We have been praying for and approaching this day for some time. At least over the past two years we have been asking God to raise up men to be elders and lead his church here, and he has done it in calling forth Jonathan Douglas. And this morning we have the privilege of praying for him and appointing him as such.
However, before we do that, I want to point out a few things from the text which we have read this morning. The reason I have chosen this text is because back when Jonathan and I were first praying through the matter of him becoming an elder, this text was often one that our conversations would lead me to as I returned home and prayed for him. For he mentioned more than once the attitude that Paul expresses as being unworthy but knowing he would have to trust in the grace of God.
Therefore, I want to use this text to make three statements that are crucial for Jonathan and all of us to remember, no matter what our calling or where we are.
All of us, like Paul in verse 9, could say, “I am unworthy to be … because …,” filling in the blanks with whatever God has called us to be within his body and what we have done to spit in his face. For all of us have walked a similar road as Paul. We may not have persecuted the church, but we’ve done plenty else that makes us deserving of hell. And yet God has rescued us and saved us by his grace. That is something that we do not need to forget.
Even as a church, we are able to see some great things happening in our midst. I think that the structure of church government that we are establishing is as close to a biblical model as any I have known. I think that the individual we are appointing as an elder today is someone that has been called by God to do so. And I think that we are blessed to have a body of believers who will pray for him not only today but in the days that follow.
However, I don’t want us to forget that all of these blessings are from the gracious hand of God. They are nothing that we have done in and of ourselves. It is the Lord who works among us. So there is no room for pride within this body but only humility and gratitude toward our Lord.
It is a good and healthy thing to be reminded today that none of us before our conversion were any different than Paul before his. We were are blind, dead in our sin, and enemies of God. We hated the things of God in our hearts even if we didn’t say it with our mouths. And none of us deserve to be laboring in the church of God, fellowshipping with our Lord, and walking with the security that our home is with him. None of us deserves to have perfect righteousness credited to our account, but “by the grace of God [we] are what [we are].”
Also remember what it took for us to taste God’s grace. Deuteronomy 21 gives us a picture of this. In this chapter God instructs his people that if they find a dead body that has been killed, and the murderer cannot be found, then they are not simply to look over the matter but to take from among their livestock and break his neck.
Now, this may seem odd, but the lesson is that sin cannot simply be overlooked and “swept under the rug.” It must be punished. Therefore, just because we know God’s grace and our sin has been cast into the depths of the sea, remember what had to happen on the cross for us to know God’s grace.
Like Paul we would do well to remember from whence we came. I often wondered as I read through Acts why Paul kept preaching to the Jews who hated Jesus and his church, wouldn’t listen to Paul, and tried to kill the very people who were trying to proclaim to them the words of eternal life. But then I realized that Paul himself had been one of them, but he had tasted God’s grace and knew he was forever bound to walk in light of that. May we all do the same.
Paul goes on to write, “And his grace to me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them” (v. 10). I pray that all of us can say the same.
What are we to do in light of our understanding that it is utterly by God’s grace that we know him and are his children? We are to labor with everything in us to know and delight in him more. For grace is not merely passive in covering our sins; it is also active in giving us the strength to overcome them. Therefore, let God’s grace not prove vain, but labor to know him and delight in him and live holy before him.
It is hard to believe even in my own life that I can be lazy in my pursuit to know and delight in God when much of the world cannot do that because their eyes have been blinded from seeing the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). It makes me sick to have to confess this to my Lord.
We need to be diligent in our task to know God and follow his decrees because we have been privileged to do so. As recipients of grace, we need to labor in getting out of bed to study and pray, writing what God speaks to us as we read his word, praying for his church, working strategically in evangelism, and wrestling with theological problems. We need to labor because we have known God’s grace and, therefore, can and do know him.
We need to hear Martin Luther. He knew that he was what he was by the grace of God, for he had strived for years to attain perfect righteousness and knew it was impossible. And he hated the righteousness of God because he couldn’t attain it.
Finally, one day God opened his eyes to the truth of Romans 1:17 to see that the righteousness of God is attained not through man’s works but through faith in Christ. Luther believed, and walked knowing that he was who he was only by the grace of God. And it resulted in him laboring in the work of God. He preached upwards of 200 times a year, was a university professor, in one stretch wrote a publishable work every other day, counseled, read, helped shape the church, and did a hundred other things at the same time. He labored because he has tasted the grace of God and it did not prove to be in vain.
He, therefore, encourages the rest of us saying, “In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well … The devil ... the world … and our flesh are raging and raving against us. Therefore, dear sirs and brothers, pastors and preachers, pray read, study, be diligent … This evil shameful time is not the season for being lazy, for sleeping and snoring.”1
And, keeping in mind his labor, his words strike hard at all of us as he also writes, “A person should work in such a way that he remains well and does no injury to his body. We should not break our heads at work and injure our bodies … I myself used to do such things, and I have racked my brains because I still have not overcome the bad habit of overworking. Nor shall I overcome it as long as I live.”2
Yes, take a Sabbath during the week, but labor on the other days with everything that is in you, realizing the blessing of being a child of God. Let’s hear the words of Paul as we think of our calling, “His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored more than all of them.”
After talking of his labor, Paul went on to write, “But not I, but the grace of God with me. So whether I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” And in writing that, he reminds us that there is a manner in which we must labor, namely, by the strength which God supplies. 1 Peter 4:11 tells us, “Whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
We labor by the strength which God supplies so that at the end of the day it is God who is being seen and not us. This is crucial in that it allows us to fulfill our ultimate calling of drawing attention to our Heavenly Father.
Let me give you an example of this. Several months ago while I was at home, my nephew was trying to open our back door as he was trying to come into our living room from the deck. It is a hard door to open, and so he couldn’t. However, he was trying to turn the knob and push open the door. As I saw him, I walked over turned the knob from the inside and pulled on the door. Jordan came rushing inside as the door quickly opened.
Now, everyone knew that Jordan’s hands were on the knob and he was pushing the door, but that in reality it was impossible for him to open this door and that I had been the one to do it. Therefore, at the end of this event everyone’s eyes were on me as they smiled at what I had done to help Jordan.
In the same way, when we serve by God’s strength, it may be our mouths that our moving, our voice that is coming out, and our hands turning the pages as we teach the Word of God, but if we are serving by God’s strength, then everyone’s eyes will be looking beyond us and Matthew 5:16 will be fulfilled in our lives.
Therefore, in everything you do, admit you cannot do it, ask God to give you the strength, trust that he will, and then go about doing the task. It might feel like your doing it. Your hands might “be on the door knob.” But God will be the one doing the work.
And when we all live this way, it doesn’t matter who does what, for we will all know that ultimately it is God. That is why Paul can end writing, “So whether I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” Let us labor by God’s grace so that he alone receives glory.
Let these words be on our hearts as we move forward from this very special day. Amen.