As we continue to rest on God’s word we will be taking our cue from the Book of John as we keep looking into the subject of grace.
John 1:16 KJV
[And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.]
Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. But let me read the text that is going to form the premise for our conversation tonight. That is 1 Timothy. I am reading from the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 1, and I will be reading from verse 11 through verse 17.
1 Timothy 1:11-17 KJV
[According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.]
This will form the basis and the premise for our conversation. I will be sharing with us today, and perhaps this coming Sunday as well, on what I have titled: “The Life-Transforming Grace.”
My attempt is to help us to see the power of the grace of God in the life of a man and the transformation that comes through that—the transformation of an individual’s personal life and the transformation that leads to a man becoming useful in the hand of God. This is the transformation that takes place in a man’s life individually, which then translates a man to a place of usefulness and effectiveness, becoming a tool in the hand of God.
If you look at this scripture we have read, it is talking about where Paul was coming from. Look at the place where he was speaking about his former life. He said, “Who was before…” that is verse 13. He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious—but he obtained mercy. He obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. But look at the next verse there: “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which was in Christ Jesus.” He says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
What Paul was saying clearly to us is that the grace of God was abundant. He was testifying of the dimension of grace that he encountered and that he had received. He is saying to us that Jesus came to save sinners, and he was testifying that if you want to categorize or rank the sinners that have come to this world, he would be the chief of them all. Despite the kind of life that Paul lived—a man who before now was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious—the grace of God was sufficient.
The word “injurious” there means that the man was wounding people; he was injuring people. He was wicked, tough, and hard. He was actually killing people; he was a murderer and a persecutor. Yet, he was testifying boldly of what the grace of God had done in his life. He was capturing for us the fact that regardless of how he had lived, the grace of God that brought salvation also empowered him. That is what he is showing us in this scripture. He said Jesus came for sinners, and among the ones Jesus came for, he was the chief. If the chief—the toughest, the roughest, the hardest—was rescued by the mercy of God and by the grace of God, then look at what that grace was able to make out of his life.
It was not just that he had a rough past. He was also a man who had encountered the grace of God for salvation and beyond salvation. The grace of God that he had enjoyed also brought him to a place where you can say, of a truth, that his life has been greatly transformed. I am talking about the “Life-Transforming Grace.” A man showed us that his life can witness for Christ Jesus so that his life can be a pattern. Let me show you that verse again so that his life can be a pattern—that is verse 16.
1 Timothy 1:16 KJV
[Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.]
The meaning of that is that his life had become a pattern of what the love of God and what Christ can accomplish in the life of a man. It is a pattern of what grace can produce. He said he became the first to experience such grace—magnitude of grace, abundance of grace—that he had become a pattern to as many that would hereafter believe on Him. Glory to God! A pattern to as many that would believe in the grace of God, believe in the power of the mercy of God, and believe in the abundance of the grace of God.
What I am trying to show us tonight is the fact that a man can actually experience grace and his life can showcase a very thorough, genuine transformation. Genuine and thorough transformation is the product of the grace of God. When the grace of God is set on a “rampage” over the life of a man—and I use that word intentionally—God has a mission. He has a goal to accomplish. The mission ultimately is that a man be saved and that a man also becomes a tool in the hand of God. Can I hear an “amen”? That a man be saved and eventually becomes an effective and powerful tool in the hand of God. Regardless of where he Is coming from, who he was, or what his life was, it will be a 360-degree conversion and transformation.
Wherever you see grace in the life of a man, you have seen a man who can be saved, a man who can be used of God, and a man who can become anything in the hand of the Father—a great vessel to fulfill the counsel and purpose of God. In other words, grace and purpose travel together. Where you see the workings of the grace of God in a man’s life, you will automatically see a man who is on a mission for God. You see a man on a journey of grace that God is busy working upon to produce something significant, something that will give God glory and turn the man around to be an example—a pattern of what God can do with a man. It is a pattern of the miracle, the transformation, and the life-changing encounter that a man can witness. Glory to God!
Each of us has experienced the grace of God that brought salvation and transformation into our lives. We have experienced the grace that caused us to transition to a space where the grace of God has become evident, and we are being used of God. We are useful in the hand of the Father. We have become tools of revival and tools of transformation. We have become ministers that God has used, and is using, to open the eyes of men to see what God has in stock for them.
You will see clearly from this scripture that the picture being painted here is a story of a life that has been transformed by the abundant grace of God. Paul was not ashamed to tell us where he was coming from. He was not going to hide that he was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious. “But I obtained mercy; I have found grace. The grace of God has found me.” Look at verses 11 and 12:
1 Timothy 1:11-12 KJV
[According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;]
Look at the man to whom God committed the trust of the Gospel! This is a man to whom God committed the trust of the Gospel. He says, “He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” In verse 11, he says God committed to him the trust of the Gospel. God also found him faithful, putting him into the ministry. We should not be quickly carried away by the fact that God found him and committed the trust of the Gospel to his hand. Look at that—God found him faithful. Found “who” faithful? How did God find him faithful?
That is the wonderful story of the grace of God. A man who said, “Before now I was a persecutor, a blasphemer, and injurious”—which is to say he was a murderer—that same man says God committed the trust of the Gospel into his hand. God found him faithful, putting him in the ministry. So, if he tells you that we have received “grace and apostleship,” he knew what he was talking about. You should understand by now that “apostleship” is not just a big word. It is primarily tied to a task and an assignment. It is something to run with.
I know about the five-fold ministry, but if that is the only thing people know about an apostle, then they do not know anything about apostleship. It is unfortunate that many in this generation who are not grounded in the truth think that being an apostle is simply the “highest rank” in the five-fold ministry. It seems to them that those with the office of an apostle are more anointed, more special, or more spiritual. They think they have more depth and more roots. You see every person going by “Apostle” wanting to sound deep and project a certain image, but that is scriptural illiteracy. That is not where we should capitalize. Let us understand the reality of the intention of God.
Paul wanted you to know: “See where I am coming from, but the grace of God found me and cleaned me up. The grace of God transformed my life and made meaning out of it.” That same grace that cleaned him up and transformed him did not leave him that way; it gave him an assignment. The moment that cleanup happened, He also committed to him a “Gospel Trust.” The word “trust” there means stewardship. He committed the assignment and called him into the Gospel. He brought him into the plan and the purpose of God for humanity.
He was found faithful. That is the most interesting part. How did He find him faithful? Paul quickly points out in verse 13, “Don’t get it twisted; it was the same me who was a blasphemer and a persecutor.” The grace that Paul encountered was a life-transforming grace. Equally, that is what all of us have received, and that is what men who are not even in the fold will receive. An average person on the street—only heaven can tell what he or she can become in the hand of the Father.
When you go out for evangelism or encounter people on the street, you cannot truly imagine what anyone can become in the hand of God. God has intentions and great plans for everyone on the face of the earth. That should help us to take our soul-winning projects seriously. Every opportunity you have to stand and minister to people is a divine appointment with lives and destiny. One message, one opportunity to stand and minister, can actually transform someone. It can become the beginning of a change of story. You do not know the extent to which such a life can be transformed.
Until we understand that, we will not go for soul-winning with the burden of what God can actually do. Sometimes we go out very casually. We talk to people casually because we do not have a full idea of what God can make out of any man or woman. Whenever we go out for evangelism or have the opportunity to speak to someone—whether to counsel, teach, or disciple anyone God pushes into our trust—we must have that clarity. You do not have an idea of how far God can take such a man. You don’t know how far the plan and intention of God goes.
What about a man who is not yet born again? Someone once said that the next generation of the Church of God is still in the beer parlor. People were wondering if he was joking or serious. Some regional pastors were very angry, saying, “What are we doing here if the next generation is in the beer parlor?” But he was speaking to the power of the grace of God that can pick a man from nowhere, clean him up, purge him, and transform him. That is how grace puts him into ministry. That is what Paul is saying: “He committed the trust of the Gospel in my hand, finding me faithful, putting me in ministry.” But he says, “Don’t run too much. Don’t get it twisted. I am the same man who was the persecutor, the blasphemer, and the injurious.”
Even you, sitting under the sound of my voice, as long as you are receiving grace upon grace—it is “grace for grace”—as long as your heart is open to the workings of God, it has not yet appeared what you can be. Right now, we think we have a little understanding of what God can do with us, but you don’t have a full idea. You don’t have a full idea of the streams of grace on your inside or the streams of the Word of Life—the Zoe of God in you. You don’t have an idea of the strengths of wisdom and revelation that you carry. You think you have preached before? You don’t have a full idea of who you can be in the hand of Abba.
That is why you don’t write people off. Even the men in their worst state right now—the men whose heads we are trying to hold like slippery catfish—you don’t know how far God can go with them. The man who looks serious today, or the man who looks unstable today—you don’t know. We must not write off anyone as long as they are within the reach of the grace of God. You cannot conclude too fast.
I wonder what people who witnessed the days of Saul would have said when he became Paul. Remember when he had that conversion and God was telling Ananias to go talk to him? Ananias was literally afraid of the “terror” associated with that name. But God said:
Acts 9:15 KJV
[But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:]
God said, “He is My chosen vessel. Go and tell him the things I will do with his life. Go and share with him the scope of the trust of the Gospel I am going to commit to his hand. I am putting him in ministry.”
The grace of God can change a man’s life, and we all are products of God’s grace. None of us is a product of our own effort or smartness. As good as praying and fasting are, do not make the mistake of thinking you are a product of your prayer or your fasting. As important as studying the Word of God is—and we cannot overemphasize it—you are not a product of your study. We are all products of the grace of God. The grace that comes upon us can then be engaged in the place of prayer and study. But the fact that you are picked, chosen, or given an assignment is largely a product of the grace of God.
That grace brings you to a place of understanding, knowledge, and maturity where you take responsibility. Then you begin talking the way Paul talked: “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:9-10.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10 KJV
[ For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet 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 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.]
We are products of the election of grace. Nobody starts this journey on merit. But after we have been elected and chosen by grace, we must then engage the grace of God. Paul says, “I am the least of the apostles.” He is bringing us back to this issue of apostleship. He says he is not even worthy to be called an apostle because of his history and background. By his “CV” and resume, he should not have been considered when they were distributing roles. But the mercy of God overruled. The grace of God overruled.
Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” He then says that this grace was not in vain because he labored. Now, that is another part of the story of grace—laboring with the grace of God. We can labor with grace, and the effectiveness of our ministry may be different because we labor differently, but that is not my focus tonight. My focus tonight is that the grace of God can actually transform a man’s life.
There is a Life-Transforming Grace. People who appear to be going nowhere can have their lives changed. Ladies in the “brothel” today can become great vessels in the hand of God. “Area boys” under the bridge today, if they encounter the grace of God, can become vessels in the hand of the Lord. In this country, we have had former armed robbers become evangelists. That is why I tell people: if witches kill you now, you lose, because at the next crusade, that witch can go to the altar and say, “I want to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.” They will say, “Come out,” and the blood of Jesus will wash her clean. The grace of God will clean her up, and she may become an evangelist, but the person she killed is gone. So, don’t let any witch kill you!
The Bible says God will not remember your sins; He will throw them into the sea of forgetfulness. Even when she stands before God, He will not remember she ever killed anybody. That is why Paul could say he wronged no man and defrauded no man. As a Christian, you do not live carelessly. You don’t keep one leg in and one leg out. You stay on fire and take your life very seriously.
We have heard cases where renowned vessels of God were once a notorious armed robber and became born-again. He became a Christian, carried his Bible, and preached. They had killed and robbed people, but they became an evangelist. There are cases where robbers killed whole families and then became born again and became apostles. They say, “God found me faithful and put me in ministry.” That is how powerful the grace of God can be.
Have you noticed that some of those “runs girls” on campus end up with good marriages? They marry the right men. Some of them had several abortions, yet they are the first to get pregnant when they marry. When we talk about the grace and mercy of God coming upon a person, it is profound. I went to a meeting years ago and saw a sister I used to know; she had married a pastor. Memories were flashing in my head, but the grace of God had cleaned her up. The grace of God can clean up a mess; in fact, it can make a “mess” a “message.”
The grace of God has the capacity to turn a man’s life around, put him in ministry, and make an apostle or an evangelist out of him. When men who knew him before see him, they will not easily believe it. He will open his mouth and testify: “It was the same me who was the blasphemer and the persecutor, but look at the abundant grace of God.”
Some people didn’t survive that lifestyle to tell the story. They died on the abortion table or during a robbery. But grace kept us. Grace reserved us. I went to a secondary school where the bulk of my classmates were from very rich homes. If I told you some of the things that happened in those days, you wouldn’t believe it. Sometimes we would leave the grammar school and go to an airport hotel to go swimming. One day, we went to a friend’s house and they saw a double-barrel shotgun. I don’t know what happened, but I found my way back to school. What story would I have told my mother if I had been caught? Where would I say I was coming from?
Grace kept us. My brother would tell his colleagues on campus not to copy him because he had friends praying for him. He escaped many things that could have ended his life. It is just the election of the grace of God. Nobody started this race as a product of their own prayer. It was later that we began to learn about prayer, fasting, and Greek and Hebrew. We didn’t know anything about those things at first, but grace found us and brought us into the family of God.
It was after the conversion that Paul went away for three and a half years. It was after his conversion that he came into the family of God and received his call. God told him he would be sent to the Gentiles and that he would suffer. Paul’s story came with details from the beginning. It wasn’t that he prayed to receive a ministry; he was given a ministry. Before Paul even knew how to pray, God had captured the details of what He was going to do with his life.
The essence of what I am sharing is that there is a Life-Transforming Grace. Men who looked as if they were going nowhere encountered grace, and it changed their lives. You don’t know the volume of revelation dwelling in the belly of that man under the bridge. You don’t understand what God has packaged in the life of the lady in the brothel tonight. They have a place in the agenda of God. You don’t know the dimension of grace locked up in the man who says, “There is no God,” or “Church is a scam.” You don’t know until they encounter life-transforming grace.
This should bring us to a place of consciousness. When you stand before a man to evangelize, perhaps you are standing before a major voice of revival. If you don’t carry that burden, you might just be making small talk. That is why when I preach, I might make a small joke, but I go straight to the point. I don’t understand coming to tell long stories about cars brushing each other on the road. You can be so carried away with stories from Facebook or the media, but I come with a burden. The burden I carry does not allow me to just tell stories, because I am aware that someone is in the meeting whom God came for. God wants to touch their life and turn it around.
If you see me tell stories, I can be funny, but I won’t lose my way. You can get to a point where you are telling a story and you forget what you are teaching. You can go for evangelism and start talking about politics if you are not careful. You might try to find a common ground to enter their heart, but if you are not careful, you can miss the opportunity completely.
CONCLUSION
The sum of what we have shared in this chapter is the fact that there is a Life-Transforming Grace. We have seen that template in the life of Paul. Someone can come from a “zero” background, and God’s grace will clean them up and make them a vessel, a voice, and an agent of transformation.