back to index2021-11-28 Strenghtened by Grace Part 2
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to finally finish 00:00:10.680 |
the second part that we started a couple weeks ago. 00:00:18.960 |
We're focused on verse 9 obviously, but I want to read it in context, verse 7, 8, and 00:00:32.160 |
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result 00:00:38.380 |
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 00:00:43.000 |
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to 00:00:46.760 |
be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who are so occupied were not benefited. 00:00:54.520 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come before you 00:00:59.680 |
We ask, Lord God, that you would soften our hearts, open our ears, that we may remember 00:01:06.680 |
and to give you praise for all the grace that you've given us that we do not deserve. 00:01:12.200 |
We pray, Father God, for your kindness, your presence with us. 00:01:22.160 |
You know, I know most of you guys who celebrated Thanksgiving with your family and all that 00:01:27.920 |
entails with all the family members gathering together, the food that you eat, and sometimes 00:01:35.600 |
we celebrate and at the end of our celebration we're so tired that we're ready to go back 00:01:44.360 |
But when you think about the purpose of these gatherings, the purpose of holidays, is to 00:01:49.040 |
kind of take a break for us to remember, to celebrate, rest, maybe even recuperate so 00:01:56.880 |
You know, but a lot of times the way that we practice these holidays, it does exactly 00:02:02.760 |
We get so tired that we need to take a break from the break that we took, you know. 00:02:07.480 |
And so this time of the season is typically we can kind of get burnt out because we have 00:02:11.240 |
Thanksgiving, we have Christmas, and then after Christmas you have New Year's. 00:02:15.120 |
And so when New Year's come around you kind of have a big sigh of relief, it's like, oh, 00:02:18.280 |
we can get back to normal because all this stuff is, you know, behind us. 00:02:23.320 |
Obviously that was not the intent of that, but as human beings we have a tendency to 00:02:27.920 |
make what was intended for rest and recuperation into work. 00:02:31.680 |
And that's exactly what Jesus said to the Pharisees when they made the Sabbath work 00:02:37.860 |
and they were so meticulous about keeping the Sabbath and who's breaking it and who's 00:02:44.680 |
And when Jesus showed up, he said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. 00:02:48.880 |
The whole purpose of the Sabbath was to give you rest and you made it into more work than 00:02:55.620 |
So we have a tendency as Christians to do exactly that. 00:03:01.400 |
God gave us life and he said to give it abundantly. 00:03:04.640 |
But if you've been a Christian for a while, if we're not careful, we can easily turn all 00:03:09.320 |
of our service, all of our worship, giving sacrifice into labor and work. 00:03:14.560 |
And so if you're not careful, when you think of church, it's a place to work. 00:03:22.080 |
You go hiking and take trips for rest, but then we've got to get back to work when we 00:03:27.360 |
But when you look in the scripture, it says he came so that he can give us rest. 00:03:35.280 |
Have we come this morning because this is where we truly find life? 00:03:39.660 |
Or have we made it into a Sabbath of works where we just need to get going? 00:03:46.200 |
There's a tendency, especially in our generation, that we think that if we preach too much about 00:03:50.940 |
grace it's going to lead to cheap grace, licentiousness. 00:03:55.420 |
Or maybe some of you in here says if we emphasize too much on holiness, it's going to lead to 00:04:02.640 |
And so because of fear of cheap grace and because of fear of legalism, we kind of end 00:04:09.020 |
up over-embracing one or the other, and then we kind of teeter-totter back and forth. 00:04:16.500 |
But the scripture is absolutely crystal clear. 00:04:19.420 |
God never does anything where he compromises either. 00:04:23.580 |
So the text that we're looking at where he says, "Do not be carried away by varied and 00:04:26.580 |
strange teaching," the varied and strange teaching that predominantly was affecting 00:04:34.040 |
And they're going back and forth, back and forth. 00:04:36.100 |
And he says here, "For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not foods, 00:04:41.100 |
and through those which those were so occupied were not benefited." 00:04:44.580 |
They worked so hard to be righteous by their own standards, but they didn't benefit from 00:04:52.660 |
In other words, to live righteously, pursue holiness, he said, "But by the grace of God." 00:04:59.540 |
God will never compromise his grace or his holiness. 00:05:04.180 |
And whenever we catch ourselves doing one or the other, we know that we've strayed. 00:05:09.740 |
Grace will never compromise righteousness, and righteousness never compromises grace. 00:05:14.080 |
Because to compromise either is to negate the necessity of the cross. 00:05:20.060 |
If you emphasize grace without righteousness, there's no need for the cross. 00:05:24.120 |
If you emphasize righteousness without grace, again, there's no need for the cross. 00:05:29.500 |
The cross is a perfect union where neither his grace or his righteousness is compromised. 00:05:36.220 |
The early church wrestled with this because people who are hearing this and saying either 00:05:40.900 |
they emphasize grace, so let us sin so grace may abound. 00:05:45.140 |
Jude actually mentions that in verse Jude 4 when he says, "For certain persons have 00:05:49.300 |
crept in unnoticed, those who are long before marked out for this condemnation, ungodly 00:05:55.140 |
persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and 00:06:03.660 |
Because salvation was by grace, well if it's by grace, then it doesn't matter. 00:06:08.500 |
And we have people who think like that today. 00:06:10.700 |
Since it is by grace, we should be righteous, and it'd be good if we were taking the commandments 00:06:16.460 |
of God seriously, but even if we don't, one saved always saved. 00:06:20.100 |
And we kind of cling on to these cliches and turn the grace of God into licentiousness. 00:06:26.380 |
First Peter 2.16 again says, "Act as free men, men who have been freed from the law, 00:06:31.500 |
and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God." 00:06:38.060 |
I don't know how many people that I've talked to in our generation where they're talking 00:06:41.060 |
about the freedom in Christ, and that their freedom means that they can do whatever they 00:06:47.620 |
And the scripture clearly says, "Do not use your freedom for licentiousness." 00:06:51.980 |
If you want to know what God thinks about this cheap grace, it's spelled out in 2 Peter 00:06:57.300 |
2.19-22, "Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by 00:07:03.580 |
what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 00:07:07.880 |
For if after they have escaped the defilement of the world by the knowledge of the Lord 00:07:11.300 |
and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has 00:07:19.180 |
For would it be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having 00:07:22.500 |
known it, turn away from the holy commandment, hand it on to them? 00:07:27.000 |
It has happened to them according to the true proverb." 00:07:30.100 |
I mean this is probably one of the harshest criticism in the New Testament. 00:07:34.540 |
"A dog returns to his own vomit, and is so after washing, returns to wallowing in the 00:07:41.180 |
I mean that's a pretty vivid image of a dog going back to its vomit. 00:07:45.660 |
And that's how he describes somebody who turns the grace of God into licentiousness. 00:07:55.740 |
You can say whatever you want, you can proclaim whatever you want, you can sign whatever doctrine 00:08:00.300 |
that you want, but if your life contradicts your faith, it says it's dead. 00:08:04.660 |
What it means by it's dead is it's not saving faith. 00:08:08.400 |
You have faith that's the same faith that the demons do, and yet they shudder in fear 00:08:14.300 |
because there's no fruit that comes from that. 00:08:18.460 |
Billy Graham years ago, probably, there is no argument with this, that he probably preached 00:08:23.580 |
the gospel to more people than any other human being alive, in number. 00:08:32.300 |
He was able to at least preach the gospel through his crusades and years of ministry 00:08:37.380 |
But years ago, Billy Graham began to notice something in his ministry that was very concerning 00:08:42.520 |
to him, and according to their own statistics, that out of hundreds and thousands of people 00:08:47.980 |
who made commitments of faith during these crusades, they found out that over 94% of 00:08:54.820 |
them, after they make their commitment of faith, never make it to church. 00:09:00.460 |
That means only 6% of the people who raised their hand, came down, accepted Jesus Christ, 00:09:08.540 |
So you have hundreds and thousands of people walking around, one saved, always saved, and 00:09:12.660 |
hearing these cliches, and never actually understand what it means to live according 00:09:17.900 |
to all that I have commanded you, because they never made it to church. 00:09:23.060 |
And the statistics are actually even more dire than that, because they said that of 00:09:26.660 |
the 6% who made it to church, only a very small percentage of that made it after the 00:09:33.740 |
So you have all these people walking around, like, "We're saved by grace. 00:09:40.420 |
Again, it's not false, but it's not complete. 00:09:43.860 |
And as a result of that, we have what we have in our generation. 00:09:47.220 |
Again, I'm not saying Billy Graham, it's just the way that we've done evangelism today that 00:09:54.900 |
In fact, I had a pastor say to me years ago that he was so frustrated with the way that 00:09:59.880 |
our faith is being practiced, that it was just cheap grace, licentiousness, and he said, 00:10:05.320 |
at one point he said, "You know, we need some more legalism in order to balance out the 00:10:11.100 |
I remember when he said that, I was in agreement. 00:10:13.700 |
Yes, I'm so frustrated that this is...Christianity that I know of what I see in Scripture doesn't 00:10:22.180 |
But as the years passed by, I realized just how wrong that is, because legalism is just 00:10:26.780 |
as sinful as licentiousness, because in the early church, that was their primary battle. 00:10:33.380 |
The whole book of Galatians is to combat legalism. 00:10:37.920 |
So we don't combat false teaching with another false teaching to try to balance that. 00:10:43.580 |
In fact, I think what we need in our generation is to truly understand when the Bible says 00:10:49.200 |
grace, what that grace means, and how we are to be empowered by that grace. 00:10:56.120 |
So we don't balance each other by doing...because it's legalism, we're going to fall to licentiousness 00:11:01.600 |
Because we're concerned about cheap grace, we're going to go to legalism. 00:11:03.960 |
I think the answer to that is the Bible, that we need to get into Scripture, make sure that 00:11:08.840 |
we understand when we say grace, that we are practicing what the Bible says grace is, and 00:11:16.360 |
So a couple of weeks ago, we started out with four points. 00:11:20.720 |
So let me review the first two, and then we'll get to the third point today. 00:11:27.040 |
First one, we talked about how does grace strengthen us? 00:11:36.920 |
So every single individual that comes to church, our beginning point is the same. 00:11:41.180 |
Whether you are Nicodemus, or whether you are the Samaritan woman, the entrance into 00:11:48.480 |
The hearty needs to be humbled, the humble need to be brought up, but the entrance is 00:11:53.960 |
You know the passage, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, 00:11:57.840 |
and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no 00:12:03.400 |
So the first thing that it does, it gets rid of any human pride, any human glory. 00:12:12.520 |
You know, years ago, many of you know that during a period of our church, I had to run 00:12:21.720 |
And again, I'm not going to go into the details of what happened there, but for that year, 00:12:26.640 |
I learned something that I'm very thankful that I was able to be there for that period, 00:12:32.840 |
Because one of the things that I observed while I was there was the different groups 00:12:39.200 |
What's unique about Vegas is they would have large conventions. 00:12:43.260 |
And so the conventions would, you know, sometimes would have 5,000, 4,000, but sometimes they 00:12:47.640 |
would have large conventions where somewhere around 30 to, if it's a large convention, 00:12:52.000 |
100,000 people would come into town, all in the same industry. 00:12:56.720 |
And there's two groups of people that we all hated when they came into town. 00:13:12.160 |
So whenever they would come into town, they're just so obnoxious because everybody is selling 00:13:19.840 |
I haven't met a single person who didn't do at least a million dollars or $10 million 00:13:25.480 |
They wear $5 shoes, but then they did $10 million sales. 00:13:28.760 |
And so they're always trying to sell something. 00:13:31.440 |
And so they're not bad people, but just obnoxious. 00:13:34.520 |
You never feel like you're talking to the real person. 00:13:38.640 |
The other group of people that would come to town was the TV executives. 00:13:43.680 |
Again, if you happen to be a TV executive, I'm not talking about you. 00:13:47.400 |
I'm talking about everybody else around you at work, okay? 00:13:51.320 |
When these guys would come to town, I think they're so used to bossing people around, 00:13:56.000 |
you know, and they're making power decisions. 00:13:57.640 |
And these are decisions that they make over celebrities. 00:14:01.960 |
And so they kind of had this paradigm that everybody was below them. 00:14:05.400 |
So again, if you see one or two of them, you kind of say, "Wow, they're jerks." 00:14:10.480 |
But when you see a convention come in and you see 30,000, 40,000 of them, nobody wanted 00:14:14.640 |
to be around because everybody was, you're getting ordered. 00:14:21.120 |
And so there was kind of like all our coworkers when we were working out there, like we just 00:14:24.680 |
hated when that week came around because we knew we were going to be cranky at the end 00:14:30.440 |
But the main reason why that was, was because they were just filled with pride. 00:14:35.820 |
And when you're around with a lot of people who are filled with pride, they're just miserable. 00:14:41.280 |
But there was one group of people that would come into town we all looked forward to, and 00:14:47.320 |
You know, they would typically come to some sort of a NASCAR convention or something. 00:14:51.060 |
And it was a big, one of the biggest conventions that would come into town. 00:14:57.520 |
And when the cowboys came into town, it was party time, you know, because they're not, 00:15:04.720 |
They knew that this convention was coming and they saved all year. 00:15:09.360 |
And so when they came into town, they were just happy to be there. 00:15:13.840 |
So they were generous and they knew that they only had a short period, so they're going 00:15:19.020 |
And anybody that was around just partied with them. 00:15:22.260 |
Just humble guys who, you know, blue collar workers just knew that this was their special 00:15:31.720 |
And so we did the best sales during that time, you know, got the best tips. 00:15:37.200 |
And these guys just wanted to hang out with you, you know, and all of it because there's 00:15:42.160 |
They just came in, saved up all year, and they're just going to come in and have fun 00:15:48.700 |
But I remember that the primary difference between the people who came and the people 00:15:52.640 |
that we enjoyed and people who didn't, who came in that we didn't enjoy, all had to do 00:16:01.880 |
You see one or two of them, now you try to avoid them. 00:16:07.400 |
But when the cowboys were in, it was, you know, we all became cowboys for a period, 00:16:13.280 |
The church, if we're not careful, we can turn the church into a measurement of righteousness. 00:16:18.960 |
And everybody's looking at each other, who's doing what, who's not doing what, and it becomes 00:16:22.240 |
a miserable place when we are not strengthened and moved by the grace of God. 00:16:33.280 |
We are also being sanctified by the grace of God. 00:16:36.280 |
When that becomes the primary motivation, primary thing that we sing about, it changes 00:16:44.160 |
Sad thing to say that years ago, I went to a pastor's convention out in Kentucky. 00:16:50.880 |
I mean, some of you guys know, you know, what convention I may be talking about. 00:16:55.040 |
And this was like 3,000, 4,000 pastors were in town. 00:16:58.320 |
And this was the second year, second time we were having this convention. 00:17:01.960 |
And the leader of the convention, as we were starting, had to address the pastors and say, 00:17:06.880 |
after the first convention, there was a lot of complaint in town that all these pastors 00:17:12.300 |
were acting obnoxiously and that they were rude to the workers there. 00:17:18.100 |
And so they had to tell us that you guys left a pretty bad taste in the mouth of the workers 00:17:24.800 |
And so they were cautioning us that to be a better witness. 00:17:28.960 |
And this wasn't just a gathering of a bunch of Christians. 00:17:34.160 |
And obviously, we were all rebuked, and everybody acted extra nice and left big, fat tips to 00:17:41.040 |
combat whatever it was, the negative thing that we've left behind the couple years before. 00:17:47.120 |
But the fact that they even had to remind us of that says a lot about where we're at. 00:17:53.280 |
That we can get so caught up in this business of Christianity that the end result doesn't 00:17:58.680 |
turn into praise and glory to God, but it becomes a heavy burden. 00:18:03.480 |
Just like we celebrate Thanksgiving, at the end of it, it's like, oh, thank God it's over. 00:18:08.440 |
It didn't actually recuperate or strengthen or remind. 00:18:14.720 |
And sometimes we can approach our Christian faith that way. 00:18:28.440 |
This is where we come to get burdened at the work. 00:18:31.720 |
If we're not strengthened by grace and our starting and continuing point isn't grace, 00:18:39.440 |
Secondly, to be strengthened by grace is to have absolute security in our salvation. 00:18:45.200 |
That we're not constantly wondering back and forth every time we struggle and every time 00:18:48.680 |
we're righteous, that we are filled with pride or filled with fear. 00:18:53.680 |
Isaiah 41.10 is that, "Do not fear, for I am with you. 00:18:56.440 |
Do not be anxious and look about you, for I am your God. 00:19:01.360 |
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." 00:19:05.720 |
You and I are in a covenant relationship with God. 00:19:08.240 |
That's why whenever two people get married, we remind them that this covenant is not dependent 00:19:15.480 |
God's calling to the husband and the wife is unilateral. 00:19:25.080 |
And so that's not broken because of unfaithfulness of one or the other. 00:19:32.320 |
I think the best way to describe that, where we find strength and security, is, you know, 00:19:37.600 |
when you're dating and you get in a fight, and some of you guys may be in a dating situation 00:19:41.200 |
now, maybe this is very personal to you, but when you're dating and you get in a fight, 00:19:46.640 |
every fight is dangerous because there's always this nervousness that, "Is this going to lead 00:19:55.160 |
And so you have to make sure, and you're putting out the best foot, and every fight becomes 00:20:04.400 |
And I'm not saying that if you get married, you know, fighting is okay, but there's a 00:20:08.760 |
piece that you have that when you have disagreements with your wife in a covenant relationship, 00:20:13.360 |
because you know at the end of the day, you're going to end up going back to the same house, 00:20:20.160 |
And so you know that that bond is not easily broken because of this covenant relationship 00:20:29.000 |
And in the same way, our marriage is a reflection of the covenant that God made with us. 00:20:34.680 |
And that's why in Isaiah, he says, "I will uphold you, I will strengthen you, I will 00:20:39.560 |
And so our relationship does not teeter back and forth between being saved and unsaved, 00:20:45.240 |
being saved and unsaved because of what you and I do. 00:20:49.320 |
God made a unilateral commitment to us, and so we have that security. 00:20:54.240 |
And so that's how we are strengthened, number two. 00:20:59.200 |
To be strengthened by grace means we are being equipped for good works. 00:21:16.640 |
So again, we have a tendency, if we're not careful, that we start with justification 00:21:20.640 |
by grace, but when it comes to sanctification, we really have to be committed and to be discipled 00:21:26.040 |
and disciplined and shamed and taught and equipped. 00:21:31.120 |
And so we have a tendency to start with the grace of God, and the rest of it, I'm going 00:21:36.440 |
Paul addresses that in Galatians 3, 1-3, when he says, "You foolish Galatians, who has 00:21:41.600 |
bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, this 00:21:47.480 |
is the only thing I want to find out from you. 00:21:49.560 |
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?" 00:22:00.440 |
Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:22:06.920 |
If you started by faith, you continue by faith, and you will finish by faith. 00:22:12.680 |
What he means by this is, people who tend to be focused on their will, their discipline 00:22:23.480 |
for righteousness in their sanctification, usually ends up becoming either self-righteous 00:22:32.900 |
If you're working hard by your own effort, you will eventually, it may not happen immediately, 00:22:36.880 |
but eventually, it leads to self-righteousness, where you measure everybody based upon your 00:22:44.120 |
So whatever you're good at, you're frustrated that other people aren't as good as you. 00:22:49.040 |
And then when you don't live up to even your own standard, you go into self-condemnation. 00:22:53.680 |
And you teeter back, back and forth, back and forth. 00:22:56.600 |
Then eventually you get burned out, because it doesn't bear true fruit. 00:23:01.560 |
Some of the most bitterest and angriest people are the people who used to serve in the church 00:23:13.600 |
I gave so much, but they didn't give back to me. 00:23:19.800 |
And eventually, their frustration, either self-righteousness, and when they don't live 00:23:25.240 |
up to it, they lead to self-condemnation, but they don't last long. 00:23:31.160 |
So he says, we started by faith, and we will continue by faith. 00:23:35.320 |
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, 8, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you." 00:23:42.960 |
He's able to make all grace abound to you, "so that always having all sufficiency in 00:23:47.920 |
everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed." 00:23:54.520 |
"So that you may have all sufficiency to do what? 00:24:02.960 |
So he says, the purpose of grace is not simply to free you from the penalty of sin. 00:24:10.760 |
The purpose of grace is to free you from the penalty of sin, and to equip you so that you 00:24:18.840 |
First Corinthians 15, 10, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward 00:24:29.200 |
What does Paul mean here, that grace be in vain? 00:24:34.120 |
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace 00:24:42.400 |
So in other words, he says, grace would be in vain if it didn't lead to greater work 00:24:52.040 |
Because we have a tendency to think grace is applied when we are not working, when we 00:24:56.960 |
are not laboring, when we are not pursuing righteousness. 00:24:59.760 |
And then when we're pursuing righteousness, it's our discipline, it's our work. 00:25:03.160 |
But Paul says, grace of God was not in vain because the evidence of God's grace is what 00:25:12.960 |
Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, this is a passage that we sing about grace of God. 00:25:17.960 |
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. 00:25:21.600 |
It is a gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one may boast." 00:25:26.400 |
But then he says in verse 10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for 00:25:32.600 |
Good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." 00:25:38.320 |
He says he humbles us, he saves us for what purpose? 00:25:44.840 |
So our salvation isn't simply being saved from hell. 00:25:48.960 |
That is a byproduct of what he's doing, but his ultimate goal is to restore us back to 00:25:59.640 |
So good works and righteousness and holiness is not a byproduct, it's not something extra. 00:26:06.200 |
He said from the very get-go, he says, righteousness and good works is the intent of our salvation. 00:26:16.120 |
You see why when you either fall on legalism or cheap grace, that's not the gospel? 00:26:30.460 |
You know, in the early church, the Judaizers who embraced Christ's forgiveness, and yet 00:26:40.440 |
You need to still keep circumcision and all of this." 00:26:43.480 |
They're saying, "Well, if true salvation is by grace alone, then are you saying that we 00:26:54.280 |
He says in Romans 6, 1-7, "What shall we say then? 00:26:56.880 |
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 00:27:02.760 |
I think some of you translated it, it says, "By no means." 00:27:14.320 |
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 00:27:19.320 |
If you've really been crucified with Christ, how can you continue to live like you've never 00:27:23.960 |
For do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been 00:27:30.880 |
Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that Christ, who raised 00:27:35.040 |
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life." 00:27:39.320 |
The whole reason why we baptize in the way that we do is because the symbolism of that 00:27:46.880 |
That's why we don't sprinkle at our church, because that's what it says. 00:27:49.760 |
It signifies that we are dead in Christ, we are buried in Christ, and then we are resurrected 00:27:56.680 |
as Christ was resurrected in verse 4, verse 5. 00:27:58.600 |
"For if we have become united with him in his likeness of his death, certainly we shall 00:28:02.380 |
also be like in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified 00:28:07.480 |
with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer 00:28:12.200 |
be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin." 00:28:19.560 |
We were studying through the book of Titus, and we had a brief discussion about this in 00:28:24.720 |
our home group leaders meeting, but oftentimes people think of justification in an incomplete 00:28:32.280 |
manner, and it doesn't make any sense if you don't really understand the whole context 00:28:39.000 |
Because when we think about justification, we probably have heard that maybe you committed 00:28:47.800 |
And you deserve the death penalty, and that was a sentence that was given to you. 00:28:52.000 |
And the judge, who happened to be compassionate, steps in and says, "I will take that punishment 00:28:59.160 |
So the judge takes the punishment upon himself, and the murderer ends up leaving to live his 00:29:05.880 |
A lot of people think that that's the totality of what justification is. 00:29:10.880 |
Now if that was all of what justification is, did a good thing happen? 00:29:18.800 |
Because that murderer had no penalty, went out to do whatever he wants, and the righteous 00:29:27.460 |
Who would look at that situation in life and say, "That was good"? 00:29:33.240 |
Would you look at that and say, "That murderer who deserved to be punished, and yet the judge 00:29:38.560 |
got the punishment, and all these people were just walked out, never committing or being 00:29:46.360 |
in jail at all, no punishment whatsoever, and we celebrate that and say, 'Wow, that's 00:29:51.800 |
Who would think that he's a good judge by just letting them go? 00:29:57.760 |
There's a crucial part of that that a lot of people don't understand, which leads to 00:30:07.960 |
The Bible says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:30:13.840 |
He said, "Their old self has been crucified with Christ. 00:30:17.680 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." 00:30:22.600 |
So when we get baptized, it's symbolic of our old self dying, that it completely renewed 00:30:29.280 |
So it wasn't that same sinner, it wasn't that same person who was judged to eternal 00:30:36.240 |
damnation, our whole destiny changed because our whole identity and who we are has changed. 00:30:42.280 |
And only then we can say the righteous thing happened because that old self died, and the 00:30:50.540 |
But if it's the old self, and all that happened was that the penalty of sin was paid for, 00:30:56.140 |
so you can go out and do whatever you want, so now you're covered by the blood of Christ, 00:31:04.980 |
That is not the complete picture of justification. 00:31:09.080 |
Justification tells us that we are crucified with Christ. 00:31:18.040 |
He explains it a little bit further in Romans 6, 15-18, "What then, shall we sin because 00:31:27.300 |
Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves or obedient, you are 00:31:30.720 |
slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting 00:31:38.640 |
But thanks be to God that through you, though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient 00:31:43.640 |
from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. 00:31:47.040 |
And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." 00:31:53.600 |
Not only were we freed from the slavery of sin and condemnation, he says, now we become 00:32:02.280 |
Now that sounds good in theology, but in practice, what does that look like? 00:32:09.960 |
I think the best way to illustrate this is from my own life. 00:32:15.680 |
I remember, and again, I've shared this before, but I remember when I first became a Christian, 00:32:23.720 |
But after months have gone by, I started struggling with the same things over and again. 00:32:29.560 |
My temper, you know, like I was getting into fights, purity issues, and every Friday I'm 00:32:36.960 |
And after about seven, eight, nine months of this and getting into fights and disappointing 00:32:40.580 |
my mom again, and I just couldn't do it anymore. 00:32:45.280 |
Not because I was tempted by the world, but I was just frustrated with myself. 00:32:50.160 |
I was so determined to prove specifically to my mom that I was a different person, and 00:32:55.680 |
I kept on falling into the same sin, and I just kind of let it go. 00:32:59.640 |
So I just walked out, and I just started to backslide and do whatever I wanted. 00:33:04.200 |
And I had some friends who, you know, was doing whatever they wanted and happened to 00:33:10.880 |
So I remember during that period, about a year and a year and a half, I was backsliding 00:33:15.160 |
and going to parties and getting drunk, and I was starting to do things that I didn't 00:33:21.400 |
But I remember the whole time being at parties, getting drunk with my friends, and never feeling 00:33:30.960 |
And every opportunity I had, I would start to tell them about God at parties while I'm 00:33:42.920 |
So you're getting drunk, you're doing everything that they're doing, and they said, "Yeah, 00:33:49.360 |
You know, I know what I'm doing is stupid, but one day I'm going to have to go back, 00:33:54.680 |
I'm telling them this is not who I am, even though I was acting like it. 00:34:02.120 |
And the funny thing was, the only people that I really connected with were the other Christians 00:34:10.780 |
And we would sit there while we're doing stupid things and talking about how, "Well, how did 00:34:19.960 |
And then we would connect with each other and always tell us that one of these days 00:34:24.240 |
we're going to have to go back, one of these days we're going to have to go back, because 00:34:30.800 |
You know, I went and tried to go back and embrace that life, but I just was not the 00:34:42.320 |
We had a crazy night, you know, we almost got arrested. 00:34:45.640 |
I won't get into all the stories, but by the time I got home, three in the morning, I was 00:34:49.360 |
sitting there, slowly starting to sober up, talking to myself, "Is this fun for you?" 00:35:12.000 |
I'd rather at least face the right direction than to continue to do what I'm doing now, 00:35:23.240 |
And I remember at that time, if God didn't make me a new creature, if I was able to walk 00:35:34.200 |
I remember even in ministry, there were times when I just want to quit. 00:35:37.400 |
And I remember, you know, I was ready to just pack it up. 00:35:41.920 |
And something simple that my mom and my wife Esther said the exact same thing. 00:35:49.280 |
And I know they wanted me to quit more than anybody else. 00:35:53.440 |
And I remember saying this to Esther, it's like, "If you want," you know, like I've reached 00:35:58.520 |
And then I remember specifically Esther's telling me, "I know you." 00:36:03.080 |
As much as I don't want to do it anymore either, I know you. 00:36:07.200 |
If you quit, you're not going to be able to be okay and live another life. 00:36:16.640 |
As much as I may be tempted and frustrated sometimes, God gave me a new... 00:36:30.960 |
I don't find peace, even though there might be periods when I'm tempted and frustrated. 00:36:35.260 |
But who I am, He's God made me to function in the light. 00:36:39.960 |
So my life doesn't feel comfortable in the darkness anymore. 00:36:44.800 |
Even though at times I may be tempted, I may be frustrated to run to it. 00:36:47.960 |
If you are a new creation, you're no longer a slave to sin, but He made you a slave to 00:36:54.360 |
righteousness where you can do no other than to follow Christ. 00:37:00.760 |
Even though at times you may be kicking and screaming, but if you are a new creation in 00:37:05.400 |
Christ, you only find peace when you are near Christ. 00:37:10.600 |
Because your eyes no longer function well in darkness. 00:37:16.640 |
And so when you make decisions, when you try to live in darkness, you're fumbling through 00:37:28.520 |
And you second guessing every decision that you make because you weren't meant to function 00:37:38.440 |
That's what that means to be strengthened by grace. 00:37:41.080 |
It is the grace of God that caused me to persevere. 00:37:45.000 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to love. 00:37:49.000 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to sacrifice. 00:37:51.160 |
It's the grace of God that caused me to worship. 00:37:54.320 |
And fourthly, it's the grace of God that caused me to proclaim His word with boldness. 00:38:02.240 |
To be strengthened by grace gives us boldness to proclaim the gospel. 00:38:07.960 |
You know, when the apostles stood, risked their lives to preach the gospel, people didn't 00:38:16.400 |
observe their education or their great training or discipleship. 00:38:23.400 |
It says in Acts 4.13, "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood 00:38:36.200 |
You know, a lot of the secular scholars will say that the apostles manipulated the New 00:38:45.240 |
So they made up the resurrection to venerate Jesus for their own benefit. 00:38:51.560 |
If that's what they did, the New Testament is ... they're the dumbest people in the world. 00:39:00.360 |
The text that they manipulated for their own glory says that they were rebuked by Paul 00:39:05.520 |
publicly, that the women came to the grave before they did, and when Jesus was standing 00:39:15.600 |
I mean, if they did this for their own glory, they sure did a bad job. 00:39:20.400 |
Here it says, "They were uneducated and untrained men. 00:39:24.940 |
They were amazed and began to recognize them as having been," what? 00:39:30.900 |
Their boldness didn't come because of training. 00:39:33.020 |
Their boldness didn't come because of the education or their experience. 00:39:36.320 |
All it says was their boldness came because they saw that boldness in Jesus. 00:39:47.160 |
When I go, if you want to bear fruit, you remain in me. 00:39:50.160 |
They recognized these uneducated, untrained men. 00:39:55.440 |
It was the grace of God that gave them the boldness to proclaim the truth. 00:40:00.720 |
That's why it says in 1 Corinthians 1, 18-19, "For the word of the cross is foolishness 00:40:04.720 |
to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 00:40:09.000 |
For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. 00:40:17.040 |
Our boldness does not come because we're very well educated or you took some evangelism 00:40:21.400 |
class and all of these things are the grace of God, right? 00:40:25.200 |
These are all beneficial, but that's not where our effectiveness come from. 00:40:30.480 |
Our effectiveness comes from being affected by the grace of God. 00:40:36.760 |
The reason why sometimes we feel so inadequate is because we have drifted from His grace. 00:40:44.320 |
Being strengthened by the grace of God are people who have been enamored with Christ. 00:40:50.800 |
Remember when you first came to Christ, you know who are the most bold for their faith? 00:40:59.040 |
Not the people who are the most well-equipped. 00:41:02.120 |
You know who are the most bold for the kingdom of God? 00:41:09.460 |
They don't know about dispensation of covenant theology. 00:41:13.040 |
But they're the boldest for the kingdom of God. 00:41:16.560 |
Because they have been deeply affected by God's grace and they're eager to tell other 00:41:25.440 |
You know the best salesmen are not the people who have the best personalities or best techniques. 00:41:31.760 |
The best salesmen are the people who believe in that product. 00:41:36.560 |
So when you watch a movie, right, I'm going to say, "Oh, I'm an introvert. 00:41:45.800 |
When you watch a movie and you like it, people find out about it. 00:41:49.960 |
I remember a couple of years ago after the retreat, some people said that we have to 00:42:02.480 |
You know, literally, it was like an abandoned area of an industrial area in LA somewhere, 00:42:08.280 |
and then some people said that they ate it and it was the best tacos that they had in 00:42:14.120 |
So we drove out there and said, "We must be lost because everything's shut down." 00:42:17.880 |
You know, this is the kind of place where you get jumped. 00:42:20.640 |
And so we made that and we turned this corner. 00:42:22.280 |
All of a sudden, this taco stands there and all these people, right, are coming. 00:42:29.160 |
I've never heard of them, never seen an advertisement. 00:42:33.760 |
But we're willing to risk our lives to eat these tacos." 00:42:39.720 |
Because some people ate it and they told us it was good. 00:42:47.040 |
The best witnesses for Christ are not the most educated, are not the best trained, are 00:42:53.400 |
people who have been deeply affected by the grace of God. 00:42:57.640 |
And you can't help tell other people because it's just overflowing in you. 00:43:04.700 |
Boldness does not come from years of training or education. 00:43:08.000 |
Boldness comes from you believing with all your heart. 00:43:11.440 |
And that's why Jesus says, "The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with 00:43:18.000 |
Because that's where love of your neighbors comes from. 00:43:28.960 |
Brethren you and I have been deeply affected by the love of Christ. 00:43:36.200 |
That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5, "And when I came to you, brethren, 00:43:41.280 |
I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom or proclaiming to you the testimony 00:43:46.640 |
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 00:43:52.200 |
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching 00:43:56.200 |
were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 00:44:01.360 |
so that your faith would not rest on wisdom of men but on the power of God. 00:44:06.560 |
You know sometimes people would look at that and say, "Oh, demonstration of Spirit and 00:44:20.440 |
He's not talking about supernatural power where He raised people from the dead. 00:44:23.380 |
He's talking about His own witness of how God saved a sinner like Him. 00:44:30.260 |
And that was the power of God that downfounded the wisdom of mankind. 00:44:35.860 |
That the weakness of man, weakness of man, the weakness of God is much more powerful 00:44:44.240 |
That's why He said, "I resolved to know nothing but Christ crucified." 00:44:50.620 |
If we've drifted away, if we've frustrated or if the work of God or church has become 00:44:56.120 |
burdensome, maybe it's because we have drifted away from the grace of God. 00:45:01.880 |
That we've forgotten what we have been saved from and what it is that we have been saved 00:45:07.440 |
That if there's anything that we need to prioritize in our life is to get back and 00:45:12.980 |
to refocus and recommit to the grace of God so that the grace of God would empower us, 00:45:19.360 |
strengthen us, humble us, revive us, renew us, secure us so that we may find strength 00:45:28.240 |
So as we enter into this busy season of Christmas, right, you're probably already decorating 00:45:34.600 |
your homes and already burdened by the gifts that you need to buy. 00:45:39.080 |
Maybe you already feel behind because you missed the Black Friday sale. 00:45:42.680 |
You know, and then you have all these things that you need to get done before Christmas 00:45:45.520 |
comes and in the midst of our busyness to really consider why do we have this day as 00:45:54.640 |
That we don't celebrate it like the rest of the world. 00:45:58.040 |
That it truly would function to recalibrate our hearts to know that the Son of God came, 00:46:04.000 |
took on human form, humbled Himself to save us. 00:46:10.300 |
How should believers who believe that respond to that? 00:46:16.960 |
Let's take some time to pray again as we ask our worship team to come. 00:46:23.480 |
Just take some time to really reflect, to celebrate, to rest, to recuperate. 00:46:33.080 |
Focus on the grace of God that has been given to us.