CONFRONTED BY GRACE
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:11-12.
Introduction
You’ll remember I asked if you were familiar with the saying, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” We connected it to the story about the Wooden Horse of Troy. This illustrated the point perfectly that we are to be on the lookout for any false teaching that might be brought into the church.
We had the importance of this hammered
home to us where the Lord through His Apostle Paul says, “If anyone preaches
any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” Therefore
we must be zealous to hang on to and promote the true Gospel of Grace, lest we
be accursed!
In the following I want to ask you if
you’ve heard of this saying, “He met his Waterloo.” We’re not talking about the
old Abba song here! When we say, “He met his Waterloo”, we mean that he met
with crushing defeat. He met his downfall. It refers to the Emperor Napoleon of
France.
On June 18, 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte met
his “Waterloo”. The Allied Forces, under the command of the Duke of Wellington,
faced off Napoleon's army at Waterloo, a place in what is now Belgium. Napoleon
had built himself a great Empire. He had conquered the larger part of Europe. But,
at Waterloo, the Empire he had built at the end of a sword, crumbled!
One historian says,
The Battle of Waterloo was one of the bloodiest in modern history. During the fighting of June 18, French casualties totalled about 40,000, British and Dutch about 15,000, and Prussian about 7,000; at one point about 45,000 men lay dead or wounded within an area of 8 sq km [3 sq mi]. Additional thousands of casualties were suffered by both sides during the three-day campaign that preceded the final battle.[1]
This mighty leader and his army met with a
crushing defeat! Napoleon was exiled to the Island of Elba to lick his wounds.
He was a broken man, broken in spirit, humbled, but not without hope.
We see here in the passage before us
another man who met his ‘Waterloo. He met his ‘Waterloo’ when he met the risen
Saviour Jesus Christ! Paul was confronted by grace, and his pride as a human being
met with a crushing defeat. The grace of Christ defeated and overpowered him,
over-awed him.
Paul had been an enemy of Christ, the
Christ who commands us to ‘love our enemies”. We are told he was breathing
threats of murder against the Lord's disciples. He held the jackets for those
who stoned one of the Lord’s beloved, Stephen. But on that road to Damascus,
grace confronted him. Paul, whose name was Saul at the time, was knocked to the
ground! “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
To persecute any one of the Lord’s flock
is to persecute Christ Himself! “Why are you persecuting Me?” Acts 9:4. Paul
didn’t know Jesus Christ, for he said, “Who are you Lord?” The reply came, “I
am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, it is hard for you to kick against the
goads.” Acts 9:6 says, “So he [Paul], trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord,
what do you want me to do?’” Trembling and astonished! This mighty man, this
brilliant scholar, this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this man who was full of the
pride of his religion, a false religion, Paul, the persecutor of the Church of
Jesus Christ, trembled in astonishment with his face in the dirt!
What did Jesus Christ do to Paul as he lay
there helpless? As he lay there at the mercy of the King of the universe? Christ
had every right to destroy this wretch of a man for persecuting His beloved
Church. Jesus Christ bought His Church with His precious blood. Instead of
destroying him, Christ says of Paul, “He is a chosen vessel of mine to bear My
name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him many
things he must suffer for My name’s sake” Acts 9:15, 16. “Lord, what do you
want me to do?” That's more like it Paul!
Paul has all of a sudden stopped breathing
threats against the Lord and His Church. The Lord loves a humble and contrite
heart. What happened to this man Paul? What changed his hatred for the Lord and
His Church, into a love that was willing to die for His Master and His beloved
children? Grace!
Paul met the risen Saviour, who is full of grace and truth. Paul was confronted by grace! That’s what we're looking at the following. The general theme is, Jesus confronts you by grace through His Gospel.
The Source of Grace
God is the source of grace, not man. There
is grace in the world because there is grace in God. How does God reveal His
grace to us? He reveals His grace to us in Jesus Christ as presented in His
Gospel.
Paul calls the Gospel, “The gospel of the
grace of God” Acts 20:24. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus died for
sinners. The Apostle Paul styled himself as the chief of sinners. Therefore if
he is chief, there's hope for you and for me!
According to the Bible, all of us are
sinners. Therefore man cannot be the source of grace. In the days of Noah
before the flood Scripture says that, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis
6:5. Therefore the Lord brought a worldwide flood upon the face of the earth! But
we see the grace of God in that He spared Noah and his family, eight people in
all.
In the day of Jeremiah we’re reminded that
man hadn’t changed. The Lord says through His Prophet, “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked” Jeremiah 17:9. Then in New Testament
times, Paul the Apostle quotes Scripture to describe his day saying, “As it is
written, ‘there is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands;
there is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have
together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” Romans
3:10.
Paul goes on painting a picture that
doesn’t look any different from the way things are today. He speaks of mouths
full of cursing and bitterness, feet that are swift to shed blood. He concludes
by saying, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:18.
Do you think there is any fear of God
before people’s eyes today? We live in an age where everyone does what they
like, don’t we? We are reminded of the refrain that runs through the whole Book
of the Judges. Even the very last verse in the Book of Judges says, “In those
days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Even in some churches people do what they
like today. Some pay God lip-service while others ignore Him completely. Some
test the Lord’s patience by openly professing, contrary to Romans 1, that they
are a practicing homosexual, or a lesbian. They do it from the pulpit while claiming
to be preachers of God’s Word! May God be gracious to them and show them the
error of their ways.
We’ve seen so-call revivals, where others
want to roll around the floor laughing and barking like dogs and what have you.
They called this worship! “There is no fear of God before their eyes’ says
Paul. Do you see how gracious God is? Do you see how patient God is? Do you see
how long-suffering God is?
Scripture tells us that it’s not God’s
desire that any shall perish. Even in Noah’s day the Lord gave sinners a very
long time to repent as Noah built the Ark. However, the patience of God is not
forever! Scripture tells us that all men are sinners, all human beings, you,
me, the master, the dame, and the little boy that lives down the lane. “All
have sinned” Romans 3:23. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
every one; to his own way” Isaiah 53:6. But there are two types of sinners:
Redeemed sinners and unredeemed sinners, i.e., the forgiven and the unforgiven.
So then, if Scripture is correct in saying
all men are sinners, where did the gospel of God’s grace come from? Well, it’s
“not according to man” says Paul. It cannot possibly come from man. Man is a
sinner! As a sinner he is in rebellion to God. O some might be more open with
their rebellion than others. That's not too hard to see is it? Proof of man’s
rebellion against God is in all those religious that ignore the Gospel of God’s
grace. “Let them be accursed” says Paul. Even those who attempt to add to or
take away from the Gospel, “Let him be accursed” says Paul.
Mankind was too busy inventing its own
gods to invent the glorious gospel! What are some of the ways mankind have
devised in an attempt to appease their gods? Well, in some countries they leave
out fruit for their gods. Don’t laugh, many in this country leave a glass of
milk and a bickie out for Santa Clause! In other places they sacrifice chickens
and pigs to appease their gods, which may be a corrupt version of the Old Testament
sacrificial system. Others offer up human beings, young virgins! In the OT
people offered up their own children to Molech. Nowadays people offer up their
children to the god of materialism through abortion. Who is going to protect
these young Australians? Apparently not our government. From the highest in the
land to the lowest, everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes.
People are no different now from what they
were like in the Old Testament. There is no fear of God, is there? “God is dead!”
say some. “Man is god!” say others. We live in a mixed-up age. “Live long and
prosper and may the force be with you!” say some. While others see life as
meaningless, pointless and then tragically commit suicide!
Even in the church, when the people look
to the preachers for answers, they’re given stones instead of bread, serpents
instead of fish! Paul means it when he says the Gospel wasn't invented by men.
It isn’t possible for mixed-up mankind to invent something so beautiful as the
Gospel!
The Gospel is the message of the cross of
Christ. It is the message of hope. It is the message that points sinners to
Christ the Saviour of sinners. Napoleon Bonaparte got it right when he said, “A
leader is a dealer in hope.” But what do we have in some churches nowadays? The
blind leading the blind. They’ve turned their back on the Gospel. They see no
value in it.
Paul says, “It pleased God through the
foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For the Jews seek
a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the
Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” 1 Corinthians 1:21-23.
“The message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God” 1 Corinthians 1:18. So let them talk about their Stone Age, their Bronze
Age, and their New Age! But let us talk about the grace of God in His glorious
Gospel. For the Gospel comes from God, i.e., God our Saviour, who alone is
wise” Jude 25.
The world isn't smart enough to invent the
Gospel. God says, “Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the
heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to
salvation” Romans 10:9-10. “Salvation is free. My Son has paid for it” is
essentially what God says. That’s foolishness! Therefore, we refuse to believe
you” says the world.
But we believe, don't we? We believe that God alone is the source of grace. We believe that God is the source of grace because we know: the force of grace.
The Force of Grace
Paul says to the Romans, “I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone
who believes, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed” Romans 1:16-17.
The Gospel is the power of God! What does
this mean? Well it means that God is the One working in the Gospel. The power
of God is at work in the Gospel. The power of God that put the stars in the
sky. The power of God that put the planets in orbit. The power of God that
raised up the mountains. The power of God in the cyclone, an earth quake. “He
touches the hills and they smoke” the Psalmists says.
See the power of God in an erupting
volcano. Think of the power God has packed into every little atom. Look at the
horror of Hiroshima. Split one little atom and you can destroy millions of
people. All those killed at Waterloo is nothing in comparison. Think of the
power of God that holds those billions upon billions of atoms together. Think
of the power God is using to restrain Himself from destroying sinful mankind.
Think of the power of God.
Think of the grace of God, the God who is
patient with sinful man. The Gospel is the power of God. It is the power of God
to salvation for all who believe. Just as God has packed untold power into
every little atom, think of the force packed in His Gospel of grace. The Gospel
has the power to transform lives, to bring dead people back to life. Instead of
killing us as our sins deserve, God breathes life into us through His Gospel of
life.
Do you see the power in the Gospel? It’s
as if the Lord is walking among those slain at the Battle of Waterloo, as the
hot June sun bleaches their bones. He breathes life into this one, then that
one. And they stand up one by one and look at the Lord in wonder. They’re
saying to Him, “I bore arms against You. I fought to the death against You!” Then
the army of resurrected soldiers gazes upon Him in silence, in awe! Then they
begin to lift their hands to the Lord and say, “Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John
3:1. That’s the power of the Gospel! That’s what it means to be confronted by
grace. It is to have a picture of the Lord is walking among the death and decay
of fallen humanity and saying to the dead, “Arise! Walk! Your sins are forgiven
you!”
Give all the glory to God. You were dead
in your sins when Jesus resurrected you. You didn’t choose Him, He chose you.
Get things in their proper perspective. It was God who came to you as you lay
there in the dust. It was God who breathed life into your nostrils, like He did
with Adam. It was God who raised Paul from lying on his face in the dust.
Behold! The grace of God in His Gospel.
Don’t add to the Gospel. It was God who did it all. It was God who gave you the
breath that caused you to call out to Him. Give Him the glory. All the glory
belongs to Him alone. You cannot possibly have understood the full power of the
Gospel if you think a man who is dead in his sins can contribute even minutely
to his own salvation!
I remember a preacher describe what it’s
like when God enters your heart. Have you ever been on a jumbo-jet when it’s
coming in for a landing? It slams its engines into reverse thrust. You feel as
if the plane’s going to fall out of the sky. Then it sets itself down on the
runway and puts the reverse thrust on full blast. Almighty God, the Maker of
the heavens and earth, enters into the sinner’s heart through the preaching of
the Gospel. But the choice remains with Christ as to whom from among the dead
He will save.
Have you ever seen little ducklings
hatching from the egg? As soon as they hatch they follow after the first object
they see. Only when people see Jesus Christ in the Gospel will they be born
again and follow Him.
The Gospel is confrontational. It’s a
force to be reckoned with, isn’t it? It is the power of God unto salvation for
all who believe.
We’ve looked at the source of grace and the force of grace. We have seen that both the source and the force is God Himself. Let us now quickly look at our part in all of this.
The Course of Grace
Jesus Christ has entrusted His Church with
His Gospel. And He has said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature” Mark 16:15. Let’s ask the question why? Why does God want
people to hear His Gospel? Is it so that He can destroy them? No! It's so that
He can bring those whom their sin has already destroyed back to life.
The Gospel is God's way of revealing His
grace to sinners. We are to be His mouthpiece, the pulpit in particular. It is
primarily through the preaching that people are saved. Therefore, it’s
imperative that we guard the pulpit from impostors.
God confronts people through the
proclamation of His Gospel. God manifests His grace to you through His Gospel. He
changes unbelievers into believers by revealing Christ to them. This is the
work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Spirit reveals the Son who reveals
the Father. But the Spirit doesn’t do it all at once. We can be thankful for
that. Your heart would burst. It would explode.
Could you imagine what would happen if God
revealed everything about Himself to you all at the same time? Paul the Apostle
had spent whole life studying Scripture. It wasn’t until he was confronted by
Jesus Christ that he understood what the Scriptures were saying.
It’s our duty as Christians to tell people
what the Scriptures are saying. But they won’t understand the Scriptures unless
we present Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the key to all understanding. Therefore,
as believers we attend church every Sunday to worship God and to see the
exalted Christ.
When our minds are refreshed about who
Christ is and what He has done, we ready to face another week of trying to
present Christ to people out there. But if the man in the pulpit has forgotten
the gospel, or has distorted it, how will the people know what note to sound in
public? Therefore, you need to encourage the preachers in the pulpits of
Australia or wherever you live to preach the unadulterated Gospel.
You can do this by praying that God will
raise up men who will preach the Word in season and out of season. You can encourage
your Christian brothers and sisters from other churches to urge their pastors
to preach only the unadulterated Gospel.
John MacArthur Jnr. in his book “Expository Preaching” says,
Nothing is as
dramatic as the explosion of truth on the
mind of the believer through powerful preaching.[2]
God manifested His grace to Paul by giving him His Gospel. The Gospel came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not of man but all of God.
Conclusion
As we conclude, is there anything we can
do in our day to day lives that might serve to advance the Lord’s Gospel? It is
said that Alexander the Great looked out over his huge empire and wept because
he had nothing left to conquer! But that’s not the lot for the Christian. At
least not yet! The Lord by His grace says to His disciples, “The harvest truly
is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into His harvest” Luke 10:2.
I’ve already mentioned the need for preachers
of the unadulterated Gospe. We've been reminded that the Gospel is
confrontational. Does this mean we’ve to go and clobber people with the Bible?
God forbid!
We started off by saying that Paul met his
Waterloo when he met Jesus Christ. Have you met your “Waterloo” in Christ? Do
you see yourself as a sinner saved by grace alone? If you have met your
Waterloo in Christ then, “Soldier of Christ” show Him your gratitude. The way
Christ has acted toward you, you are to act in that manner toward others.
Remember that the Lord’s way are not the
way of the world. You are to love your enemies. Do as the Lord says, “If your
enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink, for in so doing you
will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome
evil with good” Romans 12:20-21. Then the source of grace will be the force of
grace as you run the course of grace!
Let me finish with the following quote from a famous military man,
“I know men and tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I, have founded empires. But on what did we did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.” – Napoleon Bonaparte.
Remember that people are confronted by
grace through Jesus Christ as presented in the Gospel.
[1] Narrating the Nation, Representations in History, Media and the Arts,
Edited by Stefan Berger, Linus Eriksonas and Andrew Mycock, Berghahn Books, New
York, p. 131, note 11, 2008.
[2] John MacArthur, Jr, Rediscovering
Expository Preaching, Balancing the Science and Art of Biblical Exposition,
Word Publishing, Dallas, p. 345, 1992.
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