Just What Is God’s Amazing Grace?

Alrighty. Let's go into sermon mode here. What does the word grace mean to you? The word grace. We heard an interesting sermon at just a few minutes ago about the subject of God calling people, God drawing people. Do you know everything you need to know on the subject of this vital subject of grace? Over the years, you've probably heard the same definition that I've heard, and that definition is that grace is God's unmerited favor. That definition is accurate. That definition is true. Those of us who, all of us, as human beings, deserve only God's wrath. We deserve only God's punishment, his death penalty, because we're sinful human beings. But because of God's unmerited favor toward us, we have been given the opportunity for eternal life. Let's take a look at some of the mechanics of grace over here in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So here we have an understanding about some of the inner workings of this subject we call grace. It is not something that we work upon our own. It is something that God gives us as a matter of unmerited favor. We don't work it up. But this definition of grace, although true and accurate, is also incomplete. Grace is more than what God has done for us in the past through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What God has done for us in the past through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, there's a word for that. That word is justification. Justification means that our past sins have been forgiven and that we now have right standing before God. I think we understand that portion of things. But let's continue on, because grace is more than what has happened for us in the past through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God also wants us to live by grace, to move by grace. He wants that for us now and in the future. Now, there's a word for that as well, and that word is sanctification. Sanctification is right living before God, right living before God. It is proactive. It is forward-looking. It is forward-moving. So, yes, we want and we have experienced justification. Our past sins have been forgiven, which gives us right standing before God. But we must move forward. That's what the days of Unleavened Bread picture, right? Us moving forward in right living before God. Now, here in Ephesians 2, we've read verse 8 and verse 9. We see some of what grace is doing here. And notice grace is tied to faith. And how does that happen? How does that work, where grace is tied to faith? For by grace you have been saved through faith, and then not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should bow. So, we're looking there at justification, right standing before God. But notice verse 10. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Verse 10 is talking about sanctification, the other portion of what grace deals with. Right living before God, forward-looking, forward-moving. So, God does set us loose from the chains of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But we were created not just to accept that, but to also move forward in grace. I'd like to have you turn over to Acts chapter 20 for a moment. The last time I was here, I quoted a portion of Acts chapter 20.

Acts chapter 20 and verse 21, testified to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God. We saw two weeks ago, where I may mention that there are things that we must do for salvation. It's not that we earn them, but if you will, we can call them a prerequisite. There are things that God expects and one of those things is repentance toward God. It's repentance toward God because we break God's law and we need to repent. We need to change. We need to go a different way and not do that. But we want to take a look at the second aspect of verse 21, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So today, we want to take a look at that and how that interplays with the subject of grace. And, brethren, grace is extended to believers who do two things. One, repent of their sins and turn to God. And number two, have faith in the total sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I'm talking about the total sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I think too many times when we think about the sacrifice of Christ, we only think about the day that he was crucified. And that would be a mistake for us to think that that encompasses the total sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had a bullseye on his back every second of every day of his life. He couldn't let up for a second. If he sinned at any time, he could not have been our Savior. And so, by faith, when we accept the total sacrifice of Christ, we accept the fact that all his life he lived a sinless life. We accept the fact by faith regarding his crucifixion. And what a horrible 24 hours that was! Those he loved the most rejected him. They fled from him. They turned their backs on him. He had six different trials, three by the religious authorities, three by the civil authorities, all in that 24-hour period. So there was a lot of mental anguish that was there. It was a part of that time, just prior to his crucifixion. We have faith not only in his death, but in his resurrection. We don't believe in a dead Savior. We also believe and have faith in the fact that he is now our high priest. And we have faith in the fact that he's our soon-coming King for the kingdom of God. All of that is what we have faith in. So we must repent. We must have faith. Let's take a look at Romans chapter 3.

Romans chapter 3 and verses 24 and 25.

Romans 3 verse 24. 4 Being justified freely by his grace, being justified, put in a right relationship through our sins being forgiven. But notice, we are justified through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God set for as a propitiation by his blood through faith. To demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. So we were given a right standing. But here in Mark chapter 1, let's go over to Mark.

We're going to combine certain scriptures or put these scriptures together here to see a beautiful picture. Mark chapter 1. We covered this, I believe, last time. Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15. Now after John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. And do what? Do nothing? No. There are things that we must be doing. It doesn't earn us the thing, but there are things that God wants to see his children do. One is right here, repent, and the other is believe in the gospel.

Have faith in the gospel. All that Jesus Christ was and taught is repent and believe. Let's also turn over to the very beginning of the New Testament church here in Acts chapter 2. We see the power of God's Spirit moving among those that were keeping Pentecost, Jewish folks coming in from all over the area, all over the region, to be in Jerusalem. The apostle Peter, the other apostles were there.

They hear an inspiring sermon, and after this inspiring sermon, what do the people do? They're listening to the sermon. They did the same thing that 2,000 years later, you did. I did. Let's see what they did. Verse 37. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. God was, as we heard in the sermon, God was drawing them. God was drawing them and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, and this is what you said X number of years ago or months ago or days ago, whenever you were baptized, what do I do?

What do I need to be doing? And again, was the answer, nothing! No. Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Two things need to be done. Need to repent, need to be baptized in baptism as we show our faith by being baptized.

Now, over in Acts chapter 6, if you go over just a couple of chapters, two or three chapters here, we see the essence of what I want to cover with you today in the message. Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6 and verse 8. And Stephen, full of faith, in other translations here, would say grace, and Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

Now, I'd like to read this to you from the amplified version. And this does just what it says. It amplifies what is there. But I think it gives us a very helpful definition of this, or rendition of this verse. Acts chapter 6, verse 8 in the amplified says this. Now, Stephen, full of grace, divine blessing and favor, and power, strength and ability, worked great wonders and signs or miracles among the people. When we are full of God's grace, then we do what it says Stephen did.

We are people who are working with that sanctification. We have a right way of living. We're using the power of God, His Holy Spirit, in our lives, and grace is flowing through us. So as Christians, you and I are called not only to be recipients of God's grace, you and I have been called to be conduits of God's grace. We've been called to be conduits. Spokesman's Club was made mention of earlier. We talk about an SPS for you fellows there in the club, a specific purpose statement.

For those of you who don't go, that's what that is. I've got a little bit of an offshoot on that. I've got an SPQ, a specific purpose question. My specific purpose question today is this, and my point is to try to answer this SPQ throughout the course of the rest of the sermon. The question is this, just what is God's amazing grace?

Just what is God's amazing grace? What does it do? How does it work in our lives? Again, a very basic subject, but as I made mention, I think it was last Sabbath, we need those basics, don't we? If we aren't clear on those, then we will be in some very big trouble. Our calling, again, we heard this in the sermon today, our calling is by grace.

Let's look at Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 verse 15. Galatians 1.15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, talking about very basic aspects of living here, and called me through his grace. Grace, brethren, is vital to the mechanics of salvation. You and I want to be saved. We want to be in the kingdom of God. We want to be at God's side, in Christ's side forever, helping him rule, being there, in the millennium, and far beyond.

And it all starts with the grace of God. We are called by God's grace. Now, I don't know exactly the mechanics of how that worked. Perhaps there was a time when God the Father, God with Jesus Christ, and said, well, and then they used your name or my name. They said, is it time to call Randy now? Is it time to call Mike now? Time to call Bill now? When is the time for us to call this individual? Is this the best possible time? We want them to be called when they will be successful.

Although they'll have trials and tribulations, but we want them to be successful. Is this the best time? And so they huddled up, made a decision, and the grace of God was extended to you.

And then what did you do? You repented, you believed, you had faith, you were baptized, you had hands laid on you, you received God's Holy Spirit, making you a member of God's church. Your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And from that point on, you want God's grace to move you through your lives. Romans chapter 2. Assuming Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, we'll get to verse 2.

Romans chapter 5, I'll start here in verse 1. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, given right standing before God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because our sins have been forgiven, because we are now part of the family of God. We're not fully what we will be, but we're now children of God. And we've got peace, because we know we're on the right path. We're not perfect by any stretch, but we're looking to God and we're asking God to help us. But notice that's where verse 2 comes in. Through whom also we have access by faith, into this grace in which we stand. There you go, there's sanctification. This grace in which we stand. Right living before God. This grace in which we stand. And because of that grace, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in the fact that we are going to be sons of God, in the kingdom of God, and living forever. So our calling is by grace. Our destiny is by grace. And as I gave a part of this in a sermon on the last great day in Wisconsin Dallas a few years ago, I was going through a number of these scriptures in the morning. The fellow in the afternoon said, everything that we do is by God's grace. That fellow was Bob Faye. He was a speaker in the afternoon that day. Everything we do is by God's grace. Calling by God's grace, destiny by God's grace, forgiveness of sin, as we see in verse 1, by God's grace. Let's take a look at Acts 18. Acts 18. Is it any wonder, brethren, that the Apostle Paul so many times talked about the grace of God? Too many times in our past, in our culture in times past, we've shied away from this term of grace, and we shouldn't do that. Acts 18.27. And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. Believed through grace. Grace helps open our hearts, open our minds, gives us understanding, helps us to be able to take spiritual things and understand them and compare with one another. As we heard today in the sermonette message, there are so many basic things we wonder why the people outside of these walls don't understand. But their minds and hearts have not been opened like ours have. Not that they're worse than us or we're better than them. As again, I think we heard in the sermonette, it's a matter of timing. You know, 1 Corinthians 15, each in their own time. Now is our time. It's our time for God's grace to be extended to us and to be called and to know our destiny and work toward that destiny. To believe. A couple of scriptures here in Acts 20.

But none of those things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself, so I may finish my race with joy and a ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now there's a statement. The gospel of the grace of God. Because as Bob Fay correctly pointed out a number of years ago, everything that we do is by the grace of God. Paul talked about how he stood in the grace of God. So the gospel message can be called one of grace. Verse 32, same chapter. Acts 20, verse 32. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace, the Scriptures, to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified, among those who are set apart, among those who are justified, as you and I live in right living sanctification before God. God's Word is there to help build us up. So grace is vital to the mechanics of salvation. As we look at this subject, brethren, I wanted to kind of drill down a little deeper than perhaps maybe you've heard in a while. I don't know that any of this is new, but I'm hoping that what I'm doing is just going over some basic things that you've heard in the past. But grace is expressed in a variety of forms, in a variety of forms. When you take a look at a diamond and you see the beautiful structure once it's been cut, and all the various facets and the way that the light hits that gem and how beautiful it is, grace is very much like that beautiful diamond. It's multifaceted. There are many different expressions, just like there are a number of different expressions of our faith. Grace is a multifaceted subject. We can have faith that God will heal us. We can have faith that God will protect us. We'll have faith that God will help us economically. We can have faith that God is going to help us overcome. Now, you might have faith that God might help you to overcome, but not that maybe you have as much faith that God's going to help you economically. And so we grow in various aspects of faith. The same thing is true with grace. There are various aspects of grace. Let's take a look, and this is by no means an extensive list of some of the varieties of grace. And you can label these as you want. I gave them my own labels. The first one here I call common grace.

Common grace. This is the kind of grace that God and Jesus Christ extend to all mankind. You and I, as members of the church, don't have a corner on the grace market. Our God is a God of grace, and He is a God who loves all human beings. Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew chapter 5, verses 44 and 45.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 44. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you. So verse 44 shows some pretty bad folks, right? Verse 45. That you may be the sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. All mankind benefits from God. All mankind does. The Son doesn't just shine on your house or my house, it shines on our neighbors and everybody else's home. The rain doesn't come just to farmers in the church. The rain comes to everybody. It could be a devout atheist. He gets rain, too. That shows the love of God. It doesn't say that God is accepting their sins, accepting their life's stand by any stretch. It's just that God shows His love toward them. Acts 14. Acts 14.

Acts 14. Verse 14.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes, ran among the molted, crying out, and saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven and earth and sea and all that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. So, the first type of grace that we see here is what I call common grace. It's God's love toward all mankind, and God giving good things to all mankind. Another kind of grace, which you and I are very familiar with, I would call saving grace. Saving grace. Take a look over here at Acts 15.

Acts 15. Verse 11. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. We have faith through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That grace extends to us. We have accepted that grace. We work with that grace. We work through that grace. That grace is very much a part of all that we say and do, and that grace is going to allow us to be in God's kingdom. It's a saving grace. And we are so very fortunate that we know of that kind of grace and know the workings of that grace. Once we're in the church, there's another kind of grace that God can extend to you and I, and has extended to you and I. I call that securing grace. Securing grace. Over here in John chapter 10.

John chapter 10 and verse 27. Most of what I'm about to read to you, let's see, all of what I'm going to read to you is in red lettering in my Bible. John chapter 10 and verse 27. My sheep hear my voice. Why? Because of God's grace being extended to us. We understand the shepherd's voice. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, that saving grace. And they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. For my Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Satan is not able to snatch us out of God's hands. If we are living by the ways God wants us to live, then we are going to be secure through God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through the power of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Through the securing grace of God the Father and Jesus Christ. We need not fear that somehow Satan is just going to walk into the situation and spirit us away somehow. We are secure in the knowledge of God's love and God's protection for us as we do those things that are pleasing to sight and walk in faith and walk in God's grace. We talked about sanctifying grace. Here's yet another one. Sanctifying grace. Again, sanctification is right living before God. This is the type of grace that allows you and I to grow. Have you and I been asking God for growth in various areas of our life? I know that there are a number of fellows here who are giving their sermonettes for the very first time. And we've witnessed, I believe, three in the last three times I've been here. All three have been wonderful messages. But see, it's God's grace, God sanctifying grace, working in these men to help them to grow, to serve you. And we want to ask God to continually help us to serve in whatever way God has called us. You know, we're going to have a young adults get together this evening over at the phase home. Each of our precious young adults is going to be coming to that meeting, you know, and every one of you, every one of you has something for you to give in your own unique way. You don't have to worry about what the other guy does, what the other lady does. You've got what God has given you. And I would simply as your pastor call upon you to use the gift or gifts that God has given you, use the grace that God is extending to you, to use those gifts, to use them to your full, to grow in grace and knowledge with those gifts, and to use those precious gifts. Acts 13. Acts 13.

Verse 43, Now in a congregation that had broken up many of the Jews and devoted proselytes, followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Keep on growing, he's showing here. Keep on growing in the grace that God is extending to you. Don't settle for what you are now. Keep on improving. Now, sometimes that improvement is, you know, very slow to come. Sometimes you and I might think our growth is very, very glacial in nature. But for those of you in this room who have got close friends, I'm sure a number of you in this room have got very close friends in the Chicago church, you might want to consider, you might want to consider doing something that I did as a freshman at Ambassador College back in 1970. In my psych class, they said, you know what you need to do if you really want to grow, you need a baseline understanding of who you are and where you're at. Get together with some of the guys in your dorm and just ask for an evaluation. Wow! I got my evaluation. It was not pretty. I think in my class I was probably voted most likely never to come back to Ambassador College after the first year. It was as backward as many different issues I had to work on. And those fellows I lived with, I had 11 fellows, 10 other fellows in my dorm, and I asked four or five of them to get together one evening and we sat around the couch. What do you think of Randy Delisandre? Not much. But you know something? That was a baseline. And I said, okay, now obviously I didn't see this or this or this, but with God's help, with God's grace, we're not going to stay there. We're going to start working on these things. We're going to start chipping away at these things. And that, thankfully, did happen. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Boy, isn't this such an encapsulation of what I'm trying to get across with this point. The Apostle Paul, who stood in the grace of God, said, I'm growing, but I'm growing by the grace of God. I'm pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. God's got to give me the direction. God's got to give me the power. God's got to show me which way I need to be going. But then he's going to help fuel me with what I need. They help me over the rough spots. They get me through the hard times. His grace toward me was not in vain, because I labored. He didn't take his towel and bury it. He took his towel and did something with it. Which leads me to the next type of grace. Serving grace. Serving grace.

Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 7. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Think of it for a moment, brethren. What are your gifts? What are your gifts? We had a wonderful opportunity a number of years ago for the ladies in the Ann Arbor and Detroit congregation to do a survey to show to them where their abilities for service were they lie. We had, I think, 100 different ladies from all over Michigan, other areas come to that seminar. And it was really very, very helpful. And people who maybe didn't think that they had certain abilities in certain areas, but by the time they answered all these various questions, it showed, well, you know, you really have an upbeat personality and you are an encourager. That was one of the gifts. You are an encourager. I think I may have made mention to you one of the ladies that I felt so close to when I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, the church member there by the name of Irene. She had a very simple way of encouraging people. She would go out, she would buy construction paper of various colors, she would cut them into the size of postcards, she would circulate in the congregation on the Sabbath. If she knew you were down, if you were going through a hard time, a rough patch, she would write you a couple of scriptures, a couple of sentences of encouraging words, put your address and a stamp on that, and put that in the mail. And I used to look forward to getting those colored pieces of paper. And if you were there, you would too. Oh, today I got something from Irene, and I read that first. That is a gift. Some of you have got that gift. Not all of us. Some of you have got that gift. Some of our fellows here have the gift of being able to expound and explain the scriptures. Some of you ladies have the gift of hospitality. I've had my share of dinners that were hard to get down. But I've had my share of dinners where obviously the lady of the house was gifted in terms of her cooking abilities. And the feeling of hospitality that was in the home had nothing to do with money. I think sometimes our people think, well, I've got such a humble house. Brethren, what do you think? Do you think people are going to say, man, this is a humble house. How dare you invite me to such a humble house? I don't think members of you it that way. We can get together, have a glass of water, sit down, have great conversations, great discussions, or we have a potluck at your home. Or, like some do, some have the abilities for all sorts of things, and it's just wonderful. But everyone has got their own gift. Use your gift. Use the grace that God wants to. He wants to extend that to us. He loves you. He loves us. He wants us, as we give gifts, he wants to stand back and say, there's Mr. So-and-so, or Mrs. So-and-so. I gave them this gift. Look how they're using that. Let's give them some more gifts. They've shown they can responsibly handle that gift. Let's give them some more gifts. 1 Peter 4, verse 10.

1 Peter 4, verse 10. As each one has received a gift, minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold, what? Of the manifold grace of God. 2 Peter 4, verse 10. As each one has received a gift, what? Of the manifold grace of God. Use those gifts that you have. And brethren, every one of us has a gift. I know when we were conducting the survey, so many of the ladies prior to doing the survey in that seminar, all, Mr. Del Sandro, I just don't have any gifts. Well, that's not true. You've got, if you're baptized, you've got the gift of the Holy Spirit, you've got a good number of gifts. But as it says here, let's use that as good stewards. Let's not bury the gift. Let's use it. And it may be that, you know, the gift you have is like a diamond in a rough.

You know, there was a gentleman when I first came to church back in 1970. I wanted to come, as you know, I wanted to come to church back in 1967, but my parents hated the church. I was a young man. I was 15 years old. They wouldn't let me go. I was accepted to Ambassador College in 1970, and the minister said, Randy, if you've been accepted to Ambassador College, you should go to church at least one time before you go. So I was set to go to church on the day before I flew out to California, which was the third weekend in August 1970. And I got there, being as backward as I was and as shy as I was and introverted as I was, I just wanted to kind of get in there and become a part of the wallpaper. Not so easy. The man who was standing at the door greeting, his name was Bob. Bob had a horrible stuttering problem. It probably took Bob three minutes to say hello, and I'm not exaggerating. I mean, he had a grip on my... I couldn't get away. You know, it was... he was going to get that word out. But Bob worked on himself. He joined Spokesman's Club. He worked on himself to the place where he became president of Spokesman's Club, and he worked on himself with God's Spirit, with God's grace, to the place where he gave sermonettes and you would never know he ever had a stuttering problem. He worked with the gift God gave him. Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews chapter 4. So yes, we all have our gifts. Some of us may have to work harder on those gifts to bring them out, make them nice and shiny. Some of us may have to work harder than others, but we've got those gifts. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16.

Returning now to the last of the gifts I have for you. Not that this is the end of all the graces, but these are the ones I wanted to discuss. This is sustaining grace. Sustaining grace. Sustaining grace. When we have trials, to bring you into the pastor's corner here for a moment, when a pastor is new, he needs to get to know his congregation. What I know of you is that you've been very well pastored, very well loved, very well served for decades here. But I've got to get to know you. So I tend to, when I come into a new area, kind of give more basic things until I get to know you. A number of you have said, Mr. D., what we need here in Chicago is a sermon on trials. Now, I just throw that out to you. You can let me know if you feel you need that or not. I've got a number of those. I can dust those off and bring them in. But if you feel that's something that we need to cover next time I'm here, we can cover that next time. Otherwise, I've got something else in mind. But as we go through life, we go through the trials of life, and we've all gone through our share. We'll go through more. Notice what it says here in Hebrews 4, verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, that we may find grace to help in time of need. It is through the grace of God we get through the trials that we were experiencing. It is true. God will not give us a trial that we can't handle. But brethren, the idea behind that scripture is that we've got to handle it with God's help and with God's grace. If you and I are going to try to go through the trial on our own without God's help, without God's grace, then we can snap. We have to walk with God through our trial using the grace that He extends to us. And that's why we've got Hebrews 4, 16. 2 Corinthians 12.

2 Corinthians 12 and verse 9. Actually, I think I'll read a little more than that. 2 Corinthians 12.

Verse 7. Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, Paul is saying, I wrote so much of the scriptures, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. Any of you here have a thorn in the flesh? I might have to lean a little closer so I can hear you, because I've got a deaf ear on my left side. A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan above me, lest I be exalted above measure. So God says there are times when He has to do some things to humble us. Concerning this thing, concerning this thorn in the flesh, I pleaded with the Lord three times and it might depart from me. Does that sound familiar? How many times have you gone to God about whatever it is that's plaguing you and it's still here? And notice what he says in verse 9. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace.

There are any number of us who would like to be healed for any number of things in this room. We would love for God just to simply touch us and from the top of our head to the bottom of our toe, everything would be corrected, all the way down. Paul wanted some of that and he didn't get it. Why? Because it was more important for him to go through life and learn the lessons as an imperfect person with an imperfect body with all the trials he had and to rely on God. Sure, God could have healed him immediately. That would have been a tremendous miracle. But God took the approach with Paul and perhaps with you and I that, no, he's not going to give us this miracle all at once and heal us of whatever it is that's plaguing us, just like with Mr. Herbert Armstrong. We've heard about Mr. Armstrong in the sermonette today. Toward the end of that man's life, he was almost blind in both eyes and death in both ears. God could have healed him, but God didn't heal him. Why? Because it showed him personally and the rest of us who are onlookers that God can work through those kinds of situations. That the flesh is nothing. God's Spirit is everything. And that's exactly what God wanted Paul to realize. His Spirit was everything. His grace is sufficient. My strength is made perfect in weakness. In other words, God says, the weaker you are, the more grace I can bestow upon you so you can go through one day at a time. What's more important? One large miracle to be healed of whatever or a daily miracle that gets you through life every day. It's all miraculous. All has to deal with faith. All has to deal with God's grace. Those with Paul's responses here in verse 9. Therefore, most gladly, I'd rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches in needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. For when I am weak, then I am strong. He's strong because he relies upon the great God.

So just what is God's amazing grace? We've taken a look at that today. Do you want to grow in God's amazing grace? I know you do, and I know that I do. There's a key to how you and I can grow in that amazing grace. Let's take a look at that over in Luke chapter 18.

Luke chapter 18.

Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves, not in the grace of God, but in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. Not too much righteousness there already, right? If you were despising others, how righteous can you be? Not very righteous. Two men, verse 10, two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. The Pharisee is not moving very high up the ceiling, are they? God, I thank you that I am not like this other men extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. But now notice on the other side, an attached collector, standing afar off with not so much, has raised his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified by the grace of God, justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. He who humbles himself will find more of God's grace, of whatever type, whatever variety that you have need of. Here in the Chicago church, we've got a wonderful choir. We've got wonderful individual voices, some of whom are not in the choir. When I take a look at the subject of grace, I come to see the subject of the grace is one of the dominant themes of the Bible, certainly one of the dominant themes that Paul spoke on. In musical terms, the grace of God is like a melody line in a beautiful song. You and I have heard many beautiful songs. We enjoy humming those various melodies. Let's think of grace that way. Let's think of grace, brethren, as whatever comes into your life or mine. The God of all grace has ordained it so. He's allowed you to have blessings. He's allowed you to have things that weren't so blessed. He's allowed you to have trials. He's given you gifts. And whether we go through, we feel as good or ill or whatever, whether God gives us what we want or denies us what we may think we need, let's appreciate the fact that all of that is done through God's grace. And it's all done for us to grow as His children. I didn't particularly like seeing my little granddaughter, just a little structure of you and being crying. My heart ached when I saw that, but then my mind said, that's probably helping her lungs. Leave her be. Poor little thing. She sleeps 23 out of 24 hours a day, both of them. I mean, when you're only less than two pounds, how much strength and energy can you have? But she does have those good, dell'esandro lungs. So grace, yes, is God's unmerited favor, but it's more than that. It's God wanting us to live a right life before Him. It's using the grace. It's using God's Holy Spirit in such a way that we please God and glorify Him.

Time for just one last Scripture. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. I've got more Scriptures here. Those who are in the back who know my notes know I've got more Scriptures here, but we're not going to go through all those Scriptures.

I learned a long time ago that the worst way for anybody to die is to be preached to death, so we're not going to preach you to death.

2 Corinthians 3 verse 5, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Our sufficiency is from God, His grace, the common grace, the securing grace, the serving grace, the saving grace, the sanctifying grace, the sustaining grace. And I've not even mentioned all of them. Those are the various ways God gives us, and we are sufficient because of His grace.