Praise again with a word of prayer.
Lord, marvelous grace. I do not believe there are any adjectives that sufficiently describe grace. But, Lord Jesus, I come before You this morning as we are before Thee. Lord, I pray that You will open our eyes, that we might have a deeper appreciation of the grace of God—Lord, Your mighty grace toward us.
Lord, I do not have the words. So, Lord, we are depending on You and the Holy Spirit this morning to take the unction and convert it into words, Lord, that we might understand the depths of Your love for us—Lord, Your great grace shown toward us. Lord, open Your Word to our hearts this morning.
Lord, grace is not something just to be explained, but to be experienced. Lord, as we share this morning, we say it is by Your grace, it is Your grace, Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, as you know, this morning—and in the past—I have been sharing on different words out of Ephesians, out of the book of Ephesians. Today we want to look at the word grace.
I have a quote from Brother Sparks:
“The grace of God is indeed the greatest thing in this universe for humans such as we are.”
The grace of God is indeed the greatest thing in this universe for humans such as we are. That is quite a statement, brothers and sisters.
I considered this statement, and I said, “Lord, my brother is really right. What is it that we can value any more on this earth than Your grace, and Your love and Your mercy toward us all?” The most valuable thing that we have ever experienced has come by the grace of God, and we are thankful this morning.
I think this is an amazing statement. I hope, in some small way, we can come into a greater seeing and appreciation of God’s grace.
In Ephesians, it is interesting: Paul overwhelms us with this word grace. In Ephesians 1:6, he speaks of the glory of God’s grace. In Ephesians 1:7, he says it is according to the riches of God’s grace. In Ephesians 2:7, he speaks of the exceeding riches of His grace. In Ephesians 3:7, he speaks of the gift of God’s grace.
In Ephesians 2:5 and 2:8, he says our salvation is by grace. In Ephesians 4:29, we are exhorted that we should minister the grace of God to one another. In Ephesians 1:2, he begins the letter with, “Grace be unto you,” and in Ephesians 6:24, he ends with grace be with all who love the Lord. This whole letter is full of grace.
When we think of Ephesians, we think of the beginning of Ephesians with all the glory and the riches of God’s provision for us on Calvary’s cross. We think of the great and marvelous revelation that has been given. They say the highest revelation given to man is in Ephesians, speaking of Christ and His great exalted place, and now Head of a body, a spiritual body. It is a great revelation.
Brothers and sisters, we often think of the book as ending with warfare. It is not just warfare on this earth; it is talking about warfare in the heavenly places—principalities and powers of darkness at war with angelic beings in the heavenly places.
Well, with all of that being said, Paul begins and ends with grace. Sometimes, as we consider the book of Ephesians, we kind of—I should not say skip over—we kind of underestimate this word grace in this book. What Paul is really saying is, “All of this is My grace. It is all by grace.”
As I mentioned before, we have talked about some key words in the book of Ephesians. Remember, fullness was one of them, and grace and love and others. Grace is one of the most prominent words used in the book of Ephesians. It is used twelve times in this very short letter.
This number of twelve for grace is only exceeded by the word love in the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians, love is used seventeen times; and if you add the word beloved to love, it is nineteen times. So you see that love and grace are the very foundation of this book. It is all wrapped up and given to us in God’s love and grace.
Love is the source of grace. Love is the motive of God’s grace to us. They go together. You cannot separate love and grace. Love is God’s nature; that is Who He is. But He makes this love available to us, and that is His grace.
I am so thankful that His love is not determined by the object of His love. In other words, He does not just love ones that are lovely—which I do not know how many of us are lovely. But anyway, He does not just say, “Well, you are a lovely person. I love you.” No. God loves even us, even the sinner, brothers and sisters. He loves the unlovely, and we are so thankful for that.
He is love. The gift of His Son is His love for us. The gift of His Son is His grace to us, brothers and sisters. You think about it: if you want to talk about the mighty grace of God, just think about this—He gave His Son to us and for us.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is love. Knowing what our Lord Jesus would go through when He was incarnated and came as a babe—as has been said this morning—incarnation: what a mighty move of grace, that God would connect Himself with humanity, join Himself with humanity, that He is now not only the Son of God, but He is the Son of Man.
That is an amazing act of grace. It is just God’s sovereign grace. If He had not become a man, He could not have died for our sins, and we would be eternally lost and without really any connection to God. The gift of His Son is His great love to us and His great grace to us. This is grace.
It is interesting: in this first chapter, it is God’s love and grace that makes all the spiritual blessings that are in Christ available to us. Remember Ephesians 1? All the spiritual blessings have been made available in Christ Jesus. Brothers, that is love and grace to us.
It is love and grace that we have been chosen before Him in love—chosen in eternity past. It is His love and grace that accepts us in Christ. It is this love and grace that sees us as holy and without blame in Christ. It is His love and grace that redeems us from destruction and forgives us of our sins. That is love and grace.
It is love and grace that quickens us together in Christ Jesus, such that our old man has been crucified and buried with Christ, and we have been raised in newness of life in Christ Jesus—union life. That is the love and grace of God.
It is love and grace that has given us revelation. The things that we know of Christ, of God, are by revelation. He has revealed to us His eternal purpose. That is love and grace. He has brought us into His counsel of His eternal purpose for man.
We know from the book of Ephesians that it is to sum up all things in Christ, right? Do you know what that means? That means that all that is not of Christ will be done away with. It is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. But all that is of Christ will be exalted and manifested.
That is what His love and grace has done, brothers and sisters—the provisions that He has made for us. He has poured out the depths of His grace upon us. It is amazing, and it is the most valuable thing that we can have as Christians: the grace of God.
But, brothers and sisters, I want to say that what we have just read out of the book of Ephesians—all the riches of His grace toward us—is just the beginning. There is much more, because Christ is God’s grace. You never will come to the end of Christ, or of the knowledge of Him.
In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul says:
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
Neither have entered into the heart of man,
The things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
That is grace. In other words, we will go through eternity experiencing more and more of God’s grace through His Son, Jesus Christ.
All the riches of God’s grace are to be found in Christ Jesus. You have Christ; you have the Lord, because you have accepted Him in the simple act of faith. I believe for eternity we will be experiencing more and more of the grace of God, brothers and sisters.
Paul says in Ephesians 3:8:
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Now, that is pretty low, is it not? “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints.” What a ministry Paul had. And he said, “But I am the least of the lowest.” I do not know how to get that one out. I do not know how you can interpret that, but anyway, you can. The unsearchable riches.
Why was Paul chosen for this ministry? Well, I think it is because Paul went into the depths, frankly, of the sufferings for the name of Christ’s sake. Paul—Saul—knew who he was outside of Christ. Even as a brother in the Lord, he said, “I am the least of all the saints.” That is the way Paul honestly saw himself.
One of the greatest apostles, and he says in all honesty of heart, “I am less than the least.” Humility—real humility—I think, is the foundation. When you begin to see yourself as you really are, brothers and sisters, that is when grace comes in.
I remember, oh golly, probably thirty years ago now, our brother Stephen shared a message on zero. Some of y’all are shaking your head. You remember that? Basically, the whole message was: when you become zero, then God can begin to work in your life. When you become zero, then you can become something in Christ.
I think that is what Paul is saying. Paul had been at zero, and now the Lord was using him. Why was Paul chosen for this ministry? It was not because of his brilliance, brothers and sisters. It was because of God’s grace.
In order to be able to minister God’s grace, you really need to experience it. That is what Paul had experienced all of his life. Paul had inexplicable experiences. Remember? He shares them in 2 Corinthians, does he not? We just studied 2 Corinthians not too long ago.
In there, he makes reference to all of his sufferings for the sake of the name of Christ. If any man had any reason to go before God and say, “Wow, Lord,” I think Paul had a reason. Paul could go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I love You. I am devoted to You. I am committed to You. I am all out for You. So why, Lord, did I experience being whipped thirty-nine times with whips—thirty-nine stripes? I think it was five times.”
Then he said, “I was beaten with rods. Lord, why? I was stoned and left for dead.” Many thought he died at that point. “Why, Lord? Why am I going through such terrible things? I am so given to You. I have been dealt treacherously with by my own brethren. Some of them do not even want me to come back in Corinth. Why, Lord?”
I think the reason is because we do not learn grace until we go into the depths. The more we experience—and for young people, I do not want to discourage you at all—because it is a joy of our heart, even when we go into the depths for the namesake of Christ. There is a joy of experiencing the grace of God in all of these things.
So we will go through trials. We will go through inexplicable experiences in our life. Some great losses have occurred already in the lives of some of you saints, some great difficult, trying times. But, brothers and sisters, can you not testify today that you came through by the grace of God? That you are still for the Lord? That you have not rejected the Lord? That you have not blamed the Lord?
But you said, “Lord, I have met You in a new way in all of this trial and tribulation.” Brothers and sisters, for the Christian, trials and tribulations are not for our detriment or to destroy us, but to bring us more into the grace of God. It brings us into the grace of God. Praise the Lord.
When people who are not Christians go through all these difficult times, it is just loss. There is nothing positive about it. But in Christ, there is glory that can come out of these things. Oh, the marvelous grace of God.
Paul experienced the grace of God in all these tribulations, but not only that, Paul experienced great, wonderful experiences. He was taken to the third heaven, was he not? Remember that? He was actually lifted up to where the throne was, before God.
Many think that this revelation we have in Ephesians came out of that time before the throne. He also went into paradise, where those who are dead in Christ go, and he said, “I heard things there I just cannot say.” He says, “It is not lawful for me to say.” He saw wonderful things.
Now, was it because Paul deserved it? Was it because Paul was maybe better, or on a higher plane than us? Did Paul merit being able to go into the third heaven? I think we would think about that. If you were taken to the third heaven, you might begin to think, “Oh, I must be a great Christian.”
Brothers and sisters, Paul understood: it was grace. It was the grace of God.
Paul did not fall into the trap of the enemy. That trap is to move off the ground of grace into the ground of merit: “I merited this.”
God, after Paul had these great revelations, actually allowed a thorn in the flesh to come to Paul. Because of these great revelations, the Lord allowed a thorn in the flesh to come from the enemy. Remember how Paul approached the Lord three times: “Lord, will You take this infirmity away from me?”
Most think that infirmity was partial blindness he was experiencing, probably because of malaria. Now, we do not know for sure. But there was something that greatly disturbed Paul, that he felt was restricting his ministry, that was a great hindrance in his life.
Paul explains this thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7. He says:
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations,
There was given to me a thorn in the flesh.
Now, that applies to Paul. The Lord did not want Paul to feel exalted, or that he was special; nor did He want us today to think that, in some way, Paul earned this right to go to the third heaven. It was grace.
The Lord said to him:
My grace is sufficient for thee.
My grace. Paul, it is grace. This thorn in the flesh is My grace to you, to keep you from becoming proud, to keep others from thinking that this was gained through merit. It was My grace, Paul, to you.
It was by grace that Paul went through all those sufferings, brothers and sisters. It was the grace of God that he was lifted to the third heaven. He did not merit it. It was God’s grace.
In Ephesians 4:7, Paul says:
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Paul had learned through experience the depths and the riches of God’s grace. Now he was able to minister that grace to us and to the church because he experienced it.
We go through those same experiences that we might minister that same grace to one another, brothers and sisters. How greatly enriched the church has become. Think of those prison letters. Galatians, Ephesians—you got them right. Anyway, those prison letters: how much has come out of his imprisonment?
Just think about it. If he had not been in prison, he would probably never have written those letters, and they are for us today. Those letters are God’s grace to us, brothers and sisters. In fact, the whole Word of God is God’s grace to us.
It is interesting: in the letters, if you look at them—all the letters to the churches—Paul begins with this: “Grace and peace to you.” That is the way he begins and ends all the letters written to the churches: “Grace and peace be unto you.”
Paul understood the immense importance of grace. It is interesting, even in the personal letters—Timothy, Titus, and Philemon—he either begins or ends those letters with, “Grace be unto you.” In other words, if you do not have grace, you do not have anything. It is by grace. Paul had experienced grace to its depths.
What is the meaning of grace? Well, I think, rather than have all of y’all respond, most everybody this morning would say, “It is God’s unmerited favor.” Is that not what we mostly know? The definition of grace is God’s unmerited favor.
Indeed it is, but it is kind of a weak definition. When we say it is unmerited favor, we would say, “Well, God just comes to you because you do not merit His favor. You do not merit His love, but He comes to you anyway.” There is nothing for you to merit His grace.
Grace is much more than that, brothers and sisters. Not only do we not merit God’s grace, there is much demerit in us—much that is negative in us that God has to overcome by His grace. Do y’all know the word demerit? Do y’all know what that means? I do not know. Young people know what demerit means? Okay, I did not know.
When I was in the ninth grade—I think it was Hillsboro High in Florida; I went to sixteen different schools getting through the twelfth grade—that one school had a merit system, but it really was not a merit system. It was a demerit system. You did not get merit for anything; you just got demerits.
If you came to class late, if you did something wrong, you got demerits to different degrees. If you got enough demerits, it could affect your grades. So, you know, everybody was focused on demerits.
That is what God had to deal with—not only the fact that we did not have merit. We have a lot of demerits in our lives: sin, our defilements, our rebellious nature, demerits; even our rejection of Him, a great demerit; the darkness that we find in our souls, demerits; our love of the world and our love of self above God, all demerits.
So think of that. God’s grace not only came because you did not merit it; it came because there was a lot of demerit there that He had to overcome.
Ephesians 3:8: “To me, who am less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given.” In 1 Timothy 1:15, he said:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;
Of whom I am chief.
That was not an inaccurate evaluation by Paul. He was not just trying to come across as being humble. Paul really saw himself as the chief of sinners. I think that is why he understood the riches of God’s grace. He saw that he was a chief of sinners, brothers and sisters.
I can imagine, when the Lord met Paul on the Damascus road—he did not say these things, but I can imagine him saying—“Why me, Lord? I persecuted Your church. I was the one that went out and got letters to throw the Christians, Your followers, into jail. I was the one that put the order out that Stephen would be killed—Your precious Stephen. Lord, what are You doing? Why me?”
There was no merit in Paul; there was great demerit. But the Lord met him. Brothers and sisters, it was grace. Paul knew that, and he appreciated that grace.
Grace overcomes all that stands against and opposes God. Grace overcame all of our sins. That song we sang this morning: “Marvelous grace, grace that is greater than all of our sins.”
So, brothers and sisters, grace has an immense reach. It can go into the great depths of our own sins, the great depths of our rejection of the Lord, and overcome. Grace that is greater than all my sin.
Paul cries out in Ephesians 1:7:
We have redemption through His blood,
The forgiveness of our trespasses,
According to the riches of His grace.
In Ephesians 2:5 and 2:8, he goes on to declare that we are saved by grace.
Now, I know we have heard that a multitude of times: we are saved by grace. But you think about that. The Lord did not save you because He thought you were a pretty good person. He did not save you because you had any merits to bring before Him. He saved you out of love, by His grace. That is why He saved you.
Romans 5:20, Paul declares:
Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly.
Boy, think of what grace had to overcome.
I think one of the most illuminating illustrations of God’s grace in the Old Testament, and the glory of His grace, is seen in the lives of David and his son Solomon—their relationship, the riches of God’s grace.
When you look at Solomon, he is a type. Remember Solomon, how rich he was? I looked up a few statistics, and the tribute money he got from other countries around him amounted to what today would be one and a half million dollars a year. He was rich.
The shields that the soldiers carried were gold. Brothers and sisters, the temple was overlaid in gold. He was rich. He had multitudes of wives. If you look at the book of Ecclesiastes, you see that he was endowed with riches, power, might. Even the Queen of Sheba came to see him because she had heard of his fame, of the glory of all his riches. She was astounded at what she saw of the great glory of Solomon.
But where did Solomon’s life begin? We remember Solomon was the son of David’s older age, when he was older, and Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba. We remember the tragic darkness of that story, of Solomon’s connection back to his father David and Bathsheba.
We remember the story of how David had sent his armies out to war, but he stayed home. I do not want to go too much into that, and it is only conjecture on my part, but brothers and sisters, why did he stay home? That was not David. That is not the way he had come to the throne. He was the leader, and he was sending his troops ahead without their leader.
I think there is just that subtle thing about what riches do to us. It kind of puts us in a place where we feel like we are a little better—that, hey, look, we have worked hard all of our lives, and we just do not need to do those things anymore.
Anyway, he was at home and probably, I feel, not in the place that he needed to be at that time. The enemy got to him. The enemy tempted him. He looked out over his balcony and saw Bathsheba. She was beautiful, but there was a problem: Uriah was her husband. She was a married woman.
David really lusted after her. He had to have her at any cost. Remember the story? He had Uriah sent to the front of the lines. That was an honor in those days, to be on the front line. He even instructed the people, “Now, when Uriah gets out there and you get into the heat of the battle, draw back from Uriah.”
They did. They obeyed the king, and Uriah was killed. That was David’s plan. Then he took Bathsheba. Remember, he had a child by Bathsheba, and that first child, the Lord had to take that first child because it was conceived in sin. That was a tragedy, the darkness. Later Solomon was born of Bathsheba, but the story does not end there.
God confronts David. The prophet Nathan comes to David, and he begins to tell him—you remember, David judged a lot of people in those days. He was the ultimate Supreme Court. Nathan brought this story to him. He said, “There was a man who had a sheep. One sheep is all he had, and that sheep was precious to him.”
“He raised that sheep and took care of that sheep, and it was his only sheep. But this man who had many sheep saw that one sheep, and he wanted it. So he took the sheep from that man for his own.”
David got so angry. He stood up and said, “This man must die.” Nathan looked at him and said, “You are the man.”
David immediately knew what he was talking about. I always find it a bit amazing that it did not seem David’s conscience had been touched until that point. Maybe it had been, but he was just keeping it buried. But the Lord confronted him with his sin. Thank the Lord, though, David yielded to the Lord.
Listen to some of his confessions.
Psalm 32:
I acknowledged my sin unto Thee,
And mine iniquity have I not hid:
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
Psalm 38:18:
For I will declare mine iniquity;
I will be sorry for my sin.
Psalm 51:
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness:
According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
For I know my transgressions;
And my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,
And done that which is evil in Thy sight.
At the end, he asked God, “Deliver me, O God, from bloodguiltiness.” David is standing before God for God’s judgment. He is a brokenhearted, penitent man. He is pleading before God, his conscience greatly stained by sin—so much so that it could hardly bear it, brothers and sisters.
What you need to realize is David had sinned a sin that was beyond the Levitical sacrifice. Remember, in Leviticus there are all these different sacrifices for different sins and different issues. There was no sacrifice under the Mosaic law for someone who purposely, premeditatedly killed someone.
Now, if you killed someone by accident, remember there was the city of refuge you could go to, to keep the relatives from coming and killing you. But there was no provision for premeditated murder, which David had committed. He was beyond the sacrifices, brothers and sisters.
In Psalm 51, David says:
For Thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it:
Thou hast no pleasure in burnt-offering.
In other words, David said, “There is nothing, Lord. I have no hope—no hope of forgiveness, no hope of redemption. I have no hope but You.”
“I have gone beyond what the provision of the law has for me.” Brothers and sisters, there was only one answer for David, and that is grace. It was grace. He had pushed beyond the limit, but God’s grace was upon him, because Nathan said to him, “You shall not die.”
You may deserve it, but you will not die. David may be one of the greatest illustrations in the Old Testament of pardon by grace.
You remember Paul. He had Stephen killed. He did not use his own hand, but he had Stephen killed. Paul understood the greatness of God’s grace. He had experienced God’s forgiveness.
In Ephesians 1:7, it says:
In whom we have our redemption through His blood,
The forgiveness of our trespasses,
According to the riches of His grace.
In Ephesians 1:6, he speaks of the glory of God’s grace. Glory follows grace, brothers and sisters. I think that is what we see in the life of David and Solomon.
We see in David the great grace extended by God, and we see in Solomon the glory of that grace—how God poured out all riches upon Solomon.
In Matthew 12:42, Jesus is speaking. He says, speaking of Himself:
A greater than Solomon is here.
A greater than Solomon is here.
Brothers and sisters, God’s Son came into the darkness of our lives. He came into the darkness of sin, not just for one man, but for every man—for all of mankind. He bore God’s judgment for the sins of all mankind, brothers and sisters.
Christ is God’s grace to all of mankind. Unfortunately, all of mankind do not take advantage of God’s grace. They see themselves as in no need of God. That is so sad. God’s grace for all of mankind came through Jesus Christ.
Do you want to know the depths of what Christ went through that His grace might come to us? There are these words:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Those words show us the depths of sin, the great consequence of sin. Christ Himself, the sinless One, took on the sins of the whole world. It says He even became sin, which I do not to this day fully understand, but it says He became sin on our behalf.
He took on the depths of human depravity that are in our lives and in our souls—the darkness of sin. He took it all on, and He was forsaken by His Father. He was forsaken by God for three hours on that cross. God forsook Him, brothers and sisters.
Think of that: the Son of God, the One with Whom the Father was inseparable. He was separated for three hours. That was almost unbearable for our Lord Jesus Christ.
To be forsaken by God is the most terrible thing that can ever happen to anyone. I want to say that again: to be forsaken of God is the most terrible thing that can ever happen to anyone.
It happened to Christ. It would happen to us if it were not for the fact that Christ took our place. He was forsaken on that cross. He experienced the depths of what it is to be forsaken, even though it was just three hours.
That is the great tragedy of sin: to be forsaken of God. There is no escape except by God’s grace. Brothers and sisters, because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, because He was willing to be forsaken, we will not be forsaken. Never. That is amazing, brothers and sisters—the riches of His grace.
Just a few other thoughts, if you will bear with me. Ephesians 4:7, Paul says:
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
This speaks of our service of the Lord, our ministry in the body of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, never forget: whatever ministry you are involved in, it will not be because of your great dedication. It will be because of the grace of God. If you are dedicated, that is the grace of God. If you are fully given, that is God’s grace, because you will never be fully given to the Lord without His grace meeting you.
One of the greatest dangers, as we grow in the Lord, as we gain in our knowledge of the Lord, as we receive more and more light from the Lord, more and more revelation, as we begin to serve more and more—ministering to one another and being ministers—one of the great dangers is to begin to move off the ground of grace.
We can subtly come to the place where, because the Lord has shown us so much, because we have been dedicated and serving the Lord so much, there is that subtle thing of, “I merited this. I merit God’s blessing on what I do. I merit God’s blessing.”
Brothers and sisters, that is a dangerous ground to get onto: to ever think that you have finally achieved a spiritual level where God has to bless you, where God has to support your ministry. It is all by grace, brothers and sisters.
I think that occurs particularly as we move on from our initial salvation to our identity in Christ, our union life. Y’all know what I am talking about. I do not have a lot of time to go into it, but it is where you really come into the reality of union life with the Lord.
You are moving on at a level that is maybe higher than some of your brothers and sisters, and you just begin to unwittingly look at yourself as being above—being a little bit more, expecting special favors from the Lord, the blessings. “The Lord has got to bless me. Look what I am doing for Him.”
I do not think we deliberately think in those terms, but it is unfortunately a lot of times in our hearts. Brothers and sisters, whenever we do that, we move off the ground of God’s grace. What does that mean? When you move off the ground of God’s grace, that means you are depending on yourself.
Brothers and sisters, unfortunately, our ministry becomes dead. We become cold in heart. We become self-righteous. That is what happens when we do not correct this before the Lord.
So, brothers and sisters, we always have to be careful in our Christian life, no matter what we may experience. Even if we experience the third heaven like Paul, do not begin to think, “Boy, I got here because somehow or other there was some merit in myself.”
Brothers and sisters, you are able to do great exploits for the Lord. You are able to serve the Lord in glorious ministry. You are able to bless your brothers and sisters. But always remember, it is because of the grace of God.
I have not got time to get into works and grace, but I guarantee you that if your works are correct, they are works of grace—not works of yourself, Alfred. They are works of grace.
Paul did not get to the third heaven because of his superior intelligence, or because he merited it in any way. Few people were more devoted to the Lord than Paul. Paul gave up much for the Lord. Remember, he said he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was really into it, part of the Sanhedrin council, one of the highest recognized Jewish leaders of his time.
He said all that—his word for it was dung. He said, “It is all just dung. It is nothing compared to the grace of God.” Nothing.
It was not Paul’s great intelligence, or his diligence, or any of that. Brothers and sisters, Paul realized it was God’s grace, and he went on by God’s grace.
Remember, the Lord had told him, “When you are weak, that is when My grace comes in.” So Paul went on to say, “I rejoice in my weakness.” Has any of us ever said that? Anybody said, “Yeah, I rejoice in my weakness”?
Because then God’s grace can rest upon me. It is God’s grace. All ministry is out of God’s grace, and it keeps us humble, brothers and sisters.
Paul was an apostle. This is the apostle who said, “I am less than the least of all saints.” He did not consider himself something because of his experiences or his revelations. He was an apostle, and he had at times to defend his apostleship.
But, brothers and sisters, Paul more than anyone else realized he was an apostle by the grace of God, and he would fulfill his apostleship in that way.
One last thought. I have been talking about all the riches of the grace of God, and I have said they are all to be found in Christ Jesus. You cannot get it by your merit, brothers and sisters. You cannot obtain it through good works. It is obtained through grace.
But there is a great warfare over your being able to obtain your inheritance, which is the riches of God’s grace in Christ. There is a great warfare. That is why it goes into it in Ephesians 6: over gaining the inheritance you have of all the riches in Christ Jesus. There is a great battle over that.
The example we have is the nation of Israel. Remember, they went through the desert. They had seen God’s provision all those years, but they had not gone in and actually possessed the riches of the land, which is Christ. They had not really possessed it at that point.
But after they went through the Jordan River, which represented the cross, all the provision was then made available to them because of the cross. They were able to go in, but the enemy was there to keep them from the riches of the glory in Christ Jesus. They had to go into warfare over it, brothers and sisters, to obtain it.
But what did the Lord tell them?
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it.
It is secured. In other words, we have to, by faith, obtain these riches in Christ. They are our inheritance. They are all available to us, but, brothers and sisters, we have to gain them. The enemy is totally against that.
But God will give you grace for the warfare. That is the point I wanted to make. God will give you grace.
Brothers and sisters, I am so thankful that the Lord said, “What He has begun in you, He will complete.” What He has begun in you, He will complete. I believe that.
Now, there are times in my life when I doubt it, I have to admit, because I see myself not getting very far. But the Lord says that what He has begun in us, He will complete. Now let me say that: that is God’s grace.
Lord, we just come to You today. Lord, I just pray that in some way, Lord, You can bring us into a much deeper and greater appreciation of Your grace. I thank You for our dear brother Paul, Lord, who experienced so much and has shown us the way, Lord.
Lord, it is just Your grace. It is grace. Lord, how we love Your grace. How we depend on Your grace. Lord, as we go from this place today, give us, Lord, a greater appreciation of Your grace. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.