Full of Grace &Truth

By Dick Chamberlain

For more than fifty-five years, author Pastor Dick Chamberlain pastored several Midwestern churches, giving him ample opportunities to share the word of God through his sermons and other church duties. In Full of Grace and Truth, he presents a select offering of his best, teaching, preaching, and writing aimed at aiding the pastor, teacher, and layman in their service to others and to Jesus Christ himself.

This collection showcases Chamberlain’s masterful, alliterative approach to teaching the word of God to others, helping Christians better retain and read what they learn about Jesus Christ. Full of Grace and Truth presents a handbook for helping others to know Christ as intimately as they can.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385015139

Dick Chamberlain

Dick Chamberlain has been a dedicated servant of Jesus Christ for most of his eighty-three years of life, graduating Summa Cum Laude from Hyles-Andersen University and pastoring several churches during his more than fifty-five years of service to the body of Christ. His warm and engaging style of discipleship and mentoring has benefitted all who have had the privilege to hear him teach and preach.

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FULL OF

GRACE

&

TRUTH

DICK CHAMBERLAIN

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Copyright © 2024 Dick Chamberlain.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Sarah Doremus

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1511-5 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1512-2 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1513-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023924155

WestBow Press rev. date:  01/04/2024

To my wonderful, loving wife, Sharon, without

whose patience, understanding, and encouragement

this book could never have been published.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter 1     Full of Grace and Truth

Chapter 2     Help, Lord

Chapter 3     Hope

Chapter 4     So Do

Chapter 5     So Forgive

Chapter 6     So Run

Chapter 7     So Speak

Chapter 8     So Stand

Chapter 9     So Walk

Chapter 10   So Work

Chapter 11   Teaching Grace

Chapter 12   The Rock

Chapter 13   The Word of God Is …

Chapter 14   Things That Make You Go Hmmm: Where is Heaven?

Chapter 15   Titus 2:11

Chapter 16   What about the Church?

Chapter 17   Will of God

Chapter 18   Lessons in Lists

FOREWORD

As the biological son of the author of this book, I consider his request that I compose the foreword to be an honor of the highest magnitude.

As his son, I have had the unique privilege and pleasure to sit at his feet and glean some of the most important and revelatory lessons I have ever assimilated during my lifespan of now sixty-two years. I personally consider the author to be one of the finest Bible teachers that I have ever had the pleasure and profound privilege to listen to and learn from—and I have been present in the audience to listen to great soldiers of our faith, such as Dr. John Rice; Lester Roloff; Dr. Jack Hyles; Pastor Bobby Lounsberry of the Averyville Baptist Church in East Peoria, Illinois; and great pastor and theologian Dr. J. B. Hixson of Plum Creek Chapel in Sedalia, Colorado.

My dad, Pastor Dick Chamberlain, began teaching me and my sister, Kelly, the Bible at the tender young ages of five and three, respectively, in our home in West Peoria, Illinois, during nightly before-bedtime readings of Our Daily Bread devotionals. Little did I realize at that particular time what an incredible and beneficial blessing this would be for the remainder of my life.

Pastor Chamberlain himself has pastored several midwestern churches and was once an assistant pastor and parochial high school teacher and coach at the Averyville Baptist Church at the height of its prominence in the area, experiencing a regular Sunday morning attendance of seven hundred to eight hundred worshippers. His personal integrity and influence were a powerful beacon to many, both young and old, at that time, and his teaching acumen is still remembered and appreciated to this day; I know many who still tell me so today.

His great alliterative teaching method can still be heard today on The Christian Underground News Network, a podcast that airs from our family kitchen once a month. At eighty-three years of age, Pastor Dick is still a wonderful and warm educator who is loved by many.

With all that being said, I will tell you that your purchase of this book will be one that you will be able to appreciate and benefit from for years and years to come—just as I have for all these years. This book is one of the best teaching aids for the contemporary pastor or layperson that I can possibly think of, and I have read a multitude of them.

I am sure you will find Full of Grace and Truth to be interesting, at times humorous, and educational—but most of all, a loving tribute to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, without whose incredible grace and matchless mercy we would be eternally lost.

So, dear reader, enjoy!

Gratefully and Respectfully,

Curtis A. Chamberlain

1

FULL OF GRACE

AND TRUTH

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T he two outstanding attributes of Jesus Christ are grace and t ruth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17).

The believers in Jesus Christ are God’s dependents. Beloved, now are we the sons of God (1 John 3:2). Now, what we are, what we ought to be, and what we shall be depends on these two great attributes of Jesus Christ. We shall take a scriptural look at these two in the following subjects, Grace all over the place, and what is truth?

Grace All over the Place

For generations, believers in Jesus Christ have sung great hymns regarding grace. We have Amazing Grace, Wonderful Grace of Jesus, and Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord. But I wonder sometimes if we really comprehend the eminence, the enormity, the extent, the encouragement, and the edification of the amazing, wonderful, and marvelous doctrine of grace.

The word grace appears in the King James Version thirty-eight times in the Old Testament (OT) and 128 times in the New Testament (NT). Of the thirty-eight occurrences in the OT, the Hebrew word is chen, which, in its simplest term, means favor. Of the 128 occurrences in the NT, 127 times the Greek word is charis, which means gift. So if you could earn or buy it, it wasn’t a gift and thus not grace.

The first mention of grace in the scripture is found in Genesis 6:8: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Although this was the first time in the Bible the word grace is mentioned, the grace of God was always apparent and available. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:11). But what was happening in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:27–39) at this particular time in history that was so important to have made grace appear for the first time in the record? It was a terrible perversion that had been occurring that culminated in that "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5, emphasis added). The only solution to the problem was, always is, and ever shall be grace.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen. 6:8). The word found in Hebrew means