Grace for the Race

In the gospel of John, Jesus makes His seven great “I AM” statements that remind us of His deity and our destiny. I want to present one of them here to give you a word of encouragement today:

I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only entrance into the true church, the true faith, and into right relationship with the One True God. After His proclamation of being the Divine Door of Deliverance, Jesus then gives us two incredible promises.

Promise #1—You Will Be Saved

Whoever enters through the Divine Door will be saved. Notice what Jesus did not say: He didn’t say, “Whoever enters through me by good works will be saved,” or “Whoever enters through me by consistent church attendance will be saved,” or “Whoever enters through me by daily devotions and a consistent prayer life will be saved.” He simply and profoundly said, “Whoever enters through me will be saved!” The saving is His work, not ours. We bring nothing to our salvation but our sin, and Jesus has atoned for it all.

Promise #2—You Will Find Pasture

This promise eliminates any concern for not having any of our needs met. Now, we may and often do find ourselves with many unmet wants. We want a raise or a new car or a bigger house. But we will never be without anything that is needful for this life and the next. Jesus will meet all of His people in their place of deepest need, and they will never be without a pasture in which to graze on God’s Word, behold His glory, and grow in godliness.

In closing, this Divine Door of Deliverance is open to all who will, by grace through faith, transfer their trust from themselves to Jesus. There is no other door that leads to eternal life. When Jesus said He was the only way to the Father in heaven, He meant what He said! You need only believe on Him who is the Divine Door of Deliverance and you will be brought out of darkness and into His wonderful light . . . delivered from death to life.

And to those who are already His, remember that Jesus is the Divine Door for every spiritual blessing each and every day. Come in and go out through Jesus every day and your soul shall be as a fountain that overflows with the waters of both eternal life and everyday life . . . and that life will be abundant!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Did you know that the grace that saves us is the same grace that sanctifies us? God’s ultimate goal in your life is to conform you to the image of His beloved Son, so to stay like you were when you were saved is simply not possible. In the Kingdom of God there are no stunted saints or dwarfed disciples. Every child of God is in the process of growing up into Christ. To be sure, some grow faster than others, but we all must grow.

Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and thereby every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-15)

Here we have a wonderful promise of guaranteed growth. We start our Christian pilgrimage as infants—babes in Christ. But God does not leave us there! He gives us all the spiritual nourishment we need to grow and mature in our faith until we ultimately reach complete conformity to Christ on the other side of the grave. A “stunted saint” or a “dwarfed disciple” is as much an oxymoron (a phrase that contradicts itself) as a “joyless Christian.”

So . . . are you satisfied with the level of spiritual growth in your life today? It’s important to remember that, unlike our justification (which is wholly a one-way action completed by the Almighty alone) our sanctification is a process we are to participate in. God gives every one of His children numerous means of grace that are designed to grow us and mature us in our faith. God has given us His Word to read, the privilege to pray, and His church to attend. God has provided us with the disciplines of fasting, serving, and watching. God has given us the great honor to worship Him and also to witness for Him. Everything we do for the glory of God is a means of making us mature in our faith.

Hardship is also part of God’s plan for producing holiness in your life. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” (Hebrews 12:7). In other words, the pain you experience in your life is never without a purpose. The intended end of every providential pain is to conform you to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even when the pain we experience is a consequence for poor choices, it is never punitive; God’s chastening is always corrective. It is designing to produce healing and growth, not misery and despair.

God loves us too far much to leave us as He found us. So He is growing us up, by any and every means necessary, into Christ by His grace, because God does not give birth to stunted saints or dwarfed disciples!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

So much of life is centered around meals. And who reading this right now doesn’t enjoy a great meal, shared with good friends? God has given us some wonderful things to eat in order to sustain life. But He has also given us something else that needs to be eagerly devoured and thoroughly digested: the Word of God.

When Jesus was just beginning His ministry, He fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. At the end of that time, Satan came to tempt our Lord:

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:3)

Was Jesus hungry? You bet He was hungry! Yes, He is fully God, but He was also fully man, just like you and me. He got thirsty, tired, and hungry. But notice how He responded to this temptation to satisfy His hunger apart from the will of His Father in heaven.

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

The food of the faithful is the Word of God. By the Word of God we were created and we are sustained “by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). The Word of God not only sustains life, it strengthens us for the fiery darts that Satan throws our way.

When tempted by the devil to satisfy a normal need that we all have, but in a way God the Father had not commanded, Jesus used God’s Word as a weapon of warfare. Jesus defeated the devil with the Word of God … and we can too!

Without the Word of God, we are like a rudderless ship adrift out on the open ocean; we are at the mercy of the strongest wind that is blowing our way at the time. But armed with the food of the faithful, we are able to withstand gale-force winds that would otherwise drive us onto the rocks.

So here is my challenge for you today: the next time you are eating something, remember the most important food God has given you: His holy, inerrant, inspired, infallible Word. Make the Bible your “go-to-book” and go to it often. Rise with it in the morning and retire with it in the evening. Feast on every word in that Holy Book, knowing that God will sustain you through every storm wind that blows your way, strengthening you for the work He has set before you.

“Man shall not live on bread alone,” but on every word from Genesis to Revelation. As I have said here before, the Book you don’t read won’t help. God could have left it to the Holy Spirit to encourage, inspire, and motivate us to live a life that is pleasing to God. But He did not. He saw to it that His Word was written down so that we would read it. Feast on the food of the faithful, and you will find that the favor of the Almighty will follow you wherever you go!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Growing up playing sports, I was always greatly encouraged when my parents were looking on during the games. Just knowing that they were watching me was a source of great encouragement, even when my performance was less than I had expected.

Well, there is someone who is looking on in your life and mine, One who provides us with eternal encouragement, and I want to tell you about Him today:

The Lord looked at [Gideon] and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:14 NASB)

God had called Gideon to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites, but Gideon was afraid; he didn’t want to follow the Lord’s leading. But “the Lord looked,” and the fear Gideon was facing fled and His doubt was dismantled. What a look that must have been, a look that encouraged Gideon to rise up and deliver His people from the hands of his enemies!

Notice something else that went along with this look from the Lord. When the Lord looked upon Gideon, He sent him off in the strength of the Almighty. Yes, the Lord said, “Go in this your strength,” but He immediately followed that command with “Have I not sent you?” This clearly indicated that “your strength” meant the strength that God had given Gideon. If God had sent Gideon to deliver Israel in Gideon’s strength, surely he would have never prevailed.

Anytime we are called by God to do His bidding and we “bid” in our own strength, we are sure to fall short of the intended mark. When we go in our strength we actually go in weakness! But when we go in the strength of our Savior, we go in a supernatural strength that has no limits. Know this truth:

Who the Lord sends the Lord strengthens for the sending!

So . . . knowing that the Lord looks upon you day and night—moment by moment—where has He sent you to go? Did you go? And if you did go, did you go in His strength? If you did not go, why? Has fear frozen you? Has doubt debilitated you? Has weakness warped your walk? If that is the case, fear not; you are in the same situation as Gideon . . . until He surrendered control of his life to his God.

It is my prayer for you today that you will, by faith, put to good use the strength your Savior has entrusted to you to go forth and expand the cause of His Kingdom—right now, right where you are. Remember, the Lord looked upon Gideon to strengthen him and He is looking upon you right now . . . to strengthen you, help you, and uphold you.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I think we would all agree that it is a great privilege to be invited to come before the throne of grace and offer our prayers to the Creator of the Universe. But there is something even beyond this great privilege of which we must be mindful: we are commanded by God to pray to Him both day and night.

Pray continually. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The command is clear; we are to “pray without ceasing,” as many English translations render this verse. And why would we not want to call on our Lord, who encourages us to, “Call to me” and promises, “I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3)?

Perhaps you should pause for a moment and marinate in that word from the weeping prophet Jeremiah. God promises to answer our prayers. Now, as I have said many times before, we may receive one of three answers: YES, NO, or WAIT. But regardless of which answer we receive, our God promises to tell us great and unsearchable things that we did not know before we came to Him in prayer.

Remember what the psalmist tells us:

Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?

God not only hears our prayers, He knows them before we know them and He is always available to give to us a ready answer. Think about this for a moment: looking back on your life, aren’t you glad God answered some of your prayers with a resounding NO? Or with WAIT? I can tell you from personal experience that I certainly am! So much of what I cried out for years ago did not come about, and I praise God today that He withheld it from me. God always knows what is best for each of us and knows exactly what we need, moment by moment. He may not always give to us everything we want; but He will always give us everything we need, exactly when we need it, which is why WAIT is such a great and gracious response from God.

So . . . how is your prayer life today? Do you find yourself in close communion with Jesus? Or are you in the habit of calling on Him only when you are in desperate need? Remember, if the gates of Hell shall not prevail against our Prince, nothing will stand in the way of your petitions other than God’s omniscient understanding of your needs and the best way to meet them at the best possible time.

Let me close out today’s message with a few verses that I pray will encourage you to pray continually.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. (James 5:13)

I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. (Psalm 17:6)

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Inasmuch as our God is pleased to use us in the process of expanding the cause of His Kingdom, we must never forget that He is the one who is ultimately the Keeper of His Kingdom and the Vinedresser of His Vineyard.

Receive this truth from the prophet Isaiah as a word of encouragement and comfort today:

I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. (Isaiah 27:3)

To be sure, every Christian has been called by God to cultivate and care for His Vineyard . . . His Kingdom. But behind every Christian is the Christ. Behind all that we do is our God, who is doing it all. Jesus Himself is the Cosmic Cultivator, who waters His Vineyard continually and guards it day and night. Our God never slumbers and never sleeps (Psalm 121:4). He is always at His work and caring for His own. And that, beloved, includes you!

Now if the Cosmic Cultivator is watering you day and night—even moment by moment—oh, how you should be growing up into Christ! Never are you in a season of drought. Never are you overtaken by noxious weeds and busy bugs. God Himself is the Keeper of the gate and will allow no evil or harm to uproot you from Himself. Yes, we are all troubled from time to time by the “little foxes” (Song of Solomon 2:15) that seek to ruin the vineyard, but what harm can truly come our way when our God is the One responsible for watering, tending, and guarding us?

That personal pronoun “I” in today’s verse should give you great comfort and encouragement, regardless of where this message finds you. God says:

•  I WATCH
•  I WATER
• I GUARD

What have we to fear when the great I Am is watching over us—nourishing us and guarding us every step of the way into glory? Who can resist His will? Who can overcome His omnipotence?

So . . . as you consider this great promise today, is your faith flourishing because of His faithfulness to you? Remember God’s immutability—the fact that He changes not. His promise given through the prophet Isaiah centuries ago is as sure today as it was the moment God uttered it! Every promise from God is “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Remember, what God has promised to cultivate and keep will be cultivated and kept. Leave no room for doubt in your mind today; your God has given this promise to you. Receive it and respond to it by living it out with the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, knowing that even when you mess it up, He will use even your evil to accomplish His good.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Martin Luther, the great reformer of the 16^th century, taught that man’s human nature is incurvatus in se, a Latin phrase meaning “curved in on itself.” In a word, we are SELF-ABSORBED! Make no mistake, this “curved-in-ness” is the cause of many of the trials and tribulations we face in this life. Remember, the greatest obstacle to living the life God has called us to live is not “out there” somewhere; it is right here, embedded deep within every human heart.

Let me ask you to consider this question for a moment: on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your level of self-absorption—right now, today, right where this finds you? How would those closest to you, those who know you best, rate you?

After honestly evaluating your own level of self-absorption, you may be anxiously wondering if there is any cure for incurvatus in se. As you may have guessed, Scripture provides the answer:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).

And there you have it! The cure for incurvatus in se is to shift our focus away from ourselves and toward God and others. The cure for our profound self-absorption is to become other-oriented. Now I understand that this is far easier said than done! Nonetheless, it can be done by shifting our focus away from the self and toward these two commandments that sum up all of the Law and the Prophets: Love God and love people! The more time we spend with God and His Word, the more we will begin bending outward toward others and upward toward God.

By nature, we are bitterly determined to sit upon the throne of our lives. Even after we are saved, by grace through faith, and receive our new nature, we still must consciously surrender our self-worship and self-importance to Jesus every day so that He can take His rightful place in our lives. It is only when we have invited Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives that we can begin bending away from ourselves—blending more and more into the background of our lives—because God has taken center stage.

The more we meditate on our Savior and His overwhelming other-orientation, the more we will begin to model this kind of behavior in our own lives. Our Lord’s other-orientation sought you, caught you, and bought you with His precious blood. He left His throne in heaven to sit upon the throne of your life. And with His last breath and beat of His heart, you were the object of His affection. When He cried, “It is finished” from the cross, He wasn’t saying, “I’m glad that’s over with.” He was uttering the victory cry that caused the earth to shake and the rocks to split, a triumphant proclamation that He had accomplished your salvation!

Remember, the goal of the Christian is to be Christlike. Jesus refused to live for Himself in every way. Even when He was sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking if the terrible cup of God’s judgment could be removed, He closed with these words, “Yet not my will, Father, but Your will be done!” The life of Christ was marked by living vertically (for God) and horizontally (for others). And since we are to be called His followers and disciples, our lives are to be marked by this type of living as well.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

When was the last time you gave some thought to just how amazing grace truly is? Well, I have a word of encouragement for you today that will shine light on the unbelievably amazing grace of Almighty God.

To be sure, the grace God showers on us is beyond our comprehension; no mortal man can fully understand the magnitude and majesty of God’s grace. The unbeliever knows nothing of this grace, even though God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). Unbelievers certainly benefit from what we call God’s common grace, but they are entirely unaware of it, because Satan, called “the god of this age” by sacred Scripture, “has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). It is only the child of God who is able to peer behind the veil and catch a glimpse of God’s amazing grace.

To begin to unpack this, let’s see what grace is not.

Grace is not justice – Why? Because God’s grace goes far beyond what would be considered “fair.”

Grace is not love – Why? Because there is love in grace, but not all love has grace in it.

The amazing grace that our God extends to us is His unmerited, unearned favor, which is freely extended to those who are only worthy of His disfavor. God’s amazing grace is a gift of everything that is good given to those who deserve to receive everything bad. God’s grace gives life to those who are dead. God’s grace gives love to those who are unlovely and unlovable. And know this: we will never rightly appreciate this amazing grace until we fully understand our need for it—not just daily, but moment by moment.

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Can you think of anything more amazing than that? Jesus did not die for those who loved Him, served Him, and were His friends. He died for His enemies (Colossians 1:21). Jesus died for you and me while we were still dead in our sins. Our natural, sinful, unsaved nature hated Him. When Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, they broke fellowship with God and were at enmity with Him. And every child of Adam and Eve lives in this condition of broken fellowship with God until Jesus shows up.

So . . . have you experienced God’s amazing grace? Have you received God’s unmerited and unearned favor, the grace that raises you from death to life? Think about it this way as you go throughout your day: the Lord Jesus Christ took your place on a wooden cross and died the death you should have died so you could spend eternity with Him. He took your scourging. He took your nails. He took your crown of thorns. He then took the wrath and judgment of Almighty God to pay the penalty of your sins. Can you think of anything more amazing than that?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me . . . and you!

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, I am always struck by these words:

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  (Matthew 6:12 KJV).

Really? Do you really want God to forgive you in the same way you forgive others? I didn’t think so; neither do I! But what I do desire is to be able, by God’s grace, to live out this truth in my life. And this should be the desire of every Christian, because Christianity is all about forgiveness.

You see, we are commanded to receive the vertical forgiveness that comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . and then expand it out horizontally to all those who have offended us. In other words, we are to model—albeit imperfectly—the grace God has shown us so that others may see it.

The key to living this out is to recognize just how much we have been forgiven by God. And the only way to begin to plumb the depths of this truth is to know what the apostle Paul knew about himself:

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1:15)

What did Paul know about himself? First, he knew the truth about who he was: he knew he was a sinner by nature, having been born in trespasses and sins. But he also knew the truth that he was a sinner by habit, repeatedly doing things he did not want to do and not doing the things he knew God was calling him to do. Paul eloquently explained this paradox in Romans 7. And because he understood these twin truths, Paul understood that the forgiveness he had received from Jesus (and that he continued to receive every day) was simply immeasurable. Paul knew he was in need of God’s forgiveness—not only in the moment when he was saved, but every day thereafter on his way to the Celestial City.

Do you know this truth? Only those who truly recognize that even their so-called righteous acts are no more than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) can “forgive as they have been forgiven.” They can forgive those who slander them. They can forgive those who wrong them. They can forgive those who hurt them.

In addition, those who understand the truth about the depth of their forgiveness know that it is also imperative to forget . . . just as God forgets our sins. “I will forgive their wickedness,” He has declared, “and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). Now, we know God does not really “forget” anything! But He has deliberately chosen not to recall them. Isaiah exulted to God, “You have cast all my sins behind Your back” (Isaiah 38:17 NKJV). What this means is that God chooses never to remind us of our past sins. He never brings up old trespasses and sins.

To forgive as we have been forgiven is to forgive and forget. We are not to rehash past wrongs that have been done to us. When we forgive, we are to lay the offense down at the foot of the cross and give it to Jesus. We are never to say (as far too many in the church do), “I forgive you, but I will never forget what you did!” That simply is not biblical forgiveness! Is that the way you would want God to forgive you?

God refuses to remember any of our past sins. He tells us that they are as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). You know how far that is don’t you? It is a distance than can never be bridged! You can travel east forever and never once be headed west.

So . . . is there anyone in your life right now who needs your forgiveness . . . forgiveness as God has forgiven you? One anonymous writer opined that “Every person should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones.” The Christian’s “special cemetery lot” needs to be a little larger: it must have room to bury the faults and failings, not of just our “friends and loved ones,” but of all those who have wronged us!

If you’re struggling with this—as so many of us do—let me leave you with one last golden truth from Scripture:

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

It never ceases to amaze me how many believers never give much thought to the plan and purpose God has for their lives. Far too many simply seem to be careening from wall to wall along the way to the Celestial City.

BUT THIS IS NOT FOR YOU!

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Here we see a wonderful promise from God about His plans for our lives. If God has plans for our lives—and His Word clearly reveals that He does—I think it is absolutely critical that we prayerfully consider what those plans might be and get in line with them. Remember, if you are not living according to the plan and purpose God has for your life, you will always be living according to the plan and purpose of someone else. And, make no mistake, the plan and purpose someone else has for you, just might not be the plan and purpose God has for you . . . especially if you are the one making the plans!

This was one of the most important life lessons I had to learn . . . the hard way! I always wanted to follow my plans and my purposes for my life. It wasn’t until I realized (thanks to the help of my beloved wife, Kim, and a few good mentors) that it was not my life, but the life God had given to me to live for Him that I began to follow God’s plan for my life. And that, as the poet said, has made all the difference!

Notice two things the prophet Jeremiah is saying:

#1. God has a plan for your life. Now, that only makes sense. The Creator has a plan for all that He has created . . . and that includes you!

#2. God’s plans are good. What a word of encouragement we find in this promise from God! But we must understand what the phrase “plans . . . not to harm you” truly means. It does not mean we will not endure hardship or difficulties and then one day die. What it does mean is, when we do suffer, there is a glorious conclusion to the hardship: eternity with Jesus. To be sure, pain is part of God’s plan. But the pain He sends our way is always for our gain.

So . . . whose plans have you been following lately? Have you been working toward the accomplishment of your agenda . . . or God’s? The only way to find what everyone is looking for—that is, meaning and purpose in life—is to follow the plan and purpose God has for your life. And the only way to discern the plan and purpose God has for your life is by spending adequate amounts of time with God. The more time you spend with God, the more sensitive you will be to His leading. And the more sensitive you are to God’s leading, the more likely you are to be led into the plans God has for your life . . . “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!