The Gospel of God’s Grace

Theme: The Gospel of Your Salvation
“Him you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation…” (Ephesians 1:13)

Date: October 19, 2003 - Sunday 10:30 A.M. Worship Service - (During a Gospel Meeting October 17 Through 19, 2003, at the Northeast church of Christ, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Speaker: Mack Lyon, Speaker on the In Search of the Lord’s Way Television Program
Main Scripture: Acts 8, 9, 20:17-38, 22, 26; Ephesians 2:4-9; 1 Timothy 1:12-17

Paul loved the Christians in Ephesus very dearly. He wanted to send some words of admonition to the leadership of the church over there, and some words of encouragement to them to remain faithful to the very end. In the seventeenth verse of Acts, chapter 20, we’re going to read that speech that he made to those elders, and get the basis for our lesson:

[Acts 20:17-38] “And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. ¹⁸And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, ¹⁹Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: ²⁰And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, ²¹Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. ²²And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: ²³Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. ²⁴But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. ²⁶Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. ²⁷For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

²⁸ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with His Own blood. ²⁹For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. ³¹Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. ³²And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. ³³I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. ³⁴Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. ³⁵I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the Words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘'It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

³⁶ And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. ³⁷And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, ³⁸Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.”

Probably there is no other passage in the writings of Paul, and in all of things about Paul, in the New Testament that reveals to us his character more than this passage here. Probably, it’s in this passage we get a better insight into his determination and his resolve to preach the Gospel among the Gentile people, even at the cost of his very life, if that demanded it. And so, he tells us in verse 24 that “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God .”

And we’re calling this a “Gospel Meeting,” and in it, we have been focusing on this word GOSPEL and its many usages in the New Testament. We’ve pointed out that the word appears 101 times in the New Testament. We’ve also pointed out that it had qualifying phrases, or adjectives, associated with it in some passages, such as this one, which gives it a distinctive message itself. We pointed out that seventeen times in the New Testament it is called the Gospel of GOD. Eleven times, it is called the Gospel of CHRIST. Then there’s one other time that it is called the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST, bringing that total, then, to twelve. We mentioned also in the passage we have just read that it is called the Gospel of the GRACE OF GOD. In Ephesians 1:13, it is called the Gospel of YOUR SALVATION [“…In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise….”]. And in Romans, chapter 10 and verse 15, it is also called the Gospel of PEACE [“And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”]. And there are other passages that give it the same kind of an idea. But this morning, we’re talking about the Gospel of the GRACE OF GOD.

Paul wrote and spoke more about the grace of God than anyone else. The apostle John is said to be “the apostle of love.” And Paul is said to be “the apostle of grace,” because he spoke and wrote so much about God’s grace. Perhaps the reason for that is, that he had experienced in his own life greater and more demonstrations of the grace of God than anyone else.

I’m going to read another passage to you that it’s important to our study this morning, and that’s the one found in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 12-16. Verse 12 of this passage is my favorite passage in all of the Bible, because, if you were here in the Bible class period [October 19, 2003, Bible Class, “When The Light Goes Out”], you know that as a boy, as a beginner with some of the circumstances around my early life, I would be the least expected one, probably, to be in the place where I am today. But our Lord has set my feet “in a large place,” as David said in the Psalms, and I hope that I have been somewhat faithful to Him. [Psalm 18:19: “Hebrought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me.” Psalm 118:5: “I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.”]

In this passage Paul said, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; ¹³Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ¹⁶Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting,” [1 Timothy 1:12-16]. So, Paul, in many passages, in many references to his own life, speaks about the grace of God that was demonstrated in his life.

We’re first introduced to Paul by the name of “Saul” of Tarsus, and that in the last paragraph, the 58^th verse of the seventh chapter of the book of Acts [Acts 7:58: “And cast him (Stephen) out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.”]. Here, at the stoning of Stephen, he is found to be holding the garments of those who stoned Stephen. As they stoned him, and Saul held their garments, it is an indication that probably he did not cast a stone at all, but those who did the stoning recognized him as the leader of the group by laying their garments at his feet, or he kept their garments while they stoned Stephen. Ordinarily, the custom was that, the leader of the group would not cast a stone at all, and so maybe he had no part in that particular part of it in actually, literally casting a stone. But he was the leader of the group who stoned Stephen. We see that Stephen was the first martyr for the cause of Christ, and Saul was the leader in that stoning, in the martyrdom of this good man, of whom we first read about in the 6^th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts 8:1 says, “And Saul was consenting unto his death.”

And then, we note also that in the 8^th chapter of Acts, verse 1, there arose “a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad.” Then we get down a bit farther [verse 3], and the Scripture says, “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison,” [KJV.] [NKJV: “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”] Saul was carrying on, and even intensifying, his persecution of the saints at Jerusalem. In Acts, the 9^th chapter, we have the same words, that he was still persecuting the saints of the Way, the people of the Way. [Acts 9:1-2: “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, ²And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem,” KJV.]

He was on his way to Damascus to continue that persecution, as the saints were scattered from city to city, when he experienced something that was very rare and unusual. Yes, extremely rare—the only account of such an event that we have in the New Testament. Saul, “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples,” with the letters of authority to go to Damascus and bind all that called upon the Name of Christ and bring them back to Jerusalem to be intensely persecuted, suddenly was stricken by the presence of a bright light. He says the brightness of that light exceeded that of the noonday sun. A voice spoke to him and said, '“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” 'or “Why are you persecuting Me?” [Acts 9:4].

Saul had been a bitter persecutor of Christ by persecuting His disciples. He probably knew Jesus personally. Some of his biographers say that he knew Jesus personally and had conversations with Him, based on the frequency of their both being in the city of Jerusalem. Saul of Tarsus was a student in the school of Gamaliel there in Jerusalem [Acts 22:3: “I (Paul/Saul) am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city [Jerusalem]at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day'.” '] AND, he, being in Jerusalem, probably, at times, had seen Jesus. I don’t know that that’s necessary to the story of his conversion, but it would help us to understand why Saul might be opposed to Jesus. Saul had heard Jesus preach, yet, he did…not…believe…that which Jesus preached. Jesus preached that He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. But, Saul did not believe that. He believed that to be heresy!

Saul knew that Jesus had been crucified on the cross, but he did not believe that He died for the sins of the world. The reason that I know that he knew about the crucifixion of Christ is, he said to Agrippa, “You knew about these things. They were not done in a corner. Everybody KNEW about it! And so, Agrippa, YOU must have known about it, also.” [Acts 26:26: “ For the king (Agrippa) knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.”] So, Saul of Tarsus, studying at the school of Gamaliel there in Jerusalem, would have known about it, certainly. But he did not believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world.

And he knew, also, that the apostles had gone out after Jesus’ crucifixion and preached that He had been resurrected from the dead! and was ascended to heaven and seated at the right hand of God. Saul believed that to be the heresy of ALL heresies! He firmly believed that it was his duty before GOD to put that heresy to silence! And so, that’s what he was doing.

“Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Jesus said. Saul was trying to stop this “heresy” that Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, and that He is the Savior of the world, the long expected Messiah of the Jews.

But then, Saul said, “Who are You, Lord?”

And the Lord identified Himself. “'I am Jesus Whom you persecutest….”

Immediately, Saul had a change of heart there. He came to be a believer. What he believed in the past as heresy he has now come to accept. He believed that Jesus Christ really was the Son of God! as He claimed to be. He came to believe now that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and he believed that He had been resurrected, and that He lives, because he has seen Him, and he has spoken with Him. What…greater…evidence would you need that THIS Man was the Son of God?

And, so, Saul said to the Lord, “…what will You have me to do?”

And the Lord said, “Go into the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” He went into the city, and Ananias, a disciple of the Lord, was sent to Saul to tell him what he must do to be saved.

But WHY would the Lord save this man. He declared himself “chief among the sinners,” [1 Timothy 1:15: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”]’s GRACE was made manifest.

What is grace? It comes from the same root word from which we get a number of English words. Some of them are: charity, charm, charisma, beauty; and even the word “thanks” comes from the same root as this word, “grace”.

So many people misunderstand it. They don’t understand what exactly is meant by the word “grace”. But this person, Paul, knew about the grace of God, and he knew about it first hand! He said, “By the grace of God I am what I am,” [1 Corinthians 15:10]. He came from being “chief among sinners” to being God’s apostle to the Gentile people.

I want us to think about the grace of God on our lives today, and how it’s demonstrated and manifested in so many different ways. We usually think of it, and it’s proper to think of it, as “a favor bestowed upon us unworthily.” We are unworthy of the demonstration of God’s grace, or His mercy, on us. And Paul, indeed, was one who could write that. “ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast,” [Ephesians 2:8-9]. He knew about that as well.

Let me suggest, first of all, then, that as we think about the grace of God, our immediate attention is focused on THE GRACE OF GOD IN OUR SALVATION. That’s what we usually think about—the demonstration of the grace of God in the apostle Paul. We think of him first of all, as the “unmerited, unearned favor” of God was demonstrated in Paul’s life so that he could become a Christian. And, indeed, that’s what it was.

First of all, we like to think of the grace of God demonstrated toward us in our lives so that we can be saved. Indeed, it IS Good News of the grace of God, the Gospel which we preach. Indeed, God’s grace reaches out to each of us to salvation, just like it did to Saul of Tarsus. We’re all sinners. None of us is worthy of salvation. That’s true, all the way from the beginning—all the way back to the days of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel—God’s grace is demonstrated to us. God, in His pre-creation plan—.

You see, I believe that the creation, the heavens and the earth, are the product of God’s creative POWER, and the product of God’s creative INCENTIVES, and the product of God’s wisdom and foresight and ingenuity—His genius in planning the whole thing. We look upon the creation around us and say, “This is God’s creation.” “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” [Genesis 1:1]. That’s true.

And, then, He focuses. In Genesis 1:2, He leaves all the rest of it, and from Genesis, chapter 1, verse 2, He’s talking about God’s creation of the earth, and what He does on the earth. That’s what the rest of the Bible is about. It isn’t about the planets out there, but it’s about God’s preparing the earth for life on it. So, He creates life, and the necessities for the existence of life on this planet. Why He chose this particular planet, I don’t know. But, He chose the earth for life, and, then He created human life as the climax of all of His creative power, and put us here to be His companions and to glorify HIM in the way we live. He loved the human race; He came down in the cool of the day and walked and talked with the man and the woman in the beautiful Garden of Eden. How long that went on, I do not know. I just understand that, that’s what He did, which signifies to us that there was a close relationship there.

But then, one day, something terrible happened. Adam sinned, and he was separated from God because he sinned—he disobeyed God. God…cannot…stand…disobedience in His presence! And so, God drove him out of the garden. They no longer walked together and talked with each other in the garden. That beautiful relationship was broken.

Somebody says, “Well, did God know that Adam would—?” Yes, God must have known that Adam was going to do that. Surely He did. God knows all things. He has always known all things. He will always know all things. He doesn’t know any more now than He did before the creation period. He will not know any more 100 years from now, if time moves on, than He knows today. He’s an all-knowing God. Yes, God knew that Adam would sin.

Well then, the question comes, “Why would He create man with the ability to sin?” Well, in the eighth Psalm we are told that God created man and gave him dominion over all of the things that He had made here upon the earth. Man has the power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all the animals that walk and crawl and creep upon the earth. Man has dominion, rule, over all of that. [Psalm 8:6-8: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.”] Man would have to be an intelligent being, and he’d have to be capable of choosing the courses that he would take in life. That would mean that he would sometimes have to choose, have the ability, the capacity to make WRONG choices, as well as right choices. And God knew that Adam would make the wrong choice. He knew that you and I would make the wrong choice…sometime.

But, in His plan He had a remedy for all of that. As we said last night, He provided a way of salvation in the gift of His Son [October 18, 2003, “The Gospel of Christ”]. In the third chapter of Genesis, verse 15, God refers to the coming of the Son of Man—the conflict between good and evil. He said to the serpent, who had brought the temptation to Adam and Eve, that there should be “…enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed….” And then, we know, of course, that the ONLY person Who is the seed of the woman in all of the Scriptures is the Christ. God knew, also, and He foretold, that Satan would strike a painful blow, as it were, to the heel of the seed of the woman. But, the seed of the woman, Christ Jesus, would win the victory and strike the death blow to Satan [Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”] Then, what you read about in the Bible all the way over to the coming of Christ points to that, and prepares for that day.

We wonder why God made such a provision when man conducts himself as he does. When man rebels against Him and does not do His Will, why is it that God would give His Son on the Cross for us as “the sin offering”? [See Hebrews 10.] Then, we are puzzled a bit more when we read over in the book of second Peter, chapter 2, that the angels that sinned were cast into Tartarus, and there they await the Day of Judgment without hope of redemption. [2 Peter 2:4: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment….”] God created the angels, too, and they sinned! And the angels that sinned were cast into a place and reserved permanently for the judgment day without any salvation—without an opportunity to be redeemed, or reconciled!

Well, why would God provide a SAVIOR for man and not for the angles? Is it that the angels, maybe, could work out their own salvation? No…no. We can’t come to that conclusion. Is it because the sin of the angles is less grievous in the sight of God than the sin of man? That isn’t it, either. What would it be? There’s only one word for it, and that’s GRACE—unearned charity on God’s part—a gift that we have from God in Christ Jesus.

That’s what Paul is talking about in Ephesians, chapter 2 [Ephesians 2:4-9: “But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, ⁵Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) ⁶And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: ⁷That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:it is the gift of God: ⁹Not of works, lest any man should boast.”].

That’s what he’s talking about in first Timothy, chapter 1, beginning at verse twelve [1 Timothy 1:12-17: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; ¹³Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. ¹⁶Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. ¹⁷Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”].

Paul, the violent sinner that he was, could be saved by grace. My! It’s no wonder he wrote so much about the grace of God. And that grace, then, is granted to you and to me. We can become like Saul of Tarsus. We can be saved just like Saul of Tarsus was. When HE heard about Christ, when Christ said, “I’m Jesus Who you’re persecuting,” then he came to be a believer! He turned from persecuting Christians to serving Christians and preaching the Gospel. That’s what he wanted to do, then.

When Saul came to be a believer, he was baptized. Ananias came to him and said, “Brother Saul, why are you tarrying? Arise and be baptized and wash away you sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.” [Acts 22:12-16: “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, ¹³Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. ¹⁴And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His Will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. ¹⁵For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. ¹⁶And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.”]

That’s the way Saul was SAVED. Could there be any conflict in what he did and what he taught? No…no. He was saved by grace, but he was saved by his faith in Christ Jesus. He was saved by obeying—doing what the Lord…told…him…to do through His servant, Ananias. That’s the way we are saved.

YES, you’re saved by grace. It’s by the grace of God that you have the privilege of being saved. You must act upon it. To receive God’s grace, you must act upon it. Otherwise, His grace to you is in vain.

But, there’s something else about the grace of God that’s significant in the life of the Christian, also. [The second point about the God’s Grace is that GOD’S GRACE GIVES EACH ONE OF US A PURPOSE IN LIFE.]

When Saul of Tarsus said, “Lord, what…will…you…have me to do?”— Oh, I preached for a long time that he was saying, “Lord, what will you have me do to be saved?” And I really believe he meant that. I’m certain he meant that. The burden of the guilt of his sin was so heavy that, he wanted to be saved. But, I think he meant more than that. You see, he’d been this persecutor of the saints! And, now, “If that isn’t what You want me to do, Lord, what DO You want me to do? What…WILL You…have…me to DO…with the rest of my life?” God…gave…Saul, by His grace…a new calling. And He does that for every person who is saved by Grace.

One of the great tragedies in American life today is that so many of us do…not…even…know…what we’re supposed to be doing here! There is no purpose in our existence here. The evolutionist tells us—and we are taught this from pre-school through university—that, we’re here as a product of evolution and NOT because of God’s creation. They say that we’re here merely by chance, and we’re living day by day merely by chance; there really is no purpose in our being here, they say. And so, we are adrift. We’re going along the way. And that’s a sad story. I’m SORRY for the person who does not know that God has a purpose in every…person’s life.

I was blessed early in my life, at age seventeen. I came to the point—somebody had made it possible for me to come to the realization that NONE of us came into the world because we chose, or when we chose, but because God…had…need…of…US…NOW! And I have believed that God has had a purpose…in…my life, which has given me motivation and strength and encouragement in what I’m doing for the Lord.

But, I’m not the only one. That’s an act of God’s grace, too! When He saves us, He gives us a NEW reason for LIVING! If we’ve been living for pleasure, and some people DO, you know— You just look about you, and some people live totally for the pleasure they can get out of life. They go from one pleasure to another. And not all pleasure is evil. There are many things we do for pleasure that are wholesome, good, and, maybe, good recreation. But, when that becomes the purpose for our living, and that’s the reason we get up of a morning, and that’s reason that we pursue God in the day—for the pleasure we get out of the things around us— well, then, we have the wrong focus.

There other people in this world who live for money, possessions—maybe not so much for the money, but for the land, or possessions otherwise. One farmer said to another, “I don’t care to own all the land in the world; I just want to own that which joins mine.” And that’s why some people live. They just live solely for what they can accumulate in this world. But, one of these days we’re going to leave it all behind, and their purpose of life will have ended. Jesus said, '“…a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,” [Luke 12:15: “And He [Jesus] said unto them, 'Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”'] Let’s not let our possessions possess us.

Someone has said that there are three groups of people in the world. There are a few people, he says—and he emphasies this—there are FEW people in the world who strain every muscle and every bit of their ENERGY and every NERVE…IN…THEIR…BODY to MAKE…THINGS…HAPPEN!! And there are others who watch things happen. And the rest of them say, “What happened?” That’s where most of us fit in, isn’t it? because we didn’t know that God has a purpose for US here, too. Been that way all along.

The apostle Paul was preaching over in Asia Minor. He was preaching to a Jewish audience in Antioch of Pisidia. In verses 21 and 22 of the 13^th chapter of the book of Acts, he relates to them some of their history—what a glorious history some of it was, the history of Israel. And he says in verse 21, “And afterward they (the children of Israel) desired a king (that was after Samuel): and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. ²²And when He had removed him, He…raised…up…unto them…DAVID to be their king….” He gave them Saul, and He raised up David to be their king. God had a PURPOSE in the birth of David. He was born…to…be…king of Israel.

But, in verse 36, Paul goes back to mention David again. He says, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the Will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption….” Another translation [New International Version] says, '“For when David had served God’s purposein his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.” After he had served God’s purpose in his own generation… What about you and me?? By the grace of God, WE are given a part in the most GLORIOUS THING on the earth, and we didn’t even know it!

Everyone has a skill or a talent. Ben Franklin said, “Time is the stuff that life is made up of.” Well, he was partly right, because time is an important element, so we have the time, and we ALSO have the skill , we’re given the energy , we’re given the productivity ; and if we use our time and our energy and our skill and our productivity for the LORD …then great. And I used to think that was all there was to life. But there’s one other element that’s very essential to a full life, and that one other element is PURPOSE. If you live to be a hundred ten [110 years old], and you’re STILL active, and you’re STILL going strong, and you STILL have a lot of energy, and you STILL can exercise that gift of talent and skill that God has given you, and you’re very productive—you own lands and houses—and you live without a PURPOSE…its all to no avail.

God, by His grace, gives us a =reason to get up in the morning and to live life to the fullest, and that reason is, TO SERVE HIM AND BRING HIM HONOR. That’s what we’re taught in the book of Ecclesiastes—that we’re to glorify Him.

And so, Paul is saying, “You know, by the grace of God, I am what I am. I get to be an apostle to the Gentiles! Not because I’m worth of it! By God’s grace I get to do this.” [1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”] That’s what he told King Agrippa. He told King Agrippa, in Acts, the 26^th chapter, if you remember, that that was the reason that God appeared to him.

God didn’t appear to him to save him! Not at all. If you think that, you’re mistaken. Paul is relating his conversion to King Agrippa. He says that when the Lord appeared to him, he asked, “Who art Thou, Lord?” The Lord says, '“I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose!! ” HERE’S why Christ appeared to him: “…to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee….” WHY send him to the Gentiles? “…To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me (in Christ Jesus).” A NEW purpose. [See Acts 26:12-18.]

Do you know what you’re living for? How many in the church say, “I don’t know why the Lord lets me continue on this earth. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here.” YOU have a talent, and YOU have the time, and YOU have the energy, and you CAN serve the Lord in some capacity. By God’s GRACE you can.

Finally…I don’t have a lot of time to go into a lot of other things. I’m going to have to keep to the three points in this lesson. My old high school Speech teacher said, “Don’t try to unload the whole load on them. Just tell them three things. That’s all they can remember, anyway.” And sometimes, a preacher has to have notes to even remember them himself!

So, the third thing that we observe about the grace of God (and it’s also characteristic in the life of Saul of Tarsus, or, the apostle Paul) is that when hardships come upon us—and they will—when hardships come upon us, we need some SUPPORT. [GOD’S GRACE GIVES US SUPPORT WHEN HARDSHIPS COME UPON US.]

We need the support of friends and brethren. We need the support of the church. More than anything else, we need God and His grace. And, here again, God’s grace is shed upon Saul of Tarsus, or, the apostle Paul, in such tremendous abundance! The reason I know that is, back here in second Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul talks about his “thorn in the flesh,” [see 2 Corinthians 12:7-10].

Now, I don’t know what that thorn in the flesh was. Maybe some of you do. I have found a few people who said they knew, but they never persuaded me that they were right about it. One fellow said that HE knew what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was; and I was eager to hear about it. He said, “Why, you know, he wrote the Galatians and told them they would have plucked out their very eyes and given them to him [See Galatians 4:12-16]. And, Paul also said, ‘You see how with large print, or large writing, I write to you.’ [Galatians 6:11 KJV: ‘Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.’ Galatians 6:11 NKJV: ‘See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!’ Galatians 6:11 NIV: ‘See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!’] So he must have had a problem with his eyes.”

In other passages, Paul talked about, maybe, his personal appearance was not— He maybe wasn’t as handsome as Apollos, or maybe somebody else. Maybe that was it. Or, maybe he had a speech impairment. One other falla said to me, “Oh, I know what it was.” He said, “It was stomach trouble.”

I asked, “Well, what makes you say that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was stomach trouble? “

He replied, “Because all preachers have stomach trouble.”

I said, “Well, I don’t have stomach trouble.”

“Well,” he said, “you’re not enough of a preacher to count.” Maybe so.

Paul had a problem of some kind. He called it “a thorn in the flesh,” and I’m still open to the answer. But I know this about him—that it troubled him greatly.

You may have some things in your life that are troublesome to you. It may be some kind of a physical infirmity. It may be cancer; it may be heart disease; it may be arthritis. It may not be that. It may be financial problems. It may not be that. It may be family problems. I heard one preacher say one time that he had three great burdens in life. And he went on to say that one was his wife, and the other two were his children. I never thought of my family that way.

Paul prayed about his thorn in the flesh. The Lord answered his prayer. The Lord didn’t remove it, though, but here’s what the Lord did say to him: '“My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

“ Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,” said Paul, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

You see Bennie Henn and some of these other fellas professing to HEAL people of their diseases, and you hear young Roberts over there in Tulsa [Oklahoma] talking about the hour of healing, the power of healing and so on. God is NOT glorified in all of that sort of thing! God is glorified when we, in our weakness, let HIM rule in our life doing His Will. Then our weakness makes His strength perfect and we glorify Him. That’s one of the great things about the grace of God.

Well, my time us up. My cough drop is gone. It’s time to quit. But, isn’t God’s grace something marvelous? It’s marvelous in salvation. It’s marvelous in giving us a purpose for being here . And it’s marvelous because it helps in the time of our weakness .