Amen, amen, all glory to God through Jesus the son for the great things he has done. Let's turn now our attention to God's holy word. First Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15, verses one through 11. This is God's word. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you. which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried. that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Though it was not I, but the grace of God that was in me, whether then it was I or they. So we preached, and so you believed. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word unfailing, true, fixed in the heavens, and the words of eternal life. You alone have the words of eternal life, oh Lord. So would you write the words of eternal life on our hearts that we might hear from you, oh Lord. Not the words of men, but what we truly need is the word of God. So speak your word to us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, you may be seated. When I was a kid in the late 1970s, I lived in California, the Sacramento area, and I remember coming home from school and watching public television, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and The Electric Company. And in between those shows, sometimes, a little video featurette would come on, and it had this great theme song. The most important person in the whole wide world is you, and you hardly even know you. And then later they sing, the most important person in the world to you is you. Now, in a sense, I guess this makes sense, right? I mean, we all live with ourselves constantly, right? No matter where you go, there you are. You can get away from everybody else in your life, but you can't escape yourself, right? And all of us live with our own inner dialogue going on in our heads all the time, and much of that, at least for me, if I'm honest, is about myself, right? So I get it, sort of, but the truth is, I am not the most important person in my life, much less in the whole wide world. I did not create myself. I do not keep myself alive, I have not made myself what I am, and I cannot make my work or any of my efforts truly count or have a lasting impact on anyone. All of this is beyond me, but not beyond God. One of the traps of falling into a self-absorbed for me it happens in the space of five minutes I get puffed up with how great I'm doing and what a great example I am and then one of my kids does something to set me off and I lose my temper and say something I shouldn't have said and then I think man what is wrong with me I'm just a total dirtbag and a hopeless cause and, you know, I'm down in the depths, like, you know, it's this rollercoaster ride, this sort of yo-yo swinging back and forth between these opposite evaluations of ourselves. But today's passage offers us a better way to think about ourselves and about others. And by the way, just a little plug, When you came in to get your bulletin, you may have seen little stacks of books called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. Very helpful sermon that was turned into a book on this topic. So I put those out this morning for you to take if you want to think more deeply about this self-forgetfulness and a Christ-centered view of yourself. On top of our natural tendency to be self-obsessed, which our culture encourages, with selfies and social media and all this kind of stuff, we also live in a celebrity-crazed culture, which the Corinthians also did. And Paul knew that in a celebrity-crazed culture, like the Corinthians' culture, like our culture, The idols of our age can be treated with either high reverence or with absolute despising, and sometimes at the same time, right? I mean, you just have to turn on celebrity news if you really want, I mean, the only thing I'd like to watch less than political news is celebrity news. You know, put on anything else, anything. Anyway, but all you have to do is watch celebrity news, and you'll see that people are at the top of the mountain, and they're being praised, and they're loved and adored, and then they're the worst possible person in the history of the world. Your reputation can change in a heartbeat. in a celebrity-crazed culture. It's kind of an extension of this back and forth that we do with ourselves. And so Paul knew that when it came to his place in the mind of the Corinthians, there were people in the Corinthian church that were in both of these camps. And he's been addressing this throughout the letter. There were people in the Corinthian church who went so far as to say, well, I follow Paul. Paul was the founder of this church. Paul was the one who brought the gospel to us. We are followers of Paul. And he rebuked that way of treating him. But then there were others who said, Paul, you mean that really short and unimpressive Jewish tent maker from Tarsus? Boy. He's nothing to write home about. Yeah, he brought us the gospel, and we're thankful for that, but man, he's no Apollos. He doesn't bring the heat like the real orators in Corinth do. And so they kind of had this despising view of him. So Paul corrects both of these mistaken assessments of himself, and we can correct the mistaken assessments of ourselves. And he does so by focusing attention away from himself and onto the grace of God. And sometimes he does so using quite shocking language to jolt the Corinthians out of their complacent cult of celebrity worship and toward a proper focus on God. So we've been working through this passage for the past few weeks, and as we pick up today, we're picking up in verse eight. And in verses, four or five through seven, he's been listing the people who were eyewitnesses of the resurrection. He appeared to Cephas, and then to the 12. He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, some have fallen asleep. He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Then, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Now the word Paul uses here for untimely born is actually a very shocking word. It's a word that was used of a stillbirth, of a stillborn child, and sometimes of an abortion. The point Paul is making is that he is so unworthy to be an eyewitness of the resurrection, that he is like a stillborn child among the eyewitnesses of the resurrection. He is one who is really not fit to live naturally on his own, and yet he does live. And he did see the Lord Jesus on that road to Damascus. Why would Paul have this view of himself? Well, he was Saul of Tarsus. He was a Jew by birth of the tribe of Benjamin. He was also a Roman citizen by birth. He was a Pharisee by training, so he belonged to the strictest sect of Judaism. He was a Pharisee. He was one of the rising stars in the company of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council of 70 elders. One of those, probably the most prominent rabbi on the council, was a guy named Gamaliel, and he was Paul's personal tutor. in the faith, so he was being personally discipled by probably the most prominent rabbi in all of Israel. And as this rising star with the Sanhedrin, then Saul of Tarsus was there when the Sanhedrin put Stephen on trial. And in anger, they rushed Stephen outside of the city gates and they stoned him to death. And Saul stood by holding their coats as a faithful disciple of this murderous mob. That didn't jolt him awake and cause him to repent. Rather, he decided he was gonna go and do what they were doing. He got arrest warrants from the chief priests and he went house to house arresting believers in and around Jerusalem. And then finally, he was so zealous in his cause that he was riding out to Damascus in Syria. We say the road to Damascus. Look on a map from Jerusalem to Damascus. It's quite a way to ride. And he's writing here in the zealous pursuit of Christians that he can arrest, that he can drag back to Jerusalem for trial. And it was on this road to Damascus, this is about four years after Christ had ascended back to the Father, that Jesus interrupted this violent persecutor of God's people and saved him. Now we need to keep in mind that Saul was not seeking Jesus. He was not searching for spiritual answers. He was not someone who wanted God to show him a better way in life. He was determined and confident in his misguided and wicked ways when God, when God by sheer grace saved Paul, commissioned him to be the Apostle Paul for the Lord, for the Lord he was persecuting. Now here's the truth that all of us need to see. no matter who you are, no matter what your background is, no matter how you grew up, you were saved by the same sheer undeserved grace of God. While you may not be an eyewitness of the resurrection, You too were born out of due time. You and I were spiritually stillborn into this world and we have no more natural right to life than Paul had, spiritually speaking. We were utterly undeserving and we were even undesiring of the saving grace of God when God rescued us from death and hell and gave us life and salvation. Ephesians 2 tells the amazing grace story of every believer, no matter what our background may have been, And you were dead. See, I told you, we were all spiritually stillborn in this world. And you were dead. in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, but God. The late R.C. Sproul said the most important word in the Bible is but. And it was definitely one of Paul's favorite words. You can hear it in 1 Corinthians 15. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And here he says we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That is the truth of the saving grace of God and this is what that means for us. Our past does not determine our future. God does. Now this is true whether you were raised in a Christian home and even baptized as a covenant child, that does not guarantee that you will enjoy God's saving grace and will get to glory in the end. God must save you. And it's also true if you wandered from the faith, had a head full of doubts, indulged in rebellious behavior, or grew up far from God. That past doesn't seal your destiny away from the saving power and presence of God. It is God who is rich in mercy, who saves us and makes us alive because of his great love for us. His love is not something that we could even begin to speak of deserving or even desiring in and of ourselves. It is all of grace, all of his sheer loving kindness, his saving goodness and power. Think about the distinction of why Paul would call himself the least of the Apostles. All the rest of the Apostles, these capital A, directly commissioned by Jesus Apostles, these were all followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry. They were trained by him in a kingdom apprenticeship for three years. They were anointed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and they took Jesus' training and the filling of the Holy Spirit's anointing and they went out and proclaimed the gospel. During all that time that they were doing that, Paul was training to be a Pharisee. He was being trained by the enemies of Jesus and he took all of his training and the raging hatred of Jesus from his mentors and teachers and he went out to persecute the church. And this has implications for us. When Paul says, I am unworthy to be called an apostle, it's a reminder to us that no one in ministry of any kind should ever think that they deserve to be there. If God's called you to a ministry of any kind, In any way, whether he calls you to share the gospel with one of your co-workers, and you're able to lead them to the Lord, or he calls you to be a witness to your family, or he calls you to the music team, or the sound team, or the web streaming team, or you're part of the setup crew, or you're an elder, or you're a deacon, or you serve hospitality, whatever ministry God has given you, you should not think that you deserve to have that ministry. because you're so well fit for it, and God was really clever to pick you for that. Hopefully none of us think that. Applying for a position as a pastor is kind of a strange experience because it tests what you really believe about all of this, right? Now, I can say in all sincerity that within the PCA, both the churches and the candidates are seeking the will of God and His calling and His commission, and I trust that that's true in faithful churches outside the PCA as well, but still, it can end up feeling a bit like a job interview, which is not what it should be, right? It can be easy to fall into this pattern of thinking, I deserve to be your pastor because I have all of this training and all of these gifts, and so I'm the best candidate for you. rather than just being honest about who you are and where God's brought you from and seeking the Lord's will. One of the great things that I enjoyed about the process of being called to be the pastor here at Forest Hill is that Tim Wilson and Matt Miller and the core group knew me. They had known me for a while, so I wasn't gonna come in and impress them with my resume. They knew me. They knew my shortcomings and my failures. They knew what I was good at and what I wasn't really good at. And so we could set all that aside and just seek the Lord for His will. So if you're a believer, I said before, if you've been given a ministry. So let me rephrase that a little bit. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then He has called you to belong to His church. and he has called you and gifted you for ministry in the church. This is what we went over in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians. Everyone who belongs to Christ, the head, is a member of his body, and we are all called to serve his church by the gifts of the spirit, but none of us should ever think that it's something in us that makes us well fit for the ministry. Rather, what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, 8 is true, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. So our salvation is all of God's grace. Our ministry to the body of Christ is all of God's grace. But it's not just that, it's also our true identity, who we really are, and our real worth come by the grace of God. And this is where we come in verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. Here we see the secret of living a life of true humility and sincerity. Of being secure and confident without being puffed up and egotistical. You see, in our nature, in our flesh, it's easy to be one or the other, right? It's easy to be confident, right? Self-assured. and cocky, arrogant, right? Or it's easier to be sort of humble, at least as the world defines humble, which isn't really as the Bible defines it. Kind of having a low view of yourself and your own gifts, but then you're very fearful and anxious and timid and hesitant. Only the grace of God brings us to a place where we can be secure and confident and yet humble and dependent at the same time. Only the grace of God. His undeserved favor and kindness to us when we deserved the opposite. That's what grace is. Grace is God giving us kindness, God giving us favor, God giving us To show the grace of God in our lives is with some pretended show of self-righteousness. If I can show people that I'm really good, that I have impeccable character, that I am really trustworthy, that I am really a great guy, then they'll see how wonderful God is. But God says that his grace is best displayed in our weakness, in our need. when we trust in Him and not in ourselves. One of the reasons why I love the Psalms is that they continually call us back to this perspective. Listen to Psalm 62. If you have a Bible, you might want to open up to it, Psalm 62. For God alone, my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. There's confidence, but it's from God. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him? Like a leaning wall, a tottering fence. That's what David is in and of himself. He's a leaning wall, a tottering fence being attacked by men. They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence. For my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge to us. Those of lowest state are but a breath. Those of highest state are a delusion. In the balances they go up, they are together lighter than a breath. You see, it's neither our riches nor our poverty that count for anything. God alone is our refuge and strength. And so we say with the Apostle Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And I love how John Newton meditated on this truth. John Newton, you know him as the author of Amazing Grace. He also wrote Glorious Things that They Are Spoken and many other wonderful hymns. You may know he was a slave trader and a slave ship captain before God saved him and eventually led him to abandon the slave trade for the pastorate. He wrote this wonderful meditation on this powerful verse and he said this, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world. But still, I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God, I am what I am. Oh, that's such great truth. I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I hope to be in another world. But still, I'm not what I once was, and by the grace of God, I am what I am. And so what are we by the grace of God? Let's take a moment to reflect on what God, by His grace, has made of us in Jesus Christ. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, if He is your Lord and Savior, if you're trusting in Him for your salvation and not in yourself, this is what the Bible says about you, about who you are by the grace of God. One, you are a child of God, adopted by your heavenly father and made a part of his family forever. Two, you are completely forgiven of all of your sins, which have been washed whiter than snow by the blood of the lamb. Three, you are an heir of God and a co-heir of Christ. Four, you are a living stone in the holy and living temple of God. You're being built up together with the other living stones into a living temple to bring glory to God forever. Five, you are a member of the body of Christ. Christ is the head and we are the members of his body. Six, you are a new creation. Old things are gone, behold, all things are new. Seven, you are washed, justified, and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Eight, you are a citizen of Christ's heavenly kingdom. Your citizenship is in heaven. And nine, you are loved with an everlasting love. And 10, you are a saint, a holy one, made holy by the Holy One, the Lord Jesus. The Bible says more, but those 10 are pretty stunning. And you know what? If you or I were to say those things about ourselves, or if we were to think that somehow we deserved any of that in and of ourselves, that would make us obnoxiously self-righteous. But by the grace of God, this is who he has made us to be. When we deserve the opposite, he gives us all of this in Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, I am what I am. This had a profound effect in the Apostle Paul's life, knowing this. It didn't make him lazy. It didn't make him complacent. He didn't sit back and say, well, I'm signed, sealed, delivered. Punched my ticket to glory land, now I can kick back in my easy chair and coast in to eternity. He didn't do that. Receiving such undeserved grace from God only motivated Paul to work harder for the glory of God. He said, his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. If you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, he had, by just about any measure, the most spectacularly successful missionary career in the history of the church. He is almost single-handedly responsible for the spread of the gospel in the whole Eastern Mediterranean world. From Crete and Cyprus to Turkey and Greece, he planted churches, He preached the gospel. He went back and strengthened those churches. He trained up pastors for those churches. He helped to settle major theological disputes. Later he took the gospel as far as Spain. He did all of this in less than 20 years. Five or six years of that were spent in prison. So really, 15 years of ministry. probably the most successful missionary in the history of the church. He worked hard. And yet, he doesn't claim any of the credit for himself. He says, it wasn't me. It was the grace of God with me. And he doesn't just mean that as, you know, that's what religious people are supposed to say. He means it. He knows that in and of himself, he couldn't plant a single church or bring a single person to Christ. God has to do it. Energetic work for the gospel is not enough. The work must be empowered by the grace of God to bear fruit for the glory of God. It must be the work of God's grace or it is all in vain. We've seen this in church history. How many times have people built big churches, started Bible colleges and seminaries, sent out missionaries and yet have seen little real and lasting fruit because it was the work of men and not the work of God's grace? There's a famous line by a great Scottish missionary, C.T. Studd. You've probably heard it before. It's part of actually a longer poem he wrote. But he said, only one life, t'will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. And I'll modify it just a little bit with apologies to the great C.T. Studd. Only one life, t'will soon be past, only what's done by Christ will last. It is his kingdom after all. He is the king. It is his sovereign grace that empowers our work to his glory. And so Paul ends this section by returning to the gospel again. He says, whether then it was I or they, so we preached, and so you believe. And if you look, At the scripture passage, Paul in verse 11 is going back to where he started in verse one. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand. He said, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe. Sometimes we ask the question, is the gospel something we preach or something we live? And the Bible's answer is yes, of course, always. Another famous figure from church history, Francis of Assisi famously said, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. I would like to modify that a little bit too. Preach the gospel at all times, and because it is necessary, use words. but not words only. Don't let it just be a message that comes from our mouth, but the pattern of our lives. Because what is the gospel after all? The gospel is a good news story about how the grace of God in Jesus Christ changes everything. We need to tell that as clearly as we can because the world needs to hear it. We need to hear it coming from our own mouth and We need to live it, because if it's true, it will be the pattern of our lives, living, breathing, standing, walking in the gospel of Jesus Christ, saying, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not in vain, and so I'll work harder for the glory of God, not I, but the grace of God with me. Amen? Let's pray. Father, your grace is amazing and abundant and overflowing in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Father, forgive us for those times when we are self-obsessed, self-reliant, either self-exalting or self-despising. We choke to death sometimes on our own selves. Father, get our eyes off of ourselves and put them on Jesus. Help us, whenever we're wrapped up like that, to stop, to say no, and to seek Christ, and to seek all in Him, for He is our all in all. He's our hope and our strength and our glory and our crown, and we praise you in His name. Amen. Amen.