Transformed by Grace

0:49Early last week, I needed to bring a few things home from the office, and I was thinking about those things just minutes before I left. So I packed up my stuff, I went out to the car, I drove home, and as I pulled into the garage, I realized I forgot to bring home all of those things. The very next day, I was still frustrated that I had forgotten those items, and I was preparing to go to Lowe's to pick up some things that we needed for a project.

1:14And so this time I made a list, wrote everything down. I drove to Lowe's, I walked in, and I get all the way to the back of the store, and I realize I left my list in the car. A couple days later, Kendra and the kids have been doing a lot of Baking because I mean, what else is there to do during this quarantine season? And they needed a few ingredients that we didn't have at home. And so I volunteered to go to the store and save them a trip. And so I, this time I write everything down on a list. And not only that, I take a picture of it with my phone. I go to the store, I've got my two lists, and I go pick up the items. I come back home, I'm feeling triumphant, and I hand Kendra the bag, and she says, Where's the other powdered sugar?

1:59Yes, friends, in spite of the fact that I had a written list and a picture on my phone that were with me in the store, I got half of the items that I was sent to get. So people are forgetful, that is true, but I must be the winner. Well, friends, because people are forgetful, we need reminders, and that is never more true than when it comes to spiritual truth that we find in God's word. Paul understood the importance of reminders, especially when it came to the gospel. And whether you consider yourself a Christian or not, whether you think you know and believe the gospel or not, this passage and Paul's reminders are for you.

2:47In the first couple of verses of chapter 15, Paul goes all out on the verbs. He uses seven different action words in this first long sentence. And the first verb that he uses is remind. Paul wants to remind them of the gospel that he preached. And we need that reminder, not just because we're forgetful, but because the gospel message is so counterintuitive. It's not at all what we would expect. Try a little thought experiment with me.

3:19Think back to the time before you were following Jesus, if you are a Christian. And if you can remember that timeframe in your life, think about what you used to believe about God, about yourself, about sin, about salvation. Chances are you believe that you were a pretty good person, and that if you tried hard enough to be a decent religious person, however, you defined that, God would accept you. He would simply have to overlook your sin and your disobedience and your rebellion because you met the standard that you set for yourself.

3:59Or think about any major world religion: Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism. What's the common denominator in all these major religions? It's the idea that if you meet the standard set by Muhammad or Joseph Smith or a priest, then God will have to accept you because you've tried hard enough to keep that standard, whatever that standard is. But you see, the message of Christianity is different. Jesus taught that no matter how hard we try, we will never be religious enough. We will never be good enough to meet God's perfect, holy standard of righteousness. The only way that we can be saved is by grace, through faith in the person and work of Jesus. See, that message is counterintuitive, and we tend to forget it.

5:00And that's why we need reminders. The second verb that Paul uses in these first two verses is preached. And in the Greek, this word is you and Galizo. It's where we get our word evangelism from. And what it means is to proclaim or announce good news. You see, Paul didn't risk his life and travel all over the world, including to Corinth, to give the Corinthians some good religious advice. They had plenty of good religious advice. They'd been hearing it for thousands of years. Paul didn't come to give them good advice. He came to bring good news. News that a man who claimed to be God lived a sinless and miraculous life, that he laid down his life in our place and for our sins, and that he rose victorious over sin and death on the third day. The message Try harder to be more religious is not good news.

6:06It's not news, and it's not good. It's bad because it doesn't help us with the root problem. The root problem is that all of us have already tried to be more religious, and yet we still find ourselves falling short of that standard. So instead of advice, Paul comes bearing good news, not about something that we need to do to be accepted by God, but about what Jesus has done to reconcile us to God. The third verb in these first couple of verses is received. The gospel is a gift that we receive.

6:51You don't earn gifts. Anything that you earn is called a wage. That's Paul's point in Romans chapter 4. Take a look at this verse. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. You see, you earn wages, but you receive gifts. And we receive the gift of salvation through faith in Christ. The fourth verb is stand. And the Greek word translated stand means something like to Firmly remain, to continue steadfastly in a particular state.

7:38Not only did the Corinthians receive the gospel, but they also stood firm in it. They were standing on the foundation of Jesus Christ and his work on their behalf. If you've been with us throughout this series, you may remember back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where Paul wrote this: For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus and His work are the firm foundation of our lives. The gospel is not only the key to salvation, it is the key to our spiritual growth as well.

8:19We stand on the firm foundation of the good news of Jesus. The fifth verb is translated being saved. The Bible talks about salvation in three senses: past, present, and future. In the past sense, we have been saved from sin's power and penalty through faith in Jesus Christ. Sin no longer has dominion over us, and there no longer remains a penalty for any believer in Christ. We've been justified, which means we've been declared. Righteous through faith. In the future sense, we have not yet been saved, but we will be saved when Jesus returns in glory.

9:12We eagerly await his return because at that time we won't just be justified, we will actually be glorified, we'll actually be made righteous. And then, in the present sense, which is what Paul is talking about here in this verse, we are in the process of being saved from sin's power. That's an ongoing process because we're living in between our justification, being declared righteous, and our eventual glorification when we are actually made righteous once and for all.

9:46And so, it's accurate to say that the Corinthians and we ourselves are being saved because we receive the gospel and are standing firm in it. The last two verbs or verb phrases are hold fast and believed in vain. Here in verse 2, Paul says that you are being saved, but only if you hold fast to the word that he preached. The Greek word here, katakete, has the sense of not letting go, of continuing to believe with the implication that you're also living out what you believe. Friends, this is a warning to those. In Corinth and to many living today, who think they're fine as long as they got baptized, as long as they were confirmed in the church, as long as they prayed a prayer of salvation at some point in their lives. Now, listen, getting baptized, being confirmed, praying a prayer, those are not bad things, those are good things.

10:53But if we think that we're going to be saved just because we've been baptized or confirmed or because we've prayed a prayer, Paul says we're mistaken. We are saved by grace and through faith alone. And to be saved, we have to continue holding fast to the good news of Jesus and living in light of that profession of faith throughout our lives. If we don't, then what Paul is saying is that we have believed in vain. To do something in vain is to do it without having anything to show for it. If we make a profession of faith at one point and then stop believing or stop living in light of our profession, then we have believed in vain.

11:39Jesus taught that only he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And that's the point that he sought to illustrate in Luke chapter 8 with the parable of the four soils. He said that there was some seed that fell on rocky ground and it sprang up right away, but then eventually it withered and it died. And Jesus, when he was explaining the meaning of the parable, said that the rocky soil are those who heard the word of God and received it with joy, but then later fell away from that profession of faith. The Apostle John explains to us very clearly what happened. Take a look at 1 John 2, verse 19.

12:22They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. So Paul begins these first few verses with a reminder, and he ends with a warning that we have to continue to hold fast to the gospel that Paul and the other apostles preached. But what is the content of this gospel, this good news that we need to be reminded of? And more than that, how do we know that this good news is true?

13:08Those are the questions that Paul answers in verses 3-7. And you can see in verse 3 that Paul states that the gospel is of first importance. It's a great phrase. He doesn't mean that everything else in Scripture is unimportant, but friends, by definition, only one thing can be. First, that's a message that our generation needs to hear because we've come to a place in our society where something either matters infinitely or it doesn't matter at all. That's a false dichotomy. To say something is of first importance doesn't mean that everything else is unimportant, but that they're less important.

13:54So, how we observe baptism or the Lord's Supper, how the church is governed, what we believe about the return of Christ, those are all important issues, but they aren't of first importance. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ is a matter of first importance. He's the only thing in that category. And that gospel that Paul received was from Jesus Himself. See, Paul didn't invent the gospel, he received it as you receive a gift. And because God is the king and the gospel is his message, then that makes Paul a herald, one whose job it is to announce the message of the king to the king's people without altering it in any way, shape, or form.

14:51And the message of the gospel Paul says that he was sent to announce has two primary parts. First, Christ died. For our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Why did Christ have to die? Why couldn't he just come to teach us the right way to live? I mean, after all, that's what many people believe that Jesus came to do, that he came to be a good teacher. Well, remember what we talked about earlier. The gospel is not good advice, it's good news.

15:30In Moses and the Mosaic law, we already had a good teacher, and we already had good teaching. We weren't in need of a good teacher or good teaching. Exodus and Leviticus were filled not just with advice, but with the very commands of God. We didn't need advice. We didn't need a good teacher. What we needed was a Savior, someone to come and save us from the consequences of our sin, our failure to keep God's law that was revealed through Moses. And Jesus saved us first by keeping God's law perfectly, and then by dying on the cross in our place for our failure to keep God's law perfectly. This is exactly what the prophets foretold in Scripture. Take a look at this passage from Isaiah 53.

16:24The prophet wrote, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

17:03Jesus came to die. And lest anyone think that Jesus didn't actually die, but merely passed out on the cross, as some say, Paul includes the fact in verse 4 that he was buried. And so the first part of the gospel message is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. The second part of the gospel message is that Christ was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. In the rest of the chapter, chapter 15, Paul is going to teach that every believer in Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead, just like Jesus was. So this section is pivotal to Paul's point in the whole rest of the chapter. Because if the dead aren't raised, Paul is going to say that not even Christ has been raised.

18:00But Christ was raised, just as the scriptures foretold in places like Psalm 16, or in the book of Jonah, which Jesus said serves as a picture of his own death and resurrection. But how would we know? We weren't there to witness Jesus being buried in the tomb. We weren't there to witness the empty tomb or to see the risen Christ in flesh. That's why Paul includes this list of witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15. Who all did Jesus appear to?

18:37Well, first, Peter, an original disciple, the most prominent leader among Jewish Christians, and one who in no way expected to see Jesus alive after he was crucified. The 12 disciples, which is probably alluding to everyone but Judas and then also Matthias, who replaced him. None of them were expecting Jesus to be raised from the dead, even though he said it multiple times. They were all huddled together, hiding in an upper room, scared for their lives. More than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom were still alive at the time of Paul's writing. He's saying, if you don't believe these disciples or Peter, then just go ask someone who saw him. He lists James, and this is Jesus' half-brother, who went on to become the great leader of the Lord. Leader of the church at Jerusalem before his own martyrdom. Remember that none of Jesus' family during his earthly ministry believed that he was the Messiah. James was only convinced after Jesus appeared to him, resurrected from the dead.

19:45And then he mentions all the apostles, that is, the eyewitnesses of the resurrection, specially commissioned by Christ to go and take the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth. See, Paul includes this list not just for the benefit of the Corinthians, but for the benefit of all of us who were not eyewitnesses to the resurrection. He is making the claim that Jesus did physically rise from the grave. The same body that was crucified and laid in a sealed tomb was resurrected. And there were many people that could testify to that. So Paul is saying to his readers, including us, don't believe the stories that you hear that a group of people stole Jesus' body, or that Jesus' disciples so desperately wanted him to be alive that they all imagined that they saw him or whatever else. He says, well, over 500 people saw and spoke to and interacted with the resurrected Christ. The resurrection happened just as Jesus and the prophets before him foretold.

20:59My friends, We have to understand that Jesus' followers, they weren't persecuted and killed for being good people, for dispensing good religious advice, or for living holy lives. Jesus' followers were persecuted and killed because they maintained that he rose from the dead. That was why they were persecuted. Jesus' resurrection proved that he was the Son of God and the promised Messiah that he claimed to be. Now, there was one more person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection, and that was Paul himself. Let's take a look at verse 8.

21:50You see in this verse that because Paul came to faith later, he refers to himself as one untimely born. I love that phrase because he looks at himself as a surprise baby who was born to parents long after their youngest child. He also refers to himself as the least of the apostles, not because he had low self-esteem, but because he persecuted the church of God. Paul wasn't merely an unbeliever, you see. He was a hostile enemy of Jesus and the church. Believers into prison and giving his approval to their deaths. And if you're a believer, you might be tempted to think of yourself as an unwanted latecomer to the family of God.

22:43You might think of yourself as one who maybe is tolerated, but who's not really welcome with open arms into God's family. And that's what makes verses 10 and 11 such good news. In verse 10, Paul begins with this simple word, but. But is one of the great words in Scripture because it often introduces the gospel message itself. Paul says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

23:26Some of us think of ourselves as unworthy to receive the grace of God. We think our pasts are too messy. Maybe we even think that our present is too messy. We think we've sinned too greatly or too often to be forgiven and adopted by God. And so I want to remind you of these words that Jesus Himself spoke in John chapter 6. He said, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will come to me. Will never cast out.

24:05So, friends, this is not me, Pastor Alan, telling you, hey, listen, don't worry about your sin. It's really not that big of a deal. God is going to forgive you. This is Jesus Himself saying, if you come to me, I will never cast you out. So, why would we ever say something like, God could never accept me? I've sinned too much. I've sinned too often. I've sinned too greatly. He could never accept me. Jesus has promised never to cast you out. And there are so many accounts in Scripture of humble sinners coming to him, and he never turned a single one of them away. He promises to receive each one of us.

24:56And that was certainly true of the Apostle Paul. See, Jesus called and received Paul, this violent persecutor of the church. That's who he was. That's what his past was. But that wasn't his present or his future. God's grace transformed him. After Jesus revealed himself to Paul, he was never the same again. After experiencing the grace of God, Paul was personally transformed. Life was also transformed. God's grace motivated him to share the gospel with as many people as possible to the degree that he could say that he worked harder than any of the other apostles. He traveled everywhere, eager to lay the foundation of Christ crucified and raised from the dead, eager to name Christ where he had not been named. God's grace changed him, and then it motivated and empowered him to lay down his life so that other people would come to know Christ and his salvation as well.

26:11Friends, that's what God's grace does. It transforms us. Once we experience it, we're never the same again. Over the years, I've heard so many people say some version of God accepts me just the way that I am. As I've shared my faith with people who are not yet Christians, I hear that often. God accepts me just the way that I am. And it's certainly true that God does accept us the way that we are. There are no prerequisites for coming to Christ. Remember what Jesus Himself said. Anyone who comes to me, I will never cast out.

26:55So it is true that God accepts us just the way that we are. We don't have to clean ourselves up spiritually before coming to Jesus, which is good, because none of us would ever be able to get clean enough to come to him. But God doesn't leave us where we are, even though he accepts us just where we are. His grace transforms us. We're no longer the people that we once were because God makes us into new creations, new creations with new hearts and new desires. God's grace changes our hopes and our dreams and our aspirations. God's grace changes the way that we judge success, changes the way that we understand ourselves and Him and His world.

27:50God's grace gives us a whole new set of desires. It's not that we no longer sin, it's that we're no longer enslaved to sin. We now desire to live for God's glory in this world. Commenter David Pryor wrote this: The only proper response to grace is total commitment with every fiber of our being. If God's grace does not produce such energetic single-mindedness, there is something seriously lacking in our faith. Prior is absolutely right. But maybe the problem isn't that something is lacking in our faith, but that we lack saving faith to begin with.

28:44If you look at your life, but you don't see transformation, you don't see that energetic single-mindedness that Prior is talking about to know Christ and to make Him known, it may be that you've never had saving faith in Jesus Christ to begin with. But that can change today. You can turn from your sin and from placing your hope in yourself, in your religious performance, in your resolutions to be a better person. You can turn from all of that today and place your faith in Jesus Christ, who didn't need to make any resolutions because He was perfect. He kept every part of God's law and He did it for you. And then He laid down His life, not under compulsion, but willingly. He willingly laid down His life in your place for your sin.

29:44He died and was buried and was resurrected from the grave for you. Friends, Paul's life was never the same after Jesus transformed him by His grace. He devoted himself to God and to God's purposes for his life, which is proclaiming the message of the gospel to as many people as possible. And if we believe that the gospel is the good news that Paul knew that it was, we'll also devote our lives to proclaiming the gospel as well.

30:20Because once we experience God's transforming grace, our lives can never be the same again. Let's pray, Father, your grace is truly amazing. You can take people like Paul, who had a violent and murderous past, and transform them completely from the inside out. You can take people like us, whose pasts are perhaps not filled with murder, but are filled with hatred and anger, with lust and adultery, with lying and gossip, with a selfishness that made life all about ourselves instead of about you and others. And God, I pray that today on this Easter Sunday, that some who are Hearing this message, they would understand the message of grace, the gospel message for the first time. I pray that you would meet them where they are, draw them to repentance and faith in Christ, and may they know that they are accepted, not because they are trying harder to be more religious people, but because they have placed their faith in Christ, who is perfect.

31:58God, I pray that every one of us who is already following Jesus would be encouraged afresh because we have been reminded of the truth of the gospel, which is not good advice, but good news. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.