By the Grace of God

I would like to invite you this morning to look with me at the book of I Corinthians, if you will please. Turn to I Corinthians chapter 15, where we learn some great principals about the life of the apostle Paul. Certainly we agree that the apostle Paul was one of the great writers, and the great thinkers of the first century church. He wrote 13 of the books of the New Testament. It is hard to imagine the Bible without the works of Paul.

It is interesting that archeologists continue to uncover evidence that supports the Bible. In the last three years, there have been two discoveries by the archeologists concerning the life of the apostle Paul. Last January there was a very interesting article in the Biblical Archeology Review, that is, January of the year 2000, and it concerns the fact that archeologists had just discovered a marble plaque in the town of Paphos on the island of Cyprus. And it mentioned a visit there by Paul the apostle. We can read in the scriptures that Paul did in fact visit the town of Paphos on the island of Cyprus. You can read about this in Acts 13:6.

This plaque goes back to those days, and apparently somebody in that town was so impressed with the apostle Paul that this inscription was made in marble about his visit. So that does confirm the fact that the Bible is correct. On Paul's first missionary journey, he did in fact visit the island of Cyprus, the town of Paphos, and this is where he had one of his first converts there, Sergius Paulus. So it is quite a stunning discovery.

I might mention also that three years ago the Israeli government and their archeologists uncovered the prison in Caesarea by the sea. You may recall Paul's fourth missionary journey where he was put in prison there, and in prison, this is where he preached to Agrippa and to Felix and to Festus. You can read about this in the closing chapters of the book of Acts. The Israelis therefore have uncovered that prison, and that also verifies what the Bible says about the fourth missionary journey of the apostle Paul.

As of today there are no discoveries by the archeologists that have ever disproved the Bible. All of the things that they have uncovered in the last hundred years, for all the duration of archeology, these details have confirmed what the Bible says. And it is interesting that these two recent discoveries particularly apply to the life of Paul.

As we think about the life of Paul, I want to ask a thought question, and that is: What was the most remarkable thing about him? Somebody might say, "Well, it was his writing of I Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love." That is certainly a good answer. That is a remarkable passage of scripture. Somebody might say, "Well, the greatest thing about him was the four missionary journeys that he took through the Mediterranean world and the dozens of congregations that he established." That was certainly impressive. Somebody might say, "Well, the most remarkable thing was the encouragement that he gave to younger preachers such as Timothy and Titus and Silas and Epaphroditus and maybe other men that are not mentioned by name in the Bible. But if Paul looked back over his life, the most remarkable thing that he saw about his life was the fact that he had been forgiven. Nothing else in his life was as important or as great as that forgiveness. And that is what he talked about for three verses in the middle of I Corinthians 15.

I Corinthians 15 is primarily about the subject of the resurrection of the dead. Beginning at verse1 down though verse 8, the apostle Paul mentioned various appearances that Christ had made to different people after his resurrection. In verse five, for example, Paul said that Jesus had appeared to the apostle Peter and the other apostles. In verse six, Paul said that Christ had appeared to over 500 people on one occasion, most of whom were still alive. In verse seven, Christ appeared to James and the other apostles.

We come to verse eight, and notice what Paul said, "And last of all as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also." The expression there 'untimely born' is really a polite Greek expression for talking about a miscarriage. Paul's birth was out of sync, so to speak, that he was not one of the original apostles, but as one untimely born, the Lord appeared to him last. And then beginning at this point, Paul got off the subject, just briefly, for three verses. He talked about the fact that he had been forgiven and had been saved through Jesus Christ.

Please notice with me what Paul said, I Corinthians 15:9-11,

"For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labor even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed."

Notice what we find out about this forgiveness that Paul received in these three verses. Let us go back to verse nine. Notice the great humility of Paul as he thought about his forgiveness. Here is a man who really had everything in the world that he could brag about. Here is a man who had the most famous teacher of the first century, Gamaliel. Here was a man who had become one of the leading scholars of Judaism in the first century. Here was a man who was the star of Judaism in the first century AD. The apostle Paul was a man with incredible skill in writing, incredible skill in public speaking. We might say today as we say about great men, that he was a man for all seasons, even though he was an orthodox Jew leading the Jews in the first century. Paul said, about his own background, that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He also said in Philippians chapter three that according to the old law, he was found blameless. In other words, if people looked at his life as a Jew they could not find any point upon which to criticize him according to the Old Testament.

But something happened to Paul. In the middle of his zeal to persecute the people following Jesus Christ, Paul was himself stopped by Christ on the road to Damascus, and he found out that he had been persecuting the Lord's own people, those who believed in the true Messiah of Israel. Paul was overwhelmed with grief and with guilt over the mistake he had made in his life. It is interesting that in Acts 22:20, Paul said, thinking about the sins of his earlier years, that he had actually had a vote in favor of the stoning death of the preacher Stephen. He could not believe that he had made such an awful mistake. He was overwhelmed with grief. How could he have made a mistake like this? On this very point in I Timothy 1:15, Paul said of himself that he was the foremost of all sinners, because he had persecuted the people of God. Therefore in this passage in verse 9 he says, "I am the least of the apostles and am not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God."

Let us go to verse 10 of I Corinthians 15 and notice what he says, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am." What happened to Paul? What happened was that God's grace was extended to Paul, and he was offered the opportunity to be forgiven. He was offered the opportunity to change his ways, to be forgiven of his sins, to make a 180 degree turn in his life, to be baptized -- at which point his sins would be forgiven, and to be brought into the family of God. For a moment think about how Paul could have reacted to God's offer of grace.

Number one, he could have chosen just to disregard it. He could have chosen to ignore the offer of grace and forgiveness. There are those today who know exactly about this offer, but they have chosen to ignore it. They have chosen to disregard the word of God. Somebody might say, "Well, if people know the truth, they are going to obey it." That is not correct. There are many people today who know the truth, but who reject it.

About three weeks ago I was listening to a religious radio station. I was listening to a well-known evangelist in the evangelical world. He said he was going to talk to the people, or at least in this program, he was going to deal with the great commission. He started reading the great commission. I was listening to this and I am telling you exactly what I heard as he broadcast that program over the radio. He began reading in Matthew 28:19 and this is what he said. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations," and then Jesus said, "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." I could not believe it. I could not believe what he left out of the great commission. He left out these words: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." He left those words out.

Is it because he didn't know that those words were in there? Those words have been in the Bible since the first century A.D. Why would a person who claims to be a preacher of the gospel, claims to be an evangelical type preacher, why would he leave out those words: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit." He left those words out because he wants to be popular rather than to preach the truth. He knows what the Bible says there. Anybody can read Matthew 28:19-20, but he left those words out because it is easier to say, "Well, that is water salvation, you know, we are not saved by water. We are saved by the blood of Christ, so this verse cannot mean what it actually says. It is easier to say, "I would not trade all the water in the world for what I feel right here in my heart."

It is easier to ignore the word of God than it is to follow it. It is more popular to leave out any reference to baptism than it is even to read the scriptures the way they were written and take a chance on making people mad. Paul could have done that. Paul could have said to Ananias, the man that eventually baptized him, Paul could have said, "I know what your saying, but I'm just not going to follow it." There are many today who know what the Bible says, but they have chosen to disregard it.

There is something else Paul could have done when he was offered the grace of God. He could have chosen to take advantage of it. Paul could have said to himself, "Well, if we are saved by grace, then why not just commit all of these sins and then call upon the grace of God to forgive us?" I want to read from an article that recently appeared in Christianity Today magazine written by the editor, Phillip Yancy, that will make people see in this short article what I'm talking about. There are people who want to take advantage of the grace of God, that is, without repenting. I'm going to read what Phillip Yancy said about a friend of his that he met with recently over a meal. It said,

"Not long ago I sat at a restaurant and listened to yet another variation on a familiar theme. A good friend of mine, whom I will call Daniel, confided that he had decided to leave his wife after 15 years of marriage. He had found someone younger and prettier, someone who, quote, 'makes me feel alive like I haven't felt in years'.

Daniel, a Christian, knew well the personal and moral consequences of what he was about to do. His decision to leave would inflict permanent damage on his wife and three children. Even so, he says, the force pulling him toward the younger woman was too strong to resist. I listened to his story with sadness and grief. Then during the desert course, he dropped the bomb shell. "The reason I wanted to see you tonight was to ask you a question," he said. "Do you think God can forgive something as awful as I am about to do?"

Several months after our conversation, Daniel had made his choice. I have yet to see any evidence of repentance. Now he tends to rationalize his decision as a way of escaping an unhappy marriage. He has rejected most of his Christian friends. "They are too narrow-minded," he says, and he looks instead for people who celebrate his newfound liberation."

What a story. What a conversation. Here was a man who was trying to take advantage of the grace of God, in advance, to commit a sin and then hope that God would forgive him of that sin. The Bible talks about those who would take advantage of the grace of God. In Romans 6:1-2 Paul said that there are those who would say, "let us continue in sin that grace may increase." In other words, the more we sin, the more grace we get. Therefore, why try to live the Christian way of life? Just enjoy the sins of the world and this means we'll just get that much more grace. That is what this man was counting on concerning leaving his wife and marrying somebody else. Paul said in Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then, are we to continue in sin that grace may increase. May it never be. How shall we who have died to sin still live in it?" Paul could have done that. Paul could have said, "Great! I accept God's offer and this means that the more I sin the more grace I will receive."

There's a third way that Paul could have responded to God's offer of forgiveness, and that is Paul could have started making excuses concerning why he was not going to obey the gospel. Paul could have said to himself, "I don't care what happened to me back there on the road to Damascus, I am a Jew, I will always be a Jew, and I will die as a Jew." Paul could have said to himself, "I don't care how wrong I am, I am not going to change." Do you know people like that? I do. I know people who have made very similar statements to this right here. I'm not going to give up my lifestyle just so that I can obey the gospel of Christ.

But Paul did not make excuses. He did not take advantage of the grace of God by claiming this will allow him to sin that much more. He did not disregard the word of God and ignore what it plainly said. On the road to Damascus, Paul discovered that he was not just a teensy weensy bit off in his theology. He discovered that he was 100% wrong in his view of Christ and the Lord's church. He realized that if he were in fact going to be baptized, it would mean that the people he had been trying to kill would now be his new brothers and sisters in Christ. He accepted that verdict, and as he said in verse 10, "by the grace of God, I am what I am."

The apostle Paul was like that lady back in Luke 7, who brought the alabaster bottle of perfume and anointed the feet of Christ with the perfume. Then she started crying, and she cleansed the feet of Christ with her tears and wiped his feet off with her hair. The Pharisees there could not understand why Christ complimented this woman. And here was the answer of the Lord Jesus; He said, "For this reason I say to you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Paul was like that lady. He knew how much he had been forgiven. He appreciated his forgiveness. Therefore, when he was stopped on the road to Damascus he began laying plans to obey the gospel of Christ three days later. Without having eaten or drunk anything in that period of time, he was baptized by the preacher Ananias into the body of Christ.

Christ is not going to physically stop us today on the road to Damascus, and blind us with a light for three days. And we're not going to meet a man named Ananias who will baptize us into the body of Christ. But, dear friends, God can arrange for us to hear the gospel in our lives. How is it that we are all here this morning in this auditorium? Somebody might say, "Well, it was an accident." Was it an accident? Could it be that God is working through his providence today to bring people here who need to hear the gospel preached? Our Lord said in his sermon on the mount, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

I submit that God is working today in our lives, and for those who are seeking the truth, he will make arrangements, through his providence, for you to find someone who can teach you the truth. That is why this congregation has been brought together this morning. People searching for the truth who were allowed to find it. People, as humble as Paul was, who have accepted the grace of God, who obeyed the gospel, and were forgiven of their sins.

So in I Corinthians 15 verse 9, we read about the humility of Paul and in verse 10 the fact that he accepted the grace of God, the plan of salvation, and was forgiven of his sins. Let's look at the last half of verse 10 and notice something else. Paul said, "His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, but not I, but the grace of God with me." Paul began working for the kingdom of God and his feet never touched the ground again. He was so grateful for his forgiveness, he had to spend the rest of his life preaching the gospel of Christ and serving as an apostle.

How could Paul have taken it easy the rest of his life? How could he have coasted on through life and just peacefully died in his sleep someday after enjoying the pleasures of this life? He could not have done it, because he knew of how much he had been forgiven. When we look at our forgiveness here, many of us, I am sure, are ashamed of things that we have done in the past. How then can we call ourselves Christians? We are Christians because we repented of those things. We had our sins forgiven at the time of baptism, and we've lived faithful lives since those days. I think we can understand the feeling that Paul felt. He had to do what he did because he was under obligation as a result of his forgiveness.

Let us think about our situation today as it compares to the apostle Paul. In the first place, we are all sinners. Maybe we did not kill a preacher. Maybe we have never persecuted the Church, but we all know what we are guilty of, don't we? You and I are guilty as charged. I think about the past few years at this congregation. I can think about a woman who was baptized here who had an abortion. She had killed her child. I can think about a person who was baptized who was a gambler. I can think about an alcoholic who was baptized here behind me in the baptistry. I can think about a young man with very strong homosexual tendencies who was also baptized here at this building. I can think about a child molester who was baptized in this auditorium. You name the sin, and I think that I can find someone in the last 23 years of this congregation who has already been there before you. Somebody who has already committed that sin.

How then were we able to baptize one who had murdered her child, and one who was a gambler, and one who was an alcoholic, and one who certainly had strong homosexual tendencies? How could we baptize a child molester? Because they had repented. They had decided to change their behavior. They had turned away from their sins. They accepted the offer of grace from God. They were baptized, at which point they contacted the blood of Jesus Christ, and those people were forgiven of their sins and became a part of the family of God.

The grace of God has also been extended to us today. Have you accepted that invitation to be saved? There are some here this morning who have already heard the gospel preached a hundred times from this pulpit, and yet it is easier to disregard the message. On the day of Pentecost, concerning those 3,000 who were baptized, they heard one sermon. Only one sermon of the apostle Peter. They realized they were sinners, that they had killed the Messiah, and they were baptized immediately into the body of Jesus Christ. For those here for the first time today, or for those who have been here many times in the past, the grace of God is still open to us and has been extended to us. Will this be your day of salvation?

What about those who have already accepted God's offer of forgiveness as Paul did? I would say to all of us who are Christians here this morning, are we working as hard as Paul did because we understand how much we were forgiven of? This could be the last day for any of us. If the Lord comes for us today, if he makes his second coming today, will he find us working in his vineyard out of gratitude for the fact that we have been forgiven?

What happened to the apostle Paul, therefore, becomes an example for us to follow. Some will probably this morning reject God's offer of grace and forgiveness and will leave this assembly unforgiven. But there may be others who are thinking about obeying the gospel. You might say, "Yes, but wait, you don't know what I have done." Good friend, it doesn't matter what you have done. What matters is this: Are you willing to repent? Are you willing to change from that former lifestyle, to accept God's offer of being baptized into his body, having your sins forgiven and living a faithful life until the Lord calls you home? If you are ready to make that decision, we urge you to do so at this time by coming to the front as we stand and sing the next song.

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01/02/03