The Transforming Grace of God - Grace for Today, Pt. 2

In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, the transforming grace of God. God says that He has predestined you and me to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, which means that God's ultimate will for every single believer is to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. He begins that process initially when you and I are transformed by His grace at the experience which we call salvation or the new birth. That is the beginning of that conforming us to the likeness of Christ. And so all the rest of our life, we are moved and directed and influenced in that direction. And there are a lot of things that influence our life and influences the changes in our life. For example, our heredity, our parents, our grandparents, the way we come along. And then, of course, there's our environment, the kind of atmosphere which we grow up in. Then there's the training that we have in school and so forth. And then, of course, the decisions we make. We're all the composite of all of those things, and we're sort of the sum total of all that. Our heredity and our environment, our training, and the decisions that we've made. But the most powerful influence in the life of the believer is not any of those things. The most powerful influence in the life of the believer is the grace of God, the transforming grace of God. As you and I live day by day by His grace and in His grace, you and I can say with the Apostle Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. I want you to turn, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And this title of this message is the transforming grace of God, something that has happened to every single believer, and God keeps on working in our life. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Apostle Paul is a good example, and I would like to use him as the illustration of this whole idea of the power of God to transform a person's life from what they were to what they are and what, of course, we're going to be. So in this 15th chapter, which is his most complete exposition of what the resurrection's all about, he begins early talking about what the gospel is and how Jesus Christ appeared

to him. In the process of talking about that, he says in verse 9, For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored 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. The Apostle Paul says the grace of God was not given to him in vain. That is, it did not remain barren. Something happened as a result of the grace of God in the life of the Apostle Paul. And what happened to him, God intends to happen to everyone. And so, I want us to look at his life as an illustration of this whole principle of the transforming grace of God, which has happened in your life already, if you are a believer. And the first thing I want you to notice here is the transforming grace of God transformed the Apostle Paul from a sinner into a saint. And when he says in this passage, His grace toward me did not prove vain, well, listen, everyone who has heard the gospel of Christ and who has rejected that gospel, who's rejected the love of God, the forgiveness of God, the kindness of God, the generosity of God, every person who has rejected that by rejecting his son has, in essence, made God's grace toward them in vain. That is, it's empty because they've not accepted Christ, they've not accepted His grace, they've not accepted His forgiveness, they've not accepted His goodness, and so the expressing of the grace of God toward that person has resulted as being in vain. It's empty. Nothing has happened as a result of it. But Paul says, that didn't happen to me. He says, the grace of God, the grace of God, he says, toward me did not prove vain. Something miraculous happened. When this transformation took place, what happened was, he says, I moved from darkness

into light. I moved from death into light. I moved from the course of this world into the course of the kingdom. He says, something radically changed in my life, it was so radical, he said, now I realize that I have become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Anyone who has experienced the grace of God and salvation is a brand new creation. He says in 2 Peter, we have become partakers of His divine nature. And you see, the idea of transformation means a change in nature, a change in condition, a change in character, and can be. Of course a change in appearance Now listen carefully. There is only one way to be made acceptable in the eyes of God if good works and Being good and being religious would make you acceptable in the eyes of God The Apostle Paul would never have written what he's about to write and in Philippians chapter 3 He's talking about what he used to depend upon to get him accepted in the eyes of God And so he says although verse 4, although I myself might have confidence in the flesh That is confidence in God that God would accept him on the basis of his personal human nature his good works He says although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh if anyone else had a mind to put confidence in the flesh in His own good works than his own good nature He says I far more then he talks about how he used to live He says I was circumcised the eighth day as a good Hebrew boy of the nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews and as to the law of Pharisee couldn't have gotten any higher in his nation as to zeal a Persecutor of the church as to the righteousness, which is in the law that is trying to keep the law found blameless But whatever things were gained to me those I have counted now as lost for the sake of Christ He says all of those things that I used to depend upon and I want to say this again I don't know how to say it in this strong, but listen to me carefully if you are depending on anything Anything about how good you are how much money you give or what a fine citizen you are What a good husband. What a good life wife. What a good parent What a good child if you're depending on any single solitary thing in all of life You name it if you're depending on anything to get you accepted in the eyes of God Except the grace of God my friend it cannot happen. It will not happen. One of the reasons the Apostle Paul said I

only thing I have to boast in is the cross of Jesus Christ because Paul understood that there is no acceptance in the eyes of God apart from Christ death on the cross Jesus paid our sin debt in full he didn't choose to save you and me because he saw something within us that was worthy of Saved of saving he didn't look at your life down to the future and say well, I like him. I like her He'll be a good fellow and she'll be she'll be a good servant And so I choose them the only way any of us are made acceptable in the eyes of God is that we accept by faith The death of his son at Calvary as the full payment for our sins and when we receive his son We have him and to do otherwise is to base our acceptance on something within us It cannot happen. It will not happen. It has never happened. It won't happen It absolutely is impossible to happen when I think about the millions and millions of people who? Ignorantly, but genuinely believe that they're going to be accepted in the eyes of God based on how good they are I want to tell you my friend it grieves my heart to think that you will live your whole life and die in ignorance and blindness having been deceived by Satan and by false doctrine that has been taught you that you're going to be accepted in the eyes of God because you've been good If there's any illustration of that whatsoever Here it is in the life of the Apostle Paul Because he says all of those things that he counted here in the Philippines all those things that he counted as valuable and it would Make him accept in the eyes of God He said he had an experience whereby he realized that could never be and this is why this man Who was the worst enemy of the Church of Jesus Christ in his day became their greatest Promoter their greatest asset their greatest instructor their greatest to teach you their greatest motivator their greatest Inspiration the man who was their worst enemy became their dearest friend. Let me ask you a question And here's the here's a terrible mistake people make listen to me very carefully Many people say well, I would be saved but there's some things in my life I need to straighten up. God wouldn't accept me the way I am when I look back in my past and see how much sin and disobedience and Transgressing the law of God and I violated everything in the Bible You mean to tell me that all I have to do is to come to Jesus and be accepted by God Listen when I get some things straightened out and I clean up my life, then I'm gonna I'm gonna be a Christian

Let me ask you a question What did the Apostle Paul clean up in his life? Not one thing You know why? Listen think about this You remember what Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2. He said wherein in times past This is what we were like dead and trespasses and sin. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen a dead man taking a bath? You've never seen a dead man or a woman doing anything because they're lifeless listen a Person who is spiritually dead can't clean up anything There's no power than them to clean it up My friend the next time you get a little proud negatistic on things You're doing pretty good. You just go back and read Ephesians chapter 2 No dead man a woman can find anything within them their dead self That makes them acceptable in the eyes of God. It is the love of God. It is the grace of God It is the goodness of God poured out in our hearts and So Paul says he says by the grace of God I am what I am and he says the only thing that you'll ever find me glorying in is the cross Because that's what happened to him. Jesus paid his sin debt. And so what did God do? Not only did he transform him from us from a sinner to a saint He transformed him from a servant of sin to a servant of the Living God Go to Romans chapter 6 two verses. I want us to look at primarily verse 16 He says here's the principle. Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as a slave for obedience? You're a slave of the one to whom you obey Either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness That is if you choose to live in sin You become a slave of sin verse 20 when you were slaves of sin You were free in regard to righteousness That is you can't live a righteous life if you're living in sin and become a slave to sin Well, Paul says that's what he was. He was a slave to sin and he was expressing

He was expressing His sinfulness in his slavery as a persecutor now I want us to look at two or three passages here because I want you to listen to his words what he says and Let's go back to acts 26 and then let's turn to Let's see acts 26 first of all, and then we got to go to first Timothy acts 26. Remember what he says in this passage And Here again, he's defending himself before King Agrippa and he says Verse 9 so then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth I want to say this again friend if you're one of those persons who for some reason maybe something has happened and this is why It happens. It may be that you're one of those persons that something has happened back yonder in your life And it's turned you angry toward God and hostile toward God and you're spewing that hostility and that anger on the people of God Listen this passage so then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth and This is just what I did in Jerusalem Not only did I lock up many of the Saints in prisons having received authority from the chief priest but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them and As I punished them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme even as he had and being furiously Enraged at them. I kept pursuing them even the foreign cities Here's a man who hated the Lord Jesus Christ totally in deception about what was true and what was untrue go to first Timothy First Timothy Paul here again speaking of this arrogant hostility this anger this bitterness this resentment This determination to destroy everything that was Christlike you say well, why do you tell us that I'm coming to it. Listen verse 12 of first Timothy chapter 1 I Thank I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into his service even though I was formerly a blasphemer and the persecutor listen to this phrase and a violent aggressor a

Violent aggressor and yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly and unbelief and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with me with the faith With the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all now. Look at this I love this and yet for this reason, even though he was so wicked and yet for this reason I found mercy in Order that in me as the foremost foremost of sinners Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience Look at that. He says God saved him as a demonstration of God's perfect patience as An example for those who would believe in him for eternal life Paul said One of the reasons he was convinced that God saved him was this watch this now be careful. Watch this because he was saying I Want the world to know if I can save that if I can save him if I can come out of nowhere so to speak knock him down blind him and Transform him who is alive who cannot be transformed with the grace of God cannot be forgiven of their sin Cannot be redeemed and reconciled and justified who among us cannot have his life or her life Absolutely totally changed with the grace of God Paul said, here is the patience of God in perfection. What does that mean? That means it's complete. He waited, and he waited, and he waited, and he waited. And he waited, and he waited, and he waited, and he waited. And here he was on his way after murdering, and imprisoning, and beating, and trying to get these Christians to blaspheme. There came a moment when the patience of God was complete, and bang, that was it. Now, here's what I want to say. Grace is God's graciousness and kindness toward us. Without regard to our merit, without regard to our

worthiness, and in spite of everything we deserve. And what I want you to see is this. Don't look back and say, well, I would give my life to Christ, but you don't know the kind of life I've lived. I want to ask you a question. You ever murdered Christians, thrown them in jail, made them blaspheme? My friend, you may say, yes, I've done all that. Well, I want to tell you something. You just joined the ranks of a great apostle, and if he saved him, he'll save you. You can't do anything to keep God from saving you, but refuse him. You can't do anything to squelch the grace of God, but choose to refuse him. Because the grace of God is poured out upon everyone, and you can be saved. You can be forgiven. He will clean up your past. You see, what he does, he just wipes it away. He doesn't try to make the past better. He just wipes it. The blood of Jesus Christ wipes away the past. It's gone and forgotten as far as the east is from the west. It doesn't make any difference. And you see, we believers ought to be shouting and praising and thanking God, not trying to live in the past. Listen to this, not trying to live in the past. And listen, do enough good to cover up the past. The blood of Jesus covered it once and for all.

We're saints. That doesn't mean we don't sin. And we make mistakes, and we do sin against them. But the blood of Jesus Christ, he says, is continually cleansing us. We are products and fruits of the grace of God. The grace of God was not poured out in your heart and my heart in vain, but fruitfully and productively to the grace of God and the power of God. Now, what's the proper attitude for a saint who's been transformed from sinner to saint? Well, there are four things, and you can check yourself out with these. First of all, humility. Listen to what the apostle Paul said. He said in this 10th verse of 1 Corinthians 15, back to the original text. 1 Corinthians 15 says, verse 9, he said, for I am the least of the apostles, and not even fit to be called. Listen, he says, not even fit to be called an apostle. Look in Ephesians chapter 3. In chapter 3 of Ephesians, he says, first of all, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he said, I'm not even fit to be called an apostle. Look what he says in verse 8 of Ephesians 3, speaking of how God had worked in his life, God's grace in his life. Look at verse 7. Speaking of the gospel, he says, of which I was made a minister

according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power, to me, the very least of all saints. Look at this. Here's a man who is preeminent, preeminent in the world of his day as a missionary and as the preacher of the gospel. What does he say? He says, oh, I'm going to tell you, I am the least of the apostles. I am the least of the saints. But go back to 1 Timothy chapter 1. Remember what he said here? 1 Timothy chapter 1, he said, you want me to tell you something that's the truth, the gospel truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God? He said, here it is. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of whom I am foremost of all. When you line them up, Paul says, I'm in front. And you know what? Listen, you're not going to find pride in the heart of a man or woman who understands the grace of God. You're not going to find it. Because that person is always going to be pointing people to Christ, to God. It is all of God and none of us, all of Christ and none of us. There's not going to be any arrogance and pride in the person who understands the grace of God. So, first of all, the spirit of humility.

The second attitude I want you to notice here is this sense of obligation. Listen to what Paul says. Back to 1 Corinthians 15 now. Notice what he says in this passage. He says, the grace of God was not poured out in vain upon him. And he says, but by the grace of God I am what I am. So, he's giving God the credit, spirit of humility. And his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them. You know what he was saying? He was so grateful to God. He was so overwhelmed with the grace of God and the goodness of God to him. He knew that he was headed in the wrong direction. And this is why in all of his testimonies he gives testimony of how awful he'd been persecuting the church. He says, but look, here's what God did. And now here's what I'm doing. God called him to preach. He said in Galatians chapter 1, he said, from my mother's womb, he said, I was separated from my mother's womb to preach the unsearchable riches of the grace of God. And so he gave his life traveling all over the place. And if you read the mission, if you look in the back of your Bible and those maps and look at all of his missionary journeys, read the book of Acts and all the turmoil and the heartache and the bloodshed and the different difficulties and things

that Paul had to go through. And what is he doing? He's just praising God for the privilege. Let me ask you a question. In what practical, explainable, definable ways are you expressing gratitude and thanksgiving to Almighty God for saving you by his grace? Don't tell me you come to church. That's not good enough. Don't say, well, I'm tired. That's not good enough. You see, listen, the apostle Paul was saved by the grace of God to do what? To tell other people what had happened to him. That's what Ananias said. He said, God wants you to tell him what's happened to you. If you'll think about what God has done in your life, and you may be going through a difficult time, but think what you'd be like without him. Think, listen, if you think it's bad, think of what it'd be like without God. We should be so grateful, so overwhelmingly grateful to God. We have to tell it. We have to share it. We've got to tell somebody that God is a God of love and goodness and mercy and kindness. Came from this conference yesterday, and I came out of the hotel to get my car, and this man standing there with his big black hat on, all dressed up in the kind of uniform they wear,

and he said, Dr. Stanley, he said, I used to be a member of your church. I said, well, good. So, he and I got to talking. I said, what are you doing now? He says, well, I'm a youth director now, and he's working here at the hotel out there as sort of in the hospitality. And I said, well, tell me what's going on with you. He said, well, one Sunday you were preaching away, and you said, if you're just sitting here, and you're not serving God, and your life's not counting, then you're living in sin. He said, just like hit me 20 eyes. He said, I'd made a decision that morning that I was going to serve God somehow. And he said, I began to ask God to show me what to do. And he says, now I'm a youth director. I say that pretty often. You know why? Till every single solitary one of you gets up and goes to work for God, doing something for the kingdom. Listen, you have a message to share. You can't keep the love of God to yourself when there's a whole world of people hurting, dying in agony, sorrow, frustration, anger, hostility, bitterness, resentment, disappointment, disillusionment, depression, despair. And you've got the answer. You see, if I understand the grace of God,

there's going to be a sense of humility about me. Secondly, there's going to be a sense of obligation. And thirdly, there's going to be a sense of dependence. Look at this. Back to the 15th chapter. He says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Paul said, it wasn't I. And how many times Paul says, not I, but Christ Jesus living within me. He said, I didn't labor. I didn't labor in my own efforts. He said, listen, watch this. The same grace, goodness, and love, and power of God that brought about the transformation of our experience from sinner to saint, is the same gracious, loving power of God that is at work in your life and my life every day. And that is, we don't have to depend upon ourselves, our own wisdom, our own abilities, and talents, and strength. It is Christ. Listen, the resurrected Christ. This is why Paul said, listen. He said, above all else, what do I want to know? Here's what I want to know. I want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus. He said, I want to experience in my daily life the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

And he said, that power is the grace of God laboring in me and laboring through me. The spirit of humility, the spirit of obligation, the spirit of love, and the spirit of love is motivated by love and motivated by thanksgiving and gratitude to God. The spirit of absolute and total dependence upon God. And the last is the spirit of absolute confidence. Look at this. Verse six and seven of Second Timothy chapter four. I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Sometime there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. What an awesome example. of the transforming power of the grace of God that he could take a man who was hostily, angrily, bitterly, murderously opposed to Christ and transform him into the greatest missionary the world has ever known. And a man who understood the grace of God as no man understood it, and who gave of himself absolutely without any reservation to the proclamation of the gospel of Christ. I want to ask you one last question. As you think about all the good things God's done for you

and all that he is in you today, and then think about what you're doing for his kingdom, apart from salvation, has the grace of God been poured out in your life in vain? Have you kept it to yourself? Or is there something burning inside of you that will not let you be quiet? How about the universal offer of the grace of God?