we will try to look at the third section today as we talk about cooperating with the grace of God. I think this is pretty important, so I am going to try to make it as clear as possible.
I really think, brothers and sisters, we need to meditate on this and think about it in our day-to-day life: are we cooperating with the grace of God?
Paul said, “I labored more than they all.” That is what he said in this verse. I hope, in a moment, you will understand what the context says, but, “I have labored more abundantly than they all.”
We are going to share on three things. You know me: I like alliteration because I think it forces me, first of all, and you, second of all, to remember things.
You have to understand, number one, the paradox of grace. If you do not, you will be confused. But not only do you need to understand that, you need to understand the progression, or progress, of grace. You need to understand what happens with grace.
Thirdly, you need to understand, in a very practical way, how to enter into grace, or the practice of grace. If you understand, at least in part, these three principles, then you can enter more fully into what I believe this verse is talking about: the complete work of the grace of God.
First of all, this matter of the paradox of grace. Do you know what a paradox is? Anyone like to offer an opinion of what a paradox is?
Sometimes Linda calls me a paradox. But a paradox means something, or two things, that might seem on the surface to be contradictory, but in fact are not contradictory.
Sometimes we think things said are contradictory. We say, “Well, he is a paradox,” or, “What they said is a paradox.” But in fact, the things that are being said are not contradictory, but are true.
Paul said, “I have labored more abundantly than they all.” Here is the point: we think that grace and labor are never connected. That is our impression.
Let me put it another way. We think that grace and work are totally contradictory and should never be used in the same sentence. We love grace, but we do not like the idea of work. I always say to people—forgive my sense of humor—work is a four-letter word. You know what I mean.
But we think grace and work are not connected. The apostle Paul stuck in the middle of this verse this extraordinary phrase: “I have labored,” or, in the words I am using, “I have worked more abundantly than you all.”
It puzzled me when I first meditated on this verse. I thought, “What on earth is the apostle Paul talking about?” It seems to me he went off the ranch a little bit in this part of the verse. It seemed to me he lost his context. It seemed to me, at first blush, that he got things confused—that is, work and grace.
I do not think I am the only one who thinks that way. I think many believers think that way as well. It is sort of like Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, The Ballad of East and West: “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”
That is what we think of these two things: they should never meet. We should never be talking about grace and work in the same sentence, let alone the same verse. What on earth could we be talking about?
I believe, in the end, what you will see Paul is talking about is this simple and vital principle: we must cooperate with the grace of God.
That is absolutely vital for you to have a full Christian life, for you to have a complete Christian life, for you to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, and for you to grow in the Lord. You have to cooperate with the grace of God. In short, I think that is what this whole message means.
Now, it is easy to get confused about grace and works. The Bible does not help us avoid confusion about grace and works. Let me read you a few verses. This will confuse you even more.
Romans 4:4:
Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned for righteousness.
It seems clear that they do not go together. It seems abundantly clear. Then Romans 4:16 says:
Therefore it is of faith, that it may be according to grace.
Certainly not works.
Then Romans 11:6 says:
But if it is by grace, it is no more of works:
otherwise grace is no more grace.
Now, does that confuse you a little bit? Is it just me? Certainly, you must be a little puzzled by that. What could the apostle Paul mean when he says, “I have labored more abundantly than they all”?
It seems these verses settle it, but there are two things you need to understand so that you can understand the paradox of grace. One is that you have to understand context, and you have to see that the Bible often speaks in paradoxes.
If you do not see that, you will be a confused Christian. First of all, context is absolutely important.
You remember the old famous saying used by multitudes of speakers: “A text taken out of context is a pretext for a proof text.” What it means is that if you take something out of context—which is often done during debates, arguments, and reasoning—if you are only trying to prove your point, it is a pretext. It is not context. It is a pretext to justify a proof text for your argument.
So context is very important. In Romans 4, the context is justification. We are justified by grace, and grace alone. Brothers and sisters, there are no ifs, ands, or buts to that argument. It is all of grace.
When you read Romans 4, you have to understand that the context is justification. Likewise, when you read 1 Corinthians 15:10, the context is the complete work of grace. It goes beyond initial justification.
Justification is all of grace. Likewise, when you come to Romans 11 and read the famous verses that all Israel shall be saved, and how the Lord will turn again His heart to Israel and they will believe, it will be on the basis of grace.
The context of election is always grace, never anything different. In the end, we will always say, “It was the grace of God who chose me—the grace of God that He chose me.” The context is always grace.
The second thing you have to see about the paradox of grace is that the Bible is full of these wonderful paradoxes. If you do not understand them, you will be confused by them.
Whenever you read something in the Word, do not toss it out because it seems, in your own set of beliefs, that it cannot be true. Ask the Lord, “Can this be true? How is this true? Why is this true?” It is the Word of God, after all. What does it mean?
Paul said in this verse—and I think it clears the whole thing up—it is a wonderful paradox:
But I labored more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Do you get it? Brothers and sisters, this makes sense of this verse now. It makes sense that what Paul is saying is in context. It makes sense because he says he labored more abundantly than all, but in the end, the paradox was that it was not he, after all, who was laboring. It was the grace of God which was in him.
That is paradox. That is a beautiful paradox right here in these verses. This resolves the controversy of grace and works.
Labor is essential. Do not ever forget it. If you do not cooperate with the grace of God, if you ignore the grace of God, if you do not take the grace of God, grace will not do its full work.
But in the end, you will have to confess along with the apostle Paul this wonderful paradox: “But not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
There are many examples of this. Paul often spoke about laboring. In 2 Corinthians 11:23, he says, “In labors more abundantly.” Here is a man who knew something about work and labor.
In 2 Corinthians 6:5, it speaks of “stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors.” In 1 Thessalonians 2:9, Paul says:
For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail:
working night and day, that we might not burden any of you,
we preached unto you the gospel of God.
Do you think because he knew so much of labor, he knew so little of grace? No. It was because he knew so much of grace that he could cooperate with the grace of God, labor with the grace of God, and resolve the controversy.
Let me put it another way—a simple way. Put this in your notes: Grace is work.
I do not know. People might not like that. They may scratch it out. But grace is work. You have to cooperate. Allow the Holy Spirit to do that deeper work of grace in us as believers.
But the secret is this: it is not you who are laboring. In the end, if you cooperate, it is the grace of God which was with you.
The Bible is full of paradoxes. Hebrews 4:11 says:
Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.
That is a confusing verse. I have often read that verse and thought, “Poor choice of words in the beginning.” I could understand, “Let us pray that we might enter into His rest,” or any number of other choices that would not be nearly as good.
But, “Let us labor to enter into His rest.” What could the writer have meant? He meant precisely what the apostle Paul meant: that he cooperated with God and, because of that cooperation, entered into a deep rest in the Lord Jesus.
That is one of the paradoxes. My favorite paradox in the Bible is Philippians 2:12. It is a fearful verse when you read part A:
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
What a scary verse. Can you believe a Christian would actually believe that we are to work out? I thought salvation was free. What was the apostle Paul speaking of when he opened the fullness of his heart to the Philippian church and said, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling”?
I think this is very important. I think he is talking about something deeper than initial salvation. Understand context. Understand paradox.
This apostle knew something that most Christians have no earthly idea what he was talking about: the salvation of the soul. The salvation of the soul is not being saved from your sins for eternity. The salvation of the soul is your whole being brought under the domination of the Holy Spirit, and you being conformed to the image of Christ.
It is a progressive thing that starts with salvation and, if you cooperate with the grace of God, ends when you go to be with the Lord. So this verse, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” does not deal with initial salvation. It is that broader thought.
Listen to the rest of the verse:
For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.
Is that not beautiful?
Think if the apostle Paul had just written that first phrase. Think if that was all we had in the Word of God. How it would paralyze us in fear. We would think it was impossible. We would never be what He wants us to be.
But he concludes with this wonderful paradox: “For it is God who worketh in you,” and listen to the words, they are very explicit: “both the willing and the working.” Is that not tremendous?
Years ago, I do not know what I was talking to Brother Stephen about. It escapes me. Maybe it was not important. But I went to him and said, “Brother Steve, I do not know if I am even willing.”
He said, “You do not have to worry. Pray. The Lord will make you willing.” What good news that is. What hope that is.
Both the willing and the working. You mean this labor is not on me? This ability even to be willing, to be involved, and to cooperate with the grace of God is not on me? You mean the working out of this grace of God, the complete work of the grace of God, is not all on me?
What a wonderful paradox in Scripture. You ought to remember this verse. You ought often to recall this verse. When you get into moments of confusion and begin to doubt whether you can go on, you need to recite this verse and say, “Both the willing and the working, for His good pleasure.”
That is paradox. I hope that means something to you. It certainly means something to me. Thank God He is always willing. Thank God He is always working.
If we but commit ourselves to the grace of God and say, “Lord, I do not know if I am willing. Make me willing. Lord, I know I cannot work this up. It is impossible. But I know You want me to cooperate with the grace of God. Make me willing. Work in me what I cannot do,” I think that resolves the controversy. It solves the problem of grace and work.
At the end of our life, when we experience the complete work of the grace of God, our testimony is to be the exact same testimony as the apostle Paul’s: “But not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
The second thing is the progress of grace. Let us dig a little bit deeper. The second main point is the progress of the grace of God. What did Paul mean when he said, “I have labored more abundantly than they all”?
Christians tend to go to two extremes. We either like to say, “It is all of grace,” or some of us may say, “Well, it is according to my working with Him—it is works.” So we tend to go from grace to works.
Some of us love Romans because it is full of grace. The word appears everywhere. Many of us will hardly read the book of James because we think, “What a book. It has no grace in it.”
You remember Martin Luther himself. What did he call James? He called it an epistle of straw. He doubted that it was even the inspired Word of God, in some imagination even of popery. He could not see that it was the Word of God.
Then you remember he called Galatians his sword. So he had his sword and straw. Obviously, he did not think James was of much worth, but he sure did think Galatians was, where clearly it is the grace of God.
But brothers and sisters, one of the most precious verses about the grace of God is in the book of James. Look at James 4:6. It is the verse that inspired Annie Johnson Flint to write that song that we just sang.
This single verse inspired her in that powerful two-verse hymn which speaks about the unlimited provision and endless supply of the grace of God. It says simply:
But He giveth more grace.
Then it goes on to say:
Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud,
but giveth grace to the humble.
I think that is a secret, by the way. You really need to be careful with pride.
We were studying John 9 Friday night, and one of the points we made was that the Pharisees, at least three times, said, “We know.” “We know this man is a sinner. We know this. We know.”
The blind man who was healed said simply, “I know. Once I was blind; now I see.” There is a humble man. There is a proud group that insisted they knew it all. They will never discover grace.
So this verse is precious to me. I do not know why Luther did not see this. I do not know what Luther’s problem was. I am sure he will tell me when I see him. But if you read this verse, “He giveth more grace,” how abundant that is.
He gives more grace for every circumstance and every situation. What this means—I have already said it, but I am going to say it again until we get it—is that we are to cooperate with the grace of God.
That is what Paul means by “labored more abundantly than they all.” The more we cooperate with the grace of God, the more we enter into the full work of grace. The more we allow grace to do its work, the more we discover the full work of grace.
No one knew more difficulty than the apostle Paul. No one, humanly speaking—I do not think, at least that we have recorded in the Word of God—knew more suffering than the apostle Paul.
I think that confuses Christians, and I am sorry, it frightens Christians because they say, “Oh my, does that mean I have to be shipwrecked? Does that mean I have to be flogged forty times save one, three times? Does that mean I must be almost stoned to death? Does that mean I must be in all these perils of robbers and all these different perils? Is that what it means to be a Christian?”
Brothers and sisters, let me comfort you. Does it mean that is what it means to be a Christian? He was a select vessel. If you read Acts 9, in his initiation of salvation, God told Ananias, “I will show him how much he shall suffer for My name’s sake.”
Now, erase this idea from your thought: it does not mean you are to suffer like the apostle Paul in the same degree. Do you understand what I mean? It does mean that anybody who follows Christ will suffer. It does mean you will have trials and difficulties.
But the beauty of what is stated in the apostle Paul’s life is that here is one who could go through the greatest difficulties, the greatest extremes, and the most perplexing situations. If he could go through all of this and yet testify in the end, “By the grace of God I am what I am,” then you in your circumstances, and me in my circumstances, can go through whatever we have to go through daily and still discover the unsearchable riches of His grace.
That is the lesson in the apostle Paul’s life. It is not a call to suffer. Christians get that wrong. It is a call in which God says, “Okay, I am going to give you a living illustration.” It happens to be the apostle Paul.
“I have already told you, I will show what great things he will suffer for My name’s sake. The things I am going to take him through are so extraordinary as to be almost unbelievable.”
What is the point? The point is that God is saying, “This is the extreme. Nothing you go through can compare. Yet there will be abundant grace for every circumstance, in every situation of life.”
That is what the apostle Paul illustrates. I love some of the verses in 2 Corinthians—his autobiography. Thank God Paul opened up. Can you imagine if he had just written 1 Corinthians about all the problems in the church?
We always focus on what is wrong with the church. But the apostle Paul unveiled in 2 Corinthians what grace can do. He said, “Here, let me show you what grace can do if you cooperate with it. Let me show you what it can produce if you allow it to produce in you.”
In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, he said:
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened;
perplexed, yet not unto despair;
pursued, yet not forsaken;
smitten down, yet not destroyed.
Think of it. That is what the grace of God can do. “Yet not.” Those two words tell us the apostle’s testimony. He said, “We are in these circumstances, yet not. We have gone through these circumstances, impossible for man even to consider the magnitude, but not.”
That, to us, brothers and sisters, is the encouragement of grace. When we consider the progress of grace, we need to take into account how we need to cooperate with Him so that the same grace the apostle experienced, we experience.
In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, Paul says, “In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.” Think of what he went through. Because he went through those things, he discovered boundless grace.
Brothers and sisters, that is the encouragement I offer you. Near the end of that letter, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, because of the greatness of his revelations.
Not only did he go through all these things, but because of the exceeding greatness of his revelations, he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. In this progress of grace, he discovered the most remarkable thing.
The Lord spoke to him directly. Some people think maybe that was an angel speaking. That was the Lord speaking directly. I know I have confused some of you red-letter-version people, but depending on which red-letter version you look at, those words are in red because it is the Lord Jesus speaking directly to the apostle Paul.
Through the things he was going through, the Lord said this one thing to the apostle Paul:
My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My power is made perfect in weakness.
That was the secret. Here again, let me repeat it because I do not want you to lose the point. Here is the one who went through the abundance of difficulties that we will never have to think about encountering. Here is the one who discovered, in the progression of grace, this greatest of secrets: “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
But he also discovered something else tremendous. He discovered there was a resource of power that was not his own. The same Lord who spoke to him about grace that is all-sufficient said, “My power”—not Paul’s power, not your power, and certainly not my power—but His power.
That is the progress of grace. We begin to discover all-sufficient grace for every circumstance. There is not a place in life God will take you where His grace is not sufficient for you. Do you understand that?
It is vital that we be clear about that as Christians. You may not go through what I go through, and I may not go through what you go through, and none of us will go through what Paul went through.
But the progress comes when we discover that in every situation in life, in every circumstance in life, in every difficulty we can confront, there is this principle: “My grace is sufficient.”
Then there is that companion principle: in the middle of your weakness, there is a greater power. Is that not good news? Brothers and sisters, thank God it is not my power. Thank God it is not your power.
My power is made perfect in weakness.
That is the secret. That is the progress. That is what we need to know: His all-sufficient grace and His all-sufficient power, even when ours is totally lacking.
It reminds me of planes and test pilots. Jerry has told us he was on a C-5A. Jerry, I could never have done that. Just diving and putting the plane to its test—I would have thrown up all over the plane, and they would have heard me crying like an infant. I would have asked for a parachute to let me go.
But test pilots are some of the most extreme individuals in the world. They take these planes, and before you ever fly on a plane—and my wife hates flying on planes; “ride” is the wrong word, right?—before you ever fly on one, it is well tested. You can be thankful for that. You can be thankful that it has redundancy.
The test pilot puts these planes beyond their normal capabilities, beyond what you would think they could naturally do, to prove something.
Here is where Christians get confused: you are not the test pilot. Do you get it? He is the test pilot. He is the One who puts us into these circumstances, who takes us beyond our natural ability and natural strength.
He is the One who sends you through things where you would say, “There is no way I could make it through this.” But this great Test Pilot, our own Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, has His hands on the controls. Aren’t you glad?
What if you had your hands on the controls? Boy, that would be a scary ride.
This Test Pilot is saying, “There is something you need to learn. I will take you through things that are beyond your ability. You will go through difficulties that naturally you could not go through.”
But there are two secrets in the midst of those most difficult circumstances—and even the best circumstances, by the way. The first is the all-sufficient grace of God. The second is, “My strength is perfected in weakness.”
Then He adds this little emphasis—these are my words—“Nobody else.” You understand? I think that is profoundly encouraging.
Let me end with the last point. There is a practical side to cooperating with the grace of God. It is in your everyday life. You will have opportunities.
You do not have to wait and say, “Lord, give me an opportunity today to cooperate with the grace of God.” There will be opportunity. There will be opportunities with your mate, with your children, on your job, in your home—wherever you are.
Let us just be plain about it: wherever you go, there will be opportunities to discover and cooperate with the grace of God. There are at least three things that come to me in closing that I want us to think about. How can we cooperate with the grace of God?
One is that it is by grace through faith. You may think, “Well, yes, I know that verse in Ephesians 2:8.” But brothers and sisters, this is the first and most vital principle: faith activates grace.
There has to be faith. Think of what Hebrews says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Those who approach God must first believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.
It is impossible to please God without faith. Faith is the activator. This is the vital principle, and the indictment of the children of Israel in the Old Testament was this single point.
Hebrews 4:2 explains the total failure of the Old Testament people of God:
But the word of hearing did not profit them,
because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard.
One single thing. How vital it is. If we are going to enter into the practice of grace, we have to respond in faith.
You may think, “Well, you do not know me. My faith is so weak.” Brothers and sisters, it always reminds me of the story in Mark 9, of the demon-possessed child and the father who was distraught.
The child was brought to the disciples. The child was foaming at the mouth and throwing himself down, and the disciples could not cast the demon out. You remember the story. Then the Lord did it.
Jesus said to the man:
If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth.
I think we get hung up right there. We say, “Oh my, that is just the problem.”
Thank God for the Word of God that is so complete. The Holy Spirit left us no confusion. Immediately it tells us the man’s response:
Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said,
I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.
Brothers and sisters, this is us. You may not have great faith, but you have little faith if you are the Lord’s. You may not have overabounding faith, but you can always say, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”
To me, this story of this demoniac has always been an encouragement to me, and it has always been one of my own prayers.
By grace through faith—it is absolutely important. The Lord explained that vital connection when they came to Him in John 6:28-29 and said, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Remember, we are talking about Paul working and laboring. They asked, “What do we do that we may work the works of God?” Then the Lord said:
This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.
Believe on the Lord Jesus. That solves the controversy of work and grace.
I think this is very clearly Paul’s secret when you read the Word of God. One of my favorite verses, as you know by now, is Galatians 2:20. Listen to another one of those beautiful paradoxes in the Word of God:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Believe it or not, that is true, saints. “No longer live I, but Christ lives in me.” I am dead, but Christ lives in me. That is the Christian testimony. That is the paradox. That is the secret, by the way.
But listen to this: “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith.” Is that where your verse ends? That is where so many of us end. “Only if we had faith, we could live the Christian life. Just a little more faith, and we could live the Christian life.”
But he did not end there. He brings out this wonderful paradox: “I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God.” The faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Brothers and sisters, this is what is encouraging to us when we come to the practical side of faith and grace. There can be no real entering into the complete grace of God unless there is faith.
The faith that we depend on in the end is not our faith. We can always go to the Lord when we know we lack faith, which we often do. But we always stand upon this great secret: the faith that we live by is not our own faith, but the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
There is another thing on the practical side. Hebrews 4:16 talks about approaching the throne of grace. Do you approach the throne of grace? Listen to this verse. It is of spectacular importance.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy,
and may find grace to help us in time of need.
Brothers and sisters, for us to practically enter into the full work of grace and cooperate with the grace of God, we must approach the throne of grace.
We have to have time with the Lord. We have to go to Him with our cares, go to Him with our troubles, go to Him with all that afflicts us. There we have a promise: we will receive mercy, and we will find grace.
Think about it for just a moment. Thank God we do not go to a throne of judgment. Have you thought about it? We do not go to a throne of judgment.
Thank God the writer of Hebrews—whoever it is; some believe Apollos, I think Jerry believes Paul, and different ones believe different things, and it does not matter who it was—said this profound thing: “Let us approach the throne of grace.”
That is how we practically can enter into the full work of grace.
Think of Esther in the Old Testament. You remember Esther and how she wanted to approach the throne. I think it is in Esther 8:4. She could not approach the throne until the golden scepter was extended to Esther so that she could approach.
Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. This is very, very remarkable to me. For you and me as Christians, the scepter of grace is always extended. It is never withdrawn.
There is not a day in your life, or a moment in your life, when you cannot approach the throne of grace. When you approach the throne of grace, you will not receive judgment. You will first of all receive mercy.
There is the mercy seat. The mercy seat on the top of the ark was just an Old Testament illustration. But when we come to the throne of grace, we come to the real mercy seat, and there is mercy poured down.
Then it says we find grace in time of need. Did you know grace has to be found? Grace has to be found, and grace is available in time of need.
You remember the old famous story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and the person who came to him and said, “Brother Spurgeon, I do not know if I have grace to die.”
Brother Spurgeon was tremendous. I think it is humorous in a way. He said, “You may not be going to die right now.” I thought that was a good answer.
He said, “When you are going to die, there will be dying grace for you to die.”
Brothers and sisters, the practice of grace is this: you approach this throne of grace often—always. There you receive mercy. There you will discover grace in time of need.
It is only when you need it, and it will be abundant.
I hope that second point helps. Now last, the last of those three things on the practice of grace, is that we are to grow in grace. Do you know that? What is growing in grace?
Look at 2 Peter 3:18. When you look at 2 Peter 3:18, think about this: these are Peter’s last words. These are Peter’s last written words that we have. This is it.
What he said in the end, what he left the dispersed and suffering church, are these profound words:
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen.
As we live in this life, as we practice grace, we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was reading once what A. B. Simpson said, and I think it is quite good. He said, “The peculiar glory of the grace of Christ is that it declares the sinner to be what he is not.”
In other words, grace tells us what we are in Christ Jesus. Is that not tremendous? He went on to say, “And makes him so.” Grace turns us into what we are to be in Christ Jesus.
This is what caught my attention: we are not to grow in character, virtue, and strength, but we are to grow in grace. This means we are to grow in the habit of receiving—approach the throne of grace, you remember—and of being more helpless and dependent every moment to the end of our life.
I know there is a teaching out there that the Lord creates these super-Christians who are like mighty men. I do not see that. I see that the Lord creates those who are totally dependent—strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
But brothers and sisters, what Brother Simpson is saying, I believe, is absolutely true of us. We are to be utterly delivered to dependence on the Lord Jesus, and there we will find the grace that is all-sufficient.
I remember years ago one of the earliest messages I ever gave. The title sticks with me. Nothing that I said sticks with me, but at least the title does. It was called Delivered to Dependence.
I believe that is the secret of the Christian. I believe that is what A. B. Simpson saw. That is what grace is to do, and there we will discover everything we need.
Campbell Morgan said this. I will close with this. I thought this was good. It hits us where we are in cooperating with the grace of God.
He said, “If you cannot be a Christian where you are, you cannot be a Christian anywhere.” Strong words, do you not agree?
Listen to what he said. Write this down. If your pencil has been laying on your Bible and you have not written anything down, write this down. I think it is tremendous.
It is not place. It is grace.
Wherever you are, whatever you go through, whatever you will encounter in this life, you can be what the Lord wants you to be because, in His mercy, He has provided everything through the grace of God to make us so.
This is the secret, brothers and sisters. I hope this makes clear what Paul meant: “I labored more abundantly than they all.” Here is one who cooperated with the grace of God.
The question is: are we those who cooperate with the grace of God? This matter of paradox is very important. We need to see that, in the end, with all of our cooperation, it is not us but the grace of God that was with us.
We need to see, as we cooperate with the grace of God and grow and progress in grace, that there are two great secrets beyond human understanding: there is all-sufficient grace, and there is His power.
We need to see, in the end, as we daily practice the grace of God, that it is through faith. You have to activate grace through faith.
We need to see that we need to approach the throne of grace. If you do not, you will not find grace. And we need to see that we need to grow in grace.
Let us pray.
Lord, we commit these thoughts to You. Our heart is that, like the apostle Paul, we would discover something of the depth of the grace of God that we have seen so far.
Lord, we are thankful You left us here for a season to work out these things in our life. We are thankful that You gave everything necessary to do that. We are encouraged that Your Word is so full and complete.
We pray that we too will cooperate with the grace of God, that we will allow grace to do its work, and that we will be transformed and conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus.
In the end, we will say like the apostle Paul:
I labored more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Amen.