We do want to again welcome all of you to Cornerstone this morning. It's a joy to be together, to see all of you as the body of Christ, as brothers and sisters in the Lord. If you have your Bibles with you, I would invite you to open to the New Testament in the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll be reading verses 1 through 11. Last week we focused on the first half of this passage, and today we'll be focusing on verses 8 through 10. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 8 through 10 will be our focus, but to give context, I'm going to read the whole section beginning in verse 1. This is God's Word written for you and for me today. 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 twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred 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 by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace towards 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 is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed." Heavenly Father, we ask that you would give us insight into this, your Word, and that you would impress its glorious truths of the grace of God. deep into our hearts and minds and souls today. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, last week we began our study of this chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this glorious chapter on the resurrection of our Lord by looking at the gospel. Look back at verse 1. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel. Then he goes on in verse three, I deliver to you as of first importance. And so we spent our time last week thinking about the gospel, the ABCs of what we believe, that which is of first importance, that Christ died in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he is today the risen one. He is risen, as I was talking to one of our brothers last week. He is risen today. He is the resurrected one reigning in glory this very moment. This is where Paul begins. This is where Paul begins in this glorious chapter. Now the rest of the chapter, the rest of chapter 15, Paul is going to unpack and kind of peel away at the significance and the meaning and the depth of truth in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is a lot in that doctrine, the doctrine of the resurrection. But this is where he begins, with these ABCs we might say. But then we noted in verses 5-7 that Paul goes out of his way to press home the historicity of the resurrection. That the resurrection was an event in real time and space. It wasn't just a mere spiritual resurrection. It wasn't kind of some ghostly or phantasmic resurrection. It was a real body and soul physical objective in time and space resurrection. And Paul underscores that, and he highlights that by mentioning several of Christ's, what we call, post-resurrection appearances. Look back at verses 5 through 7. And then he appeared to Cephas, which is another way to say Peter, Aramaic of Peter. Then to the twelve, the twelve apostles. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, implication being, you're welcome to go talk to them. See what they have to say? Though some have fallen asleep, that is, some have died. Verse 7, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Notice that he references all the apostles last, and that phrase, all the apostles, is something of a bridge that will bridge to Paul talking about his own experience. His own experience of being confronted by the resurrected Lord. Again, look at verse 8. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also To me here Paul is referring to his Damascus Road experience Remember this the story acts chapter 9 Paul is on his way and we're gonna read this verse in a few moments Paul's on his way to Damascus with letters in hand to bring the the believers to bring the Christians bound Back that they might be persecuted. He's breathing threats and murders and then he's confronted by the glorious resurrected Lord of Jesus Christ, the Shekinah of glory, and he is knocked literally off his horse. He is knocked literally onto his knees. And Jesus says to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? To persecute the church is to persecute the body. To persecute the church is to persecute the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul says in verse 8, "...last of all he appeared to me as to one untimely born." It's a very interesting phrase. It literally means as to one born out of due time, as to one born abnormally, as to one aborted the weight of the phrase. Now likely that was a phrase used of the Corinthians as a criticism of Paul. Most scholars argue that there was a phrase that the Corinthians would use to criticize, it was a negative phrase, the Corinthians would use to criticize Paul, that Paul, you weren't one of the original twelve. You weren't like Peter or James. And Paul, you're not even a great orator like Apollos. You're something else. You were one abnormally born, born out of due time. Why should we listen to you? And it is this assessment, this negative assessment of the Corinthians towards Paul that leads Paul to what the Puritan Matthew Henry calls a humble digression. A humble digression in verses 9 and 10 where Paul is going to focus on his own experience. So if we were to summarize Paul's train of thought in verses 1 up to verse 8, it might run something like this. Let me remind you, Corinthians, of the gospel. Let me remind you of the ABCs of the death, the burial, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rose again, and he made appearances. He appeared. He appeared to Peter. He appeared to 500 at one time. He appeared to the apostles. And speaking of the apostles, He appeared also to me. And by the way, I also am an apostle. And you Corinthians, you look at me and you see weakness. You reject and you don't take into full consideration my apostolic authority. You look at me and you see weakness, so let me tell you something about myself. Let me glory for a moment in my weakness and so magnify the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that leads to this humble digression that Paul gives us in verses 8 through 10. And so the theme this morning of Paul's humble digression is simply the grace of God. It is simply the amazing grace of God. Again, this is something of a parenthesis. Verses 8 and 9 are not part of Paul's main argument. We could skip over these verses and not fall short in understanding his main argument. If you read the New Testament, Paul has a lot of little digressions. Paul will say something, and then he'll think, Grace. Oh, let me let me ramble for a little bit about grace or love of Christ to us. Let me pause in worship That's how Paul we often see in Paul's letters and he does the same here He thinks of God's grace. He thinks of the Apostles and he says you Don't take my apostolic authority seriously. Let me tell you something about who I am So that we could skip these few verses and move right on, but we would be missing a glorious digression that the Apostle Paul gives us in verses 8, 9, and 10. So that's where we're going to focus for a few moments together this morning. Because the grace of God shown to Paul is the same grace of God shown to every one of you this morning who trust in Jesus Christ by grace through faith alone. It's the very same grace in the very same Savior. So before we dive in, let's think just a moment about grace. What is grace? Have you ever thought to yourself, what is grace? How might I define grace? Well, you might have heard that acronym, God's Riches at Christ's Expense, G-R-A-C-E, God's Riches at Christ's Expense. It's pretty good. That's pretty good as far as it goes. I think we can go a little bit farther than that as well. The God's grace is simply His salvific love to ill-deserving sinners. His salvific love, a love that issues and terminates in salvation to ill-deserving, not just undeserving, ill-deserving, deserving of death, deserving negative, deserving hell and death. It is God's grace to ill-deserving, or God's salvific love to ill-deserving sinners. It's a characteristic of God. God is gracious. Grace is not a thing. Grace is not some thing that's kind of floating around out there that you might, you know, infuse into your body. No, grace is a characteristic, an attribute of the very character of God. It's connected, again, with His love directed to sinners. And it is because of His grace, because of this attribute of love towards ill, deserving sinners, that He sent His Son to live and die for us. God shows His love for us, Romans 5, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Grace is the motivating factor out of which the Father sent His Son to live and die for us. 2 Corinthians 8-9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then it describes what Jesus did, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that we through His poverty might become rich. So two things we're going to look at this morning as we look at these few short verses regarding the grace of God. First, God's grace is for the greatest of sinners. God's grace is for the greatest of sinners. And secondly, God's grace changes the greatest of sinners. It's for the greatest of sinners. And then secondly, it changes the greatest of sinners. And so first, God's grace is for the greatest of sinners. Look back at verse 9. End of verse 8 one untimely born he appeared to me also verse 9 for I am the least of the apostles Unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God now Paul is not casting doubt on his authority as an apostle in fact just Earlier, in chapter 14, if you look down at verse 37, Paul asserts his authority as an apostle. If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. He asserts, he mentions his apostolic authority. And later in 2 Corinthians, And in four chapters, chapters 10 through 13, Paul's going to argue and defend his apostolic authority, that he is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's not down degrading or downplaying his apostolic authority. Rather, Paul is simply marveling at God's grace in his life, at God's grace shown to someone like Paul. Because Paul never forgot who he was. He never forgot who he was. Well, who was Paul? Who was Paul before God's grace changed his heart? He was a wretched sinner, persecutor of the church of God. Let's read a few verses and let this sink in. I'm going to read a handful of verses. I want this to sink deep into our hearts. Galatians chapter 1. Turn to the right a couple pages. Galatians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, then you'll come to Galatians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers." Turn over to Philippians 3, verses 5 and 6. Philippians 3, 5 and 6. He says this, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Then listen to Paul's resume, verse 5. Circumcised on the eighth day, the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless, or at least so he thought. Acts chapter 22, verse 4. Turn over and turn to the left. Acts chapter 22, verse 4. Listen to what Paul says. I persecuted this way." Notice how each time he references that he was a persecutor of the Church of Christ. Acts 22.4, I persecuted this way, referring to the church, the Christian faith. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. One more, Acts chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. Acts chapter 9 verse 1 and 2. Here is Paul moments before his heart was changed. Moments, minutes, hours before his heart was changed. What is he doing? Is he wondering? Is he kind of weighing the evidence? Absolutely not. Let's listen to what he says. But Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Let that sink in. Don't sanitize that. We talked about this morning with what we see on TV, we're often sanitized to death and to violence. Don't sanitize what we have just read violently, still breathing threats, binding men and women, persecuting them even unto death. Don't skip over that and say, yeah, Paul's a bad guy. Just move right on. Is there any wonder, he says in verse 9, that he is unworthy? 1 Corinthians 15 9, unworthy to be called an apostle. And 1 Timothy 1 15, he calls himself a chief of sinners, the greatest of sinners. If we didn't know the rest of the story, perhaps we might think that Saul, his name before he was converted, was too far gone, too violent, too hardened against the church, too hardened against the gospel. A persecutor. Too far gone for God's grace to reach someone like that. Perhaps we might think that if we didn't know the rest of the story. And we would be wrong. Verse 10. First half. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, in Christ, I am what I am. Dear brothers and sisters, God is far more gracious than we can scarcely imagine. He is far more gracious than we can scarcely imagine. Are there those that we think that are beyond the reach of God's grace? Are there those that we might hold back the free offer of the gospel, which is part of our rich heritage as Presbyterians? of the free offer of the gospel. Perhaps the employee down the street at the abortion clinic. Maybe the feminist lesbian. The hardened atheist scholar who thinks that we have the IQ of a kindergartner because we believe in a global flood or the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe the hardened Muslim or Mormon. Do we think they are beyond the free offer of the gospel and are beyond the reach of God's grace in Christ? If they would but bow the knee and call out, have mercy upon me a sinner. Do we think they're beyond the reach of God's amazing grace? Would the Apostle Paul not have fit into that category? Violently persecuting the church, binding men and women. Or the thief on the cross, an entire life lived in sin. Or the Assyrians, to whom Jonah was sent to preach. Do you realize who the Assyrians were? They were barbarians. They were brutal. What are the Assyrians known for? Their barbarism. That's what they're known for in the history books. Yet Jonah was sent to preach to them. In fact, Jonah was angry because they believed. Or King Manasseh? Remember the story of King Manasseh in the Old Testament? Let's read a few verses about who King Manasseh was. 2 Kings chapter 21. 2 Kings chapter 21. I think Manasseh would fit into that category of those we might think are too far gone. 2 Kings 21, let me read verses 1-9. Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering, and used fortune-telling and omens, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. In the carved image of Asherah that he had made, he sat in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon's son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them. And according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them, but they did not listen. And Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel." Quite a resume. How does Manasseh's story end up? Turn over to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 33. You have to venture into the rarely tread waters of 2 Chronicles to see how the story of Manasseh ends up. 2 Chronicles 33 verses 10 through 13. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon." So there was discipline. There was discipline and punishment and judgment that came upon Manasseh and his people. But then verse 12, And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty, and heard his plea, and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Yes, Manasseh faced temporal judgment for the great wickedness and evil that he had done, but he humbled his heart. He cried out in repentance towards the end of his life, and we will see Manasseh in heaven one day. Or think of John Newton. John Newton, in his great hymn, Amazing Grace, describes a wretch like me, and he was certainly that. In fact, John Newton committed such atrocities that it would be improper to even speak of them in our company this morning. Testimony of each of them is the testimony of Paul. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. Amazing grace of God. how little thought we give to the true depth and riches of God's grace. Paul talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ in Ephesians 3, verse 8. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul was not seeking the Lord. Paul's the one who wrote in Romans 3. There is no one who seeks after the Lord. Paul was going to persecute the church. But God in his grace in Christ confronted him was thrown to the ground by the very glory of God. And Saul and all of his sin was made clear before the holiness of God. And Paul's heart was gloriously changed. And we're reading this very morning the wonderful letters that Paul wrote. Dear friends, this is your testimony and my testimony as well if we rest in Christ this morning. By the grace of God, you are who you are. By the grace of God, we are who we are. Perhaps maybe someone is saying to yourself this morning, yes, but I'm not like Manasseh. I mean, give me a little slack. I'm not like Saul was. I'm not like John Newton used to be. I'm not like the Assyrians. If that's what you're saying in the depths of your heart this morning, repent. The great Scottish preacher, Robert Murray McShane, once said, the seeds of every sin known to man is in my heart. At Sunday school this morning, we're looking at the sixth commandment, thou shalt not murder. And it's easy for us to get to that one and say, yeah, I struggle with commandments four and five, but at least I got number six. haven't murdered anyone. Well, Jesus takes that commandment and he presses it deep into our hearts with what Calvin calls murder in the heart. Why is Paul so enraptured with the grace of God? Why does he veer off into a digression on the grace of God? Because he knows who he was. And if we know who we were before God saved us, it should cause us to rejoice and to fall to our knees in humility and to want others to know this same forgiveness and goodness and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. To sing with John Newton, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Indeed, God's grace is for the greatest of sinners, but we don't stop there. We don't stop there because God's grace doesn't leave us there. This leads us to our second and last point this morning. God's grace changes the greatest of sinners. It doesn't leave us who we were, but it changes us. Look at verse 10, the second half of verse 10. By the grace of God, I am what I am. His grace towards me was not empty or in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Then he catches himself, though it was not I, but the grace of God in me. God's grace does not leave us where we are, but in his grace, when he saves us, when we are united to Christ by faith, He raises us from spiritual death. He opens our eyes. He reorders our affections. Our mind is set free. Think of Charles Wesley's great hymn, My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. He gives us a new heart. And this new heart longs for our Savior. It longs for fellowship with Him. It longs to be with Him. It longs to gather with our brothers and sisters. And it now fights against that sin that it at one time relished in. Now it abhors it, because it's been changed. We've been changed. God doesn't leave us where He finds us. What is Paul getting at when he says, I worked harder than all of them? Or Paul, he's speaking about his missionary endeavors, his labors, his kingdom labors for the Lord. His life lived in dependence upon and unto the glory of his newfound Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the key. And this is what God does. Paul's zeal, once directed at persecuting the church, was turned upside down, and that same zeal is now spent unto the building up of the church. That zeal, once destroying the church, is now by God's grace turned upside down and is now used for the preaching of the gospel, the very gospel that at one time Paul was trying to stamp out. That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, 7, and 8, all that I once knew was rubbish. And he uses a much stronger word. It was dung. Who I used to be, all that I used to boast in is but dung. So, dear friends, when we are united to Christ by faith, God's Spirit indwells us and begins to work in our hearts and mold us and shape us. And God, the great chiseler, begins to chisel away all of our indwelling sin as we begin to more and more reflect the image and the glory of the Lord. Paul's talking about effort in the Christian life. Don't shy away from the language of effort in the Christian life. Again, Kent Hughes, this phrase we've talked about before, spiritual sweat. Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 9 that we are to run the race in such a way that we might finish the race and get the prize, that we are to discipline ourselves. But then Paul catches himself. He's such a wonderful, balanced theologian. He balances himself and he says, it wasn't I. You can sense the dynamic going on in Paul's heart. It wasn't I. At the end of the day, it wasn't me. It was God's grace at work in me. So yes, we grow, we run, we advance and grow in holiness and in maturity. We press on, but we only do so in the strength of God's grace and in the power of His Holy Spirit. There's a mystery here, there's a tension here, and we're to live in that tension. It's a tension we see all over the New Testament. There's a couple of brief verses, Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Some of you might know this verse, that we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us according to His good will and pleasure. And look at what Paul says in Colossians 1.29. Colossians 1.29, we see this, again, this tension, this dynamic of the Christian life. Look at what Paul says. For this I toil, it's a strong word, I toil, a labor to exhaustion, struggling, and catch this, with all of His energy that He powerfully works within me. I toil, I struggle, but it's His grace, His strength, His energy that is at work in me. So God's grace is for the greatest of sinners. There's no one that we withhold the free offer of the gospel. But God's grace doesn't leave us there. It changes us. It's at work in our hearts, and there's two errors that we ought to avoid when we think of this tension of... I labor, but it's God's grace that is at work in me. On the one hand, we avoid the error that grace starts the Christian life, and then it's up to us. That tends towards a legalism and towards a pharisaical mentality. So we want to avoid that error, that we somehow advance beyond our union with Christ and God's grace at work in our hearts. But we also want to avoid the opposite error, the let go and let God type of mentality that we just sit back and that there is no spiritual sweat that ought to be exercised in the Christian life that often leads to what's called an antinomian mentality where we disregard the clear teachings of the New Testament in terms of calling us to holiness. We want to walk that balance. We want to walk that balance that we see all throughout the New Testament. And we see that balance in the Apostle Paul. So God's grace is for the greatest of sinners. The greatest of sinners. But God's grace, same grace, changes the greatest of sinners. Apostle Paul is example number one. Perhaps many of you experience the same thing in your own life. Think back to who you once were. What were the affections and the priorities in your own life and the thoughts that consumed you before God's grace changed your heart? Think often about who we used to be before our Lord Jesus Christ got a hold of our hearts. So we'll leave you with three brief items to take with you. First is this. Never stop praying for your wayward and hardened family members and friends. It's easy to stop those prayers. Perhaps you have a family member or a friend that you've been praying for for months and months and years and years and years and you see nothing changing. Don't ever think that they are too hardened for God by his supernatural sovereign spirit to break down the hardness of their heart. Never stop praying. Secondly, don't ever forget who we used to be. And don't ever stop marveling at God's grace. Matthew Henry says, it is God's prerogative to say, I am that I am. And it is our privilege to say, by God's grace, we are who we are. And so let the grace of God permeate your words, and your thoughts, and your life, and your marriages, and how we teach and instruct our children, and how we live with one another as one body of Christ. And then thirdly and finally, may we rejoice that we are not yet what we will be. we are all works in progress. As we're all at varying levels of spiritual maturity, we've all been walking with the Lord, some of us for many, many years, some of us for perhaps a few months, that we are all works in progress. We are all united to the same Savior by the same Spirit. And that same Spirit is doing the very same work, conforming all of us more and more into the image of our Savior. As we wait for that day when we will receive our glorified bodies and be glorified in heaven together, singing praises to our Savior, that we will never stop saying, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Praise God for his word. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace to us. We thank you for this humble digression that Paul gives us in these verses. Paul simply stands in wonder at your grace and mercy. And Father, may we do the same. May we never forget who we used to be before you changed our hearts, before you called us to yourself. And may we hold that same gospel out to all and call others to repentance that bow the knee and know that freedom in Christ and turn away from your life of sin and turn towards a life of holiness and righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, may our church be one that is saturated and permeated with your grace in your Son. I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.