Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Grasping God's Grace

Hallelujah! Amen! Well, it's good to see that we have some of our junior-highers with us for the first time tonight. Can you say, "Praise God!" for that? We're so thankful for what God is doing among our young people. Isn't it a blessing as a young person tonight was used in an utterance in our midst? It wasn't one of the seventh graders, so you guys get with it now. You've been in here for an hour. And we thank God for what's taken place. I was up here for prayer Monday. I guess it was. I don't remember which day it was. And a number of the young people were in here around six o'clock or whatever it was, preparing to go out to share the Word and hit the streets with the gospel. I saw a number of our other young people carrying around different watering cans and watering the flowers and doing a number of things and it's exciting to see the true body ministry, Amen? - All ages and just those that are ministering in every gift as unto the Lord. It's exciting, praise God. So let's just continue to believe the Lord to do even more in our midst and to add, as it's His desire.

There are a number of exciting things that are happening. I'll share with you a couple of other reports from Africa. Good report that we can share with you. Some of you might remember. I can't remember which trip it was. Well, it was one of the trips and we were in Rome and some of you that were traveling with us remember. We were looking all over and finally found an electronics store to get a power adapter for Janet's nebulizer. She had a severe bout with asthma for a number of those years and we used to have to carry the nebulizer and then finally they made the portable ones and all of these different things-and the medications they had her on, Theophylline and some of these different areas. Well, she was at the pulmonologist the other day, or whatever they are, and the fellow told her, "I don't know what's happened, but..." This was about six months ago, he said, "There's something taking place." And she went back again this week and after six months of different things, and he said, "If I hadn't been the one treating you," he said, "I would have never have any indication that you've ever had asthma." We just thank God for that healing.

As this gentleman-one of them also-another one of these physicians was looking at her and it may not have been this one-and just looking at all that had happened in her life and was looking at her abdomen and it looks like a road map. The scars that are through there, the surgeries over the years where she's had her appendix out and then she's had her colon out and then she's had her stomach out and all of the cancers and all of the different things. This guy looked at her and he said, "Do you ever ask, 'Why?' I mean 'Why Me?'" She said he just had a look on his face of compassion but also just hurt and he says, "Do you ever ask, 'Why?'" And she said, "No." She said, "God's so good to me." She said, "You know I should be dead." And the guy said, "Well, yeah you're right." It's amazing that we do have so much to be thankful for. God's good to us and we just need to continually give Him the glory for what He's doing in our lives and exalt Him and be thankful in all things the Scripture says. And we just believe that there'll continue to be wholeness and strength in her body.

We're excited as we're preparing to head to Africa. Some of our young people are getting ready and Tiffany got five of her seven shots today for preparation for Africa and Greer is getting hers. These two young ladies are going to be heading to Africa very soon. Be in prayer concerning their departure that we'll have the mind of God in that. That's an exciting thing that's taking place. A number of the meetings-our schedule's just about solidified and doors are continuing to open, so it is an exciting thing. Some of the people-we got an interesting response. As I've been in prayer I really feel the Lord doesn't want us to go into Mombassa and so I've told them to cancel those meetings and people seem to think it's strange that you refuse to go speak at the largest church in the country, or I think on the continent. And I told Ron to tell them that we're not interested in doing any thing but what Father has ordered us to do and that we have no desire to do things the way men do things but only according to the spirit of God and so as we've looked at canceling those meetings in Mombassa and one out in the Western Province. I believe we do have the mind of the spirit and just ask you to continue to pray on that, and as I said before, the wisdom as to what's waiting for us over there.

The opportunities are far beyond anything that we could have asked or even thought. Far beyond our ability to do and yet if God orchestrates it, nothing's too hard for the Lord. I told Ron today; he kind of laughed, I said, "You know, the one thing that I want to be prayerful about is that we don't get in the way of what God's wanting to do." And I said, "If He wants to do far more than we're anticipating, then I'm more than willing for Him to drag me in." And that's my outlook. I may go kicking and screaming, but I will go. Praise God. And I don't-I really in the natural don't want to get involved in something of that magnitude. I have no desire for that at this point and I am 100% open to what the spirit of God wants to do. And so be prayerful and we're ready to do whatever God orchestrates and orders our steps. We're excited about that. There's no telling, we may get over there and He tells us to stay and we may never come back, so who knows. Whatever Father has for us, we're ready and willing and He's able. Praise God. Be prayerful and we'll see what the Lord has for us.

Let's turn to the book of Corinthians. In light of all the teachings that we've done over the last number of months, just something this evening that I'd like to do, as we get ready to go into another possible series. In transition here there's a message that's going over in my heart and I want to share to make sure that it's one of those balancing messages that we periodically will bring in. We try to keep everything balanced, but just to make sure that we're focusing and understanding the balance that is necessary through many of the dynamic truths that appear sometimes to even oppose one another in the Scriptures. And, it's what causes people to get off in one area or another because they don't realize that there can be truths that appear to be in opposition. And one of those is works and grace. We've talked a lot about the grace of God in the last number of months and years and I just want to share a couple of principles that will keep this in balance for us.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks clearly along these lines in chapter 15. This is a tremendous truth as you look at the apostle's heart. Remember the context of the book of Corinthians, what he's dealing with here? This Corinthian church was so carnal and Paul was so patient and loving with them. We know that there was the spiritual pride. They were puffed up in their perception of themselves. They were so spiritual that they didn't deal with the carnality in their midst and Paul had to write them some pretty scathing letters and in the process of this, of course, there were those in their midst that looked down upon his ministry and there was a preference for the personality and the gifts of Apollos. And yet Paul, knowing who he was, was able to bring to them stability and the revelation that was necessary to complete the maturity process--maturing process-in their lives.

But in this fifteenth chapter where we so often look at and meditate upon the resurrection, Paul makes a very interesting statement early on in this chapter concerning his role as an apostle and we're not going to emphasize that tonight, but emphasizing his perception of God's working in him to accomplish that that was an insurmountable task in the natural and, of course, he attributes it all to the grace of God. We'll start reading in verse eight. Chapters 15 of 1 Corinthians, verse eight. And he's talking about the resurrected Jesus and the power of His resurrection and how He was perceived of all of these eye witnesses and of the apostles and he says in verse 8, "And last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time."

Paul was aware of who he was as the apostle to the gentiles and that vision continued to unfold to him. He was being questioned by these in the Corinthian church. Paul was apparently a man that was very confident, as we read his credentials, in his own ability and was brought by the Holy Spirit to have to count those things as loss and dung, but he was able to cite those credentials very clearly. He knew who he was. He knew what his ability was. He knew what his capabilities were in the natural. He knew that he was very successful. None of his contemporaries could measure up to him in his own abilities and natural zeal, his knowledge, his tenacity. There wasn't anybody that could compare with this man's zeal for God. And yet God begins to humble him in the process of regeneration and he begins to look at it from another perspective.

And he makes this statement in verse ten. "[I was called and I'm] the least of the apostles," (verse 9) "But," he says, verse ten, "by the grace of God I am what I am." -the great "Popeye" phrase. We find Paul making this comment. And he says it's by the grace of God. And I think as we look around and we begin to examine our own hearts, aren't you thankful? Everything we have we've received of the Lord, Amen? But you know, some of us kind of look down on ourselves and feel like we've been cheated. But I want to tell you something, it's by the grace of God that you are what you are. And you need to be thankful for what God has given you and blessed you with and where He has placed you. And so he says, "I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

I want to talk about that a little bit and we're going to deal with the subject tonight of grasping God's grace. We don't want to be mistaken. We've emphasized so much the sovereignty of God and the grace of God. Grace is what? Unmerited favor. It has nothing to do with you. It's something that God bestows upon us sovereignly He allows each of us to be gifted. He gives us the measure of faith that's necessary to affect His purposes. And so we can't boast. No man can boast but in the Lord. And Paul, recognizing that says, "I am what I am by the grace of God."

I want to tell you something. It's possible to waste the grace of God. Look what he says. "...his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain." What a tragedy in the last days to hear, "He wasted the grace that I gave him. The opportunities that I afforded, the miracles, the doors that I opened, the opportunities to represent my kingdom to the coworkers, to the community, the opportunity to sow into others lives, to be a giver instead of a taker, to lift up hands that are hanging down." All of these opportunities, beloved, are supernatural, they're the grace of God that give us that opportunity to express the mercy and the love of God. And Paul says, "His grace wasn't wasted on me." What a testimony! Wouldn't you like that to be your testimony? "God's grace wasn't wasted on me. It wasn't in vain."

Now how is it that we can see that God's grace isn't wasted on us? Look what he says in the next phrase. "...but I laboured more abundantly than they all." What I want to do is bring some balance and help us to understand that though God sovereignly is moving in our lives and it's by grace, it's unmerited favor and it's the measure of faith that's imparted to us, we've got to do something with it. We can't just sit back and say, "Well, you know, if God's going to do it, He'll do it." Those of you who did not receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit like so many others in our midst, you can't just sit back now and say, "Well, you know, if God wanted to fill me, He would."

I want to tell you something; the Holy Spirit has been given to us by grace. Are you wasting the opportunity to receive? Or are you laboring? In the old time circles, Pentecostal, we called it what? Tarrying. Just tarrying for the Holy Ghost. And people would come in service after service they would come to the altars and just pray and believe God and tarry, some for days and some for weeks and months and years. What promises have been given you that have not yet been apprehended by you? What are you doing with what God has spoken in years past in your life that said, "It's my good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I want you bold. I want you healed. I want you free of pride and lust and envy and bitterness and strife. I want to fill you with the joy of the Lord. I want to make you someone that's obviously the example of My love and My mercy." What is it that God's spoken to us that hasn't yet manifested and we've just kind of turned loose of it? Grace that's given us by a sovereign God can be abused. It can be wasted. It can become ineffectual as the Scripture says. Not even work.

What a tragic thing! Psalm 78 says about the children of Israel that they limited the Holy One of God. That's quite a statement isn't it? Can you imagine that? They limited the Holy One of God. In other words, though God is sovereign, though God is omnipotent, there's the other, of course, aspect of the attributes and the purposes of God that require obedience, diligence and a zeal on our part to apprehend that, Paul says, for which we've been apprehended. Have you taken a hold of that? Have you apprehended that that God has apprehended you to obtain? Oh, beloved, let's not let any man steal our crown! And as we're going to see, the Scripture says that it's necessary for us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. And so we'll contrast of course, the works aspect, but we're to work out, that's something that we're required to do.

Grace is not going to carry you through to the victory without you praying. Without you fasting, without you studying. Grace is not something that is effectual in your life without you pursuing it and apprehending it and longing for and lusting for the good things of God. You see, don't mistake grace as being a force that compensates for your carnality, and compensates for your slothfulness, and compensates for your worldliness. Grace is the unmerited favor, the presence of God that enables us to do the good will of God. And so, it's important for us to not mistake how this works in our lives and Paul's speaking here and he says, "I want you to understand something, man, this grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain." I would say not. "I labored more abundantly than they all." That's not pride, that's him making the comment to these Corinthians who were leaning towards the other direction and to saying, "You're going to have to get with it. You're going to have to pursue these promises and apprehend that for which you've been apprehended."

But then he goes back and as always, look at the balance, "...yet not I..." "I don't want you to think that I'm boasting. It's nothing in my own ability. There's no righteousness in and of itself by the amount of hours that are spent, the effort that's expended, unless God's the source and He's the objective. His glory is the objective." "...not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed." Well, we see what it's all about. It's to bring about fruit that remains. So Paul's beginning to show us here that it's important for us in recognizing grace, the unmerited favor and that there's no righteousness that is anything but filthy rags in God's sight, that is from man. There is still a work of obedience that is necessary.

He speaks to it again in the second epistle to the Corinthian church. Look over at chapter six and verse one. He's talking about, again, the grace of God and that there's a necessity on your part, on my part of apprehending the promises and allowing that grace to work in us to create in us a desire and an ability to pursue Christ-likeness, the kingdom of God's being established in our midst, wherever God has placed us. And so he speaks this way, he says, "We then, as workers together with him..." I want you to grab that phrase. "We then, as [what?] workers together with him..." You got to work, but it's got to be with Him. It's His project. We're workers together with God. So often, we've shared the phrase, and something we've tried to encourage you and ourselves for years: Don't set an agenda. Don't come up with your own plan and cause it, then, to be truth. If you perceive that God's doing something, go with it, but always be ready for God to change the course and to alter the end of this thing, because we are workers together with Him.

And He says, "We...beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." Interesting, isn't it? Don't receive God's grace in vain. That's a powerful statement. Grace, unmerited favor. What could oppose the grace of God? The grace-remember, the grace of God is the expressed will and purpose of God. You mean something can thwart that? What is it that can cause God's purpose for us not to manifest? God wants to bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. It's God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. God wants to cause us to be blessed going in and coming out and everything we touch to prosper and every place we put our feet, He wants to give it to us. What's going to keep that from happening?

Paul, speaking to the Corinthians here says, "Look, it's my desire that you don't receive God's grace in vain. I don't want it rendered ineffectual." That's what vanity means. It just means that it was without purpose; it didn't cause what it was supposed to. "I've given you grace, unmerited favor, that presence, the promises and I want it to work in you to My good pleasure." He's at work within us and willing that we would effect His good pleasure. So Paul speaks to us here and he says, "Look, don't let it be vanity." "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." When? Now! God's doing something in your life now. Today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow, you don't have any promise tomorrow. Yesterday's gone. Today!

So the question is, what's God doing right now as we're studying His Word tonight? What's God doing in your heart? What has He spoken to you today? Surely you've heard the Word of the Lord today. You've been about, just going through business and surely you've heard the Word of the Lord! What has He spoken to your heart today? What is it that He's dealing with from an eternal perspective? We're all aware of the circumstances that are around us this evening. Are you aware of why they're here? There might be some of us here in trials that are very intense. Others of us are experiencing different trials of frustrations and some of us here are just overwhelmed by mundane things and just life.

But it's all for a purpose, because Paul speaks here again concerning God's sovereignty and His grace in our lives and he says, "Do you understand that this is the accepted time? This is the day of your salvation." What's the context of this? As we read on we're going to see that what Paul's saying is, "Look, everything that you're coming up against in your life is a trial of your faithfulness to His grace working in your life. In the process there's going to be many opportunities to be distracted or sometimes the opportunity to think that we're doing something in our own abilities or whatever it is. But Paul goes on and makes this statement that's tremendous here as he's talking about the grace of God and making sure that it's not in vain and realizing that we're to take opportunity that's at hand right now.

Today's the day of salvation. Today God is speaking to us. Today His grace is here available to heal our bodies to deliver us from the flesh, to deliver us from the devil, to deliver us from the power of the world. Today is the day of our salvation! What are you doing about it? Are you distracted? Are you so caught up in your own agenda, in your own schedule that you haven't even heard the Word of the Lord today? God speaks to us every day, every moment.

So the apostle goes on here and he says, "Look, we've brought you this Word, God has manifested Himself among you, and I'm telling you that you need to finish this course and it's going to be by the grace of God and you need to hold onto the imminent return of the Lord and the ever present awareness of your salvation." "Giving no offence [verse 3] in anything, that the ministry be not blamed." What kind of an offense do you think he's speaking of here? What do you mean? How can we offend the ministry of God's grace in our midst? How can we reproach God here? What is it that would cause God's grace to be in vain and not to be perceived by the world around us that we have a God who cares and that He's ever present and that His ears are open to the cry of our hearts, that we have a God that never leaves us nor forsakes us, that we don't trust in horses or chariots, that we don't lean to the right hand or to the left but in all of our ways we acknowledge Him and He directs our paths?

What is it that could cause this message to be diluted in those that are observing us? And they are if you've been out sharing Jesus. People are watching you to see what's different. Paul goes on and he says this, "Listen, don't give an offense. No occasion for an offense. Don't let the ministry be blamed." "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God..." Now, how did Paul do it? How did these apostles, then, live this that they were preaching to this Corinthian church? That the grace would not be in vain? Paul goes on and says, "Look, we approved ourselves in trials." And you'll see as we go through in verse six that they proved themselves by showing character, faithfulness and, verse 16, holiness.

As we read through the context of this chapter as Paul's establishing the grace of God and saying, "It's not I, it's the grace that's working in me." As we saw in the previous epistle. He says here, "We're workers together with him. God's doing this thing. We want to finish the course and yet we're facing all of these obstacles. We want you to understand that it appears as though we've been cast down, but I want to tell you something. We're not forsaken. Praise God! The good man may fall, but he rises up." And Paul was showing this as an example and he says, "[Look, we were approved] in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings." Goodness sakes! That's a bad week! He's talking about their apostolic role and how it is that you can understand that these are men that are sent forth by God and he says, "The one thing that's going to prove this, beloved, is consistency, faithfulness, the absolute unwillingness to turn from the course that's been set." Can I ask you something? Are we frustrating the grace of God? How many of us have been knocked off course? God's merciful. He hasn't allowed you to be stricken down. He hasn't taken His Holy Spirit from you.

But can I ask you something? As you survey your own life has anything from the external, things that have opposed us-here there was direct opposition. All of these things that appeared as though God had removed His hand from them or the enemy had taken occasion as the hedge had fallen down. It appeared from this that the promises of God were not affecting themselves. What's the tendency here now to take things into our own hands? And yet Paul says, "We never frustrated the grace of God in your midst. We never compromised the grace of God. We stood and let God be our source. We prayed." He says as he goes through here, "We prayed, we fasted-watchings, fastings..." Let's not allow our perception of grace to think that we can back off the watching, the fasting.

Oh beloved, in the hour we're coming into, we need to be praying more, not less. Fasting more, not less. Realizing the opposition that's going to be coming our way. It's phenomenal what's taking place. I don't want to get off in the politics aspect of it, but you know, there's the big thing that's going on in the U.N. right now. Did you all know that the U.N. wants to take away the Second Amendment? It's the latest-it's the big discussion right now. I personally think we ought to throw all those guys out of New York. They're guests here.

President Moi of Kenya, he made a statement in the meeting that just blew everybody away. I was sharing with Ronnie. They wanted us to go meet the president and everything. I told him, "Only if I absolutely have to. Only if not doing it will cause an offense." I have no desire to go messing around with all those folks. But he made an interesting statement that caused quite an uproar-really-internationally. He was talking about the fact that in Kenya, they've got around 20% or more of their people are HIV positive and growing and he just said that they're going to look at their laws and as far as he's concerned that if anybody knowingly affects someone else with Aids, they're going to be hung. It really caused an uproar internationally and even within his own country. And some of the archbishops and some of the other leaders stood up and they said, "This isn't-capital punishment is not God's way." These guys forgot to read the Bible recently.

We come into America, we're talking about the influence of this international humanistic perspective, we find the spirit of Anti-Christ rising and within our midst there's the case that just took place in New York to where the Christians were wanting to meet and pray and have a Bible study and they said they couldn't do it. And the Supreme Court ruled against them and said, "You have to let them do it if the other clubs are going to do it." So now, listen, here's the perspective the world's taken. So they said, "Well then we'll just cut everything out, but we're not having the gospel in here." So, now the poor totem pole worshippers and the B'hai guys and the Islamics and all of them have to find some other place to meet. But isn't it interesting that they wanted to allow all of them to meet, just not the Christians.

We are not, as too many of our spiritual leaders say today, in a post-Christian era. Number one, this has never been a Christian nation, and number two, we are not in a post-Christian era. We are in the spirit of Anti-Christ. Not post-Christ, Anti-Christ. And as that spirit continues to rise in our midst, beloved, don't you even think for a moment. There is going to be one group and one group alone in this nation that has no rights and it's the Church of Jesus Christ. And we don't think it can happen. It seems absolutely impossible, but I want you to know, if you'll read the book of Revelation and you'll find the revival of the Roman Empire, the way they treated the Christians in Rome in the first century is what's going to happen around the world as this Empire revives itself and the spirit of Anti-Christ emerges. When's it going to happen? I don't know. It could start tomorrow. Are you ready? How ready are we? Are we more prepared today than we were last month?

Parents, what really is number one in your heart for your children? "Oh, I just want them to have a good education and get married and have a family and be prosperous." What if God doesn't want them to get married? What if God wants them to be spiritual gifts unto Him? What if God separates them unto Himself? What if God wants to turn them into evangelists? What if God wants to take them half way around the world? What if God has another plan? Are you seeing to it that by your own faithfulness your children are seeing the grace of God given its full course to where everything you address is, "If God wills"? Oh, it would be nice to do this, if the Lord's willing. You know, some people just use that as a trite saying. I don't. When I speak that-"The Lord willing, we'll do thus and so." I don't have a clue what God has for us tomorrow, but I know this, that by being faithful in the stripes and the imprisonments and the tumults and all of those things that have brought us to this place, I can be assured that He'll keep that that I've committed to Him against that day. It's been proven in the small things and He'll make you a ruler in the great ones.

We're running out of time, this isn't going to be a series. Go on and take a look at what he talks about in the character then. It says, "By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report..."(2 Corinthians 6:6-8). And he goes on and he says, "Look, the thing that I want you to understand is this. It can be summed up in this. We've been faithful to the heavenly vision. We've not frustrated the grace of God. We've come and had to die in your midst. We've laid our lives down and we've esteemed others better than ourselves and we've exhibited to you the fruit of our apostolic call and God's speaking to you and I and He's talking about our responsibility to not frustrate the grace of God, to approve ourselves in trials and in Christ-like character." And as you go down into verses 16 through 18, in presenting our bodies as the temples of the Holy Ghost, for God said, "I'll dwell in them," verse 16 "and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [But you need to be a separate people, you need to come out from among them and then I'll receive you saith the Lord]."

I want to tell you something. You can frustrate the grace of God if you don't come out from the world's system. God's grace doesn't work in the world's system. We have to be a separate people. We're in the world but we're not of it. God's grace will work in you as you're in the world, but it will not work in the system. It will not cooperate with the wisdom of the world, with the methods of the world, with the purposes of the world, with the people of the world. And so, we're a separate people. We're a peculiar people. Set off by boundaries is what that word, "peculiar," means, not "weird." "Man, those Christians are a peculiar people." Not weird, separate. "You know, I just get this feeling that you're not one of us." "Now you're getting it. I'm an alien. This isn't my home. I'm a pilgrim. I'm passing through. But we are taking over. It's got to be cleaned up, though, before we can make permanent residence here. Baptized by fire."

Where are we today in the grace of God? Look over at 2 Timothy. I want to make sure we get this in. 2 Timothy as you read on and you see then that grace doesn't excuse us of being zealous and diligent and striving to obtain that for which God has apprehended us. But in 2 Timothy 2, a passage that we're familiar with-it's interesting, we get into the committing to faithful men that are able to teach others, but he says in this second epistle chapter two, the first verse, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." That word, "be strong," it means to demonstrate that strength. It's a showing forth of the effectual working of God in our lives and as you read through the passage and I'm not going to take time right now, but as you read through the context of this, that the man who's exhibiting the grace of God is always perceiving the need to touch that remnant, the faithful men that are able to affect others for the eternal kingdom from the eternal perspective.

And so he goes on and says, "You're going to be opposed." "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [Verse three] No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life." There's the holiness again that we were talking about. The grace of God, to be effectual, has to work in conjunction with our warring against the flesh, the world, and the devil. No man that's experienced the grace of God will entangle himself with the affairs of this life, will marry them, will make covenant with them. You're always ready in a moment. Whatever your involvement might be with these things, they're all mundane, we're just about our daily affairs, to move into the higher realm of the heavenly calling, the eternal values. Always ready when you're at the well, drawing water to stop what you're doing and who would know that you were moving into the sovereign will and grace of God to draw for this strange man and his camels and affect the lineage of the Messiah. Yes, we can be involved in mundane things, but always ready to move to affect the purpose of the kingdom.

And this is what Paul's speaking of in this chapter and it says, then, that we are always-you want to keep from frustrating the grace of God? Look at this. We are to always look to please Him who has chosen us. There's the attitude of the man, the woman that's been touched by the grace of God. And then, look at verse five, "And if a man also strive for masteries..." Grace does not excuse you from emptying yourself out in pursuit, of striving, of doing your best. Where are we today? Are you going through the motions or are you doing your best? Now, we all know that when we're in a position of not pursuing according to God's declared purpose and will, that we get to experience that previous verse of Him putting us into trials and tumults and all of these different things because of His love for us. He's not going to leave you hanging out there without pressing you into His image. That's why I said you couldn't bail in the trials, you have to learn and hear what God's saying to you. You have to be broken. You have to fall on the rock and say, "Yes God, yes. Forgive me, Lord. Restore me, Lord. Not my will but your will be done." That spirit is the one that keeps us from frustrating the grace of God.

And as Paul goes on he talks about the fact, then that the striving has to be lawfully. In other words, don't get over into the flesh. Don't allow self-righteousness or works of the flesh to become the method, but the works of grace. Let me give you three things that we need to do so that we wouldn't frustrate the grace of God.

1 Corinthians chapter three, let's go back and look at verse nine. 1 Corinthians 3:9, the Scripture says, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

The one thing that we must do, number one, is to make sure that we're laboring on the sure foundation, that we're not building on sand, the sand of the world's wisdom, the sand of those who are "Rah, Rah" Christians, but not doers of the Word. "Amen! Oh Praise God!" When we begin to labor, number one: we must labor. We must work. We must strive to enter in at the straight gate. So don't sit back passively. Understand that there's a labor involved here. There's a striving. There's an apprehending of that for which we've been apprehended.

And then in Philippians chapter two, verse 12. Take a look over there, and again the apostle speaks to us and he tells us, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God...[and that] ye shine as lights [verse 15 says] in the world."

We see then again the necessity of working out the salvation, but aware that it's God working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. He says over in Colossians again as we allow these foundational principles to not only just be put in our notebooks, but also take these things and apply them tonight and say, "Am I doing this? Am I laboring? Have I found myself just kind of coasting and believing, 'Well, you know, God's grace is sufficient and the Lord's merciful and the Lord understands the dilemma that I'm in, the trial that I'm in, the environment that I'm in.'" None of that justifies our diligent pursuit.

Colossians 1:28 goes on and it says it this way. He's talking about bringing forth the ministry of the glory of God and he says, "Whom we preach, warning every man [with this wisdom]..." And he says, "[It's in this that I labor]," verse 29 "...striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." What a powerful phrase. I labor. I strive. But how? According to His working in me. Not in my own strength. It's God that worketh in me to will and to do...Now if that's the principle that we live by-listen-and we're not striving, then we're not allowing God's grace to work in us. We suppressed it. We've denied His purposes in our lives and that's a scary thing. It's very important then that we understand that. Now, the one thing that we can't do is fall back into a works mentality.

Let's end with this. Turn over, if you would, to the book of Galatians, chapter two. We'll end with this for tonight. Galatians chapter two, verse 21, "I do not frustrate [or set aside] the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." I'm not talking about going back into works and trusting in our ability. I'm talking about evaluating our lives and asking the question "Is this grace working in me? Is God working in me to will and to do His good pleasure? Is He working in me according to His mighty power?" as we saw in Colossians 1:29. It's vital, beloved; don't allow this confusion to set in. Ephesians 2:8, of course, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; [It's not of works lest any man should boast]." But grace will work in us to do His good pleasure. Grace will cause you to pray more, fast more, endure sufferings, humble yourself and say, "I am what I am by the grace of God." We have so much to be thankful for tonight.

Father, we thank You for the Word, and we just ask that You would continue to work in us and that we would understand that grace is not license for passivity, for slothfulness, for justification of our fleshly, worldly bondages, but grace is the enabling of us to effect Your eternal purposes. As You work in us and like Paul we can now boast in You and not our own abilities. We recognize what we are without You and with You we can do all things and for that, Father, we give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before Him tonight. As Gary plays for us and we just allow ourselves to hear what the spirit of God's saying to us, soldiers who are not entangled but ever preparing ourselves for the battle that's at hand, willing to lay down our own will. I think about the trip that's coming and I just really dread that. I've shared it with you before. I hate all that's involved in it, the getting there, the environment. I'd almost rather take a beating than go through all that mess that there'd be in seeing this guy.

But the grace of God is sufficient. And you're able to go through it graciously, and it's not hypocrisy, it's grace. It just rises up and you get through it and you say, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought." And if God's glorified in it, then we can boast in the goodness of our God and say again, "Yeah, His way's always better. Dying to self is always better;" but for it to become effectual there has to be that preparation, there has to be the prayer, there has to be the fasting, and there has to be the systematic dying to ourselves in the small things that His grace wouldn't be in vain. Paul said, "I don't know why He picked me, but He did and so I'm going to do the best job I can." Let's let Him finish the work in us and let Him affect the lives that we contact daily, supernaturally, so that He would be all in all.

Let's sing it together. Hallelujah! Oh, we thank You, Lord. Who brings good news. Good news. Yes, Lord. Proclaiming words of happiness. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah! Our God reigns! Oh, You do, Lord. We give You the glory! Hallelujah! Sing it again, Our God reigns and just glorify Him tonight. Hallelujah! We thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah! Now, Lord, we ask that you'd reign in us, rule in our lives and be glorified. We rejoice in You, Father. We give You the glory that's due Your name. Give us the testimony that we can stand and say, "Your grace wasn't in vain, Lord. That, that you've bestowed upon us was not in vain. We labored by all the strength that You gave us." Be glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah!

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you, say, "He didn't waste His grace on me." Glory! Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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