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A Series on the Grace of God
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As we gather this morning, I want us to perceive that the Breath of God is coming upon our lives. The Breath of God is the grace of God. Let your fresh breath come upon our souls, upon our hearts, upon our spirits. It is no longer we doing anything, but the Breath of God—the grace of God—accomplishing great and mighty tasks on our behalf. By the Holy Ghost we are doing exceptionally well. By the Holy Ghost we are accomplishing greater things. We receive the Breath of God.
This morning, we will be talking about our main topic for this month: the grace of God, or the grace of Jesus Christ. Our specific topic is the heroes of grace.
Open your Bibles with me to Hebrews 4:16. It says: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Find grace to help in time of need. This phrase will anchor our message.
The heroes of grace, as recorded in the Bible, are men and women who obtained mercy of God and then found grace. They held onto it tightly. They did not let it go—not even until the very end. The same grace that they found ushered them into eternal rest and into the rest of God. May the grace that you have obtained see you to the end.
I see grace like a precious jewel that God has placed in your hand and in my hand. That grace has brought us into Christ. May that grace carry you to the end.
Nobody works for grace. Nobody pays for it. Nobody lobbies for the grace of God. You do not need a man to get the grace of God. Nobody writes an examination for grace. Nobody wins grace in a race or in a competition. The grace of God is not obtained through any of those means.
Grace is a gift. According to Ephesians 2:8, "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." The grace that saved you and me is a gift.
Ephesians 4:7 also tells us, "To everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Grace is measured out unto us. 1 Peter 4:10 establishes the same fact: grace is a gift that God has given to you and me.
If grace is a gift, you do not buy a gift for yourself. Someone else determines to buy it and give it to you. So how do we get this gift from God?
Grace as a gift is given by election. I look at you and I begin to rejoice. The grace that brought us salvation was given to us by election. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit elected us and brought us into their family by grace.
Some people have not been given this grace. No matter how much you preach the gospel to them, they will not understand it—because they have not been elected. Their eyes have not been opened. Their understanding has not been quickened. But you and I have received this grace, and we have received it by election.
Romans 11:5 tells us: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." You and I are among the remnants by the election of grace.
We are all familiar with democracy. In a democratic government, people vote to elect their leaders. Using the word "elect," I say that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—I do not know how they did it—but you and I that are standing in Christ today have been elected.
1 Thessalonians 1:4 tells us the same thing: "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." We must know our election. When this settles in our hearts—that we were elected—I think we will take our spiritual life more seriously. We will handle it more carefully. We will treat it with utmost carefulness and seriousness.
You may begin to question: why were we elected? Why is it that God elected some people and did not elect others?
Look at Romans 9. It speaks of Jacob and Esau, and of Pharaoh, the king who lived during the time of Moses. God said, "For this reason I have raised Pharaoh up"—to destroy him, to show his power. God brought Jacob and Esau and said, "Esau I have rejected, but I have elected Jacob."
Who are you? Who am I to question God? In the exercise of his Divine Authority and will, God is unquestionable. A manufacturer is not questionable in how he fashions his goods. A potter working on vessels—nobody can question him. Whatever he wants to make with the clay, he makes with it.
But thank God for you. Thank God for me—that we were among those elected by grace. God does not give account to anyone. God does not owe anybody an apology. God does not give account to anybody. Praise God!
Before the coming of Jesus, those who were elected by grace and found grace were uncommon. Only a few people found grace. Let me mention about seven of them quickly.
Enoch found grace. We have a record in the Bible. Hebrews 11:5 says, "By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony: that he pleased God."
Genesis 5:22-24 tells us that Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah. He worked with God—the God he could not see. He received grace to walk with God. And God took him.
Enoch's generation was not righteous, but Enoch was the only one that had that testimony. Every other person, even those who lived longer than Enoch, did not have any record of walking with God or receiving this grace. So I thank God for your life—that grace is uncommon, but thank God for your life and my life.
Noah found grace. According to Genesis 6:8, "Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord."
Something strange is recorded here. The verse begins with "But." When you use "but," it suggests something that is supposed to be negative. But in this case, it means it was uncommon. That word tells me grace was not common—it was not a common commodity during the time of Noah.
Yet Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. I pray for somebody here today: uncommon grace, you will find in the name of Jesus. People say it is hard, but you will find grace. They said you cannot do it, but if God grants grace, you can. They said people cannot get it, but if God grants grace, that will be your testimony. That will be our testimony in the name of Jesus.
Abraham found grace in the midst of his idolatrous family. God called him out—not because he was holy when God called him, not because he was perfect. In fact, he was following his father to worship idols. Yet God called him.
It is by election. It is not by work. It is not by labor. It is not because you know how to do it. It is by grace that you were preached to and the gospel made sense to you. It is because of grace. Some people, if you teach them from morning to evening, still do not understand. They cannot reason how somebody will die for another man. They cannot understand. But you understand. It is by grace. It is by grace.
Joseph also found grace, being the eleventh among the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph found grace and became a ruler by election. He was sent ahead to be a savior of lives. He saved lives. Joseph was a man that found grace—a hero of grace. You can read this in Genesis 41:38-40.
Moses found grace. We all know the story. Moses was born at a time that was very dangerous, yet he found grace. He escaped death. At the end, he became somebody that God used mightily because of grace. See Exodus 3:1-10.
David found grace, being the eighth son of Jesse. He was the last son. God rejected the first seven that were before him and chose the eighth.
Imagine—it is by election, not by labor. When Samuel wanted to choose somebody, he saw Eliab and said, "Behold, here comes the Lord's anointed." But the Spirit of God told him, "No. God does not see as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks into the heart. I have rejected him. I have not chosen any of these seven. There is still one person that Jesse has not brought forward."
They had to look for David. May they look for you in the name of Jesus. Grace will make people to look for you. It will not depend on where you are. Grace will make people to search for you in the name of Jesus. They searched for David, and David was enthroned. You can read this in 1 Samuel 16:4-13.
Finally, bringing it home to you and to myself: the twelve apostles found grace. Though unlearned, ordinary men, grace elected them. The mystery and revelation and fulfillment of the prophets and the laws were committed into their hands. They were elected by grace, and grace changed their lives. See Mark 3:13-15.
Jesus Christ called them out of the multitude, and grace brought them out and changed their lives.
These are just a few examples of heroes of grace in the Bible. All of these people that I have mentioned—they all entered into God's rest. When they found grace, grace helped them to the end.
You will get to the end of this race. Nothing will make you lose your salvation in the name of Jesus. This morning, we are joining our faith together. Other people may be missing it. Other people may be telling stories of when they used to be Christians. It shall not be your portion in the name of Jesus. You will get to the very end of this journey in the name of Jesus.
Let us look at three peculiar characteristics of these heroes of grace.
The first thing we see in their lives is that they did not receive grace in vain. 2 Corinthians 6:1 warns you and me that we should not also receive grace in vain.
They labored with the grace. They walked with the grace. Look at all of them—Enoch, David, Noah—all of them worked. They did something. They did something tangible with the grace. They did something to the glory of God.
This morning, I am calling on you as well: let us not receive grace in vain.
The second thing we find in their lives is that they did not frustrate the grace of God. They valued it seriously. They did not frustrate it.
Majority of us professing to be Christians nowadays frustrate the grace of God. How? Because we do not value it. We sell out cheaply. We sell out easily for things that are less valuable. We sell that precious gift of grace.
It is like somebody has given you a gift worth one million pounds, and because you do not really know its value, you sell it for one pound. It is frustrating. We are selling out. May the Lord help you and me in the name of Jesus.
Galatians 2:20-21 warns us: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God."
I am calling us this morning: do not let us frustrate the grace of God. Let us live for Christ. Let us live for him. Do not allow anything to buy Jesus Christ out of our lives. Do not sell Jesus for anything less. The Lord will help us in Jesus' name.
The third thing we notice in their lives is that they all made it to the kingdom of God. Heroes of faith, heroes of grace—they were all heroes of faith as well.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says, "All this—they all died in faith. They died believing God. They died not compromising, not dropping their faith." All of them died in faith. They found grace to enter into eternal rest. Grace did not fail them at the end.
Finally, brethren, this morning, all of us who are genuinely born-again Christians—I want to tell us joyfully that we have found this grace. As long as we are genuinely born again and we are here this morning, we have found this grace.
From the examples of the heroes of faith that we have mentioned—the heroes of grace—we need to treat and handle this grace with utmost carefulness and godly fear. We are still running the race. You and I are still in the race. We are not yet there. We are still in the race.
All the heroes of grace that have gone ahead of us are our witnesses. Noah is going to stand and testify against this generation. He is going to tell you and me that in his generation, nobody was righteous, but God found him to be righteous. Lot is going to stand and witness. Abraham will stand and witness. The apostles will all stand and witness against you and me.
Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us: "We have a cloud of mighty witnesses." They are there. We have no excuse whatsoever to fail God because we have received this grace. We have no excuse at all. No matter how tough it is, no matter how hard the journey may seem, we cannot be justified if we fail. We will not fail in the name of Jesus.
Let us strive to acquire more grace. The more we labor with the grace that we have received, the more we increase in grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us: as we labor with grace, we will get more grace. We get more grace, and then we are able to stand better.
Remember the parable of the talents. One was given five; another was given two; another was given one. You can look at those talents as the grace that God has given them. Two of them labored with the grace. One did not do anything—he buried it. That is found in Matthew 25:14-30. And we all know the hand of that man—he was thrown into utter darkness.
In conclusion, this morning I pray: may you not run out of grace of God in Jesus' name. May the oil of God's grace not dry up in your life and in our lives in Jesus' name.
Remember the five foolish virgins. They failed at the end because they ran out of the oil of grace. They suddenly discovered towards the end that they did not have enough oil—the oil of grace that would make them enter with the bridegroom. They did not have enough grace. They did not have enough oil of grace in them.
I pray again for everyone here this morning, including myself: may the oil of grace not fail in our lives. We will not be short of the oil of grace in the name of Jesus. May the oil of grace keep flowing in the name of Jesus.
Close your eyes and begin to pray this morning. Say to the Lord: "Give me more of the oil of grace. Let more of your oil of grace be released to my life. And I make a promise—I will labor with your grace. I will not let your grace life follow in my life. I will labor with your grace, and I will be a hero of grace at the end of my life."
