Sermon #4 Galatians
Series
Title: “All Of Grace”
Text: Galatians 1:15
Reading:
Subject: The grace of God in salvation
Date:
Tape #
Introduction:
We delight to repeat the praises of
Doddridge’s old hymn to the grace of God –
Grace tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to mine ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.
Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.
Grace first inscribed my name
In God’s eternal book;
Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.
Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.
Grace all the works shall crown,
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.
The Christian religion is a religion
of grace. Grace is the love of God operating toward man. It is the staple diet
of our Sunday school that grace is “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” Our
hymns are hymns of grace. We speak so very much of God’s grace. And yet,
despite these facts, there do not seem to be many in our churches who really
believe in grace.
We rejoice over the fact that there
are many who have found the thought of grace so overwhelmingly wonderful that
they have never gotten over it. Grace is the constant theme of their talk and
their prayers. In times past men have written hymns about it. They have fought
for it, accepting ridicule and loss of privilege, if need be, as the price of
their stand. As Paul fought these Judaizers at Galatia, so Augustine fought the
Pelagians, and the Reformers fought scholasticism, and the descendants of Paul,
Augustine, and the Reformers have been fighting Romanizing, and Pelagianizing,
and Legalistic, and humanistic doctrines ever since. With Paul their testimony
is, “By the grace of God I am what I am,” and their rule of life is, “I do not
frustrate the grace of God.”
But
why do so few people believe in God’s free and sovereign grace?
1.
They fail
to see the moral ill dessert of man.
2.
They have a
wrong view of God’s justice.
3.
They have a
weak and unscriptural view of the merits of Christ’s sacrifice.
4.
They fail
to recognize man’s spiritual impotence.
5.
They refuse
to recognize the sovereign freedom of God.
You are all very familiar with the story
of the Apostle Paul. He had been a persecutor, and went armed with letters to
Damascus, to hail men and women and drag them to prison. But on his road to
Damascus he saw a light exceeding in brightness the light of the sun, and a
voice spoke to him out of heaven saying: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
By this miraculous interposition of God, this man Saul was converted. He became
a saved man. He spent three days in darkness, but when Ananian came to tell him
the gospel of Jesus Christ, scales fell off his eyes. He was baptized and
became the mightiest of all Christian teachers.
We generally consider Paul’s
conversion very remarkable in its suddenness and distinctness, and truly it is.
Yet, at the same time it is no exception to the general rule of conversions,
but is rather a type, or model, or pattern of the way in which God shows forth
His longsuffering and grace to his elect. It appears from my text, however,
that there is another part of Paul’s life that deserves our attention. Although
he was suddenly converted, God had had thoughts of grace toward him long before
he was born. God did not begin to work in Paul on his road to Damascus. That
was not the first occasion on which the eyes of love and grace had been fixed
on this chief of sinners, but he declares that God had separated him, and set
him apart even from his mother’s womb, that he might reveal his Son in him.
I want to show to you this evening,
from the Scriptures, that our salvation is “All of Grace.” We are not saved by
our works, or our wills, our obedience, or our faith, but “by the grace of God
we are what we are;” so that “no flesh may glory in His presence.”
Proposition:
Salvation,
that act of God whereby sinners are made righteous and brought to heaven, is
entirely a work of God’s free and sovereign grace, acting in love towards hell
deserving sinners.
Divisions:
1.
The grace of God planned our salvation.
2.
The grace of God precedes our salvation.
3.
The grace of God prepares us for salvation.
4.
The grace of God produces our salvation.
5.
The grace of God preserves our salvation.
I.
The grace of God planned our salvation (Eph. 1:3-14).
A. The choice was God’s (3-6).
1.
His people
(3-4).
2.
His purpose
(4).
3.
His promise
(5).
4.
His praise
(6).
B.
The cost was God’s (7-12).
1.
The price
(7, 1 Pet. 1:18-20).
2.
The
prudence (8-9).
3.
The
performance (10-11).
4.
The praise
(12).
C.
The conformation was God’s (13-14).
a.
The
performance (13-14).
b.
The promise
(14).
c.
The praise
(14).
II.
The grace of God precedes our salvation.
A. We see this truth demonstrated in
Paul’s life.
1.
Can we not see something of God’s purpose when we think of the singular gifts
with which this man was endowed by nature?
a. He was an eloquent rhetorician.
b. He was superior in logic.
Quote:
“Paul seems to have been
endowed by God with one of the most massive brains that ever filled human
cranium, and to have been gifted with an intellect which towered far above
anything that we find elsewhere.” C. H. Spurgeon
Note:
Someone may say, but God
reveals great things by fools. I beg to differ. God did once permit an ass to
speak, but he said a very small thing. Whenever there is a wise think to be
said, a wise man is always chosen to say it. Ezekiel cannot give us Isaiah’s
prophecy. Amos cannot give us Nahum’s words.
2. Do we not see God’s grace in Paul’s
education?
3. Do we not even see God’s grace in
Paul’s persecutions of the church? It was very productive in later days.
a. He was humbled.
b. He was repentant.
c. He was bold.
d. He was zealous.
4. Application – Is there not a word of
comfort and hope for us here? If Paul was thus transformed, shall not our sons
and daughters be?
a. Peter would not have been so bold on
Pentecost had he not fallen before the maid.
b. Luther would not have been so mighty a
defender of grace had he not struggled up and down Pilates staircase on his knees, hoping to win heaven by his
works.
c. Augustine would not have been so holy
had he not had that illegitimate son to remind him of his vice.
B.
It is impossible to say when the grace of God begins to work in his elect. You
can tell when quickening grace comes, but not the grace itself.
1. God’s grace begins in our earliest
years a formative grace.
a. He sovereignly puts us in our homes.
b. He moulds our dispositions.
c. He forms our thoughts.
2. In later years God’s grace is upon us
as preventive grace. He keeps many from a course of open sin.
3. Then there is that marvelous
restraining grace of God. He allows many to walk in sin and yet restrains their
vice (John Newton). How blessed that our God says, “Hitherto shalt thou go, and
no further!”
III.
The grace of God prepares our hearts for his salvation (Matt. 13:3-9).
A. He makes us willing to hear his Word.
B. He gives us a tender conscience.
C. He creates in us a dissatisfaction with our present
condition.
1.
He strips
us of our joy.
2.
He stripes
us of our peace.
3.
He makes us
miserable.
D.
He convicts us of sin.
IV.
The grace of God produces our salvation.
The
Holy Spirit turns the eyes of the despairing prodigal to heaven. He calls his
sheep.
A. Personally.
B. Particularly.
C. Powerfully.
V.
The grace of God preserves our salvation (John 10:27-29; Phil. 1:6; 2 Tim. 1:12).
It
is God’s work. He will carry it through.
Conclusion:
Zech. 4:6-7; Jude 24-25.